Diving into Possession

So I read on Anno’s blog that author Caroline Donahue is running a slow-read of A.S. Byatt’s Possession on her Book (& Craft) Alchemy site. Considering that I had just been musing in morning pages that I wanted to do a deep dive into something more challenging, this felt like the universe offering that up—especially since I found my copy of Possession almost immediately.

I’m trying very hard to ignore the fact that my little Post-it flags are completely uneven.

I’ve already listened to the behind-the-scenes podcast, and I love the fact that Caroline and Simon dubbed Possession the original Dark Academia book. (So the OG of Dark Academia, if you will.)

Also, if you’re a writer, it might be worth subscribing for three months—her site is cozy, informative, and very well organized.

I also love that now that it’s September, it means I can pull out my Dark Academia playlists, which I think will nicely complement Possession.

The ones I currently listen to:

Dark Academia Classical (a Spotify-generated list)

Witch Faerie Academia (instrumental) by BrittanyWarman

Witch Faerie Academia (with lyrics) by BrittanyWarman

To be clear, that’s Dr. BrittanyWarman of the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic. They did a Dark Academia course last year (I think). I didn’t take it since, at the time, I didn’t have the bandwidth. (At the time, I barely had the bandwidth for showering.) So, I’m excited about this new challenge, and with any luck, I can report back in on Sunday that I’ve read my first fifty pages.