How could I have watched your content for the last few months and completely missed the video where you break down the one series that has kept me alive for the last year and a half.
I think regular Night Vale citizens are arguably absurdist, but Cecil himself I see as a definitive Nihilist. Cecil never struggles with the idea of meaninglessness, nor does he contemplate suicide. On the contrary, life is inherently and vibrantly meaningful to him, even (or maybe especially) when it means living with the omnipresent threat of death. Cecil is VERY OFTEN responsible for rallying the townspeople against collective threats like, ahem, a SMILING GOD, to name just one instance. He is an archetypal ubermensch in that, rather than hoarding power for its own sake like many folks in town, he tries to empower his listeners. While this is occasional done for personal gain (like encouraging revenge against the loathsome barber), Cecil genuinely sees himself as looking out for the public good and even his selfish actions are mistaken manifestations of this desire. Night Vale has no inherent morality to it, but Cecil actually gives it one of his own creation: Love is worth fighting for, Mountains are to be regarded with suspicion, and living in Night Vale means living with risk, and Cecil embraces that. I do not see him as embracing meaninglessness, but a meaning of his own creation. That creation has resonated with his (both real and fictional) audience and this is perhaps the most interesting thing about the show: the moral creations of a fictional Nihilist seem to be as or even more impactful than what passes for 'revolutionary' thinking in the real world.
+Marcus Mattern You mean Existentialist... Nihilism is even farther than Absurdism on the harsh reality scale... Existentialism is you create your own meaning and purpose. Hell you even used a Nietzschean term Ubermensch, who was an Existentialist philosopher.
Also relevant is Lovecraft's idea of cosmicism: "the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality that is so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person."
It also goes after gentrification with Strex Corps and The Smiling God. Strex Corps is all about being happy and productive all the time. It wants to get rid of anything it sees as negative so everyone will always be happy. But you can't live like that and it really is just a lie corporations tell us too make us good little consumers. We need to be sad, scared, angry, and even bored. Not everything can be perfect and that is perfect in and of itself.
I've always thought of Night Vale as being more existentialist, but you make an interesting points. The great thing about this podcast is that it's so open to the listener's interpretation. It asks us to create our own meaning from absurdity.
I came to realize that notion of what Camus said nearly eight months ago way before I ever heard or him or his views on life. I came to that realization of my own existence and have accepted the pointlessness of it all and yet am now free to make my life my own with purpose which then makes me happy. I'm glad I realized such a 'reality' because I was tempted to end my life again for a third time. Every time I realize such a break through, soul of me has breathed new life into me and I can then move forward. I'm glad I'm not the only one who had such awakens, even if to me I'm many years later on that fact. It's a good thing.
I watched this video in hopes of procrastinating my final paper on absurdism (more specifically the Theatre of the Absurd). Thanks for giving me a fresh take on a topic I've frankly grown bored with! And also opening my eyes on the reasoning behind why I love Night Vale! (A love I've accepted, but never really understood)
It is truly beautiful to sit here and reflect on the evolution of all things. Your channel, this philosophy, your self, and the landscape of podcasts, youtube, and absurdist creation. Thank you for all of your contribution over the years, and the many that are sure to come. All Hail The Glow Cloud. All Hail.
SHE LOOKS SO YOUNG HERE, OH MY GOD! I don't think I've ever seen her hair so short and before her transition, I don't think I'd ever seen her without facial hair. I didn't know she did a video essay on Welcome to Night Vale. It's just currently my hyperfixation. I think of Welcome to Night Vale as a subversion or inversion or reversion....some kinda version...of HP Lovecraft. The world is weird and the Universe is harsh, cruel, unfeeling, and scary. It's not a coincidence that Cecil is Jewish and both he and Carlos are gay. Being afraid for us IS normal. While Lovecraft is a white, upperclass, cisgender, heterosexual American male who finds anything vaguely ethnic, dirty, or just unknown to his small bubble as evil and terrifying and overwhelming, the oppressed peoples of the world (queer, non-white, non-Christian, working class, handicapped, etc.), fear of the unknown CAN'T debilitate you or you will not survive. And what have Jews and Queers done to our fears since the beginning of history so they don't overwhelm us? We laugh at them. They are normal. We are used to them. Yes, they're scary, but they're also funny. To paraphrase Golde Meyer, Pessimism is a luxury no member of any minority can afford. Happy Christmas, Abigail! Love you! Hope you're well!
The 'calm in the chaos' of nightvale kept me going when I felt everything was pointless... I felt like everything was falling apart in my life, I was on the brink of disaster constantly. I wasn't very political and I felt like the life I was living just... couldn't be helped. Then I found nightvale. I realised, in all the chaos, even on the brink of disaster, there is love, community, identity, acceptance - resistance. I give nightvale full credit for my radicalisation, because without realising I was not happy and more importantly I was _not stagnant_ I may have never woken up to the oppression I live under, the systems that enforce that oppression and the ways we can begin to tear those systems the f*ck down!!!
Your videos are so good. I love how they go a little more in depth and that they're a little bit longer then other educational channels. I think that if we could think about our lives and fully realise the insignificance of it all then perhaps suicide would be our only reaction. As it is, a lot of people don't even realise the insignificance of their own country on a global scale let alone universal. We have trouble comprehend large numbers completely and geographical time is incomprehensibly slow. We aren't equipped to grasp the world beyond our own lives. Cecile and the residents of Nightvale are living in ignorant bliss rather than a calm acceptance.
The most epic irony of all is that while he believed his life to hold no meaning we're still talking about him and will still be talking about him for a time to come one would imagine. Just because something fades doesn't mean it was devoid of meaning. Just because I will one day die and turn to dust does not imply that my actions have no effect and are meaningless. Fleeting as our consequence might be it is not meaningless, only brief. If I killed myself right this second my life would end, but that act has consequences of it's own. Someone would find my body, the people who care about me would be sad (I hope, anyway) I would no longer be around to affect any kind of change no matter how small. Dying is meaningless, your life has consequence. Dying is a cessation of meaning, the only way your life can mean anything is to continue.
