e305. Dark Academia: a Deep Dive into Murder, Mystery & Midterms

Have you seen that new Dark Academia show about the mysterious elite school for special kids where there’s the one kid who doesn’t seem to belong even amongst the other weirdos at the weird school and there’s some sinister plot going on that no one is talking about but it’s probably people being murdered and then the hero and their unlikely group of close knit friends has to ban together to solve the mystery and save the day? You know that show? All of the shows! It seems that Dark Academia is just having sort of a moment right now and we want to talk about it! On today’s episode, Mav, Monica and Wayne get together and explore the genre of Dark Academia and try to figure out what makes it work and why it resonates with audiences. We explore aspects such as the importance of privilege, the significance of the educational institution in the storyline, the presence of a ‘fish out of water’ character, and the tendency of these narratives to conflate academic and life-or-death stakes. We look at some obvious favorites like Harry Potter, The Magicians and Wednesday as well as suggest some less obvious alternatives like Deadly Class, Morning Glories, and Heathers. What makes Dark Academia different from the Academic novel genre in general? Is there a Light Academia and if so what does that look like? Listen and then let us know your thoughts in the comments. Citations and Links: * Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme * Follow Mav on Twitter: @chrismaverick * Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous * Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017 * Follow us on Twitter: @voxpopcast * Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast * Subscribe to our YouTube channel * Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!