Art in the Pre-Apocalypse
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2024
- And physicists rocketed copies of the decree to paradise in case God had anything to say, the silence that followed being taken for consent | Sign up for Nebula, get all sorts of exclusive content, and support my ability to make more of this stuff: go.nebula.tv/jacob-geller
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SPOILERS:
Final Fantasy XVI- Only the Bahamut fight and surrounding cutscenes are shown, very little discussion of other plot elements.
On the Beach- The entirety of the plot is discussed.
SEASON: A Letter to the Future- Many elements of the game’s plot, including its conclusion, are discussed.
Umurangi Generation- The entirety of the plot is discussed.
First Reformed- The plot is not discussed in detail but the climax of the movie is implied.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline- The plot is not discussed in detail but the climax of the movie is implied.
0:00- Intro
0:20- Final Fantasy XVI
3:50- On the Beach
9:19- SEASON: A Letter to the Future
15:48- Umurangi Generation
22:05- Missile Command
23:06- First Reformed & How to Blow Up a Pipeline
26:50- Conclusion
Media shown: Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy VII, Umurangi Generation, SEASON: A Letter to the Future, On the Beach (1959), First Reformed, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Men in Black, The Day After Tomorrow, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Die Another Day, Bayonetta, Missile Command, Marvel: Midnight Suns, Outer Wilds, Armageddon, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Last of Us
Music Used: Away, Ascension (FFXVI), Theme of Love (FFIV), One Legged Waltzing (Franz Gordon), Bells of Sorrow (Jon Algar), Title Screen (SEASON: A Letter to the Future), Pictures of the Past (Rain World), Moondown (Rain World), De belles choses vues à travers une vitre sale (SEASON, Radio), Out on the Street (Umurangi Generation), VHS Bombstrap (Umurangi Generation), Midnight Stabbings with the Lads (Umurangi Generation), Lurking 88 (Umurangi Generation), Shoegaze Protagonist (Umurangi Generation), Burning Man (World of Goo), Your Body Betrays Your Degeneracy (Disco Elysium), In Your Hands (Gris), Empathy (Gavin Luke), Highway Flash (Umurangi Generation)
Additional music and sound effects from Epidemic Sound
Additional footage from Getty Images
Additional Editing by Isaac Holland
Thumbnail and Graphic Design by / hotcyder
Description credit: Disappointments of the Apocalypse by Mary Karr - Ігри
"Because you give total annihilation more than a line and it will swallow your story whole" made me think of Disco Elysium and how briefly The Pale's encroach is mentioned
Not to mention the bomb.
The Horns....
Especially when you read the Pale as traditionalism
Or, if you actually start to investigate it, it takes over the story.
@@BardianAngel aye, would you mind telling me what you mean without spoiling anything too major? I'd really appreciate it.
What a quote. "It is easier, at least for some to imagine learning to die than learning to fight".
And not untrue. That one hit me hard as a victim of abuse…. I never learned to fight and now I need to.
A friend of mine talks about how that there are many people who they would die to protect, but only a handful who they would kill someone else to protect. Made a certain amount of sense to me
It's way easier though to learn to harass, nag, and bully people who you view as "part of the problem", and feel like a hero while doing it.
i cant relate
Analogously, which the video makes all the prescient: “it’s easier to see the end of the world then the end of capitalism “ - Frederic Jameson
Hi Jacob, great video as usual
As an Australian Aboriginal person who came from an area of our country completely decimated by the bushfires I felt I may be able to gain more insight into what happened.
Not only was it a general 'climate change' effect that caused what happened here. Native bushland has been managed by firetrails for tens of thousands of years. This is done by strategic backburning preventing areas from going up too quickly, or all at once, as eucalyptus trees are highly explosive. This is a method my people have employed as long as we've been here to ensure the safety of the tribes.
Local, european based councils, have ignored this for decades. They backburn, sure, but they dont divide up the land correctly- they frequently cause minor bushfires in the colder months by simply setting alight a whole section of the bush. Tribe elders have begged for years for the handling of this to be passed back to our community in fear of this very thing happening. The fire trails would disappear, the safety would be compromised. Councils refused, swearing they knew better.
So not only is it a climate issue, I feel the 2019 bushfires are deeply linked to colonialism. It was blatant arrogance that caused them.