Missed half the video because I was so struck by how much Olly, without his facial hair and glasses and 6 years younger, looks and sounds like Dan Howell. LMAO. This was a very cool video though! My favorite part about Night Vale is that everyone just accepts that you can't talk about the weather without music suddenly starting to play, and they're just like, "aw man, now we have to wait 3 minutes to talk again." They purposely don't ask the questions we would ask, like "Where is that music coming from?" and instead ask the questions nobody else would ask in that situation, like, "I wonder if a giant vortex is going to open up on the highway tonight, making me late for my dentist appointment."
Which _begs_ the question :P to what extent do the works of Lovecraft, by which Night Vale is strongly inspired, embody absurdism? The key distinction seems to be that unlike Cecil, many of Lovecraft's characters can't reconcile with their absurd, alien existence, and go insane. Intriguingly, most of Lovecraft's writings predate both Camus' and WWII; he was also American instead of European. It makes one wonder if their was something more fundamentally universal than WWII which caused both writers to develop similar world views, or if Lovecraft was exceptionally prescient. Or, I could be entirely of base--would love to hear from some actual Lovecraft scholars.
Sometimes, I cry when I watch documentaries about space, or see space walk videos from astronauts, or pictures from flybys of Saturn. Something about how awesome (in the traditional definition of awe-inspiring, but also, like, totally awesome) and momentous outer space is just makes me cry. It's a little embarrassing. I haven't even watched this fucking video yet, and somehow randomly stumbling upon my favourite podcast being covered by one of my favourite TH-camrs through my sidebar of all things has me tearing up. Good lord... how is this happening, and how have I not seen it until now?? What?
It was a few years ago when I was but a young sixteen year old dutch lad in high school having biology class. The teacher lectured us on cells and it's structures. Later that day I had chemistry. I had a discussion with the professor about the cells and how the chemical process worked. Then it slowly dawned onto me that every single cell, every single protein, every single... thing in my body was made of....atoms. Inanimate things, which combined had the awesome power to create and sustain itself, think and communicate and reproduce. From that moment on the idea that there would be a god seemed impossible to me. This due to the fact that we think because we have a brain, which is made up of atoms. If i picture god, the only thing i can imagine getting remotely close to it is a giant brain floating around in space...which doesn't make that much sense. I completely agree that there is no point to living. What I've come to realise is that the only thing we really can do is just have fun, live a happy life, don't harm others and all that kind of stuff. In the end it is really just pushing a boulder up a mountain over and over again. But accompanied with good music and even better friends, it's not that bad right?
Love this. Not sure how I missed this video, but glad I found it. Two things: 1: Your shirt is fantastic. 2: If I were to say "I kind of agree with Absurdist philosophy," would people hear that as "I kind of agree with Nazism"? Or is that connection usually not drawn by people who at least have heard of "Embracing the Absurd." I'm guessing people are probably going to give me that usual blank look I get when I open my mouth and astrophysics accidentally drops out.
I'm sad just hearing that! I know there's some mad psychology connected with Majora's Mask. Would be so cool if there was some awesome video game philosophy too.
wtf! was lookin for some nice VTNV videos and.. "phylosophy tube"? did she make a video on VTNV!?" but its so far back so i didnt recognize Abi (yes yes. i know). and format and atmosphere. so different anyways. hap[y i found it)
i had never heard of night vale until just now, though thanks to your show i think i'm going to have to check it out. it sounds pretty cool. also i like the absurdism philosophy i have always thought along the same line i just didn't know a philosophy so close to what i was thinking was already named.
That moment when you find something you thought was your special way of thinking written down by someone else - that's one of the most fabulous moments in literature and philosophy.
Am I crazy for trying to make sense of any of it? I mean, for example, how Death must be earned, yet there's so much of it going on. From PTA meetings to Valentine's Day and the countless (but not nameless or faceless) expendable interns, and so forth. ...I bet Halloweens there must be fun, though.
welcome to night vale just came out with an audio book and I can't wait to listen to it. now I don't where to stand exactly when it comes to absurdism but I'm probably going to be constantly thinking about it while I listen to the night vale.
Awesome, I've just begone my biggest assignment of the year and chose for it to be about Night Vale. I haven't seen the video yet, but maybe you just made me another source for the assignment.
It was only a few days ago that I learnt that Albert Camus was pronounced as Albert "Kam-oo", not "Camus". I've always wondered who this famous continental philosopher who wrote "the stranger" was. Turns out I had read the myth of sisyphus long ago. Like many words I read, I never actually said them out loud.
When I first saw this I though you were going to talk about how the people of Night Vale accepted all the supernatural phenomenon as normal-even though to us, and Carlos, they are very un-normal- and relate it to how perhaps the supernatural things that happen in our reality may be normal to someone else. SO "normal-ness" is a matter of reference and perception. I haven't seen the rest of your Night Vale video's so I may be "jumping the gun"? Although I really do like what you touched upon in this episode!
Yeah, that's about it. I guess. I remember seeing a short play at Ingenuity Fest about the myth of Whats-his-face. It was actually really good, and almost set the stage for my life. "Go, roll your boulder. But there's work to be done. And that work must be done." (I was kinda young, so that's probably not exactly what was said, but close enough?)
Thinking about it, isn't absurdism a very relevant philosophy when you are trying to understand that you are transgender? Every day struggling with a desire or a feeling you know is impossible, is being in the closet not a Sisyphean struggle between your true self and the mask you present to the world? Learning to accept the impossible, accept that you are transgender is often seen as the first moment where *true* happiness starts to seem like a possibility, just as Camus suggests? I wonder if that crossed Abigails' mind as she wrote this episode, or if is one of those things that you only see in hindsight?
I think that I kind of arrived at what Cecil said on my own. It's been a few years that I concluded "life has no meaning and I really don't care, I'm happy with my life anyway".
