dark academia reading vlog ✒️ the secret history vs babel *spoiler-free*

[@MaryJoHeadrick]

my assumption with why dark academia so often focuses on the humanities has always been that typically students who feel the freedom to study those fields aren't worried about having to make money after school because they've grown up with money. (this might be completely wrong, but that's always been the vibe I get from it). It reminds me of that quote that's basically like "I studied business so that my son may study the law, and his son may study art." or something

[@AnneleenRoesems]

I think so too! I studied linguistics and literature and most of us had well off parents. There are exceptions bu, you know, they're exceptions :)

[@bibliomanicpanic]

I could fill volumes with descriptions of temples and palaces, paintings, sculptures, tapestry, porcelain, etc., etc., etc.-if I could have time. But I could not do this without neglecting my duty. The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences: the art of legislation and administration and negotiation, ought to take place, indeed to exclude in a manner all other arts. I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. - John Adams

[@MaryJoHeadrick]

@@bibliomanicpanic i knew someone would know what I was talking about

[@najawin8348]

ngl, I think part of it is that the mindsets of people in hard sciences would be sort of antithetical to the typical Dark Academia plot. Which is part of why I want to see it done and done well. But throwing a computer scientist, a mathematician, a physicist, and an analytic philosopher into a situation with like secret cults or something would very quickly lead into a radically different sort of story.

[@Tula1987]

Ooo love this

[@manupathak4220]

I once read a annotated book that I got from a used bookstore and the annotations made me feel like I was talking to someone about the book. And It is so cool to be able to see a stranger's thoughts on the book while you are reading. It felt cool to be able to know a stranger in that way. 2 random people connected by the book.

[@kb-ih7ni]

It's interesting what you said about Babel being more telling not showing because I only realized something just now. Idk if I'm right in thinking this but it feels like Kuang's academic side takes over when she writes. I'm in the research field, and not in the humanities, so the technical text I'm used to reading and writing has to be extra super duper transparently clear because we dan't rely on subtext to get the point across. I've noticed that Kuang, even in her Poppy War series, likes to drive a point home by being extremely forward and blunt about the point, leaving little to no room for the reader to miss what she is trying to say in the dialogue or the narrative. She's pretty aggressive about it, and isn't "soft" at all. It's definitely not for everyone, but the bluntness in her writing style seems like something that attracted me to Kuang's work. Also the magic system really changes society in Foundryside! First book that came to mind when you made that point.

[@ccaiitliin]

Literally, don't apologise for this video being an hour long, because it was SO enjoyable! I love the chatty content and the overall vibes were very cozy.

[@Outclaw_shorts]

yes i watched the full video lol

[@zhisu2665]

people keep interpreting TSH as "romanticisation" when the characters have all been shown to be obsessive, tired and toxic. if Donna was romanticizing that life she would've made them peaceful and happy with it.

[@Denise_Mar]

I personally see it as an obsession with the picturesque, and craving the academia aesthetic. In the book it even quotes that "Beauty is terror". So in a way it is kinda a romanticisation, just like every other dark academia book. :)

[@ilariaevangelista4351]

@@Denise_Mar True, but this romanticisation comes from the characters, rather than the author herself. I agree with @zhisu2665, I think Tartt was trying to show what an actual mess these characters' life were despite their romanticisation of it.

[@alma3468]

”Does such a thing as ”the fatal flaw”, that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.” The first sentences of the first chapter of TSH. Richard admits himself that he is unreliable as a narrator, due to his obsession with the picturesque.

[@Nate1975]

Donna’s book was well-written but the plot 😮 oh boy, pointless

[@lunamajn.596]

@@Denise_Mar only that Richard is the one who is obsessed with the aesthetic of the group and anything picturesque wich leads to his downfall. Therefore TSH itself is satire of the dark academia 'aesthetic' and not trying to trying to be 'it'.

[@maggie7908]

I took 3 semesters of Latin at university and we were also told there was no reason to learn to speak it or write in it (bc it’s a dead language); rather, we learned how to translate ancient texts into English. I think my professor could write/speak in Latin, but more as a fun exercise because he was a Latin nerd 😅 So that seems to be the reason for the characters speaking and writing in Ancient Greek in TSH. Doing the “useless” thing because they’re so obsessed with the subject and themselves

[@annikania2682]

I totally agree. I didn’t take Latin in University, but in school, from year 6 to year 12. In the last months of year 12 (when all important exams were already written) we did a project on trying to speak latin. It’s … very hard, if you are trying to be grammatically accurate. And you loose all the actually interesting, poetic, grammatical spicyness of the language. I think all books I recently read that do something in Latin do quote specific quotes - for that reason I guess.

