A Quivering Scholar

In short: I felt my existence was tainted, in some subtle but essential way 🍂

[aquiveringscholar]

i fall more and more in love with judy poovey every time i read this book

[aquiveringscholar]

You can’t convince me that Stick Season was not written by Richard Papen

[flowersforfrancis]

[aquiveringscholar]

I’m trying to give if we were villains a fair chance but it’s challenging pls tell me it gets better

[aquiveringscholar]

Update: it does not get better

[aquiveringscholar]

I’m the biggest Oliver hater out there.

I hate everything about this book.

I hate whoever said “oh it’s like TSH” and I hate whoever said “but better” EVEN MORE.

[aquiveringscholar]

I’m trying to give if we were villains a fair chance but it’s challenging pls tell me it gets better

[aquiveringscholar]

Update: it does not get better

[rosesforyourproses]

I really like how the Secret History lets you question your own morality, like you’re more upset of a person being a jerk rather than being an actual murderer.

[aquiveringscholar]

I’m trying to give if we were villains a fair chance but it’s challenging pls tell me it gets better

[aquiveringscholar]

All of the decisions that Richard made during his first year in Hampden were influenced by his bi panic

[rrredgi]

Mood: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs

[toothy-crow]

"Darling, there’s a part of me I’m afraid will always be trapped within an abstract from a moment of my life"

Camilla Macaulay as Artemis/Diana

[aquiveringscholar]

not to be a henry winter apologist but every time i reread the book i can’t help but feel like bunny deserved it

like he somehow managed to hit the trifecta of being a homophobe, a racist and an asshole

[p3arlsandcoff3]

An aspect I personally really like in Tartt's writing style is how she manipulates the readers. How a reader reads TSH is similar to how an audience acts in a magic show - we know it's a bluff. We know there is a trick here, an angle, some would say a lie, but we disregard it for the more comfortable "truth" - the coin had to appear behind my ear mystically... Right?

Richard demonstrated multiple times how good of a liar he is. He managed to steal money for a car he didn't own, no one (apart from arguably Henry) from the group noticed his middle class background throughout the book, and multiple times the way he tells the readers the timeline of events they don't add - up. Somehow as a fandom we accept this fact when it comes to the mountain lion for example, but rarely when it comes to Bunny.

---

Richard is (obviously) still very much infatuated with the picturesque, so it is no surprise that when he 'writes' (in cannon) TSH he wants to make his beloved Greek group seem desirable.

It's not very desirable to kill an annoying classmate.

On the other hand, if he can make Bunny out to be this obnoxious, self centered, racist twat who sucks money out of his tragically beautiful friends and isn't even gifted academically... Well, that's way more understandable.

---

Bunny was torn apart from the bacchanal. On the one hand his friends seem to be murderers. His best friend in the entire world cold heatedly took the life of a farmer. On the other hand they are his friends. As a result of this back and forth bunny goes insane. He is frantically talking about the murder in the news to try and get some answers from his friends who leave him in the dark constantly, he tries to distract himself with the second trip with Henry. He is on the brink of insanity until finally he cracks. And he writes Julian the letter.

---

Do I believe bunny was racist, homophobic, sexist, and overall an unpleasant person? Yes. Do I believe Richard exaggerated there traits to make Bunny out a worse person and get sympathy from the readers, while disregarding Bunny's mental state? Absolutely.

Stay yourself, stay curious.

[aquiveringscholar]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

It’s truly fascinating, especially when you reach the final chapter and you start to realize how distorted your view has been all along

[pagesofjasmine]

I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.

The Secret History- Donna Tartt

@pagesofjasmine

[carmen-berzattos]

When Unreal Unearth goes from First Time to Francesca to I, Carrion and you're somehow expected to be a normal functioning person in society after

[patroclusdefencesquad]

i will literally just be vibing doing nothing. at work. trying to sleep or whatever and anyway my brain will just be like "DO YOU KNOW I COULD BREAK BENEATH THE WEIGHT, OF THE GOODNESS, LOVE, I STILL CARRY FOR YOU? THAT I'D WALK SO FAR JUST TO TAKE, THE INJURY OF FINALLY KNOWING YOU?"

[aquiveringscholar]

I feel like it is my duty to let all of my friends into the TSH lore

[tovaperson]

TSH drawings form the ancient vault!! really wanna do a redraw but bunny and henry in italy was a MUST

[metamorphesque]

— Sylvia Plath, "The Bell Jar"