I kind of like this Camus-chap. And one has to appreciate the comedy style of punishment of the Greek gods. Sisyphos, Tantalus, Marsyas, Narcissus, Acteaon, Atlas, horrible yet it also always felt like a good joke.....okay Prometheus, that was just cruel. Let's just accept the Fates and have a bit of Apollo/Dionysos/Athena and Aphrodite in the meantime. There are worse ways to watch the sands of time run out. mmm, that should have been something about the length of a thread....my bad, ladies.
The Sheriff's Secret Police is here to take you on a long drive through the desert scrublands for re-education and possible execution. Just kidding. This is a great video. Absurdism was exactly what I thought while listening to Cecil talk about existence and how insignificant and lonely we are. Love your use of the Night Vale background music, and all in all I love Philosophy and Absurdism, so thanks again for this video.
My question: Isn't Camus' argument self-defeating, because to a person who had accepted the absurd and decided to live his life anyway have given his life meaning, even if that meaning was simply to embrace the absurd?
It isn't self defeating to me because there are two realities being addressed: the reality that the human organism is there to reproduce, and the reality that we all don't need to reproduce, just some of us, and this realization leaves us free to do as we wish. There's nothing absurd about any of it.
ok, so, first of all, I loved the Kramer scene because... well, Kramer. secondly, regarding suicide and meaningless life (and excuse me if you've talked about this in another video but after subscribing about two years ago and rarely viewing the videos, I'm watching them in order from the very first one until I reach the last ypu've put up), I agree with what Orochimaru said in a very summarised and simplified way to Kimimaro when he first met him (and yes, this is a Naruto reference): "Maybe, just maybe, there is no purpose in life. But if you linger a while longer in this world, you might discover something of value in it"
Needs a revisit in this crazy modern day. I personally believe it unintentionally represents Americans willingness to be abused in a capitalist world but because it's told from the perspective of someone generally passive it funnily mirrors our complicity really well. It's a town where every conspiracy theory is true.
I view the world somewhat like Camus does, however my problem rises not from the fundamental contradiction between our desire to find the meaning in the universe and the universe itself which is meaningless, but from the contradiction between the universe being meaningless and the society not knowing nor caring about it. That makes it really difficult for me to see myself as a part of the society and not someone, who is very different from the society, but tries to pretend that he is a part of it.
I have a bit of knowledge about Camus Albert's theory on absurdism. And I recollected the mentioning of a third solution other than suicide and acceptance: religious belief. Maybe the appearance of "The Glow Cloud", "The Brown Stone Spire", "Blood Stones", ... is associated with this.
I believe this kind of reading can be taken into any conceptual world within literature. The problem arises when we purposely create these alien environments, beyond the physically measurable. We lose sight of Camus' original intentions regarding his philosophy by manifesting the connotative 'absurd' rather than the philosophical 'absurd'. The Absurdity of life is all around us and is imbued in everything conceivably physical and metaphysical. Why we need to represent this symbolically through 'robed, hooded figures' and 'the glow cloud' makes it all the more obvious the Camus' was absolutely avant-garde in his thoughts. Because, even now, people still have difficulty coming to terms with his philosophy without it being heaped down their throats by Pseudo-Absurdist texts such as WTNV or Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy... I love WTNV as a surrealist text but it isn't a good example of an Absurdist text. Absurdity is in Camus' work and Dostoevsky's fiction. In my opinion however, if one were to look at Absurdism in play, history is the best place to search for it. My main problem with Absurdism is its totality and universality. As well as this it is strangely Eastern in its treatment of the absurd. Emphasis is placed on the individual to scope whether or not they have transcended the shackles of Absurdity and now choose to live with it. There are ghosts of Samsara and Nirvana in Absurdism and the question therein does not become 'How do I break free of the Absurd?' it becomes 'How do I know when I have broken free of the Absurd?' How do you know? You don't know. You risk denial by committing yourself to the belief you have broken the absurd and risk meaninglessness by subjecting yourself to the layer of nihilism prior to the full realisation of the Absurd. Camus' philosophy is also messianic in a sense. Coincidentally, Camus happens to transcend Absurdism by subjecting himself to the consequence of suicide if he does not find a meaning to exist- and he does! In everything he loves. In soccer, in the beach. The Myth of Sisyphus is a self help book if ever I saw one. It is a nice ideology, but qualifies- barely- as philosophy in the lowest sense. It is strikingly obvious though that this ethereal absurdity inhabits everything in the universe. Perhaps its the simplicity of this philosophy that frustrates me, which means I am still a prisoner of absurdity. The only convoluted aspect of this ideology is its paradoxical nature, to me...
If the Paris commune still existed as of today I would proudly support it, it's one of the few examples of a government that was a dictatorship of the proletariat.
This video lead me to reading into Camus and absurdism quite a bit. I have one issue with it and I can't seem to find an answer. Help would be greatly appreciated: How does an absurdist make choices? Given many options, how does an absurdist choose one when they value none of them? what makes one choice better than another? To relate it to the myth of sisyphus, why would sisyphus simply NOT push the rock, or just NOT walk back down the hill again if he doesn't value any actions or outcomes? How can an aburdist decide whether or not to pursue a career, which career to pursue, what kind of partner they want, what food they eat, and most importantly, why not to commit suicide if all outcomes and actions are equally meaningless?
i know this is well behind; but absurdism is in enbracing the inherent contradiction in universal meaningless. so, unlike the Golden Mean or Nihlist thinking... any choice you make is absurd. You are going to die, so live fully and freely as possible. there are NO rules. Just live and experience the moment. Camus would agree that any living for the future is inherently flawed. and living in the past doesn't help because that's all fake too. I like to think (and this is just my own ill advised philosphy) that every moment is unique and seperate from meaning. there is no narrative other than what we give it... so you can either give your life it's own meaning... which is only yours (keep that in mind, you decisions are no better than anybody others) or you can live meaninglessly and enjoy lifes singularity. remember, consequence is a human construction, and Jesper is a naive idiot.
