Shané Oosthuizen

I need to know, would you prefer to be a Maroi or a Dampierre?

I think I fall into exactly the same boat.

So I was kind of thinking about it in preparation for this podcast.

Like, what have I actually read that categorizes as dark academia?

And the list was so short.

And again, like,

I haven't read Secret History, for example, and that just feels like the ancient text that you should be able to refer back to.

But I have the same reading background as you, Sinead, and it's like growing up reading these stories that are fantasy, but they're set in these magical schools.

And so it feels really adjacent.

And I will hopefully be informed enough through that to have this conversation with you, Adelaide.

I think in real life and then reflected in fantasy, schools are such institutions of, like, normalising from the ground up in their societies what are, like, what are the rules that we have to follow?

And in fantasy, what is the magic system?

And so they're such a useful world-building tool.

And in Blood of a Bright Haven, like, yes, it establishes class.

It establishes, like, this whole...

fight against the patriarchy that Sienna is experiencing it establishes like something as simple as how does a spellograph work how are we coding for magic in this universe and so I think they're really useful devices yeah that's a really useful point as well that it sets up a lot of world building without just being straight like just telling you what's happened because you can be like I'm in a lesson and they're explaining the history of the world or I'm in a yeah whatever

I don't like it.

I feel like issues-based fantasy is everywhere throughout this genre.

And some of my favourite series could be called issues-based and they're very much not dark academia.

I just feel like...