The Secret History is a great book that becomes Peak Literature if you look at it from the point of view that they are all pseudo-intellectuals and have no idea what they are doing. It adds so much depth to everything and fuck i need to read it again.
I read it a couple of years ago, and keep thinking about it.
Unfortunately, I myself come from a family of pseudo-intellectuals. The kind who grip their chin in imitation of real philosophical thought (not me, i’m drowning, pls send help), and fluffing their words with incorrect quotations. Having a debate with my family is painful.
An intro to my family: They were never the top of the class, and switched on too late to things, so now they try to cling onto whatever intellectual recognition they can, even if it’s just assuming superiority in every conversation whether it’s true or not. Very nice words, complex grammar, but at the end of the sermon, you’re thinking through what they’ve said and you’re just going “um…. duh???”. The kind of people who play down your own decent amount of experience and feel that they have to “teach” you or keep you in a childlike position – which is exactly what Henry and everyone else does by keeping Richard in the dark. Underneath everything, it’s all a power struggle.
Anyway, from this point of view, the conversations of “intelligence” – Henry, Julian, hell, fucking all of the characters except Bunny (maybe even him actually) and ESPECIALLY Richard trying to keep up with the others – remind me of my family in the worst way. Julian is the worst and i think he’s a failed academic who just confabulates shit and wants Henry to look up to him. Especially bc they seem to take great pride in being “above it all” (we know how this story goes) – even the pre-planned wardrobe amid 80s neons and plastic snails. PSEUDO. PSEUDISPOPSIOPUDOPSEUDPOO. ~~i’m screaming~~
I don’t think Richard ever needed to “keep up”, and I think the rest of the group were freaking out on all levels that they were going to get found out by this guy. Look at the event when they’re in the library – they’re puzzling over shit, and he comes in and immediately solves it without even looking at it. Richard is not the problem here he’s not the intellectual “inferior” if there is one.
What’s ultimately strange is how many readers have immediately accepted – through Richard’s extremely self-deprecating narration which is in no fucking way reliable – that Henry & Co. are actual intellectuals and *above Richard himself* \- or hell, even that smart at all. We all know that that point was made about how rich they were. There’s no proof for any of them that they’re even that smart, the audience just automatically goes “okay yass queen” bc they quoted one single itty bitty line of the damn Waste Land poem.
tl;dr – This is a ramble. Would be hilarious if Henry was doing the equivalent of \*\*reading ancient greek texts\*\* “I DON’T UNDERSTAND A WORD, THIS IS FINE :))))” but i guess we’ll never know. ~~ooh la la, henry gets headaches he must work SO HARD he must be SO SMART~~ Would still 1000% sign up for that class just to third-wheel the group bc they are a mess
by eggtasticfella