L'Académie

by R.C. Waldun

A recent breakthrough in neuro-programming allows students to learn anything simply by wearing a headset for a few hours a day. This new technology gives rise to L'Académie, a district dedicated to educating the citizens. Eddington is just like any other student, going through the motions to graduate beyond The Wall. But soon, an encounter with a stranger and reoccurring dreams rupture his stable perception of The Regime.

Genres: Fiction

298 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 2021

Reviews

[F. Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

R.C. Waldun is the champion of Dark Academia, and has written his latest opus. L'Académie. I Re-read my dog-eared copy of The Learned Disguise in anticipation of this modern masterpiece. Not only will this man revive the Beatnik generation, he will reshape the face of literature, forevermore. Should you check out L'Académie? Yes. A thousand times, yes. R.C. Waldun, Sir, you have done it again.

[Qw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot sneed this book. It deserves a place on the bookshelf between Shakespeare and Call of the Crocodile.

[Haniel Barazarte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A decade from now academics will still be debating who got it right: Orwell or Huxley. Waldunchads will sit in the back of the lecture halls with a slight smirk on their face. They're still debating this...even after all these years? Heh. They'll get up and move slowly to the door.

As a cool wind blows through the campus they'll put their earbuds in and adjust their collar. Slyly, they'll drop a copy of L'Academie onto the ground. It's not rubbish--but it will surely be picked up...eventually.

L'Academie was truly a wonderful textual journey that almost transcends any form of analysis. Though, with a sad heart, I am almost sure it will be looked over by today's Idiotocracy I'm just as sure it will be nudgeing it's place among the other literary classics very soon. I can't wait for the inevitable film adaptation as well. Surely one of the modern greats (J.J Abrams, Kevin Feige etc) will be at the directing helm; at least I hope so. I also hope they keep true to the books more darker scenes as everyone of them is integral to it's dystopian narrative. Waldon's descriptions of massive mile long complexes full of white kids being forced to watch sissy hypnosis videos on YouTube while in isolated cubicles was one of the most harrowing things I've read in a long while

[Buckakles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book as a dare: my friends dared me not to read it and I chickened out.

[Casey Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to give this book a low rating since I know Waldun personally and I really admire how driven he is in his videos and in his writing, it’s a great achievement to put out a book at any age let alone at his age. However, I had to be honest and this book needed a lot more work to bring out it’s potential. I enjoyed the interactions between Eddington and the other characters, especially Amelia and Ada. I think the premise is quite a good one I just feel Waldun needed to take more time developing the plot and filling in as to how and why the world ended up this way. There were parts that didn’t make complete sense to me, and the ending felt unclear as well. There were also editing mistakes throughout, and I really don’t understand why they weren’t cleaned up in the editing process. But overall, this is early in Waldun’s writing days, and I do look forward to seeing him progress as a writer :).

[SWG · Rating 1 out of 5]

An example of how bad a book can be despite the authors background in literature. The pacing was terrible, the prose didn't flow, the characters were bland and the story was a copy of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. Read it for the lit memes only or if you want to torcher yourself.

[Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Waldun, sir, your proses... they flow! The pure orthodoxies drip from your pages as if he were carrying a box of hotdogs down a street and bumped into a stray dog.

To anyone who questions this fine novel by pointing out so called "typos" or "plot holes" I have only this to say:

Fellow Waldun Scholar and devoted follower of the Melbourne Movement--let me explain. Such points are nonimportant within the corpus of Waldun's writing. While a well-read individual, which I'm sure you are given your taste has lead you to our man, will easily point out such discrepancies as plot holes or lazy writing, it should be firmly pointed out that such are actually part of Waldun's meta-dream logic prose. I know it's difficult, given how deeply immersive Waldun's prose always is, but we must remember where we are--we're in Waldun's world!

Oh, we have but a window through which to look upon this man. Men like ourselves must always remain on the periphery as our mundane and normal lives fail to provide us with the keen discerning eye that belongs to our man. Waldun knows this and he'll use meta-fictional devices to remind us that we are in fact reading a book...he must keep us grounded.

We shall name this device THE EDDINGTON WINDOW.

[Mario · Rating 1 out of 5]

Keep the money, give me my time back.

