Of Brown Study and Dust
Times of Bennett | Updated: Mar 27, 2023 21:16
By PRANAVI AMBATI
Dear S. Ma’am,
Dustsceawung (n.): (Old English ) contemplation of the dust
ForDark Academia , I have always expressed my distaste – more so, after the wave rode on from Tumblr to Pinterest , and became an aesthetic. The Picture of Dorian Gray ought not to be read because it “offended the sensibilities of the British book reviewers”, but for exploring the philosophy that Oscar Wilde managed to pack in without sermonizing the reader. Where else can one pick up axiological hedonism without sneering at it?
I say read not Wilde’s novella because it led to the 1985 trials but because only in the midst of those pages would one find the protagonist’s libertine endeavours amusing, whereas the same activities would be outright deplorable in our world.
As the French put it, “L’art pour l’art.”
Yet I was directed – must be some power at play – to look up keywords associated with theDark Academia aesthetic in my spare time and had a moment of propositional revelation. I landed on a pin that eulogized the old English noun ‘Dustsceawung ’. Dear me, there’s a variation in my pronunciation of the archaic term every attempt – but it’s beautiful in my mind...
… a beautiful journey of contemplation. The walls of a city, the chief of guards, a book, a great tree have all turned intodust ! An odyssey of devoted waiting culminated in a girl's recognition of the richness in brown one fine evening.
The pin - it challenged my perceptions and I {in what many would agree to be the rarest of rare moments} subscribed wholly to the new paradigm.Deep humility , positive bereavement, wilful submission – the asyndeton of my senses then.
Now, dust evokes a differentiated treatment - so does Dark Academia. It is no longer the object of purification, but the subject of Monday musings. No longer does it require the prefix of ‘pixie’ or an association with magic for it to be magnified in feeling. Study tables will be dusted, yes, but with fondness and when the time has come to rightly let go those esteemed bits and pieces of the yore.
Ready to awaken to settled dust,
Pranavi.
Dear S. Ma’am,
For
I say read not Wilde’s novella because it led to the 1985 trials but because only in the midst of those pages would one find the protagonist’s libertine endeavours amusing, whereas the same activities would be outright deplorable in our world.
As the French put it, “L’art pour l’art.”
Yet I was directed – must be some power at play – to look up keywords associated with the
… a beautiful journey of contemplation. The walls of a city, the chief of guards, a book, a great tree have all turned into
The pin - it challenged my perceptions and I {in what many would agree to be the rarest of rare moments} subscribed wholly to the new paradigm.
Now, dust evokes a differentiated treatment - so does Dark Academia. It is no longer the object of purification, but the subject of Monday musings. No longer does it require the prefix of ‘pixie’ or an association with magic for it to be magnified in feeling. Study tables will be dusted, yes, but with fondness and when the time has come to rightly let go those esteemed bits and pieces of the yore.
Ready to awaken to settled dust,
Pranavi.