[@dalriada7554]

@Nicolas Martinez It's still alive in Vatican. The Pope has a twitter account in latin. And there's a dictionary to translate off those modern terms that didn't exist two millenia ago.

[@NG-ue4th]

Amy calm down...don't you have something to laminate or a binder to read? 😉

[@apotheosica]

i study classics at uni and being able to read ancient greek/latin out loud when analyzing texts is actually required to pass my classes! we're not expected to hold a conversation in the language but phonetics is very important when learning philology :) learning to translate from modern languages to the ancient ones isn't required but it's something fun to do. one of my teachers likes translating our slang/proverbs into latin to make us laugh lol

[@yazgarcia8201]

Wow! I think I love your career and college, may I ask, where do you study?

[@apotheosica]

@@yazgarcia8201 in argentina!

[@yazgarcia8201]

@@apotheosica no way! I live in Argentina 🤭 I study translation in the Lengüitas, I don't know if you have ever heard of it. I'm currently living in caba. I guess if I would have known before about your career I would've study that 🙈 you go to the uba?

[@apotheosica]

@@yazgarcia8201 hehe no, sorry! i'm from córdoba, the career is called letras clásicas and it's in the unc! though i'm aware that letras in the uba has an orientation to classics :D

[@yazgarcia8201]

@@apotheosica oh! That's the reason why. It's not the same in the uba I made some research. Anyways, thanks for you answer. It was nice to meet you! Keep on having fun with classics 🤗

[@witchhbaby]

The Secret History is my all time favorite book and I've read it countless times, so I'm definitely biased in saying this, but I think the characters really start to unlock the more times you read it. Their fleshing out happens a lot in what's not being said, or where Richard's perceptions of them differ from what characters outside of the core friend group think about them! It's one of those books that I find something totally brand new every single time I read it, especially in regards to the characters and their backstories. Then again, I'm in the trenches with my love for this book so I might just be reading way into it! I'm really glad you enjoyed it regardless!

[@caIyps0]

exaactlyyy you put it in words so weeelll!! (greetings from another biased fan of this book)

[@llEMMAll]

I am just as biased, but i agree! Reading it more made bunny more likable, because i HATED him the first time around, and while he's definitely an asshole, he's pretty young and just an idiot who didn't deserve to get murdered. Also, Camilla seems more interesting when you realize that Richard is idolizing her to an insane point, and that her actions really say something completely different than Richards idea of her.

[@lee_rayyy58]

Yes reread the secret history last year and paid more attention to the twins and Julian. Learned something different this time around and bunny was more likeable within the second thine around . I found a lot of hints and foreshadowing that I didn’t catch on to the first time I’ve read it.

[@strawberryorange3755]

I agree, it's also one of my all time favourites and just reread it and see so many things that I didn't catch the first time around.

[@timeea.i19]

Hmmm. I really liked this book and is currently my favorite but i do agree with Leonie regarding Charles. I feel like in the epilogue, where he ended up made no sense to his character. Also, Camilla before Henry's relationship wasn't much😅. I still really loved it tho and thought that was the point, to have Richard Papen as the feeler

[@pennify2079]

20:01 it was def her intention bc she always does that. As a big Donna Tartt fan who read all three of her books I can say that she seems to love unreliable narration. All of her main characters have this consistent theme of ignorance in the way that they are so interested in this one other character they just will not shut up about, ending up neglecting describing the other present characters simply bc they don’t care enough or in Richards case as well bc he so desperately wants to know them but they don’t let him, which leads to the narrator just making up personalities for people they don’t really know. They will also hold back on tons of information and stuff that happened, claiming they don’t remember bc they’re too embarrassed or self conscious to share it. That is until you reach a point where they just casually bring up something that should’ve been brought up ages ago and now their narrative pushes them to share without them actually wanting to. I find that a difficult and very interesting way to write bc you get the idea that these characters are really deep but you just never get to know them.