[Dana Kanafina · Rating 2 out of 5]

You don't need to think too hard about the premise of the book to see how it falls apart straight off the bat. The entire society in this dystopian future is based on the knowledge that gets transferred to them through the earbuds and screens - yet they aren't allowed to read books. Why is it, exactly? I understand that this work is an extended metaphor to the education system, particularly the school system (we are taught what the government or the "society" wants us to know, nothing else) but as an actual governmental regime, this system makes no sense. Think about the slaves in the American past, or the intelligentsia among the racial minorities in the USSR, especially during the Stalinist period, or even women throughout most of the history -- the reason why these groups of people weren't allowed to read or write (and weren't taught that in most cases too) is specifically because the governments at the time wanted to gatekeep education from those they deemed unworthy of it. in L'Academie this doesn't work because everyone is very much allowed to access knowledge - just not books. It is a gaping plothole, if you ask me.

[Smartie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the scathing reviews I saw on this book online I tried to approach it with an open mind and honestly, I don't believe that it deserves the hate.
Don't get me wrong, it has plenty of problems nonetheless.
The story feels very much like a patchwork of every popular dystopian trope in the book without really adding anything new or exciting to it, which just left me thinking "I've read this before, but better" all throughout. The characters (especially the female ones) are about as bland and uninteresting as they come. The dialogue can feel extremely stilted and unnatural at times and finally the plot-twists (for example regarding Archer's identity) are so predictable that you can see them coming about one fourth into the book.
Something positive I will add though, is that I found the prose to be quite good at times, setting a mood and backdrop to the story that could draw me in. Sadly that's about the only real praise I can give.

All in all, I was entertained by L'Académie well enough for a couple of hours as I read it, but as a "critique of the education system" this falls completely flat, leaving behind no relevant impact on my life or way of thinking.

[sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This modern dystopian work is concidered as post beatnik literature and as a reader I could feel the same spirit that has been over the works of Ginsberg and countless other writers.

I have read the critical reviews; from people accusing Waldun of being talentless to people who feel this work is an unimaginative parody of Orwell's 1984. I can only disagree with this as Waldun is everything but talentless.

Eddington's character development is remarkable in how he admires Archer and how he himself motives to Archer. His world-building is picturesque and immerses the reader in a world peppered with books, cafés and libraries.

What this work lacks, quite simply, is time.
Time, one might think now; how is time supposed to form words, sentences, worlds?
This book was clearly published as a rough draft. The rough draft always lacks expansion, detail and courage. It is tragic because this book has so much untapped potential. Anything that is good takes time.

Incidentally, I understand why people compare this book to Orwell's 1984, however, here and there you will also find lines that are clearly reminiscent of Salinger's Catcher in the rye and the unloved teenager Holden Caulfield who feels misunderstood in a world that is spinning far too fast.

In conclusion, I can say that this is a successful debut novel and with a little time, the next one can only be better. I, for one, will mourn Eddington for a little while longer and will soon be on to the next adventure.

[Wilmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ett värdigt försök av RC Waldun att skapa nästa 1984, men detta funkar bara helt enkelt inte. För det första är det den minst nyskapande dystopiska romanen någonsin; En ledning som heter ”The Regime” och som konstant övervakar folk genom vakter och skärmar, på riktigt? Han skulle lika gärna kunna ha med en karaktär som hette Storebror. Skildringarna av världen är rätt tråkiga och onyanserade, typ ”The buildings were grey and lifeless and everyone wore the same grey blazer and had the same empty expression”… o.s.v. Jag fattar poängen, det är en dystopi, men man kan väl göra det lite mer intressant. Budskapet här är tydligt, böcker=bra och jag håller ju med men jag tycker väl inte att han lyckas med sin kritik av utbildningssystemet helt enkelt. Med det sagt hoppas jag på en ny roman av Waldun snart som förhoppningsvis är bättre!

2/10

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'Académie has a decent story to it and a nice roster of characters. You follow Eddington as he makes his way from page to page, one hand tremble at a time, and you get to see how his story unfolds. The story is pleasant to read, however. The aesthetic of the world that Eddington lives in is visually pleasing and a lot of interactions happen in a quaint little coffee shop.

The only real downside is that too many big reveals are hinted at too heavily before they're actually revealed and it takes away from the impact. Also, Joe falls to a similar curse as Joseph from Wuthering Heights in the sense that his dialogue is annoying to read.

Fun read. Pleasant story. Not bad/10

[Cody Dominick · Rating 1 out of 5]

The plot of the book was somewhat remiscient of the 2016 Logan Paul YouTube movie "The Thinning" along with a total butchering of the plot of 1984. His characters are undeveloped and unlikeable, the audience has no reason to feel invested in their struggles. The plot is contrived and messily played out with several glaring plot holes. The text was full of grammar mistakes.

[Little Prince · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was quite slow at first and the storyline was kind of predictable but there was a few great lines in there

[Bilal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A somewhat more comprehensible and an easier version to read of 1984 and Brave New World.