Ruby Granger #15 Dustcore

[pwned]

loads of booktubers will say "this book has a dark academia vibe' nowadays! reading books such as song of achillies and the secret history fit into the vibe/aesthetic!

It's kind of painful to see books recommended on this basis, but what can you do? I read (and reread) TSH before uni and adored it; the prose, topics, and unreliable narrator fit my tastes.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and deliberately not refresh my understanding of what the dark academia aesthetic allegedly is. Instead, I will recommend a couple books with the same darker, melancholic, introspective, scholarly or pseudoscholarly feel to them. Finally: Harry Potter doesn't belong to this aesthetic imho. Even if I don't truly believe in the "aesthetic," HP has no real place in it. (How d'ya like them apples, Ruby? jk I'm just playing)

Elizabeth Hand, Waking the Moon - very well researched on the anthropological side

I'm a huge Nabokov fan and think most of his work can fit this "aesthetic." The same goes with Proust.

An atypical recommendation: Steven Millhauser, Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright. I'm not sure if fits the aesthetic at all, heh, but it's good.

I have to cut this short - I'll make another post later with more and also include a bit more explanation.

Ok. I will make a very bold statement. Whoever would say SoA has a Dark Academia vibe is actually perpetuating the purely superficial idea of „academia“. It‘s like claiming you are into classical music but are listening only to Pop - because some use classical motives or even melodies in the background.
SoA is basically fanfic exploring a same sex variation of an already written story. I am not bashing fanfic here. There is a reason it’s out there and many enjoy it. Some are very original and good. SoA is not. It’s pretty basic in its pursuit of telling „another version of the events“. Circe is a much much better attempt. But I cannot get over using a completely build world for your success. It severely lacks in originality. And that’s all the author has shown for now. That’s what distinguishes a good author from a brilliant one. It will make her money but it will not put her on the classics shelf. Which is fine, but I really don’t get how a pretty elitist subculture (the whole classic/Arts/history/philosophy/Oxbridge culture is feeding on elitist ideas. I don’t dislike it but I get why someone would) would think that’s part of the canon or a good example?

Quick reply, have to pick up the dog from the vet, but
1. Nothing wrong with using a preexisting world!
2. I haven't read SoA so cannot comment (yet)
3. Circe is great, agreed!
4. If one has experience with Homer (at all - no need to be an expert), Derek Walcott's epic Omeros is marvelous. It's not for everyone, but even when I wasn't completely sure if I liked epic poetry, I loved this work.

 

[CleverLittleThoughts]

Personally I don't think she was ever very attached to either of their dogs. I remember the first time she showed herself interacting with the dogs on one of her videos and they seemed to keep their distance from her and didn't even wag their tails. It is pretty obvious she mostly ignored them and only got into walking/playing with them to copy Holly. Spending time with pets probably wasn't productive enough for her. I am sad for the dog, but really not going to get ridiculous about it. I didn't know it, I don't know the family, I have no association with their dogs, and her sad stance is performative, like everything else about her. At this point I distrust her on every level. I don't see why her viewers are so blind to all of this.

She never talks about truly important world events. No mentions of Haiti, Afghanistan, no mention of the gymnastics during the Olympics, regardless of those famous twins. She didn't mention the teams once during it and it ended over a week ago. For someone who reads the news headlines daily, I am surprised she never brings any awareness to her platform. This just is another example of her living in her bubble and disinterest in others, situations in the world, and only occasionally pick and chooses ones that may fit her "aesthetic" mood of the day. She never looks beyond her own stuck up nose. She is so self-centered and self-absorbed. She really has no feelings for others, but cries bully at every negative comment or scribbles down notes for any person who is remotely kind to her, and judges everyone! Her perspective on life is so twisted.

