Julian Morrow - Tumblr Posts
i love the greek class as characters, but frankly if i met them irl i'd cringe so hard i'd need to lie down
Re-reading books is great and good until it’s The Secret History by Donna Tartt and you realize that within Julian’s first lecture we are witness to he speaks of Tiberius, a flawed Emperor held in disdain by his people, partially on the account he followed Augustus- a savior, a god. He spent his life striving to life up to his predecessors name and when he couldn’t, he indulged his perversions in an effort to feel something, but ultimately “died, old and mad, lost in the pleasure gardens of Capri: not even happy there, as one might hope, but miserable.”
Re-reading books is great and good until it’s The Secret History by Donna Tartt and you realize that just like Tiberius tried to follow in Augustus’s footsteps, Henry tried to follow in Julian’s. You see Richard’s focus shift from Julian- who was at first a savior, a god- to Henry, a flawed student of his who, at his end, is held in disdain by the majority of his closest friends and is lost in the indulgence of his own perversions- his attempts (and, arguable, success) to finally live without thinking.
Re-reading books is great and good until it’s The Secret History by Donna Tartt and you get to the part where Richard asks Henry in his dream, “are you happy here?” And Henry responds, “Not particularly” and you realize that Henry, like Tiberius, had never known peace or happiness in life and certainly not in death and you were warned about it in Julian’s first lecture.
I am re-reading the secret history and realized that in almost every scene where the greek class acts all pretensious and superior smart, Bunny is the link to reality and humanity.
And you might think that when the class loses that link they become the elite superior group they always strike to be, but they dont. With losing their touch to reality their humanity disappears but instead of becoming gods they become unrecognizable messes
THIS. PREACH.
What Henry whispered to Camilla that night isn't romantic nor even psychopathic at all... But rather an apology.
I've been thinking about what Henry whispered to Camilla that fateful night lately and I think I shall leave this here at least as I am keeping my analysis private regarding the book.
Observing how the plot progressed and what Henry experienced throughout the story, an apology was uttered before he could act on the things that were so unplanned, laid before him as he did think otherwise would go smoothly.
It was neither romantic nor psychopathic to lean forward and whisper "I'm sorry." Concise, not beating around the bush. And yet unclear, anyone could have thought he would shoot Charles and the ones who own the place where Camilla temporarily resided.
Exhaustion was already evident right when Julian neglected the whole class so he would not get himself involved in such a mess. Henry may have acted like god, orchestrating everything to make it as pristine and orderly afterwards, but that doesn't make him necessarily evil but rather a broken one, not noticing that Julian had corrupted him. The man who stood as his father figure. So the moment when everything went much more chaotic, knowing the weight of what he had done, he could no longer continue his plans on Charles and instead pointed the barrel onto his temple and pulled the trigger.
And making it quick doesn't justify the thought that he did not love Camilla for taking such action in front of her. When a person is mentally down, either swallowing their emotions or spilling it all out, they could actually not try to distance themselves from their loved ones to perform their death. Anyone who have suicide tendencies always share one objective, regardless of what the people they care about would feel. And it's not their selfishness speaking but their own exhaustion.
His suicide is an apology. Not for the sake of aesthetics.
Henry did give that cold, stoic demeanor. A facade like what we all see about the subject of death: cruel and merciless. As most of us are agreeing that he killed Bunny due to the fact that he wanted to end his old friend's suffering, isn't Henry mourning secretly? The way he wiped that dirt across the white fabric of his clothing during the funeral. When he said he regained his power to control life after the accident in the Bacchanal, when he knew he could do it calmly--he knew he could make things right out of it.
This only leaves us a message that to become the vision of death, no matter what the objectives--to become death itself is to be misunderstood.
The Secret History
This eternal bliss in the twilight fair.
My mind still caught in the winter air.
Running wild was not the ideal,
And the aftermath was a terrible ordeal.
Blood and salt and the heavenly nectar
Flowed through our flawed sector.
This experience was an ethereal one,
And nothing could ever be as fun.
Though the antlers may be soaked in blood,
It was worth all the flesh and flood.
The celestial mirth runs through our veins,
And many more, worth all our pains.
If you're interested, here's my poetry acc: @poeticabomination111
Too sweet is Henry's song.
Richard: You know those things will kill you, right?
Henry, pouring another glass of whiskey: That's the point.
Camilla, smoking a cigarette: We're trying to speed up the process.
Bunny: *Nods while eating raw cookie dough*
Henry, setting down a card: Ace of spades
Camilla, pulling out an Uno card: +4
Bunny, pulling out a Pokémon card: Jolteon, I choose you
Charles, trembling: What are we playing?
