Many phenomena we appreciate and depend on today were developed over a very long time period and if they would be invented in our current era, we would probably go very differently about it. And this may even include the current institutes of higher learning. The work conducted here has for literal centuries bettered the human condition, but there are still enhancements implemented worldwide and even more of those are proposed regularly.¹ It is inspiring how the ideals of science and scholarship still motivate so many people to further polish the practice of academic research and knowledge transfer!² And this makes me appreciate the dark academia novel Katabasis – written by Rebecca Kuang, who goes by the pen name R.F. Kuang – not only for its story but also for addressing, albeit in a tragicomical manner, some of the blind spots that academic institutions have overcome and even a few that are arguably not yet satisfactorily addressed.³ So, let me share my enthusiasm for this book with you, as well as for the fascinating esthetic of Dark Academia!

This blog is also available in Dutch.

Academic Magic

 As might be expected from someone who is excited about a book and wants to share his enthusiasm with those who perhaps will go and read it for themselves, I shall not spoil more than I absolutely need to. The novel Katabasis is about two PhD-students in a fictional version of the 1980’s, Alice and Peter, who study an arcane field. And I meant that literally, because they study the practice of magic at Brittain’s Cambridge University. But the prestige and hype around their subject have since long died down and there are not many academics available to those who want to pursue a doctorate; and still less academic jobs for when they finish their thesis. When their rather unsympathetic thesis supervisor dies – one professor Grimes, an unpleasant name for an unpleasant guy – Alice and Peter see no other recourse but to go to hell and try to retrieve him. Unless they want all their dedication to count for nought.⁴

In a clever twist, hell is adapted to their life experience and thus appears as a university campus. In a loose adaptation the medieval poem Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, our determined duo descends through locations like a university library and dormitories.⁵ And they meet victims of neglectful research as well as fellow PhD-students who did not find a future in academia. What’s more, Alice and Peter have the opportunity to come to terms with the shortcomings of the institutions and academics they themselves had to deal with over the years: from sexism and ableism, to having your work stolen by others and being pushed to make ill-advised sacrifices for one’s own – or even other’s! – career.⁶

In short, Katabasis presents the greatest hits of some of the biggest scandals that have come out of academia in the last few decades, a few of which we encountered in my previous blog on scientific integrity.⁷ But because this is a novel and not a write-up, you end up with an emphatic portrait about how such injustices have shaped these young but fictional academics’ scholarly ambitions, their confidence, and their possibilities to conduct the research they think is necessary. It was therefore to the surprise of no-one that Katabasis was embraced when it came out by those who are fans of the esthetic of Dark Academia.

Dark Academia

In a past blog we already talked about the esthetic of Dark Academia. The self-presentation and conduct associated with this subculture puts losing yourself in learning on a pedestal – an ornament which, ironically, fits with very well with the esthetic itself! But the imagery, music, and other media associated with Dark Academia also hint at a more sinister undercurrent. Because such a single-minded pursuit of knowledge can have high personal costs.⁸ And that specific atmosphere can be found in spades when losing yourself in Katabasis for a change!⁹

Furthermore, the way in which the esthetic of Dark Academia is used in the story puts the spotlight on different sides of the potential personal cost of dedicating your life to research. In particular, R.F. Kuang appears to explore in Katabasis how one of the few viable ways to make enough time in your life for proper learning, to obtain the necessary resources, and to acquire the indispensable mentorship of experienced researchers – in short: an academic position – comes with its own costs. Proverbial expenditures which often have not much to do with science and scholarship itself, but concern navigating frustratingly opaque bureaucracies, complicated professional relationships, and grueling personal hardships.¹⁰ In this novel, Dark Academia engenders dark academics who have to reckon with hurt. Both the hurt they experienced and the hurt they – unintentionally or under duress – caused others.

Conclusion

As some of you know – perhaps because there is a Frequently Asked Questions-section on Bildunblocks – in a previous life I used to work in academia, before my body and soul gave out. As such, some of the japes and jokes in Katabasis were very familiar. As were many of the winks and nods to science and scholarship.¹¹[1] But make no mistake, as solid a meditation on Dark Academia and academic life, both in bygone and more recent eras, as this book is, it isn’t a practical roadmap for an ever-better version of the well-known system of academic research and learning that is today most prevalent and recognizable throughout the world. But R.F. Kuang does poignantly remind us that the institutional structures which underpin researching and learning are perhaps as important as the activity itself. As well as that even such a venerable institution like the academy can be changed – and for the better at that!¹²

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Subscribe and never miss a blog!

Submit

 References

1. Nature Editorial Board, “Universities Are — and Must Continue to be — a Force for Good”, Nature 2025, 645 (8082), p. 821. About the intersection between the ideals of science and scholarship, on the one hand, and the adjacent institutions with their current work culture, on the other, see: Jonathan Marks, Why I Am Not A Scientist: Anthropology and Modern Knowledge (Berkely: University of California, 2009).
2. Eda Gunaydin, “The Dark Side of Academia”, Kill Your Darlings 2025, 16 (12), p. 208–215. Late last year in the Netherlands, for example, there was a discussion about the competitive aspects of current academic careers and the unevenness of the adjacent burdens for different PhD-students, which began with reforms in Tilburg, see: Merijn van Nuland, “Universiteit Twente Stopt met Cum Laude”, Trouw November 7^th 2025, Vandaag, p. 1.
3. R.F. Kuang, Katabasis (London: Harper Voyager, 2025).
4. Joya Misra, “Going to Hell”, Contexts 2026, 25 (2), p. 89-90.
5. Jeffrey M. Perkel, “Katabasis – R. F. Kuang”, Nature 2026, 654 (8117), p. 283; Leah Crane, “Cosmic Speed Limit”, New Scientist 2025, 268 (3568), p. 20. For Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy, see: Peter Hainsworth & M. Robey, Dante: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 1-10. Hell in this novel is also likened to T.S. Elliot’s poem The Wasteland, see: Savannah Anno, “Book: ‘Katabasis’ by R.F. Kuang (2025)”, University Wire January 10^th 2025, Campus, p. 1.
6. Lokesh Swami, “Katabasis”, Gramarye 2025, 14 (28), p. 93.
7. Perkel, “Katabasis – R. F. Kuang”, p. 283.
8. Simone Murray, “Dark Academia: Bookishness, Readerly Self-fashioning and the Digital Afterlife of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History” English studies 2023, 104 (2), p. 349-350.
9. Gunaydin, “The Dark Side of Academia”, p. 208-215.
10. David Baldacci, “Dead, Alive and Underrated”, The Sunday Times March 29^th 2026, Culture Features p. 27. R.F. Kuang herself has reflected on Dark Academia outside of her literary work, see: Anushmita Mohanity, “Dark Academia as Internet Genre and as Reading Practice”, Culture as Text 2025, 3 (1), p. 107-127.
11. Melanie Kembrey, “Editor’s Note”, The Sydney Morning Herald August 16^th 2025, Spectrum, p. 3.
12. Gunaydin, “The Dark Side of Academia”, p. 208-209.