+Thomas Blackman-Bishop but if I give my life a meaning then that is not exactly "absurdism" that is "existentialism". and for an existentialist choices are not difficult, you make your very own meaning so you are free to choose anything that suits your need. On the other hand if you are an absurdist, all of the options are similar to you, they are all equally vague and pointless, though you are embracing the absurd but what exactly do you do after that? go on making those choices that well suit your needs? but isn't that been existentialist. to me existentialism & absurdism are pretty much the same. your accepting the absurd or giving your very own meaning to the world doesn't quite change the choices that you will make.
Your comment of "no other existentialist" confuses me: I have troubles differentiating Camus' absurdism and Nietzsche's Oepremensch: Accepting the absurd as Sisyphus is very similar to Nietzsche's Oepremensch: Living life for the moment absurdly. Nietzsche did give the Eternal Recurance which possibly gives meaning to the absurd but no more than your own sense of values. I liked this video. EDIT: After watching your lecture (really nice bt the way) I'd still like to see a compare/ contrast between Camus and Nietzsche.
If to begin to live with the tiring and difficult task of life/pushing a boulder is the beginning of being happy with it, does this necessarily entail that to love life/pushing a boulder that one must be a masochist?
I don't think so. Masochism involves being subject to pain willingly; as it's willing, you can literally start it and stop it as the mood takes you and the situation allows. The default setting is not feeling pain, as you can start it. 'Life', meanwhile, will carry on whether you want it to or not - it started without your word, and will carry on without your word. So, the difference is that while being without pain is the default setting for masochists until they have it inflicted with consent, being in a living state is the default setting for all living things, with or without consent. Therefore, loving life and masochism are not the same states nor comparable ones.
I realized something while watching this. What do people mean by 'meaning'? Do they mean a purpose? You may respond to this by saying that we may find our own meaning. The problem with that is that I am not asking what the meaning of life is. I am asking what is meant when saying 'meaning'. The definition of it. The meaning of life is a vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyy vague idea. It is at a point where it has not meaning.
+benboy25 l I think the best definition of meaning would be inherent value or perhaps a goal in life. It's a very interesting thing you choose to point out. I guess it's never philosophically specified because it's almost an emotional platitude or axiom. It is extremely important to note that meaning is almost a logical singularity, all laws of classical logic break down here.
it only counts if your an atheist. the meaning of life doesn't existed with out recordation or a haven or a hell or something of that kind in which falsify has no point when you dount believ in a sole of same kind. a self awere ness of it all your justs ansering qestions to pass the time.
***** so dowt of there being a god or being onser means life has no meaning but just becos you have downt doesant mean your life doesant have a meaning it only means the alterative of the ambens of a ayaty exits in your mind how does on sertenty take away from tying to surve the god of anny pertikuler religion and sur if you whant to say that Atheists have a meaning of life go right a haed but I was making a coment on the videyo its self saying that if we agree with the point made in the videyo than Atheists do not have a peros thus. "it only counts for Atheists" meaning that the falsify doesent bar an efecked on anny one with a beleiv in a god. a and I try to be as openminded as posiball but not everything that pops in to my mined is truth it requers thot to determin ones believfs/ and think you for not curreting the grammer I have a few problems in my head that make it vary vary hard to spell.
This is maybe the only major episode where I feel Oli is off. Nightvale is like an idiots idea of surrealism paired with the 'random' humour of Douglas Addams. It really speaks down to an audience, if Nightvale had even half of what Oli sees in it, it would be fine but it doesn't this is a great example of a fan making something better than it is.
Any time Sisiphys is mentioned, it reminds me of a clip from the Dilbert animated TV series… Dilbert; why don’t we call (the project name) Sisyphus, that fits this project… Pointy Haired Boss; I like it! It has a sense of playfulness… D; it’s SUPPOSED to have a sense of futility!! PHB; you have to think of it from the *rock’s* point of view…
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How could I have watched your content for the last few months and completely missed the video where you break down the one series that has kept me alive for the last year and a half.
Same ...
I think regular Night Vale citizens are arguably absurdist, but Cecil himself I see as a definitive Nihilist. Cecil never struggles with the idea of meaninglessness, nor does he contemplate suicide. On the contrary, life is inherently and vibrantly meaningful to him, even (or maybe especially) when it means living with the omnipresent threat of death.
Cecil is VERY OFTEN responsible for rallying the townspeople against collective threats like, ahem, a SMILING GOD, to name just one instance. He is an archetypal ubermensch in that, rather than hoarding power for its own sake like many folks in town, he tries to empower his listeners. While this is occasional done for personal gain (like encouraging revenge against the loathsome barber), Cecil genuinely sees himself as looking out for the public good and even his selfish actions are mistaken manifestations of this desire.
Night Vale has no inherent morality to it, but Cecil actually gives it one of his own creation: Love is worth fighting for, Mountains are to be regarded with suspicion, and living in Night Vale means living with risk, and Cecil embraces that.
I do not see him as embracing meaninglessness, but a meaning of his own creation. That creation has resonated with his (both real and fictional) audience and this is perhaps the most interesting thing about the show: the moral creations of a fictional Nihilist seem to be as or even more impactful than what passes for 'revolutionary' thinking in the real world.
+Marcus Mattern You mean Existentialist... Nihilism is even farther than Absurdism on the harsh reality scale... Existentialism is you create your own meaning and purpose. Hell you even used a Nietzschean term Ubermensch, who was an Existentialist philosopher.
This is beautiful & I'm going to cling to it like a fkn life raft.
Also relevant is Lovecraft's idea of cosmicism: "the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality that is so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person."
Did he just... Just explain... Night Vale? How- wHAT
Oh no not EXPLANATIONS
Uh oh, if nightvale is explained, it will cease to exist
I'm 7 years late...but I finally made it here. ❤
same.
And I'm 8 years late
It also goes after gentrification with Strex Corps and The Smiling God. Strex Corps is all about being happy and productive all the time. It wants to get rid of anything it sees as negative so everyone will always be happy. But you can't live like that and it really is just a lie corporations tell us too make us good little consumers. We need to be sad, scared, angry, and even bored. Not everything can be perfect and that is perfect in and of itself.
