Monday’s back again, but look, here’s one I made earlier! I’m on a trip right now to celebrate my birthday (today is indie bookshop spree day!) so comments might be slow, but I’ve got a Fantasy with Friends post anyway. All the prompts are hosted at Pages Unbound, if you’d like to join in. This week’s prompt is on dark academia in fantasy:
Do you enjoy dark academia fantasy novels? What are some themes you enjoy seeing discussed in dark academia (ex. ethics in academia, corruption, classism, etc?) Do you think the genre does a good job exploring such themes in general, or are many books focused mainly on the aesthetics?
I don’t think I’ve read a lot of dark academia, not enough to really form an opinion on it as a genre. I’m not opposed to the idea, it’s just not the way my interests have taken me. I think the best of it grows out of and reflects the real dark sides of academia, where people are pitted against each other for limited funding or limited numbers of places, and privilege can get you a long way. Thinking about e.g. R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis, which I’m in the middle of, it feels like a lot of it is a response to those pressures and the sometimes unfair situation gifted people are placed in, struggling against each other for limited opportunities when the opportunities are a bit of a poisoned chalice anyway.
It is not my experience of academia, to be clear; I’m an enthusiastic and serial student, with a BA, MA, BSc and MSc now… but having to get into departmental politics is definitely one reason why I haven’t done a higher degree (the other major one being that I prefer to synthesise over doing something new, and synthesis is not rewarded in academia — despite being essential to scientific and medical consensus).
Another aspect of dark academia is the importance of acknowledgement that academia has done some very dark things indeed. I studied at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a school founded in order to train doctors for colonial service. The whole point was to keep white enslavers healthy for the sake of Empire. It was engaged in “decolonisation” initiatives by the time I enrolled, and continues to be, but that fundamental attitude ripples through the whole course of study. We were taught (in 2020-2025) about the importance of keeping African people healthy so they can study and later earn more… and yes, that is going to benefit them in the sense of helping them get jobs and make informed choices around drug treatments, but there’s also a high degree of “capitalism is the one and only answer, and we must help them do it properly because they won’t if we don’t intervene”.
This blog isn’t a good place to delve into the ethics and complications of all that, but the point is that LSHTM isn’t alone, and many academic institutions are mired in that kind of history, and a history of extracting knowledge without credit and without benefit to the peoples and areas studied. I don’t think I’ve read anything yet that really engages with that, though I think one or two of the books on my TBR do (like Kuang’s Babel).
Anyway, I think what I’m interested in when I do read dark academia is a bit of awareness of the tensions there and how they can particularly impact minorities, and/or of the dark history of many academic institutions. I prefer the “darkness” to mean something rather than rely on vibes to provide a background to an “enemies-to-lovers” story or something. Not that I’m against an enemies-to-lovers story, but I’d like the “dark” part of the academia to make sense and drive the plot, rather than just be an aesthetic.
The more realistic aspects of darkness in academia are not things I’d considered for this genre – I’ve only really tried more horror/fantasy formats. But you’ve got a great background for an opinion on it, frankly! 🙂
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I suspect the horror/dark fantasy elements work best when they’re rooted in the realities, because that makes them most impactful… but really I need to read more of the genre, because I do like it in principle but haven’t read many.
I thought of Kuang too but DNF’ed Babel and haven’t started Katabasis at all, so I really have no comment on her work!
I also would like to see more exploration of academia itself and not just “it’s set in a Gothic looking lecture hall and the kids are all competitive with each other.” I never experienced that kind of competitiveness while in school, so while I’m sure it does happen, it always comes across as a bit of a caricature to me. Like something the author made up for the story instead of something real. Perhaps that’s unfair but it just always seems overly dramatic and *entertaining* to me more than realistic commentary on something.
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I suspect it’s pretty relevant to some of my points, but I didn’t get far into Katabasis before I paused on it, soooo, hard to say.
Same; in none of my degrees, undergraduate or postgraduate, have I experienced that kind of toxic competitiveness. I think in part that’s because good grades weren’t limited and we weren’t yet in any kind of struggle for advisors, funding, publication, etc, but I doubt it’s the norm everywhere.
Yes!!!! I completely agree with you. I hadn’t really thought about the historical colonial aspect of academia although that it is definitely explored in Babel but the academic theme only works for me if it’s used to explore wider issues. If it’s just students competing against each other, then I’m not really interested.
It’s such a great opportunity to examine and pull apart stuff like that, after all!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Yes, academia has done some despicable deeds indeed. I think a deeper exploration of the dark deeds and politics of academia would make the genre (subgenre?) way more interesting.
Thanks!
There’s definitely mileage in a dark academia fantasy analogue of my last university, ahaha…
I recently read a dark academia book called The Arcane Arts that hits upon a lot of the elements you discussed. Sadly it did not work for me, but I think my knee jerk reaction to dark academia will always be “oooh I must read it!” because I love the settings.
I’m definitely drawn to stories based in academia in general because I love learning so, so much, ahaha. My last two degrees weren’t on campus and I did miss that aspect.
I can’t read academia, dark or light, at all, because my experiences of academia just getting my BA were so negative, though it had less to do with competition (that’s definitely more of a grad school thing, I think). I just do not enjoy the school settings at all and I wish I could.
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I suspect that the fact that I adored studying both on-campus and distance learning plays a part in why I enjoy academia in general, though “bright academia” would be nice…