It's also important to consider- maybe not in terms of the management, but more the communal effect -the lasting impact these fires have had. 2019-2020 feels like a lifetime ago now, but I and everyone I knew was traumatised by seeing our home surrounded by the angriest flames you can imagine. Then, due to it happening over our tourist season, a lot of businesses went out. Then Covid, two more tourists seasons gone. Then the floods hit, since there was now no growth to prevent water rushing down the mountains into already marshy land. So many people lost their homes. If not from fire or flood, then from economic uncertainty.
My home town was destroyed by it. Businesses and families that had existed for generations vanished in the blink of an eye. Our houses were bought by vacationing rich people, wanting a slice of the 'beach life', who then looked down on not only the poor white people of the area, but the aboriginal people. There is a presence of indigenous population in the cities, but its not like you see rurally- and my town had a very high population.
I have been forced from my home by this series of events. I cannot work, as anywhere that would hire me closed, leaving behind chain stores only interested in the cheapest labour. I cannot rent, as all the houses have been bought and 'flipped' by people praying on the desperate, going to the highest bidder- usually someone wanting an AirBNB or a summer home. I went to the city and I enjoy my life here, but I mourn the days before the fires, as I never wanted to leave my home. It was peaceful, I enjoyed working in cafes in the summer and renting my run down, shack of a home not too far from the marshlands.
People often reduce the fires down to one event, one moment in time that had no lasting impact- a curiousity, to those overseas. This is not the case. It dismantled communities, broke up families, ended lives. It has been treated callously by the international community and passed off as another example of climate change, but its so much more than that. It was willful, deliberate ignorance, down to a local level, based on racism and colonial history.
My story is not unique. Its the fate of a lot of people I know. It was the cataclysm that created, for us, a mini apocalypse. And now, we watch the elite sit in their newly renovated waterside homes, knowing that eventually that same apocalypse comes for them. They just don't know it yet.
Holy crap. What a comment, and what a story. I am Australian, and the impact of the bushfires is not something new to me, but your writing and the palpability of your pain made me cry.
I remember driving from Sydney towards Newcastle during the fires, when I was 17. We missed our turn off and ended up scarily close to a fire. Me and my friend looked out the window, and in every direction it was as red as the skies in Umurangi. It was the most intense feeling of apocalypse I have ever felt, to the point that I had dreams in the months afterwards that I’d driven past the start of the end of the world. I got home and collapsed into my parents arms and cried. We never even saw flames. It just felt as if there was something in a scale unfathomable tearing through the land. Your comment brought back a facsimile of that feeling I haven’t felt since. That fear? That was just a drive by. To suffer the knock on, to have fought against the pre-apocalypse and been ignored, and then suffer the cascading fallout of that destruction, is something I cannot even fathom. I am so sorry.
I am so sorry, I have no words.
The best reply I've ever seen on UA-cam: an incredibly emotional and powerful read. My words don't capture the weight and gravity of yours, but thank you so much for sharing your perspective and story.
So sorry for your loss.
Thank you for sharing your story.
Unfortunately, as someone who is passionate about studying indigenous peoples history, and following the current events, its sounds familiar; Maui for just one recent similar example.
In no way am I trying to downplay your communities or your suffering. I look at this globally and cannot help but see parallels in all corners of the world.
Hopefully the following is not too much of a rant:
--
In my view (sort of TLDR version);
the entire world is suffering from an extremely pathological mindset. Out of any human group; The indigenous peoples have suffered and is suffering the most from it.
Now, also the Climate change is disproportionally affecting the people who contributed least to the problem. It is a uphill battle.
BUT WE JUST CANNOT GIVE UP!
--
Here's a chapter from my people's history that you might find it familiar:
During the 19th century, the Russians have either murdered or exiled around 95-97% of my people during the Circassian genocide.
Our population went from more than 2 million people to about only 150 thousand by the start of 20th century. On the topic: pretty *Post-Apocalyptic* one might say.
After they "cleansed the land", from "sub-human filth" (historical quotes).
They settled Russian and other Slavic colonist on our lands; because, they had "Modern technology", "were of superior culture", and "knew how to use the land much better than primitive and savage Circassians"
The result:
The new colonial settlers couldn't survive in Circassia, for decades, they kept trying and they kept dying of hunger.
Once fertile lands, became infertile. The colonist were unfamiliar with the land, and did not know the ways of the Circassian terrace agriculture & horticulture.
Circassia remained empty of not only of its native Circassians but of any colonist people for decades.
In the end, the colonist administration had to grudgingly admit failure and seek aid from the few Circassians survivor who still remained.