[@Arawn505]

These videos keep getting longer haha. Already looking forward to the 12 hour long Leonie Christmas Special in December

[@nocloud6460]

WHAT? THERE´S A "12 hour long Leonie Christmas Special in December"? I COULDN´T BE ANY MORE EXCITED!

[@luiiiandmovieee]

I'm here for it!!

[@readwithliszka5976]

That's my dream christmas present! ❤️

[@TerezaK23]

As a student of translation, I found the first part of Babel, the lectures, the insights on translation and the obstacle of losing meaning and nuances in translation, super interesting, my inner nerd was pleased because Kuang got her research right and there were details that truly matched my experience. I agree that the theme of Babel was stronger than TSH, however, I was so painfully let down by the characters... I was just left wanting more of them, of their personalities, of their backgrounds... and the further into the story, the worse this want of mine got, sadly. Overall, super intriguing read. TSH I read few months ago and it was my gate into dark academia genre - I definitely need to read more of these books and I'm grateful for your videos and recommendations. This video was a treat!

[@itsmemarie7613]

Richard Papen is our very unreliable storyteller, he told that he was good at lying, the way he romanticize all his friend's tragic past, how some characters are in rose colored glass and how he made us think for a that bunny is the villain. Well its just me, but i still need to read it again because why not 😭😭

[@elessar8057]

The magic in Babel is reserved to the rich. That’s a critique point in the story. The only ones who can create magic are the translators who are a small group of people who are well regarded.

[@babbler9816]

Yes, this exactly.

[@annavouloagka8602]

As a Greek person, I loved the book and the Greek references! You made a good point about the language of choice =)

[@TheBookLeo]

📜🖋video contents🤎☕ 00:00 intro 1:48 dark academia vs the aesthetic 7:55 whiteboard intermission #1 8:36 how i annotate 13:32 classic languages & elitism 17:07 whiteboard intermission #2 17:58 the secret history: negatives 21:33 how to create a cozy reading evening 22:59 the secret history conclusion 26:48 bookshopping + starting babel 30:09 two girls craving academic validation chat 37:29 babel first impressions 39:08 whiteboard intermission #3 40:23 annotation supply haul 43:04 babel's problems 46:06 whiteboard intermission #4 47:33 babel's genius 50:11 magic systems & alternate history 54:05 babel conclusion 57:45 The Secret History vs Babel 59:20 bloopers + outtakes

[@Arawn505]

I wrote the comment up top about the Christmas Special. An off-the-cuff joke, I didn't think it would end up so high. Seeing it again now it almost reads flippant, and superficial. You probably put a lot of effort and love into making this video, with a great finished result to show for. You finally read The Secret History, that dark academia classic. For the first time an hour long video. And then the top comment is my dumb joke, which has nothing to do with the actual contents of the video. It's such nonsense, I'll probably delete the comment. And I completely agree with the others: it's no problem that the video turned out this long, it's so good!! Maybe your your next few videos will be 20 min, 55 min, 35 min, whatever. It doesn't matter when the videos are good (and they are) You know how to choose the right length for these different videos. The dark academia/autumn theme of the past few videos has been super. That introduction class into dark academia was great 🙂 Really well done.

[@TheBookLeo]

@@Arawn505 noo don't worry, i thought your joke was funny! and thank you for this thoughtful comment

[@rahelmarie1472]

I really enjoyed Babel! I especially liked all the linguistic stuff and that the magic system tied into language and translations. (I usually don't read books with magic systems, so I liked that I could still understand everything without really caring about the magic.) Also, the themes in Babel are so so good and heavy and true! Big fan of Babel, new fave for me

[@valentineboudaud1887]

I just finished Babel so now I can watch the second half of the video !! I really loved Babel but my only issue is that it felt like a message more than a story with a message. The magic system was my favourite part it was so interesting !!

[@oliverharris60]

As someone who misses things when writers show and don’t tell, I don’t mind telling. Especially when it comes to character motivations. That’s how I live my life, with clarifications. So I don’t mind it, but I can see how it could be offputting.

