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wedarkacademia · 3 months

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—If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio

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shakesqueers13 · 5 months

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The biggest clue M. L. Rio gives us to what actually happened at the end of 'If We Were Villains' isn't Pericles, allow me to elaborate:

Spoilers for 'If We Were Villains' by M.L. Rio below, obviously.

So, everyone talks about the Pericles symbolism and that being proof that James is alive, but I think there's stronger proof elsewhere. In the epilogue, when Oliver is told that James is dead, Filippa is said to have "a copy of Winter’s Tale open in her lap" (351).

If you haven't read The Winter's Tale, that's okay, it is a strange play. (Despite it being, in my opinion, Shakespeare's most explicitly sapphic play!!). But anyway, a key aspect of the plot is that a character everyone thinks is dead comes back to life at the end. I'll explain further:

So, in act three, scene two, a character named Hermione is said to have died after being accused of a crime she didn't commit. The audience sees her pass out, and she's carried offstage where it is said she died.

Hermione was accused of adultery and treason, and the person she was accused of cheating with, Polixenes, escapes before he can be killed for this crime with an advisor named CAMILLO — aka the same name as the gang's fight coordinator who knew James well / became Fillippa's fiancé.

Now, in the very last scene of the play, all the remaining characters gather back together including Camillo, as well as Leontes, the man who caused Hermione to "die," and who was consumed by grief and regret for the actions he took that lead to her death. Miraculously, during this scene, a friend of Hermione's named Paulina reveals that through Leontes's remorse and the resolution of this whole plot, Hermione is miraculously able to come back to life. It's unclear if this is through magic or if Hermione was just hiding out with Paulina all this time and now is able to return to her husband (booooo). She falls into Leontes's arms and everyone is happy again. This is a super weird plot point and doesn't make a lot of sense, but it does speak to the possibility of James being alive!

Interestingly, from that scene, there's also this line: "Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him / Dear life redeems you." - Winter's Tale, V.iii.1280129. To me, this line can easily be applied to James's guilt and reason for theoretically committing suicide. Is James able to find redemption through dying and then coming back to life?

I think the name Camillo is the strongest connection here - there's no way it's accidental. Additionally, this might be a reach, but Winter's Tale is only mentioned one other time in the book, on page 94 when present day-Fillipa mentions, "Frederick wants to branch out and try Winter’s Tale, but Gwendolyn’s insisting on Othello.” The comparison of these two plays seems deliberate - they aren't in the same genre, so they're an odd two plays to be choosing between for the fourth years. However, there is a KEY comparison between the two: they both involve husbands becoming convinced that their wives are being unfaithful, and they both involve said husbands killing their wives—the only difference is that in The Winter's Tale, Hermione comes back to life. Desdemona doesn't. Is M. L. Rio making a sneaky reference to the two possible interpretations of her ending here? Sort of presenting the reader with a choice of what interpretation they chose to believe?

I think it's so cool!!!

#if we were villains #m l rio #james farrow #oliver marks #shakespeare #william shakespeare #dark academia #academia #iwwv #meredith dardenne #alexander vass #if we were villains spoilers

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gooseie · 10 months

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#if we were villains #iwwv #m l rio #meredith dardenne #oliver marks #james farrow #IWWV Memes #iwwv spoilers

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redgitanako · 8 months

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Tryna figure out their faces through the book has been quite difficult haha

The book is M. L. Rio's If we were villains

#bookblr #artists on tumblr #dark academia #if we were villains #m l rio #oliver marks #james farrow #meredith dardenne #filippa kosta #wren stirling #alexander vass

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utterlyconfusedacademia · 2 years

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Me adding a new dark academia book to my overflowing (and mostly unread) collection:

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undervmountain · 2 months

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If We Were Villains // Bullet Journal Book Review

#if we were villains #m l rio #books #dark academia #bullet journal #book review #shakespeare

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pandorias · 2 years

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My friend made some memes and I thought maybe you guys will appreciate them as much as I do.