How did I just find this? This is two of my favourite things!
I've always thought of Night Vale as being more existentialist, but you make an interesting points. The great thing about this podcast is that it's so open to the listener's interpretation. It asks us to create our own meaning from absurdity.
Try listening to Indian Noir's Cosmic horror episodes and see if you can find similarities
I came to realize that notion of what Camus said nearly eight months ago way before I ever heard or him or his views on life. I came to that realization of my own existence and have accepted the pointlessness of it all and yet am now free to make my life my own with purpose which then makes me happy. I'm glad I realized such a 'reality' because I was tempted to end my life again for a third time. Every time I realize such a break through, soul of me has breathed new life into me and I can then move forward. I'm glad I'm not the only one who had such awakens, even if to me I'm many years later on that fact. It's a good thing.
Holy shit I had no idea she was a wtnv fan! She even put a third eye on the sunglasses! I want her to be canonically part of it somewhere :0
I watched this video in hopes of procrastinating my final paper on absurdism (more specifically the Theatre of the Absurd). Thanks for giving me a fresh take on a topic I've frankly grown bored with! And also opening my eyes on the reasoning behind why I love Night Vale! (A love I've accepted, but never really understood)
As Douglas Adams might say:
"Don't Panic".
It is truly beautiful to sit here and reflect on the evolution of all things. Your channel, this philosophy, your self, and the landscape of podcasts, youtube, and absurdist creation. Thank you for all of your contribution over the years, and the many that are sure to come. All Hail The Glow Cloud. All Hail.
SHE LOOKS SO YOUNG HERE, OH MY GOD! I don't think I've ever seen her hair so short and before her transition, I don't think I'd ever seen her without facial hair.
I didn't know she did a video essay on Welcome to Night Vale. It's just currently my hyperfixation.
I think of Welcome to Night Vale as a subversion or inversion or reversion....some kinda version...of HP Lovecraft. The world is weird and the Universe is harsh, cruel, unfeeling, and scary. It's not a coincidence that Cecil is Jewish and both he and Carlos are gay. Being afraid for us IS normal. While Lovecraft is a white, upperclass, cisgender, heterosexual American male who finds anything vaguely ethnic, dirty, or just unknown to his small bubble as evil and terrifying and overwhelming, the oppressed peoples of the world (queer, non-white, non-Christian, working class, handicapped, etc.), fear of the unknown CAN'T debilitate you or you will not survive. And what have Jews and Queers done to our fears since the beginning of history so they don't overwhelm us? We laugh at them. They are normal. We are used to them. Yes, they're scary, but they're also funny. To paraphrase Golde Meyer, Pessimism is a luxury no member of any minority can afford.
Happy Christmas, Abigail! Love you! Hope you're well!
Haven't started Night Vale, but I'm going to have to now thanks for the recommendation
The 'calm in the chaos' of nightvale kept me going when I felt everything was pointless... I felt like everything was falling apart in my life, I was on the brink of disaster constantly. I wasn't very political and I felt like the life I was living just... couldn't be helped. Then I found nightvale. I realised, in all the chaos, even on the brink of disaster, there is love, community, identity, acceptance - resistance. I give nightvale full credit for my radicalisation, because without realising I was not happy and more importantly I was _not stagnant_ I may have never woken up to the oppression I live under, the systems that enforce that oppression and the ways we can begin to tear those systems the f*ck down!!!
I like your Majora's Mask t-shirt. There is some similarity in atmosphere between Majora's Mask and Welcome to Night Vale.
HOLY SHIT HE'S BABY HERE
actual baby
Two videos connecting shows i like with one of my favorite philosophers...i like this channel.
+Kevin Torres Welcome to the little community!
Your videos are so good. I love how they go a little more in depth and that they're a little bit longer then other educational channels.
I think that if we could think about our lives and fully realise the insignificance of it all then perhaps suicide would be our only reaction. As it is, a lot of people don't even realise the insignificance of their own country on a global scale let alone universal. We have trouble comprehend large numbers completely and geographical time is incomprehensibly slow. We aren't equipped to grasp the world beyond our own lives. Cecile and the residents of Nightvale are living in ignorant bliss rather than a calm acceptance.
this video made me read Camus books. The stranger is my favorite book now :o
All Hail GLOW CLOUDS
All hail!
The most epic irony of all is that while he believed his life to hold no meaning we're still talking about him and will still be talking about him for a time to come one would imagine. Just because something fades doesn't mean it was devoid of meaning. Just because I will one day die and turn to dust does not imply that my actions have no effect and are meaningless. Fleeting as our consequence might be it is not meaningless, only brief. If I killed myself right this second my life would end, but that act has consequences of it's own. Someone would find my body, the people who care about me would be sad (I hope, anyway) I would no longer be around to affect any kind of change no matter how small. Dying is meaningless, your life has consequence. Dying is a cessation of meaning, the only way your life can mean anything is to continue.
Hi 2014 Mister Tube, didn't know you made a video about night vale
Missed half the video because I was so struck by how much Olly, without his facial hair and glasses and 6 years younger, looks and sounds like Dan Howell. LMAO. This was a very cool video though! My favorite part about Night Vale is that everyone just accepts that you can't talk about the weather without music suddenly starting to play, and they're just like, "aw man, now we have to wait 3 minutes to talk again." They purposely don't ask the questions we would ask, like "Where is that music coming from?" and instead ask the questions nobody else would ask in that situation, like, "I wonder if a giant vortex is going to open up on the highway tonight, making me late for my dentist appointment."
This video actually sounds like a WTNV episode. :D
Oh my god the third eye sunglass yES
Just found this channel, and I love it!
Glad to have you!
Which _begs_ the question :P
to what extent do the works of Lovecraft, by which Night Vale is strongly inspired, embody absurdism? The key distinction seems to be that unlike Cecil, many of Lovecraft's characters can't reconcile with their absurd, alien existence, and go insane.