[@sapphire3020]

Many booktube channels making reading vlogs like ''spoiler free'' and spoil most of the book ... but you didn't do that so thank you! It was a great video, I love the vibes~ 😊❤

[@jodijodijodi]

glad you commented this because i was kinda worried that there’d be spoilers even though it says none in the title. i have trust issues from most booktubers 😅

[@Squashmalio]

Babel sacrifices most other aspects of storytelling to make it's points, but it does do a really good job of making it's points

[@maanya__742]

This video feels like a movie that I have been waiting to watch for years lol

[@pretentioussunshine]

Oh my god yess

[@acrookwithabook9310]

@@pretentioussunshine I fucking love your username

[@ChemicalPenguinn]

Exactly

[@sabrigandulfo3901]

Total yes to crocheting. You can do it while listening to a book or a show. Tell your friend to start with beanies!! On another note, I loved the secret history and will start Babel tomorrow.

[@valeriaw7373]

Long reading vlogs>>>>>>> Pd: The alpaca heads make such a funny contrast with the secret history

[@suraloveshoon]

i kinda wanted the alpaca heads to stay ngl :3

[@katerinahan892]

After your example I felt ‘explaining things explicitly’ is one of the reason I LOVE Babel. To me, Babel is on another level and maybe the best fiction I’ve ever read because Robin thinks and speaks all the thoughts I have as a struggling mixed-feeling Asian. They are so intimate that I feel they might as well be mine.

[@talesfromhistoryofficial]

I totally agree. Things don't always have to be shown. They can be told. Sometimes they need to be told

[@Sofie-nz3uk]

I'm currently reading The Secret History and you're so right about the aesthetic vs dark academia. I put of reading this during uni, because I didn't want to read anything romanticizing the elitism of university, but this is actually very much a critique of that.

[@roserising]

I love when I find used books that are annotated because I appreciate seeing other people’s thoughts & ideas. You’ve inspired me to start interacting with my books more.

[@fallisdying2077]

36:55 i love that you made that decision tbh, because it seems so vague sometimes how people can restrict themselves solely to an aesthetic and base their lives around it. its so much more refreshing to see you make content you genuienly love to make!

[@Lonely_Raven_666]

17:00 i take greek in highschool. We learn to translate both ways, to write in greek of course, but ofc the focus is to translate from greek. Still in tests we have to do both. Also our teacher told us about linguists who spoke amcient greek to each other in their greek class, and how it helped them understand how the language work even better, since you shouldn't neglect the key part of a lamguage (actually speaking it) when studying one

[@MidrinaTheSerene]

On annotating books: my granddad did this a lot. I noticed before that, although he didn't work in academia, the way he loved books and reading and learning just like I did makes this aesthetic somehow very nostalgic to me. On the other hand my spouse's father was a librarian, and spouse still cringes when I annotate books - or read one of granddad's old books with fully scribbled margins. I love to read those though, because I cannot ask him what he thought about these books anymore, but now I can read his thoughts anyway.

[@francespeterson2452]

I think that you would absolutely love Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel! I know that you love Piranesi and it is very different but equally excellent! It is such a good historical fantasy/alternative history with magic with such a rich magic system and world and characters! It has fey, academia, magicians, all the footnotes, accurate history while also incorporating magic in a really rich way into the world. It is one of my favorite books and I really think more people should read it! (I think the footnotes are actually my favorite part. The footnotes are all footnotes that are "in world" as if someone within the story was reading the book and really expand the world without getting in the way of the narrative and are fascinating in of themselves!)

[@CarolionCHAOS]

It’s not necessarily an excuse for the way sometimes characters in Babel are talking heads, but it’s definitely on purpose by Kuang as a nod to Dickens (which she cites as another major influence alongside The Secret History and Jonathan Strange). Dickens very much uses his characters in that way, so she’s leaning into that Victorian style of writing.

[@LillyTVLPS]

a victorian style of writing meanwhile the dialogue is so extremely modern

[@Shazz203]

Interesting point about flat characters! imo the way Richard portrayed the others switched in tone from the first half to the second half. For example, in the earlier part Richard talked more about how nice Charles is, but later on kept going on about him being an alcoholic; the same goes with Camilla, and even Bunny. I found it really adds to the unreliability of first-person narrative which makes it super interesting.😊

[@shivanidahya6320]

This is why I like your videos!! Babel has by far been my best book of this year, but seeing your review has just emphasised the fact that we don't all have to have the same/similar opinions about a specific book/theme/item. You gave your points in such a beautiful and intelligent way, that it made me appreciate "dark academia" more. I have seen so much "hype" around this book, and I do love this book, but its always nice to see others opinions on it. Thank you for making this video!!

