Is it about the beauty of tradition
OR
about how blind worship of an imagined past destroys lives?
The Secret History
Brody Anderson
Xavier Myers
It’s a story.
It can be about a lot, or nothing, or what you need it to be
Jason Fisher
The gay scenes in the book are beautiful even being so coy and discrete
Mason Rogers
the thing with traditionalism is that the figures revered by the traditionalists were innovators in their respective time
Robert Evans
Part of the irony in the novel. The biggest academic traditionalist in the story is named for Emperor Julian.
Jayden Adams
It’s about how the Greeks were right
—Bacchanal—Greeks were right
—tragedy—Greeks were right (Henry is tragic)
Greeks are best!
Evan Gray
>Donna Tartt
That's not Procopius...
Gabriel Jones
Why imitate tragedy knowing that it ends in failure?
Jaxson Gray
Henry removed all the parts that made him human
Caleb James
>ywn attend a small liberal arts college with a group of comically old-fashioned classmates who imitate high society manners and dress like Expressionist film characters
Ryan Edwards
This is Anonymous story arch, isn’t it?
Christopher Allen
A little bit of both. You get the "before" (innocence) and "after" (experience)
Eli Rodriguez
holy shit user I read this book in middle school (found it intriguing but it went over my head almost entirely) and have been randomly thinking about it every so often, couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called. thank you.
Jose Peterson
It's largely cobbled together literary references built around the main story.
Leo Gutierrez
arc perhaps
Jonathan Miller
Personally, I think it’s a fraud to delegitimize Justinian after his death.
Aiden James
I have an evil spellcheck
Jordan Morris
You know how I know this story was written by a woman? The main character never fuck that red headed slut that keeps throwing herself at him, even though he is a beta male lose
Kayden Young
I thought the point of the story was those people are awful deep down and use their pretentiousness to make themselves feel superior to everyone else. There is even a scene where Richard is partying with the normies at his school and he realizes they are open and accepting of him and he should have been hanging out with them all this time
Benjamin Nelson
lol you ripped that from La La Land you unoriginal twerp
Jace James
>awful deep down
It's obvious from the start, nobody is less of a hack and a fake than Richard.
The characters are noteworthy in that they have a strong will to power. However their environment is toxic and they manifest their will in flawed, crippled ways, in narcissistic, borderline ways.
Richard has no real support, nothing pushing him to be a strong character or a conventionally good person. None of them do. They are lost, Julian is lost too, and it is only a matter of time until something happens.
They are etiolated plants growing out of drained soil, nothing new in them, no ability to generate the new, no ability to fit in with the present. They were always doomed.