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[smeagol-on-my-deagol]

PART 7

reading 'the secret history' by donna tartt for the first time, here are my thoughts after reading through chapter 7:

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] obviously

— what an absolutely sickening chapter

— henry, drugged to high hell off stolen pills, wiping the dirt from bunny's grave over his chest

— donna tartt did a great job of making this chapter feel so frantic, and then so heartbreaking, and then so frantic, and so on

— it's hard to remember that francis is such a snob until it smacks you in the face

— very worried about charles

— the details of what happened while and after henry pushed bunny are so horrifying

— not many notes on this one, it definitely had some funny moments with the hampden hysteria, but over all it was a real dark one

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #bunny corcoran #richard papen #henry winter #charles mcaulay #camilla macaulay #francis abernathy #julian morrow #cloke rayburn

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[smeagol-on-my-deagol]

PART 6

reading 'the secret history' by donna tartt for the first time, here are my thoughts after reading through chapter 6:

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] obviously

— snow killing flowers : winter killing bunny

— + charles and camilla bringing in tulips into their house before they could die and also being the most (outwardly, and so far) affected by bunny's murder

— judy poovey, i love you, you are nuts but also so so normal

— richard, once again, giving us unimportant foot descriptions

— i think henry may be trying to set charles up to be the most likely suspect out of all of them,, i don't think he actually expects for any of them to get caught, but i think there's a reason why he wants charles to be the most involved starting from when cloke broke in to bunny's room

— average queer friend group

— bunny's family, especially his nieces and nephews makes my stomach turn :((

— i feel like the first half of the book is meant to make you kind of see why they would kill bunny, and the second half is meant to make you understand that he was still a human being, a son, a brother, an uncle, and a friend, despite his flaws

— like was it ever that serious

— "if it was up to me they'd put you in jail" over some parking tickets, girl you don't even knowwww

— i think julian is slowly starting to understand just what exactly they've done,, which he most definitely put ideas in their heads, but at this point i don't think he meant for it to end up like this

— i can't believe i've never heard anybody mention the racism before, because oh my god

— as things in the book become actually serious, it feels like the dialogue of the central characters and richard's inner voice becomes sillier

— as opposed to in the beginning of the book, when things weren't that serious, but everything was written as if it was dire

— the dirt under his nails "he was grabbing at anything he could get ahold of" is sickening i cannot stop thinking about it

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #richard papen #bunny corcoran #henry winter #charles mcaulay #francis abernathy #camilla macaulay #judy poovey #julian morrow #cloke rayburn

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Sunday dinner!

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Found online.

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Today I discovered that a couple of TSH characters were based on actual people Donna Tartt knew at Bennington College- amongst them were students Todd O'Neal and Matt Jacobsen, who were the inspiration for Henry and Bunny respectively.

AND JUST—

There's even their own comments about it and it's so funny wait:

Here's the source

[smeagol-on-my-deagol]

Today I discovered that a couple of TSH characters were based on actual people Donna Tartt knew at Bennington College- amongst them were students Todd O'Neal and Matt Jacobsen, who were the inspiration for Henry and Bunny respectively.

AND JUST—

There's even their own comments about it and it's so funny wait:

Here's the source

[smeagol-on-my-deagol]

PART 5

reading 'the secret history' by donna tartt for the first time, here are my thoughts after reading through chapter 5:

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] obviously

— does richard papen have a thing for feet????

— "je me sens comme hélène keller, mon vieux." is so funny i wish it were said under better circumstances

— has richard been coked out this whole time?? or was him doing coke with judy poovey in a burger king parking lot just like something he was in the mood for???

— either way, it makes sense for him

— henry writing about murdering a guy in his journal and then not burning it was a crazy move

— richard is wayyyyy too chill about murder

— like man idk why you're acting like there's something wrong with bunny for having a drawn-out breakdown after finding out his best friends committed murder

— god bunny sucks so bad

— also maybe i'll take back what i said about bunny being very straight,,,, why, after arguing with your best friend, would you fall asleep in their bed??

— maybe that's just me though, either way he's got some issues

— bunny and henry's italy divorce story time

— camilla i'm gonna get you out of there

— i support women's wrongs

— calling people "hoi polloi" unironically, richard you are such a little prick

— this book is so well-written

— like i hate everyone but also i want things to go well for everyone

— the implication of both of the twins participating in the bacchanal and then bunny implying that they sleep together,,,,, y'all ,,

— "diabolical rap music"

— professor julian morrow they could never make me like you

— was going to say something about shared characteristics/parallels between julian and dionysus, but flipping to chapter 6 i see they have a quote about dionysus so

— jesus they just like murdered that guy fr

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #bunny corcoran #henry winter #richard papen #charles mcaulay #francis abernathy #camilla macaulay #judy poovey #julian morrow

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roughly halfway through the secret history and i keep going back and forth on whether i think richard is being untruthful about certain things on purpose or if he's just the least self-aware person on the planet

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #richard papen #'nothing in common with any of them' #who are you talking to right now

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the 5th chapter recap is gonna be fucking nuts already

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #like damn #murder cult indeed

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PART 4

reading 'the secret history' by donna tartt for the first time, here are my thoughts after reading through chapter 4:

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] obviously

— holy hell

— THAT'S why richard thought bunny singing 'the farmer in the dell' would have "chilled them to the bone," i though it was just like a food-chain, plotting to kill bunny thing but no they killed a man in the countryside

— at first i was debating on whether it was murder or a suicide pact cause of the "if we'd actually gone"

— also i don't know,,,, whether julian is doing it on purpose or not (and i suspect he IS doing it at least somewhat on purpose) he is definitely putting ideas in their heads

— "cultic purity" yeah no shit

— richard is obessed with speculating over people's sexualities and relationships

— like that page+ where he speculated about henry being bunny's sugar daddy?????