[@naomid1609]

Dead Poet's Society is also another fiction work which is the classic *critique of dark academia, rather than aesthetic. One of my favorite movies of all time. Love this video.

[@raevynwoods9403]

omg please do not apologize for making an hour-long video, this was amazing. I loved the vibes, the book analysis, and the honest reviews. You're making me excited to read more dark academia!

[@availandco]

I have 150 pgs left for Babel and I’m sure I don’t have the vernacular to properly review what Kuang tried to do here. What I will say is yes, it’s dark academia without a lick of romanticism. The students of Babel are studying constantly, not eating in some semesters, borderline hallucinating or delusional when it comes time for “finals”…. There’s also the commentary of colonialism and capitalism within their era …. It’s not for the faint of heart. I needed more action for this because it was just a bit meandering and for lack of a better term… boring. I did enjoy this but I would never recommend it to anyone unless they had a very specific book request. I enjoyed this based solely on the way it caused me to think about how I consume translations as a fan of BTS and as a viewer of many dramas from Asian countries.

[@fallisdying2077]

"you're your own aesthetic" "you're your own person" wise words from Leonie and Sabine😎😎

[@Moniaar_]

The feeling of your favorite book youtuber uploading a one hour long of content is just so satisfying i can't

[@zofiabochenska1240]

The annotated Secret history looks sooo good! And I like white board teacher Leonie a lot!

[@Axci3909]

The way you tossed The Secret History in astonishment after finishing the last page hit me directly in the SOUL.

[@Axci3909]

Update: Just finished TSH and had the exact same reaction. The last 2 chapters have me questioning life.

[@jaimeerindy4573]

I had the exact same feeling about the telling versus showing in Babel, especially when it came to the themes

[@someone6774]

I'm in one of the worst times of my life and this video helped me escape my world for an hour. So thanks a lot Leonie 💖💖

[@TheBookLeo]

[@queenlucysroyalmaid1]

When I did ancient Greek at uni, learning how to translate it to English and back was just the best way to learn it. We didn't learn it "to know how it speak it", but simply because learning it both ways made it easier to learn it.

[@oxfordscomma]

you pose such an interesting perspective about Babel! Im currently about 200 pages and I LOVE rf Kuang and her books so much but I do see your point! I believe her characters in The Poppy War are so fleshed out because they are developed over the course of a series. Perhaps Babel being a standalone makes it more difficult to do this! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for the “telling not showing” aspect :) I am loving the story so far, though

[@nmx7365]

longer videos means more Leonie content throughout the week so never apologize this is a win 😌❤️

[@catttycutie980]

I'm currently reading the secret history and when you said we're all Richard, something spark in me, like I don't what is it, I guess I need to read this from the start to fully grasp the underlying message this book trying to convey.

[@jamesduggan7200]

love that green sweater; I think it suits you well. thx for the post

[@moralopez3213]

amazing video!!!! about the classic languages, im personally currently doing my degree in classic literature and languages (latin and ancient greek) and yes, when you start learning both of those languages you are told that you couldn't speak any of them because they are dead tongues. i feel like with latin is mostly true, you learn how to translate form latin to spanish (in my case), but you don't really care about the pronunciation of certain words or even less about general vocabulary from spanish to latin. but with ancient greek it's different, especially if you speak a romance language (modern languages that come from latin). with ancient greek, because it's completely different to spanish, you need to learn a new alphabet and how to pronounce the new letters you are learning, so you need to speak a little to begin the study, so it's not only reading and translating. adding to this, with high levels of latin and ancient greek you start to learn the metrics and lyrics of the classic poems and writings, so you have to recite and you speak a lot so i think some of the vocabulary is stuck in your mind and you begin to be able to translate your native tongue to the classic language without the need of a dictionary. so maybe because in the secret history all of the students are so advanced in the study of these languages, maybe that's the reason they can speak them so fluently. (plus, i think donna tart choses greek over latin for them to speak with because even though ancient greek and modern greek are very different, at least it's a direct derivation of the dead language and some of the structures of the sentences and vocabulary are the same. what i think it's that maybe they speak in some kind of modern ancient greek hahah i don't really know) btw i LOOOOOVED this video!!!!! you are amazing leonie!! i really needed a long loooong reading vlog from you! im so happy!!!