To this day my people are still oppressed are faced with injustice, the latest example: Circassian are being disproportionally recruited and and thrown away into Ukraine to die.
Meanwhile our language is slowly being removed from schools, replaced by the Russian.
This happened and is happening to many indigenous peoples all over the world. Words like evil, madness or stupidity don't feel enough.
This level of greed, arrogance, ignorance, injustice, inhumanity... whatever words are appropriate, is destroying everything.
--
Although, I live a relatively decent, stable life in Canada, I think about my people and homeland every day.
There is little hope that our language, culture and way of life will survive more than the next generation or two.
You directly suffered personally and very recently.
I can only imagine your frustration and sadness.
Please stay strong and don't give up as long as there is a tiny spark of hope left in your heart!
I have heard you, and I have shared your story. It's all I have the power to currently do, but I'll make sure that at least one more person knows!
That Jacob Geller moment when you say to yourself, "Oh, that one game would be a perfect fit in this essay," and then it appears halfway into the watch
that jacob geller moment when you have to skip half of the video because you just had to add something to the must play list.
The realy Jacob Geller moment here is that he used the music from my favorite game in the middle of the video, and did it perfectly, indicating full understanding of the game they're from, and then didn't mention the game in the video. (Its Rain World btw.)
@@syntaxerror831 to be fair, rain world is about as post-apocalypse as you can get. maybe if you want to really stretch it it can be a post-post-apocalypse but you're not looking forward to the tipping point. its better to say the tipping point was so long ago now that life and the world are just riding the wave out until the final bits of life spark out and all that is left is the cold empty nothing.
Knocking it out of the park with that ending message Jacob, another incredible video
Holy crap it’s the Irish guy
Hey Dan you have good taste
didn't expect to see you here, great taste
Wow hi dad good to see you here
Mr. Screengreen.
This is pushing me to closely analyse the cost of post apocalyptic media as entertainment. We are being sold the horrible future, and how we could excel in it, to distract us from what we've already lost.
It's harder to see how to live in a prevent-the-apocalyse world when what we are shown so much is how to live in a post-apocalypse world. Damn..
The channel Some More News made a movie about this; I can't recommend it enough. Should be the first result for "some more news the movie"
@@whuppee2916 I shall check that out.
@@evelynrobinson3573 I hope it's as good for you as it is to me
Capitalist realism. It's why I can't really love the cyberpunk genre, negative emotions in media are great however the genre is only negative in how it presents the future as only negative and technology as only negative. We need more stories about building Dyson Spheres instead.
Tēnā koe, Jacob. Ngā mihi nui ki a koe- thanks for including our rēo in your work. Our language is a taonga, and so much is going into preserving it and making sure the younger generation feel empowered to speak and share in it. Appreciate your mahi and all you do!
Umurangi Generation looks amazing. My Te Reo is shaky, but I found it pretty striking that while umurangi does indeed mean “red sky”, that’s not a literal translation: red sky would probably be wherorangi. Umu means oven, so umurangi could more literally be translated as something like “oven skies” or “roast skies”. And that seems horrendously appropriate.
I remember going on a walk with my grandmother. We walked to a pond that we used to feed swans at. Our state was going through a severe drought, and the water level of the pond had receded dramatically. We tried to ignore the receded water. After all, most of the pond was still there. We could put it out of mind for a bit.
But I couldn’t. I started crying. My grandmother comforted me. She said that she knew she would be dead long before the worst of climate change would affect her, but she knew exactly how I felt.
She was in college when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened. She remembered what it felt like to have to walk around campus and go to class and eat in the dining hall and everything else knowing that the world would end. She could relate to the helpless anger I felt. She felt angry, at Kruschev, at Castro, at Kennedy, at LeMay, at McNamera, in the same way that I was angry at the oil barons and politicians of today.
Now, as with my grandmother during the Crisis, I go about my life as normal, simmering with rage and hate and a desire for things to be better. I don’t know what the future will bring. But at least I know I won’t be alone
If the world is going to end, the first thing you have to do is prove it.
then how about we beat the shit out of the billionaires and oil barons
@@idkhahahaha The evidence for climate catastrophe is already overwhelming. No denial can any longer be entertained and it will not be here either.
@@idkhahahaha Our climate apocalypse is the collapse of a thousand tiny worlds and million receding lines too subtle to notice.
@@idkhahahahaWe know climate change is going to end the world, it's been this way for decades. We've had a timer for a while, but no one cares.