Hypothetically speaking... if Julian Morrow and Edward Fosca were to meet...
I FOUND HIM!!! (After so long I finally found the photo that reminded me so much of Henry Winter)
You want to know something…
I’m hurt. I’m hurt because it has just clicked in my head that as much as Henry was Julian’s favourite. He never attended his funeral.
I would like to cry now…
from my instagram lol at a goodwill
i would have included dead poets society but i haven’t watched it yet
"My child is completely fine"
Your child wants to be in a donna tartt book
And I am a part of that.
Average dark academia reader be like yes I'm gonna ignore the obvious point of the book (warning against elitism and living in a fantasy) and romanticise my way out of everything until i find my own group of pretentious friends. What are you gonna do, stop me??
go like my secret history tiktok i need engagement plssss
(spoilers for TSH)
A certain aspect of the secret history I think about to this day is how accurate it is when it comes to public outrage, especially for it's time. When I am with others and they turn on the TV to watch television (personally, I avoid the news.) I am horrified by the tragedies that are portrayed.
But only for a few seconds.
The horrible events displayed on the screen are cocaine - their impact is strong, yet short lived. Swiftly the journalist moves on to the next topic, feeding me media until I puke.
When I watch the news, I think about the Hampden college students. I think about how much they cared, and how it wasn't enough.
Stay yourself, stay curious
I finished the secret story I can't stop thinking about how much they manipulated richard and how I as the reader was manipulated as well
unlike richard from the beginning I was finding them all a bunch of prentensious losers I didn't fall for the aesthetic and to me judy was the only nice person. When they talk about the fight between camila and her I was 100% sure camila and the others were in the wrong.
And in the first half even when they are including richard he is still an outsider and he can kind of feel something was a bit off. So I was enjoying reading them all at francis' and I was liking the characters more but I still find them suspicious, because Richard is showing us they are hiding something. (At the time I was theorizing they were planning to sacrifice richard in some ritual and I was thinking they would eventually change their minds and they decide to kill bunny lmao)
I think there were two turning points for richard that made him decided to be so involved. And those turning points have an effect on us readers as well. The first one was when Henry saved him and taked care of him. After that it seems like Richard starts to worship him. He already admired him before, but he started putting him on a pedestal
And the second is when he is on francis's house and Henry tells him about the murder. Henry was so smart, the way he keeps saying richard figured out and he knew he would do it. And then he's complaining that bunny always ask for money and he uses the example that richard would rather die than ask for help. It's like he and Francis are showing him that bunny sucks and how they view him differently and they respect him. Both Richard and Bunny didn't have money, but Richard had values. That's what it seems like they are saying without saying. Also them saying bunny doesn't like richard? At the time I believe but I have my doubts about that. Richard and Bunny actually seemed to spend a lot of time together, he visited Richard's room a lot, they went for walks together. They both also seemed to be the only ones who weren't completely isolated from the rest.
And this happens right after they ignored him for a week and he was alone and desperate. Suddenly they're showing they like him, respect him and trust him. Then in the other day all 4 take richard for a dinner, he's now one of them and bunny isn't.
And what is great is that since we're on richard's head we get manipulated as well. You feel upset when they ignore him and you like when they show they care.
And suddenly Henry is asking hundreds of favors to Richard and Richard is doing without questioning and I'm not questioning either because it feels almost right.
And it's only when things start to go unhinged I think especially after Bunny's burial that he starts to understand things. In Bunny's house he was still doing everything for Henry, stoling pills from him. Francis and Charles weren't putting any effort to help Henry, it was Richard and Camila.
But after the burial, Henry is different, distant. We start to realize little by little he does not care. More than doesn't care, it seems like hew views richard as a possible scaping goat. And I think this is what allows Richard to start questioning his orders and being less blind about him. Then he also finds out about Henry and Camila and he feels 'betrayed'. I think he felt left out, not only by camila but also by henry. In fact, I think Henry's attention was the main thing.
We start to realize he was never part of the group, they used him. With Henry was clear, with the twina it was after that talk with Francis that things starts to get clear. I always felt the twins were the most distant. Richard was always saying he liked them the most and they were nice to him. But it always gave me the impression it was very superficial. He didn't really knew them.
I think the only real relationship he ends up having in the group is francis, because eveyone was losing their minds and being weird and they were the ones that were "left". They were also losing, but they still felt more """normal""". So I think that kinds of ends up uniting them.
Just finished my annual The Secret History re-read so while I suffer from the incapability of doing anything without thinking of Henry Marchbanks Winter, here are some of my most memorable scenes from the book
BOOK 1