[@dellyram1377]

I read If we were villains before Secret society, and I liked it way more... Babel is on my tbr. Hopefully, I get to finish it in 2022 before forgetting the plot of the other two!

[@jennyj1344]

The secret history is just on another level.

[@kageyukiaru]

i'm always afraid to make mistakes while annotating with a pen, so i use erasable pens! i recommend using them if you're like me and afraid you'll change your mind about an annotation or add more stuff later

[@Thelaughingpreacher]

You're putting me on to a whole new genre I didn't know I needed, I am blaming my increasingly absurd TBR on you. Send help. I am drowning in books.

[@maanya__742]

I was waiting for this vlog since you mentioned making it. So excited o see what you think of these books, I love watching these kind of videos from you! Sending lots of love🌻

[@chicklebird]

this video has been so great, i'm not even finished with it yet, i love the cozy chat with your friend, i'm glad you left so much of that in, please keep vlogging i'm enjoying these so much!

[@monikanazer7242]

I actually enjoyed how the characters narrates and explained their thoughts so clearly it made me feel closer to them, to hear what I was thinking directly by them.

[@whimsichloe]

just started the vid and i’m very excited to get cozy with my coffee and watch this beautiful vlog edit: your sword earrings are ADORABLE!! i need to find a pair immediately

[@sphinxinherhat]

My favorite part of the video was when you commented that the characters in Babel don't seem to be fleshed out beyond the roles they play in the story. That put into words what was bothering me and that I couldn't identify

[@isabelamedeiros887]

1 hour of reading vlog?! We've been blessed! yay

[@livtupi]

About The secret history, you know what i think would be great actually? If they did another ritual thingy at the end, with Richard participating

[@suraloveshoon]

you're right

[@apotheosica]

@@allvilde yeah, i really like that he didn't even get to be a part of it yet still suffered the consequences. says a lot

[@livtupi]

Yeah i agree, and i also like that we only get a recounting of the ritual instead of 1st person and stuff, which is how it would've been if he did participate. But idk i feel like there needed to be another HUGE moment like that

[@Cevin.]

your rant on dark academia vs the aesthetic is the exact reason why I keep coming back.... you just "get it"

[@jessieballpk]

My favourite parts of this video were the whiteboard intermissions (I love whiteboards) and the whole 'two girls craving academic validation chat' section. brilliant haha

[@didiko21]

im like 2 minutes in and i love this already „dark academia is just about the dark parts of academia“ hits hard bc i forgot abt that- all i had left in my mind was the aesthetic so tHANK U LEONIE ive never been more excited to watch an hour long video:)))))

[@kraeftwerker]

Ok so this is like the NERDIEST compliment but thank you for explaining how you tab! I do a lot of research and it gave me a ton of ideas for tabbing my books of occult research.

[@MarianaQuesada]

This hour flew by in the best possible way. The secret history is one of my favorite books and I felt like I hadn't heard enough about what Babel was actually about to tempt me. Loved how thoroughly you went through them without spoiling anything. I aso loved the little chat with your friend between books, it was so cozy. BTW those alpaca post its were so cute! Though I agree they didn't fit the vibe of the book 😂

[@ileniadeluca3989]

I have studied latin in both high school and university (I'm Italian) and no, I have never been asked ti learn how to speak in latin or translate italian into latin. I remember that only the first two years of high school we used to translate simple sentences in latin because it helped us understand the structure of the classic latin sentence. Btw this video was amazing, I really loved it!

[@peppermintmum3177]

I had Latin for five years in secondary school (Germany) and we used to translate German to Latin in first year just to get a hang of it. It's practically impossible to do later on since there are like three million words for the same thing. It's also unnecessary. And the speaking is even more unnecessary. My sister (same school) had to learn the "pronounciation" of Latin but I never even did that. You maybe read it out loud but we don't speak Latin

[@ileniadeluca3989]

@@peppermintmum3177 I studied pronunciation too but it's pretty easy if you speak a romance language like Italian. We also briefly studied the metric reading (it was basically like singing) which was probably the most useless thing I've ever had to learn 😂

[@peppermintmum3177]