 

[Ilaariaa]

Personally I don't think she was ever very attached to either of their dogs. I remember the first time she showed herself interacting with the dogs on one of her videos and they seemed to keep their distance from her and didn't even wag their tails. It is pretty obvious she mostly ignored them and only got into walking/playing with them to copy Holly. Spending time with pets probably wasn't productive enough for her. I am sad for the dog, but really not going to get ridiculous about it. I didn't know it, I don't know the family, I have no association with their dogs, and her sad stance is performative, like everything else about her. At this point I distrust her on every level. I don't see why her viewers are so blind to all of this.

She never talks about truly important world events. No mentions of Haiti, Afghanistan, no mention of the gymnastics during the Olympics, regardless of those famous twins. She didn't mention the teams once during it and it ended over a week ago. For someone who reads the news headlines daily, I am surprised she never brings any awareness to her platform. This just is another example of her living in her bubble and disinterest in others, situations in the world, and only occasionally pick and chooses ones that may fit her "aesthetic" mood of the day. She never looks beyond her own stuck up nose. She is so self-centered and self-absorbed. She really has no feelings for others, but cries bully at every negative comment or scribbles down notes for any person who is remotely kind to her, and judges everyone! Her perspective on life is so twisted.

That is true, she never shows any interest for anything happening outside of her parents' garden unless they're paying her to promote something (Holocaust ad anyone?)

 

[missmina]

That is true, she never shows any interest for anything happening outside of her parents' garden unless they're paying her to promote something (Holocaust ad anyone?)

Well maybe it's better she doesn't, the time she talked about the Holocaust it turned out she was paid to do that by a bleeping charity. Then recently she mentioned the fires in Turkey with a caption "WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!" with no link to any charities and soon after she deleted the post altogether. Altogether she has zero understanding of these topics and would rather use it for financial gain only. It's sickening.

 

[justcantbearit]

Yeah these pictures are super random. Like in the first one the focus isn't even Ruby and the dog, it's Ruby and the other girl and they aren't even looking at the dog lmao
And the second one looks like the kind of random picture I'd send my boyfriend to show him what I'm doing at a given moment (like not the kind of picture you take to remember that moment or because the dog is looking cute). For all we know Ruby didn't even take the picture herself.
I've had my cat for 4 years I think and I have hundreds of cute/artistic pictures of her, on her own or with me or other members of my family. Last year my mom even made me a calendar with her pictures as a gift for Christmas.

My phone photos are 70% my dog, as are all my friends’ who have dogs they actually love. I suspect these photos reflect more that Ruby had no relationship with her dogs so didn’t take many (any?) than anything else.

 

[opal73]

Personally I don't think she was ever very attached to either of their dogs. I remember the first time she showed herself interacting with the dogs on one of her videos and they seemed to keep their distance from her and didn't even wag their tails. It is pretty obvious she mostly ignored them and only got into walking/playing with them to copy Holly. Spending time with pets probably wasn't productive enough for her. I am sad for the dog, but really not going to get ridiculous about it. I didn't know it, I don't know the family, I have no association with their dogs, and her sad stance is performative, like everything else about her. At this point I distrust her on every level. I don't see why her viewers are so blind to all of this.

She never talks about truly important world events. No mentions of Haiti, Afghanistan, no mention of the gymnastics during the Olympics, regardless of those famous twins. She didn't mention the teams once during it and it ended over a week ago. For someone who reads the news headlines daily, I am surprised she never brings any awareness to her platform. This just is another example of her living in her bubble and disinterest in others, situations in the world, and only occasionally pick and chooses ones that may fit her "aesthetic" mood of the day. She never looks beyond her own stuck up nose. She is so self-centered and self-absorbed. She really has no feelings for others, but cries bully at every negative comment or scribbles down notes for any person who is remotely kind to her, and judges everyone! Her perspective on life is so twisted.

She lives in her own little Ruby Granger world of tea parties and running through fields and children's characters and Victorian fantasies. I highly doubt the current global affairs are much on her radar, beyond the flash briefing she listens to or the headlines she claims to peruse daily. Does she even have any opinions of her own? Probably not, beyond those she has heard from her parents. She's twelve and happy remaining there.