#if we were villains #iwwv #iwwv spoilers #spoilers #memes #m l rio #dark academia #james farrow #oliver marks

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mrsyoflam · 4 months

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I’m still immensely in love with how this rebinding turned out! Good thing because I have to make another one, and this one will fly all the way to Australia! ✈️✈️✈️

#iwwv #if we were villains #m l rio #shakespeare #iwwv aesthetic #bookbinder #bookbinding #handbound #reliure d’art #reliure

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embeccy · 3 months

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"For someone who loved words as much as I did, it was amazing how often they failed me."

- M.L. Rio

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poetic-gays · 2 years

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dark academia books as penguin classics

@olivieblake

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shakesqueers13 · 5 months

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Working introduction to a thesis I'm trying to write about women in Dark Academia—got the idea while watching Saltburn, the main idea is that the emerging genre conventions of Dark Academia are inherently misogynistic, and that women are sidelined to prioritize gay male relationships which are seen as superior because there are no women involved. Women are cast as annoying and suffer in the narrative to uplift men. I'm interested to hear people's thoughts about this.

Rough draft of intro:

How can the emerging sub-genre of Dark Academia Fiction (né, the Campus Novel) be unilaterally categorized? A surface level glance at the leading titles in the genre would return repeated motifs of ivy, picturesque college architecture, and a consumer base largely composed of queer college students. A 2023 anthology entitled, “In These Hallowed Halls” attempted to directly market to this fanbase, promising “A Dark Academia Anthology” but was largely rebuked, with a review by one Advanced Reader stating the collection was “Not a dark academia anthology,” but rather, “a collection of mysteries that each have some vague connection to college.” (Goodreads, Samantha, @ladybug.books). So what does qualify as Dark Academia? In reality, the conventions of the genre are incredibly clear—a white, male protagonist, usually coming from some sort of disadvantaged circumstances, comes to university to study an obscurely niche (usually archaic) topic, and falls in with a bad crowd; many years later, he recounts these unfortunate circumstances with an omnipresent tinge of melancholy and regret. Without fail, the protagonist is provided with another white, male companion who is so attractive, loyal, and desirable, readers soon begin to wonder when the two will kiss. Counterpart to this male companion is the ubiquitous, “Femme fatale,” described directly as such on page fourteen of M. L. Rio’s 2017 novel, “If We Were Villains.” This female character serves as a foil to the male counterpart, unfailingly getting in the way of his homoerotic relationship with his close friend—this girl is sexually deviant in some way, portrayed as utterly irresistible, often red haired, and by the end of the novel, she is either killed or cast aside into some unfortunate circumstance that the protagonist will try and fail to get her out of. These female characters, while archetypal, are nearly always written by female authors. The emergence of the “sexually-incontinent” —as described in Emerald Fennell’s 2023 film, Saltburn— female character in Dark Academia exists because the genre, while dominated by female authors and readers, cannot find a place for women in the true heart of academia. Instead, for female characters to exist within a male-dominated story, they must serve the role of an annoying distraction from the male protagonist’s true desire, another man, one who truly understands him and his academic pursuits.

#dark academia #academia #if we were villains #the secret history #the goldfinch #saltburn #dark academia aesthetic #donna tartt #m l rio #iwwv

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g4rdensofb4bylon · 5 months

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m l rio really said "you can justify anything if you do it poetically enough" and thought it justified making me lose my mind over a bunch of emo theatre kids huh

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raveyn-an-ort · 11 months

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Your hands are scarred from murder,

and yet I

trust them

c o m p l e t e l y

#iwwv #if we were villains #aesthetic #collage #aesthetics #moodboard #james farrow #m l rio #ml rio #oliver and james #oliver marks and james farrow #oliver marks #donna tartt aesthetic #donna tartt #dark academia #dark academy

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utterlyconfusedacademia · 2 years

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When M. L. Rio said “What is more important, that Caesar is assassinated or that he is assassinated by his intimate friends?” friendships were broken.

#if we were villains #m l rio #oliver marks #james farrow #alexander vass #filippa kosta #richard stirling #meredith dardenne #wren stirling #dark academia #dark acadamia aesthetic #quotes #gay books

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thequeerlibrarian · 4 months

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