Intriguingly, most of Lovecraft's writings predate both Camus' and WWII; he was also American instead of European. It makes one wonder if their was something more fundamentally universal than WWII which caused both writers to develop similar world views, or if Lovecraft was exceptionally prescient. Or, I could be entirely of base--would love to hear from some actual Lovecraft scholars.
Sometimes, I cry when I watch documentaries about space, or see space walk videos from astronauts, or pictures from flybys of Saturn. Something about how awesome (in the traditional definition of awe-inspiring, but also, like, totally awesome) and momentous outer space is just makes me cry. It's a little embarrassing.
I haven't even watched this fucking video yet, and somehow randomly stumbling upon my favourite podcast being covered by one of my favourite TH-camrs through my sidebar of all things has me tearing up. Good lord... how is this happening, and how have I not seen it until now?? What?
Wow, man, I dont listen to night vale (yet), but I think this is one of the best video's of your channel! This totally convinced me to check it out!
It was a few years ago when I was but a young sixteen year old dutch lad in high school having biology class. The teacher lectured us on cells and it's structures. Later that day I had chemistry. I had a discussion with the professor about the cells and how the chemical process worked. Then it slowly dawned onto me that every single cell, every single protein, every single... thing in my body was made of....atoms.
Inanimate things, which combined had the awesome power to create and sustain itself, think and communicate and reproduce. From that moment on the idea that there would be a god seemed impossible to me. This due to the fact that we think because we have a brain, which is made up of atoms. If i picture god, the only thing i can imagine getting remotely close to it is a giant brain floating around in space...which doesn't make that much sense.
I completely agree that there is no point to living. What I've come to realise is that the only thing we really can do is just have fun, live a happy life, don't harm others and all that kind of stuff. In the end it is really just pushing a boulder up a mountain over and over again. But accompanied with good music and even better friends, it's not that bad right?
I had only read Camus' 'the stranger,' and you've made it make so much more sense
Listening to this now during the absurdity of pandemic and a cloud of Cheeto dust. I think a relisten of welcome to Night Vale is in order.
I feel like I'm looking at someone's baby pictures
Love this. Not sure how I missed this video, but glad I found it. Two things:
1: Your shirt is fantastic.
2: If I were to say "I kind of agree with Absurdist philosophy," would people hear that as "I kind of agree with Nazism"? Or is that connection usually not drawn by people who at least have heard of "Embracing the Absurd." I'm guessing people are probably going to give me that usual blank look I get when I open my mouth and astrophysics accidentally drops out.
Margot Hutton I threw that shirt out, it got so old! I was sad to see it go, I made it myself.
I'm sad just hearing that! I know there's some mad psychology connected with Majora's Mask. Would be so cool if there was some awesome video game philosophy too.
This Podcast is so good
wtf! was lookin for some nice VTNV videos and.. "phylosophy tube"? did she make a video on VTNV!?"
but its so far back so i didnt recognize Abi (yes yes. i know). and format and atmosphere. so different
anyways. hap[y i found it)
Awww wee baby oliver
i had never heard of night vale until just now, though thanks to your show i think i'm going to have to check it out. it sounds pretty cool. also i like the absurdism philosophy i have always thought along the same line i just didn't know a philosophy so close to what i was thinking was already named.
That moment when you find something you thought was your special way of thinking written down by someone else - that's one of the most fabulous moments in literature and philosophy.
Am I crazy for trying to make sense of any of it?
I mean, for example, how Death must be earned, yet there's so much of it going on.
From PTA meetings to Valentine's Day and the countless (but not nameless or faceless) expendable interns, and so forth.
...I bet Halloweens there must be fun, though.
Only the old woman who secretly lives in your home is faceless!
Can't believe I just found this video from you! I've been binging WTNV in the mornings at work lately X3
im furious that i watched this video a couple months after it came out and then didn't subscribe i'd have been a communist a lot sooner
I love the theme from "Moon."
I've finished watching the video now, and yeah, I think this could get quite useful in the Analysis-part of my assignment.
welcome to night vale just came out with an audio book and I can't wait to listen to it. now I don't where to stand exactly when it comes to absurdism but I'm probably going to be constantly thinking about it while I listen to the night vale.
Awesome, I've just begone my biggest assignment of the year and chose for it to be about Night Vale.
I haven't seen the video yet, but maybe you just made me another source for the assignment.
It was only a few days ago that I learnt that Albert Camus was pronounced as Albert "Kam-oo", not "Camus". I've always wondered who this famous continental philosopher who wrote "the stranger" was. Turns out I had read the myth of sisyphus long ago. Like many words I read, I never actually said them out loud.
When I first saw this I though you were going to talk about how the people of Night Vale accepted all the supernatural phenomenon as normal-even though to us, and Carlos, they are very un-normal- and relate it to how perhaps the supernatural things that happen in our reality may be normal to someone else. SO "normal-ness" is a matter of reference and perception. I haven't seen the rest of your Night Vale video's so I may be "jumping the gun"?
Although I really do like what you touched upon in this episode!
I would love for you to revisit this in relation to the current political climate. 🦇👻🖤☠️
I love this show for REAL
found this little gem!
Yeah, that's about it. I guess.
I remember seeing a short play at Ingenuity Fest about the myth of Whats-his-face. It was actually really good, and almost set the stage for my life. "Go, roll your boulder. But there's work to be done. And that work must be done." (I was kinda young, so that's probably not exactly what was said, but close enough?)
finally someone uses Moon movie ost
HOW HAVE I NOT SEEN THIS BEFORE????
We do not choose to live because we are just used to living, we live because we are used to loving.
Thinking about it, isn't absurdism a very relevant philosophy when you are trying to understand that you are transgender? Every day struggling with a desire or a feeling you know is impossible, is being in the closet not a Sisyphean struggle between your true self and the mask you present to the world? Learning to accept the impossible, accept that you are transgender is often seen as the first moment where *true* happiness starts to seem like a possibility, just as Camus suggests? I wonder if that crossed Abigails' mind as she wrote this episode, or if is one of those things that you only see in hindsight?