As someone born into the nuclear pre-apocalypse who had nightmares at ages six and seven and eight and nine of the world ending in sudden fire, and who now sees the slow death brought about by... _kaiju..._ I've long envied the generations whose only notions of the world ending came from their religions.
How much nicer it must have been to imagine the world ending through the acts of gods than to know that perfectly normal human beings-just like you and me-were cheerfully flushing away the future of our species in the name of an ideology or a percentage.
Hindsight.
It's more preventable though
@@RillianGrant I'd argue that divine intervention is significantly more likely to happen than 8 billion chaotic humans somehow deciding to work together instead of tearing one another down.
@@tierna5372 Don't need 8 billion. Not even a majority. Doesn't even need to stop tearing down; just tear down those who try it first.
Gods aren't mortal and don't have addresses.
Honestly, the use of In Your Hands alone was enough to get me teary. This song, from Gris, is the song of a mother passed to her child before her death. The final note of the tune as used in the game is two perfectly harmonized voices, symbolizing acceptance after a game of anger, denial, bargaining, and depression.
In this video, that last note is cut. Because we can't accept this. I feel like this will be missed by many, but I wanted to draw attention to it because of how hard it hit me. Thank you for this wonderful piece of art, Jacob.
❤🩹
Just last week a game came out called Goodbye Volcano High which is just about this. It's about eight teenagers who are trying to live normal lives through an existential crisis. They're all dinosaur people and the crisis is a meteor but you probably have an idea of what it's a metaphor for
"you probably have an idea of what it's a metaphor for"
Hahaha.
"you probably have an idea of what it's a metaphor for"
Lemme guess: the nonexistent climate emergency that is used to put young people into a state of fear and despair, thus making them more easily-controllable by governments?
@@AlexReynard shut up nerd
@@AlexReynard…how did you end up in this page and try to push the idea of “climate denialism”? You’re so brainwashed, you can not even tell where you are. The video itself is about climate change.
@@AlexReynard..Get off the Kool Aid man, As if Hawaii isn't enough for ya
the Umarangi section has me so fucking mad i feel like i may burst. you’re always great at boiling down these subjects and eliciting the reaction they intend, even heightening it.
please tell me how do you feel mad. i cannot for the life of me rebel in any way. i am comfortable. i am numb. i want you to kill me for the greater good.
I remember reading On the Beach as a kid. It was weird because youd expect it to be some massive horrifying emotionally shocking roller coaster, but instead what I felt was just... a vague sadness. Theres dread but theres just no point in relishing in it and so when you get to the end its not an ending that necessarily makes you cry because theres no "big sad" moment. Its all just treated normal
Reminds me a ton of how people are just... ignoring COVID. Despite it still killing and disabling people, despite scientists' warnings of its confirmed dangers (immune system destruction, micro clots, increased risk of cardiovascular events, etc), despite lack of effective vaccination campaigns and masking contributing to the evolution of ever-evasive variants. People just act like its normal.
I feel like Christian Petzold's Transit may fit with a similar thing. A completely fictional surrealist film based on a nonfiction WWII novel.
Another work that is worth comparing with ‘On the Beach’: ‘When the Wind Blows’ from 1986.
As an environmental scientist I truly think that this is art, you’ve done a wonderful job putting this together. I think we owe it to all the other living things on this planet to try our hardest to change
I totally agree. But what does that mean in particular? Should I stop watching yt-videos to save energy? (Please read this as a real question, not as a cynical comment!!!) Where do we start? What can we do?
@@tiggerpie5214 build a community, and start from there. Gather others who are passionate and see what becomes of it
@@tiggerpie5214step one is finding out your local politicians address
@@tiggerpie5214 also an environmental scientist, what you do on an individual level is almost meaningless, you need to push for top-down change via regulation etc
I think what i genuinely adore about these videos and Jacob's skills in speaking is that the comments are filled with people telling these close and intimate stories about their lives that they feel fit into the video's subject. Jacob's skills with language and words as a video essayist allows people to be honest and tell personal stories about themselves. It really does put his work on a level above other content creators in this area.
hot damn, that was an eloquent way of saying that thing that you just said
(but in earnest, I do agree wholeheartedly. it's really neat)
If by "skills in speaking" you mean blatant green-washing and giving people hope they shouldn't have, yeah.