@@ileniadeluca3989 I think we also did metric reading for like a lesson, maybe two. It was kinda fun ngl but as you said, extremely useless. And for pronunciation: as far as I know/believe no one really knows what spoken Latin sounded like it was just pointless for me to look into it. We just pronounced it however we wanted. But I guess it must've been similar to the modern Italian, since Italian pretty much developed directly from Latin without any other influences (like Arabic for Portugese/Spanish and the Slavic languages for Romanian). But I'm in no way an expert on this

[@ileniadeluca3989]

@@peppermintmum3177 yes, Italian is pretty "pure", the foreign dominations we've had mostly influenced our dialects (ie the southern dialects take a lot from Spanish). We have some greece deriving words here and there but nothing major.

[@honeyv0iced]

please don’t apologize for this being an hour long!! i listened to it on my commute home and i loved it! thank you for taking the time to film it and edit it 🫶

[@SM-fy4ij]

Really really enjoyed your commentary on both of these books. While I have no plans or desire to read either haha (I tried with The Secret History but I know when to accept defeat) I just love book conversation and discussion of any kind!

[@DalyantheVampire]

I loved every single minute of this 1 hour long video, Leonie! I find your comments on Dark Academia always on point and your reviews of the Secret History and Babel made me create a KZbin video with my personal takes on the whole movement - thank you so much for being such an inspiration!

[@Piti_Pingu]

In high school we did the writing into the books. It felt so wrong when our teacher encouraged us to do so, but in the end it has become normal to me so I encouraged my little brother to do so when he was still in primary school so that he would learn it is alright. Especially since he is dyslexic in a way that he can't remember what he just read unless he interacts with it, by underlining, marking it with a neon highlighter or writing stuff in the margins. Only problem is that my parents have to buy him his own copies of all the school books, cause he can obviously not do it with the copy that the school lends him. So now they know all the bookstores that sell second hand books in the area and are always on the hunt for books on flea markets, cause usually you can find the french classics there since after highschool onwards you have to buy them yourselves and just usually never use them again. So might as well get some money back for it. 😂

[@ayantikasen3490]

I loved this breakdown of the two books. Also just finished the gilmore girls and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the series as it progresses

[@hell4783]

Thank you for this amazing video! And thank you for making it spoiler-free, I am right now halfway through Babel and I really wanted to hear som opinions about this books and I agree with you so much! Especially about the issue with "show don't tell", I noticed it myself as well, mostly when the narator describes the relationships within Robin's cohort, it's always something like "and then they became best friends" even though we have only seen just a few actual interactions between them

[@hadliellehawkins1964]

havent read babel yet but from the little part that you talked about with the characters as narrating devices thing and it just reminded me so much of brecht's verfremdungseffekt, maybe its supposed to be jarring and remind the reader that they are indeed reading a book

[@criesincryptid]

Based on what I've seen, I think some of it is in reference to the style of Victorian literature which was a lot more telling than showing. I like your take on it too! I might read and compare the style

[@MayaraKoga]

I loved this video so much! The one hour length is the cherry on the top! Everything about it is so cozy and delicious to watch! Thank you for sharing this with us all! ❤️ and like you said, the simplicity is what is the most amazing part of it! Another candle, another tea, just sitting down with a friend/us and talking about your passion is what makes it so special!

[@MinMin-kq2zn]

I loveeee the aesthetics!! It’s clear how much effort you put into these videos

[@guusjevriel]

honestly the best and most interesting video about this especially considering its length, chefs kiss to you for keeping it interesting and fun and all the things

[@DollysGram]

I would be THRILLED to find a 1 hours plus video from you every week! AWESOME reading vlog!!🤓🤓🤓

[@miriamlevenson9430]

i feel like we don’t talk enough about how leonie reads books, annotates them, and creates full video essays about them in her second language. like. i know bilingualism is more normal in europe, but STILL. super super impressive ❤️

[@cherenadesigns]

not me watching this video for the second time and only realizing that I'm watching this video for the second time when you started reading babel. I was like "wait, I think I've seen this before?" and then continuing watching and you saying "I know this video is over an hour long." and I had to check if it was actually that long because I didn't believe it after hearing you say it for the second time lmao. you videos just have a certain vibe to them that I can binge your channel 3 times in a row and not realizing I've watched everything three times.

