The more I read and reread Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist, the more I can see it in discourse with the Dark Academia genre

The tropes of Dark Academia are sufficiently worn out that it's high time for a refresh, maybe a total rethink, and I see what Whitehead does with the Institute of Vertical Transport as one possible way forward. R.F. Kuang, ingenious as she is, has truly wrung the genre of almost of all of its potential in its current form. I get that the setting allows for highly stylized exposition and a commentary on hierarchical institutions, so I don't imagine we'll see an end to the cottage industry of Dark Academia franchise book series anytime soon. But I do hope readers and publishers alike get bored enough with it and shake things up.