Since we now have a video about Night Vale and Absurdism, then how about a video about Lovecraft and Cosmicism in the future?
WHY doesn't this channel have more subscribers
I think that I kind of arrived at what Cecil said on my own.
It's been a few years that I concluded "life has no meaning and I really don't care, I'm happy with my life anyway".
I kind of like this Camus-chap. And one has to appreciate the comedy style of punishment of the Greek gods. Sisyphos, Tantalus, Marsyas, Narcissus, Acteaon, Atlas, horrible yet it also always felt like a good joke.....okay Prometheus, that was just cruel.
Let's just accept the Fates and have a bit of Apollo/Dionysos/Athena and Aphrodite in the meantime. There are worse ways to watch the sands of time run out. mmm, that should have been something about the length of a thread....my bad, ladies.
The Sheriff's Secret Police is here to take you on a long drive through the desert scrublands for re-education and possible execution.
Just kidding. This is a great video. Absurdism was exactly what I thought while listening to Cecil talk about existence and how insignificant and lonely we are. Love your use of the Night Vale background music, and all in all I love Philosophy and Absurdism, so thanks again for this video.
My question: Isn't Camus' argument self-defeating, because to a person who had accepted the absurd and decided to live his life anyway have given his life meaning, even if that meaning was simply to embrace the absurd?
It isn't self defeating to me because there are two realities being addressed: the reality that the human organism is there to reproduce, and the reality that we all don't need to reproduce, just some of us, and this realization leaves us free to do as we wish. There's nothing absurd about any of it.
ok, so, first of all, I loved the Kramer scene because... well, Kramer.
secondly, regarding suicide and meaningless life (and excuse me if you've talked about this in another video but after subscribing about two years ago and rarely viewing the videos, I'm watching them in order from the very first one until I reach the last ypu've put up), I agree with what Orochimaru said in a very summarised and simplified way to Kimimaro when he first met him (and yes, this is a Naruto reference): "Maybe, just maybe, there is no purpose in life. But if you linger a while longer in this world, you might discover something of value in it"
Baby Olly
turn on the CCs. it's worth it.
Needs a revisit in this crazy modern day. I personally believe it unintentionally represents Americans willingness to be abused in a capitalist world but because it's told from the perspective of someone generally passive it funnily mirrors our complicity really well.
It's a town where every conspiracy theory is true.
I view the world somewhat like Camus does, however my problem rises not from the fundamental contradiction between our desire to find the meaning in the universe and the universe itself which is meaningless, but from the contradiction between the universe being meaningless and the society not knowing nor caring about it. That makes it really difficult for me to see myself as a part of the society and not someone, who is very different from the society, but tries to pretend that he is a part of it.
So thank you..
Is that ending track from the movie Moon? That wonderful movie also raises some interesting questions about life's purpose and identity.
I have a bit of knowledge about Camus Albert's theory on absurdism. And I recollected the mentioning of a third solution other than suicide and acceptance: religious belief. Maybe the appearance of "The Glow Cloud", "The Brown Stone Spire", "Blood Stones", ... is associated with this.
Life is meaningless. Life is significant.
I believe this kind of reading can be taken into any conceptual world within literature. The problem arises when we purposely create these alien environments, beyond the physically measurable. We lose sight of Camus' original intentions regarding his philosophy by manifesting the connotative 'absurd' rather than the philosophical 'absurd'. The Absurdity of life is all around us and is imbued in everything conceivably physical and metaphysical. Why we need to represent this symbolically through 'robed, hooded figures' and 'the glow cloud' makes it all the more obvious the Camus' was absolutely avant-garde in his thoughts. Because, even now, people still have difficulty coming to terms with his philosophy without it being heaped down their throats by Pseudo-Absurdist texts such as WTNV or Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
I love WTNV as a surrealist text but it isn't a good example of an Absurdist text. Absurdity is in Camus' work and Dostoevsky's fiction. In my opinion however, if one were to look at Absurdism in play, history is the best place to search for it.
My main problem with Absurdism is its totality and universality. As well as this it is strangely Eastern in its treatment of the absurd. Emphasis is placed on the individual to scope whether or not they have transcended the shackles of Absurdity and now choose to live with it. There are ghosts of Samsara and Nirvana in Absurdism and the question therein does not become 'How do I break free of the Absurd?' it becomes 'How do I know when I have broken free of the Absurd?'
How do you know? You don't know. You risk denial by committing yourself to the belief you have broken the absurd and risk meaninglessness by subjecting yourself to the layer of nihilism prior to the full realisation of the Absurd.
Camus' philosophy is also messianic in a sense. Coincidentally, Camus happens to transcend Absurdism by subjecting himself to the consequence of suicide if he does not find a meaning to exist- and he does! In everything he loves. In soccer, in the beach.
The Myth of Sisyphus is a self help book if ever I saw one. It is a nice ideology, but qualifies- barely- as philosophy in the lowest sense.
It is strikingly obvious though that this ethereal absurdity inhabits everything in the universe. Perhaps its the simplicity of this philosophy that frustrates me, which means I am still a prisoner of absurdity. The only convoluted aspect of this ideology is its paradoxical nature, to me...
If the Paris commune still existed as of today I would proudly support it, it's one of the few examples of a government that was a dictatorship of the proletariat.
isubed cus you made good points and i love night vael
***** Welcome!
:) CANT WAIT FOR MORE VIDEOS and thank you for replying to my comment
But the end made me feel better...
Very interesting.
This video lead me to reading into Camus and absurdism quite a bit. I have one issue with it and I can't seem to find an answer. Help would be greatly appreciated:
How does an absurdist make choices?
Given many options, how does an absurdist choose one when they value none of them? what makes one choice better than another?
To relate it to the myth of sisyphus, why would sisyphus simply NOT push the rock, or just NOT walk back down the hill again if he doesn't value any actions or outcomes? How can an aburdist decide whether or not to pursue a career, which career to pursue, what kind of partner they want, what food they eat, and most importantly, why not to commit suicide if all outcomes and actions are equally meaningless?
i know this is well behind; but absurdism is in enbracing the inherent contradiction in universal meaningless.
so, unlike the Golden Mean or Nihlist thinking... any choice you make is absurd. You are going to die, so live fully and freely as possible.
there are NO rules. Just live and experience the moment.