[@haticek.4261]

the thing about babel is that while i don't doubt the genius of rf kuang, but it became a snooze fest in some parts of the book... we were getting too technical instead of having an actual plot. :\ kinda wish we also had more povs of ramy and victoire :(

[@honorbound1337]

I honestly kind of love the alpacas. The disruption of the vibes are wonderful.

[@alexs6811]

Long videos >>>>, I loved it all, the aesthetic, the white board, the reading and annotatting, everything and OMG BLOOPERSSS YESSSS, thank youuuuuu smmm, i needed this

[@user-qu8zs7vs1x]

Just what I needed! currently down with covid and I must say that watching this video while wrapped in duvets like a human burrito is making me feel better. The care and attention that goes into creating these videos, Leonie... chef's kiss!

[@sydneyohm1665]

Literally I love everything you make and I could watch for hours and in fact I’m saving finishing this video as I read the secret history so I can feel like we’re doing book club 😗

[@onceuponanemilyreads]

an absolute banger of a video. i love when reading vlogs are long!

[@chrysoula5226]

I don't study classics at uni but I am greek and in our schools we only focus on translating and not writing or speaking ancient greek. Also, most of us don't perfect our skills on that or even get decent enough because of bad professors (our school system sucks there is no evaluation of the teachers ever) and because after a point people who choose sciences don't take such lessons anymore. In my year they even took out history lessons for us that did sciences and then added it back in next year. It's really frustrating because the way ancient greek is taught by the striking majority of professors is not interesting or motivating and just keeps us from learning about and appreciating our history. It is not a loved subject.

[@ava3300]

love how you explained your annotations, i really wanna annote with writing in books as well since as of this moment i only underline phrases and tab them because i never know what or how to write to not sound stupid so i really appreciate you sharing your notes!!

[@ddaretive]

woahhh I love lamas and alpacas, I wouldve loved your alpaca tabssss. they look so cutee

[@maudhaugland5822]

I looooved this video! And as someone who have read both books (or, I have 100 pages left of Babel at this moment), I agree with so many of your points! Everyone I've talked to have just gushed about how amazing Babel was, but as you pointed out, the characters aren't that fleshed out and there was too much telling instead of showing. I was a bit disappointed that the atmosphere of Oxford and ship voyages didn't come through more. But the ideas it discusses are super interesting! And I actually loved how you used the whiteboard to compare the two books - it made the connections and ideas so much more clearer! I hope you'll do more videos like this!

[@novabadova4238]

As someone who crochets. I agree at first I didn’t have much confidence in Myself but now I make all tons of things that I’m proud of!

[@dreamer626]

Love the hour long vlogs! Keep them coming. 😄Also I love annotating! It keeps me more focused on what I am reading and I read more. I think Babel was my most annotated book. I went through 2 packs of tabs. Because I annotated so much, I still remember parts of the book even though I read the book back in the last week of August when it came out. I still need to read The Secret History though! This video has bumped the book higher on my TBR.

[@hillarylevi6149]

Not me, who watched half of this video when it came out and now, upon finishing Babel, immediently returned. Love your content and analysis!

[@AkaHeiwa]

That was so much fun! Love the long videos focusing on annotating and studying novels in-depth! :)

[@Ritchiiee]

Normally I would skip a vlog instantly if it's more than an hour long. But you just know Leonie is going to give us quality content all the way through

[@cind_h_er5717]

I've watched a few of your videos now, and I think that you have the most intelligent dark academia channel on KZbin, so I've subscribed. Now I just need to binge-watch everything that I've missed thus far. Thank you for sharing.

[@lex7176]

also i love how you are putting bloopers at the end of your recent videos 😂 please keep doing it!!

[@emiliej7952]

I am so in love with your videos Leonie ! And the dark academia vibe is so cool ! A huge thank you 🤍

[@lex7176]

I LOVED THIS VIDEO!!! don’t be sorry about the length, i loved every second of it

[@kiarakiaraaa2010]

Ah! Finalllly!!! You have no idea! How long i waited for this video from you. And i love it how its sooo long! Thankkk youu❤

[@nikoolion]

I LOVED watching a video this long from your channel! You and Ariel Bissett are the only two people who can pull it off in my opinion! So please keep making long videos😌✨🤍

[@fallisdying2077]

absolutely obsessed with this video!! and i love how long it is honestly