— "so it's a sex ritual? what did y'all do then?"

— good lord richard

— "charles saw him in commons having a grilled cheese sandwich and a milk shake. that did it."

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #richard papen #henry winter #bunny corcoran #francis abernathy #camilla mcauley #charles mcaulay

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Another ✨️WORK IN PROGRESS✨️ cause I can't bring myself to finish anything lately

It looks better in my head and I WILL make it look better

I just have to gather some stamina...

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henry winter visiting richard papen's winter home (an unheated purple warehouse with a hole in the roof)

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #henry winter #richard papen

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PART 3

reading 'the secret history' by donna tartt for the first time, here are my thoughts after reading through chapter 3:

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] obviously

— jesus fucking christ richard

— i hate that this chapter not only makes me feel bad for richard, but also makes me actively like henry (which like yikes, my richard-ification era)

— i feel like richard gets roped into the murder plot when he realizes that it'll create an "opening" in the group for him

— cause he still feels like an outsider to me despite spending time mostly with the greek class, but also that could be on purpose to try to separate himself from the fact that he helped/participated in murdering a dude

— the scenes with him looking over the river like "man it would be horrible to fall, to die that way" like ugh

— FUCK bunny corcoran

— trying to avoid being lured into the trap of feeling like they were slightly justified in killing their friend because as much as bunny sucks, i do realize he did not deserve to be murdered

— henry winter, standing in the unheated purple warehouse with a giant hole in the ceiling that richard spent nearly an entire vermont winter in: damn bitch you live like this??

— henry's middle name is MARCHBANKS ????

— also he has a photo of julian on his closet door?? yikes man

— henry not knowing about the moon landing, then hardly knowing about marilyn monroe

— i am shocked at how shocked the twins were last chapter that richard picked up on henry being irritated with bunny like what

— i wonder what francis and henry were plotting at the end,,, second thoughts on murder perhaps??

— does richard know anything about camilla's personality as a separate entity from the group or as more than just a girl he spends time around??

— richard papen they could never make me like you

— no but seriously, i am both charmed by all of the characters and horrifyingly put off by them

— henry and bunny got divorced in italy

[edit to add one more thing]

— why does everyone want richard soooo bad??

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #richard papen #henry winter #bunny corcoran #francis abernathy #camilla macaulay #charles mcaulay #julian morrow #finally a shorter chapter

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PART 2

reading 'the secret history' by donna tartt for the first time, so here are my thoughts after reading through chapter 2:

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] obviously

— i was absolutely correct in my assumption that bunny actually was straight, but not quite in the way i expected (like good god man i know it was the 80s, but even richard was weirded tf out)

— BUNNY WHEN I CATCH YOU BUNNY

— love miss judy poovey

— also love how everybody outside the greek class is like "yeah they suck" or "yeah something is not right with those people" and richard hears none of it and instead is just ride-or-die for these people

— like he doesn't even fw greek like that

— increasingly cult-core themes

— no seriously "come with us in my convertible, new drunk outsider, to spend a luxurious weekend at one of my family's homes in the countryside" like richard you barley know these people

— "obsession with the picturesque" yeah i can fucking tell by the way you're not listening to a damn word coming out of camilla's mouth

— FREE CAMILLA FROM THE CLUTCHES OF THESE MEN

— don't know how much i believe richard's whole "i really didn't think about it too much" thing,, like yeah they were speaking latin or whatevs but like??? you couldn't pick up on any of it??

— so did they like try to slow-kill bunny using "natural remedies" (homemade poison) and when that didn't work they just decided to push him off a cliff or ??

— cause if they did that's fucking hilarious

— "hi-ho, the derry-o!!" girl, you are at the bottom of the food chain rn

— richard is so relatable in some ways, yet so absolutely detestable in others

— back to bunny's murder: i feel like they decided he was too annoying for too long and just wanted to get rid of him like unanimously vote him out of greek class, but henry seems to only be capable of doing things in the most dramatic way possible

— "Consummatum est."

[edit because i remembered something else i wanted to include but forgot]

— idk for what i think they've got going on with all that disappearing for a while and showing up with injuries all the time, but for now my two theories are:

1.) they're like performing rituals or like offerings to the greek gods cause they were reading about it and wanted to see if it would like do anything for them

2.) bunny went from killer to killed (i.e. they were a murder squad before they murdered him, and they're out there like committing actual homicide)

#the secret history #tsh #tsh donna tartt #donna tartt #richard papen #judy poovey #bunny corcoran #henry winter #francis abernathy #camilla macaulay #charles mcaulay #julian morrow