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."

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.

Did he just... Just explain... Night Vale? How- wHAT

As Douglas Adams might say: "Don't Panic".

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

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.

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 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'm 7 years late...but I finally made it here. ❤

HOLY SHIT HE'S BABY HERE

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.

I like your Majora's Mask t-shirt. There is some similarity in atmosphere between Majora's Mask and Welcome to Night Vale.

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!!!

this video made me read Camus books. The stranger is my favorite book now :o

All Hail GLOW CLOUDS

Oh my god the third eye sunglass yES

Which reminds me, I should go back to reading Animorphs someday. I always had empathy with Tobias, and watching this I missed him. How he deals with being more bird than a kid at each passing moment. How he comes to embrace it.

Hi 2014 Mister Tube, didn't know you made a video about night vale

Haven't started Night Vale, but I'm going to have to now thanks for the recommendation

This video actually sounds like a WTNV episode. :D

Two videos connecting shows i like with one of my favorite philosophers...i like this channel.

Just found this channel, and I love it!

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.

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.

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."

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.

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 KZfaqrs 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?

Awww wee baby oliver

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!

Can't believe I just found this video from you! I've been binging WTNV in the mornings at work lately X3

This Podcast is so good

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.

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.

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've finished watching the video now, and yeah, I think this could get quite useful in the Analysis-part of my assignment.

I love the theme from "Moon."

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.

finally someone uses Moon movie ost

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.

Is that ending track from the movie Moon? That wonderful movie also raises some interesting questions about life's purpose and identity.

HOW HAVE I NOT SEEN THIS BEFORE????

I love this show for REAL

I would love for you to revisit this in relation to the current political climate. 🦇👻🖤☠️

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!

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

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!

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)

found this little gem!

Very interesting.

So thank you..

WHY doesn't this channel have more subscribers

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.

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".

We choose to live not because we are just used to living, we live because we are used to loving.

Since we now have a video about Night Vale and Absurdism, then how about a video about Lovecraft and Cosmicism in the future?

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.

We do not choose to live because we are just used to living, we live because we are used to loving.

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?)

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.

isubed cus you made good points and i love night vael

turn on the CCs. it's worth it.

Baby Olly

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?

But the end made me feel better...

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"

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.

3:19-3:50 hits different in 2020

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...

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.

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?

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?

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.

Didn't PBS idea channel already do a video on this?

AAAAAAAA I LOVE YOU

would it be naïve to say that the lamen translation of this video is on whether or not we should embrace chaos or order?

Life is meaningless. Life is significant.

ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD

don't be pbs. be you. Love your videos though! x

Life is insignificant.

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.

I feel bad for people who watched this before listening to wtnv because it gave away so many spoilers

2:47pm 05/20/2023

Embrace the Absurd!

Sounds like I should get to reading some Camus, seems like he makes a bit o' sense...

Poor old Kevin . . .

I'm an existential nihilist, guys.

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 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.

This is quite poignant in 2019.

well I'm not going to watch it because night mind say's it sucks and I trust his opinion

I am sick and tired of the National Bolsheviks!

My older brother hung himself last week... This is horrid timing..

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…