Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) hosts this podcast that celebrates the joys of reading. For the start of spooky season, we are turning to the theme of Dark Academia. In this episode, Kim discusses the book “Down a Dark Hall” by Lois Duncan.
If you would like your own copy of the book discussed, it is available here:
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Kim’s book: How to Be a Great Student
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Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. We reach a fairly specific audience with our YouTube channel, which focuses on advanced math, science, and computer programming. Our audience is spread all over the world, and while we may not all be studying the same things, or in the same professions, the one thing we all share is a love of learning.
In case you don’t know, I wrote a book called How to Be a Great Student, which is the true story of how I figured out the academic life, making LOTS of mistakes along the way. I was always VERY bright, but not always VERY disciplined as a student, because I didn’t have to be. For the longest time, I could just coast through. But we all reach a point where we find our limit, and have to actually DO the work. In my book I explain the various techniques I learned that mean success in academia. I’ll include a link in the show notes in case you’d like to get your own copy.
It’s Autumn here in the northern hemisphere, everyone has gone back to school, and it’s also the start of spooky season. Today is Hallowe’en, tomorrow is the start of Dia de los Muertos. All that adds up to a theme I’d like to introduce into the Socratica Reads podcast: DARK ACADEMIA. We’ve mainly been reading science fiction together, and by now that may seem like the theme of the podcast as a whole, but it’s actually the books that influence us, that inspire us in our work. Science fiction is a helpful thing to read because it keeps you looking ahead, wondering about what will happen, what are the consequences of your scientific investigations or your cutting edge engineering project.
Dark Academia is another theme that has particular appeal for our people, friends of Socratica, or as we call them, Socratica Friends. We are a community of people who love learning. We love the autumn because it means Back to School. We love sharpened pencils and fountain pens and Japanese ballpoint pens and notebooks and journals and typewriters and a laptop that fits perfectly in your backpack. We love the old card catalog and carrels in the library. We love our kindle and as soon as we finish one ebook we load up another one. We have a signature style: prep school uniforms. We love Harry Potter robes. We OWN Harry Potter robes. We love Oxford and Cambridge and the other Cambridge and the Ivy League and little liberal arts college no one has heard of. We love Caltech AND MIT. AND Harvey Mudd.
If this all made sense to you, you’ll understand why I’m adding Dark Academia to the reading list for our podcast about the love of books and the power of literacy.
And speaking of the vital importance of literacy,I’m going to pause here to say—there will be no further pauses, because our podcast is sponsored by The Socratica Foundation Literacy Campaign. The Socratica Foundation is an educational nonprofit dedicated to the three timeless pillars of learning and knowledge: literacy, numeracy (also known as math literacy), and critical thinking. The Socratica Foundation literacy campaign includes such projects as a course on phonics, reading lessons, book donations, and sponsoring this podcast, which celebrates reading. You can learn more about the foundation at socratica.org.
One of the themes of Dark Academia is that you have locked inside some secret knowledge or wisdom or power that is hidden—maybe even from yourself—but by leaving society at large and joining a smaller group of knowledge seekers, this special talent of yours can emerge. This often means going away to a remote college, or joining a secret society. In our book for today, DOWN A DARK HALL, by Lois Duncan, it’s a newly opened boarding school out in the boonies in upstate New York. There are only 4 students at Blackwood Academy for Girls. Um, yeah, it’s VERY exclusive.
To get in you had to take some tests. Unusual, psychological tests. Our main character, Kit, isn’t nearly as smart as her best friend from back home, and yet Kit got in and her friend didn’t. One of the girls, Lynda, is sweet but decidedly no genius like her friend Ruth. Kit, who lost her father and was shipped off to boarding school when her mother remarries, bonds with Sandy who also lost her parents. The question is, what else do these four girls have in common? Why were they picked to be the first students at Blackwood?
The school promises individual instruction, helping the students reach their potential. Kit starts taking piano lessons, and while she has never been musical, she starts having dreams about playing beautiful music. She wakes up and her fingers ache as if she has actually been playing all night. Ruth is able to advance rapidly through math. Lynda discovers she has a talent for drawing and painting. And Sandy is writing sonnets.
This is SOME great school. What’s the secret? The DARK ACADEMIA secret? It’s too good to be true, right? I’m going to read you a little excerpt from a part where Kit starts to think this place maybe isn’t what it appears to be.
Are you ready? Let’s begin.
{Kim reads excerpt}
You can stop listening now if you don’t want any more spoilers. But yes, that was Shubert, a NEW composition by Shubert. The girls are getting individual instruction all right, by some very talented teachers.
This story plays around with the concepts of what it is to be a student or a disciple. How much of yourself do you have to give up or give over to someone else so you can develop into your more advanced self. It’s also kind of an inversion of the idea of the muses, who are usually depicted as young women.
There’s also this wonderful idea—have you heard this before—that when you READ, it’s the closest you can get to actually being in someone’s head, sharing their thoughts. This is true even when they are long gone. I can have a conversation (okay, fairly one-sided) with my favourite witty writer, Jane Austen, anytime I like. Maybe you need some life advice, so you turn to the Stoics or Erma Bombeck. This story, Down a Dark Hall, is kind of a gothic metaphor for that experience. We do help Shubert live, whenever we play his music. He lives on in our brains. Jane Austen lives on in my head, and my heart.
We’d love to chat more with you about reading. Do you find yourself drawn to this genre, Dark Academia? Our Discord Server is open to all of our YouTube channel members, and our Patrons from Patreon. You can join at patreon.com/socratica. Thanks for listening.