 

[Griftwood]

I like how she’s not even pretending she’s going to be on time with anything ever Newsflash for you, Roobee: by the time January rolls around, I’ll have owned my 2022 Hobonichi (with an Animal Crossing cover tyvm) for four months. I’m pretty sure everyone else will have their yearly planners on the go, too.

 

[gossip_guy]

I like how she’s not even pretending she’s going to be on time with anything ever Newsflash for you, Roobee: by the time January rolls around, I’ll have owned my 2022 Hobonichi (with an Animal Crossing cover tyvm) for four months. I’m pretty sure everyone else will have their yearly planners on the go, too.

View attachment 715252

"You want us to restock a popular product? Get the duck outta here. What do we look like, a business?"

The contest winners still haven't materialised, surprising no-one, yet Ruby managed to send free copies to all her online friends. In the ultimate expression of shade, Molly posted a picture of herself using a planner, and it's not Ruby's, she's just using a Moleskine instead like someone who's not a complete moron.

 

[lushstudent]

Personally I don't think she was ever very attached to either of their dogs. I remember the first time she showed herself interacting with the dogs on one of her videos and they seemed to keep their distance from her and didn't even wag their tails. It is pretty obvious she mostly ignored them and only got into walking/playing with them to copy Holly. Spending time with pets probably wasn't productive enough for her. I am sad for the dog, but really not going to get ridiculous about it. I didn't know it, I don't know the family, I have no association with their dogs, and her sad stance is performative, like everything else about her. At this point I distrust her on every level. I don't see why her viewers are so blind to all of this.

She never talks about truly important world events. No mentions of Haiti, Afghanistan, no mention of the gymnastics during the Olympics, regardless of those famous twins. She didn't mention the teams once during it and it ended over a week ago. For someone who reads the news headlines daily, I am surprised she never brings any awareness to her platform. This just is another example of her living in her bubble and disinterest in others, situations in the world, and only occasionally pick and chooses ones that may fit her "aesthetic" mood of the day. She never looks beyond her own stuck up nose. She is so self-centered and self-absorbed. She really has no feelings for others, but cries bully at every negative comment or scribbles down notes for any person who is remotely kind to her, and judges everyone! Her perspective on life is so twisted.

She really does remind me of the characters of The Secret History in this sense. The way that they don't know about key world events - such as the moon landing (if you've read the book, you know the scene). Its very funny when they are fictional, but it is just off-putting from Ruby.

 

[pomegranate_seeds]

Pyromania. She's been trying to burn down her house for the insurance money for months.

I mean, that's one way of achieving the authentic orphaned Victorian child vibe

 

[_Ameliemia]

Is she serious at this point? I sometimes decide what i am going to wear the night before and put the clothes out. But making a notion list? It's just stupid, unrealistic, and pretended. View attachment 712798

She does seem to stick with scholarly colours doesn’t she? Red, navy, both colours on previous school uniforms I had

 

[sleepypasta]

I like how she’s not even pretending she’s going to be on time with anything ever Newsflash for you, Roobee: by the time January rolls around, I’ll have owned my 2022 Hobonichi (with an Animal Crossing cover tyvm) for four months. I’m pretty sure everyone else will have their yearly planners on the go, too.

View attachment 715252

This! Does she not realize the point of having a yearly planner is getting it prior to the start of the new year????

 

[cukiesandcreme]

76 for second year overall, which is a solid mark for a UK humanities degree, but she seemed disappointed. Mostly mid-80s for seminar participation marks, and mid-low-70s for exams.

Huh I’m so confused, she got a first for second year? But from the info I glean from these threads, she’s really not high-70s standard??

Does Exeter grade differently or something

 

[ECH]

Huh I’m so confused, she got a first for second year? But from the info I glean from these threads, she’s really not high-70s standard??