Camus would agree that any living for the future is inherently flawed. and living in the past doesn't help because that's all fake too.
I like to think (and this is just my own ill advised philosphy) that every moment is unique and seperate from meaning.
there is no narrative other than what we give it... so you can either give your life it's own meaning... which is only yours (keep that in mind, you decisions are no better than anybody others) or you can live meaninglessly and enjoy lifes singularity.
remember, consequence is a human construction, and Jesper is a naive idiot.
+Thomas Blackman-Bishop but if I give my life a meaning then that is not exactly "absurdism" that is "existentialism". and for an existentialist choices are not difficult, you make your very own meaning so you are free to choose anything that suits your need. On the other hand if you are an absurdist, all of the options are similar to you, they are all equally vague and pointless, though you are embracing the absurd but what exactly do you do after that? go on making those choices that well suit your needs? but isn't that been existentialist. to me existentialism & absurdism are pretty much the same. your accepting the absurd or giving your very own meaning to the world doesn't quite change the choices that you will make.
ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD
ALL HAIL!
Your comment of "no other existentialist" confuses me: I have troubles differentiating Camus' absurdism and Nietzsche's Oepremensch: Accepting the absurd as Sisyphus is very similar to Nietzsche's Oepremensch: Living life for the moment absurdly. Nietzsche did give the Eternal Recurance which possibly gives meaning to the absurd but no more than your own sense of values. I liked this video.
EDIT: After watching your lecture (really nice bt the way) I'd still like to see a compare/ contrast between Camus and Nietzsche.
3:19-3:50 hits different in 2020
Didn't PBS idea channel already do a video on this?
Can't there be more than one video about welcome to night vale? btw he actually mentions that video in his video.
don't be pbs.
be you.
Love your videos though!
x
I feel bad for people who watched this before listening to wtnv because it gave away so many spoilers
I'm French so I'm not aware of it.
Life is insignificant.
If to begin to live with the tiring and difficult task of life/pushing a boulder is the beginning of being happy with it, does this necessarily entail that to love life/pushing a boulder that one must be a masochist?
I don't think so. Masochism involves being subject to pain willingly; as it's willing, you can literally start it and stop it as the mood takes you and the situation allows. The default setting is not feeling pain, as you can start it. 'Life', meanwhile, will carry on whether you want it to or not - it started without your word, and will carry on without your word. So, the difference is that while being without pain is the default setting for masochists until they have it inflicted with consent, being in a living state is the default setting for all living things, with or without consent.
Therefore, loving life and masochism are not the same states nor comparable ones.
Embrace the Absurd!
I realized something while watching this. What do people mean by 'meaning'? Do they mean a purpose? You may respond to this by saying that we may find our own meaning. The problem with that is that I am not asking what the meaning of life is. I am asking what is meant when saying 'meaning'. The definition of it. The meaning of life is a vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyy vague idea. It is at a point where it has not meaning.
+benboy25 l I think the best definition of meaning would be inherent value or perhaps a goal in life. It's a very interesting thing you choose to point out. I guess it's never philosophically specified because it's almost an emotional platitude or axiom. It is extremely important to note that meaning is almost a logical singularity, all laws of classical logic break down here.
would it be naïve to say that the lamen translation of this video is on whether or not we should embrace chaos or order?
Eeeehhhhhhhhhh… A little bit, yeah :(
it only counts if your an atheist. the meaning of life doesn't existed with out recordation or a haven or a hell or something of that kind in which falsify has no point when you dount believ in a sole of same kind. a self awere ness of it all your justs ansering qestions to pass the time.
***** so dowt of there being a god or being onser means life has no meaning but just becos you have downt doesant mean your life doesant have a meaning it only means the alterative of the ambens of a ayaty exits in your mind how does on sertenty take away from tying to surve the god of anny pertikuler religion and sur if you whant to say that Atheists have a meaning of life go right a haed but I was making a coment on the videyo its self saying that if we agree with the point made in the videyo than Atheists do not have a peros thus. "it only counts for Atheists" meaning that the falsify doesent bar an efecked on anny one with a beleiv in a god. a
and I try to be as openminded as posiball but not everything that pops in to my mined is truth it requers thot to determin ones believfs/ and think you for not curreting the grammer I have a few problems in my head that make it vary vary hard to spell.
I am sick and tired of the National Bolsheviks!
Sounds like I should get to reading some Camus, seems like he makes a bit o' sense...
Don't die.
Scarcely my choice, but if you're referring to suicide, I'm not quite that deep in the dark. I didn't mean to upset anyone with my comment?
AAAAAAAA I LOVE YOU
well I'm not going to watch it because night mind say's it sucks and I trust his opinion
This is quite poignant in 2019.
Poor old Kevin . . .
+MySerpentine this was some kinda prophecy for one of the more recent episodes i think
Blaze Sama Kinda like the wheat bunker, yeah LOL
+Blaze Sama
You mean the episode "Triptych"?
that i do, friend.
This is maybe the only major episode where I feel Oli is off. Nightvale is like an idiots idea of surrealism paired with the 'random' humour of Douglas Addams. It really speaks down to an audience, if Nightvale had even half of what Oli sees in it, it would be fine but it doesn't this is a great example of a fan making something better than it is.
2:47pm 05/20/2023
Coming back to watch Olly before he got his SJW Feminist Cultural-Marxist Daddy Superpowers.
I'm an existential nihilist, guys.
Any time Sisiphys is mentioned, it reminds me of a clip from the Dilbert animated TV series…
Dilbert; why don’t we call (the project name) Sisyphus, that fits this project…
Pointy Haired Boss; I like it! It has a sense of playfulness…
D; it’s SUPPOSED to have a sense of futility!!
PHB; you have to think of it from the *rock’s* point of view…