Does Exeter grade differently or something

I honestly think she just spends SO much time on her assessments that it pulls her grades up, plus she's probably using something like Grammarly to help her out. The issue is more she puts no effort into her social media which is why it's so tit and she's always using the wrong words.

 

[i_wanna_see_pictures]

Huh I’m so confused, she got a first for second year? But from the info I glean from these threads, she’s really not high-70s standard??

Does Exeter grade differently or something

She's definitely at least somewhat intelligent, it's just that she doesn't care to put as much effort into social media (her job) as she does for academia. She pretty much consistently gets high grades, which is sometimes difficult to believe

ETA: The way I see her is booksmart, lacking responsibility and knowledge of the real world outside her parents' mansion in the countryside

 

[Ilaariaa]

Huh I’m so confused, she got a first for second year? But from the info I glean from these threads, she’s really not high-70s standard??

Does Exeter grade differently or something

Her grades confuse me so much. The way she comes across in her videos sounds like lack of intelligence or ignorance rather than lack of effort. Yet she always gets good grades. I don't even know anymore

 

[catsandteabooks]

It's kind of painful to see books recommended on this basis, but what can you do? I read (and reread) TSH before uni and adored it; the prose, topics, and unreliable narrator fit my tastes.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and deliberately not refresh my understanding of what the dark academia aesthetic allegedly is. Instead, I will recommend a couple books with the same darker, melancholic, introspective, scholarly or pseudoscholarly feel to them. Finally: Harry Potter doesn't belong to this aesthetic imho. Even if I don't truly believe in the "aesthetic," HP has no real place in it. (How d'ya like them apples, Ruby? jk I'm just playing)

Elizabeth Hand, Waking the Moon - very well researched on the anthropological side

I'm a huge Nabokov fan and think most of his work can fit this "aesthetic." The same goes with Proust.

An atypical recommendation: Steven Millhauser, Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright. I'm not sure if fits the aesthetic at all, heh, but it's good.

I have to cut this short - I'll make another post later with more and also include a bit more explanation.


Quick reply, have to pick up the dog from the vet, but
1. Nothing wrong with using a preexisting world!
2. I haven't read SoA so cannot comment (yet)
3. Circe is great, agreed!
4. If one has experience with Homer (at all - no need to be an expert), Derek Walcott's epic Omeros is marvelous. It's not for everyone, but even when I wasn't completely sure if I liked epic poetry, I loved this work.

I have never seen someone mention Waking the Moon and am so excited now!!

Books can inspire you- The Secret History and Waking the Moon definitely inspired my love of ancient history and helped me when I was looking for degrees, but Ruby places so much faith in them when often they can do little more than give you a push, and the rest needs to come from some deeper personality or passion. Sadly Ruby seems to lack that deeper personality/have buried it under useless productivity and busywork. I think she should take a break from YouTube and maybe do some introspection on what she’s actually interested in, maybe research it (well, unlike her victorian series) and come back with videos about it; I for one would find that so much more interesting than useless “back to school” tips and a thousand morning routines that mean nothing.

 

[yeya]

Anyone know when Ruby uploaded the video about the house she bought? Like month/year? Just wondering if it can be found on the wayback machine

 

[Deeznutslol]

Anyone know when Ruby uploaded the video about the house she bought? Like month/year? Just wondering if it can be found on the wayback machine

According to gg it was May 15th 2019 that she uploaded the announcement video, I’m not sure if wayback machine will allow you to see deleted yt videos though. If anyone watched it and remembers it, I’d be very curious to know how she did the announcement / what she said!

 

[strawberrylemonade514]

According to gg it was May 15th 2019 that she uploaded the announcement video, I’m not sure if wayback machine will allow you to see deleted yt videos though. If anyone watched it and remembers it, I’d be very curious to know how she did the announcement / what she said!

She said something about how she wouldn't live there yet but would after uni? She gave a little tour and that was it. Which is like...why would you purchase a house yet then lol. Why not wait until you graduate instead of having a house sit around waiting for you?