This video feels like taking an existential weight upon us and giving it the credence to carry and push it off. Fucking incredible.
this i understand but what if you just can't? just, what if you just could not for the life of you carry it? what if you were as "resigned" as the SEASONS protag. seems to be? bcs i certainly feel like this. mostly because i am very aware i am effectively a privileged sheltered individual who has not suffered in life, and as such thinks he will not ever suffer. i don't even know if i believe in the words i'm saying. i'm a coward. the most succint representation of the average 20-year-old white cishet middle class man. a cowards that hides behind correct "opinions" to justify his emptiness. his nothingness. his inability to act upon the world. i deserve nothing but to be trampled on by people that are hopeful. for i am undeserving of hope and redemption. my greatest sin was existence because it is "Normality" and normality haunts and kills.
@@jossaccountofmadnessandmem1844
This is the most real UA-cam comment ever written
Privilege is a weird thing, uh... I kind of seen both way. I'm white and, mostly, I have a family that is willing, and able to support me. But also, I'm autistic. I don't have a job as such (despite this, I've seen how unfair the work environment can be. I will always rage at how cruel and unfair it is to fragile person like me.) Just being able to live my life "normally" took me years and is still a work in progress. I don't have time to act (I do some voluntary work on the side, but I know full well it's just a tiny drop in the ocean. Barely worth flattering my ego, but... At least I try?) What can my burning anger even do at this point (not for me, I'm fine.)?
I don't know.
@@concept8192 I'm pretty lucky, because people around me have been mostly kind, honestly. Not having a work also means I can chose to go to places where I'll be accepted
@@jossaccountofmadnessandmem1844
you are not worthless, you were never worthless. capitalism and it’s coming apocalypse have made you feel worthless. you have inherent worth. if you don’t have the strength to believe that yet. you could always find a purpose instead. maybe make destroying capitalism your purpose. righteous anger and spite won’t keep you ignorant, but they’ll keep you alive
Hell. I realize I've lived my life in apathy. Im physically disabled and I've spent so long accepting it quietly. I've been called slurs, ive been through medical trauma, ive been treated subhuman and yet ive dealt with it because what else am i to do- argue? Fight back? Feeling nothing, feeling apathy towards it all, towards the injustice people like me faced is easier. I just smile and nod when im treated, or when others are treated badly because its easier.
Apathy is easy but trying is so so difficult.
My disability has become a punchline so i can make able bodied people feel comfortable my disability is something i laugh at treat badly and ignore because i dont want to cause problems. Im starting to think maybe that isnt right.
This is my favorite video essay by you.
Trying really is hard. Once the cycle of despair starts you're not in control anymore. Or maybe it's just an excuse I use, idk.
Once trying becomes common place apathy becomes too difficult to maintain. Actions and opposing reactions. That's the thing, right?
You are 100% correct and I'm glad you're finally starting to overcome this learned helplessness and anger towards disability. Never give up by accepting their words and reverting back to internalized ableism, you must FIGHT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT, because it does. The day you realize just how valuable your life is, it will bring you a sense of joy and peace that was previously unimaginable. The first step is realizing that you have been beaten down and driven into apathy and despair by people who despise not only you as a person but everything your existence stands for--being disabled is hard not just because of bodily limitations, but because the average human is so so deeply afraid of illness/death that your existence shatters their comfort and unsettles them. This is especially true in america where we see disability as the result of personal bad choices, it's why insulin and other medicine costs so much. This is the view that people try to impart on you constantly, even if they are not fully aware of it. It is important to know that these thoughts of helplessness are not your own, they are being forced upon you by a value system of incomprehensible scale built over thousands of years. When humans see something that is perceived as unsettling or disgusting, our immediate response is violence or an urge to quarantine/segregate it. Ableism is found in us at our most base levels and must be actively reversed through thought and experience. You can be disabled and still have ableist attitudes, but having to overcome this default antagonism towards disability doesn't make you a bad person. Do not let the overwhelming scorn shown to disabled people drive you into despair, showing defiance against it is your greatest purpose. In the end, both you and them are seeking to define meaning in a life that is doomed to be temporary--at this level we are all the same; however, living in a disabled body can make you see this fact much more clearly. I would recommend reading "denial of death," I think you will see a lot of knowledge that you already understand intuitively through your experiences. And most importantly you are never truly alone and your life is always worth fighting for. We can't give up, we have to try. Imparting this lesson on those who would rather lose hope is the most direct benefit you can bring to this world. If this all sounds too positive and hopeful for you, just take the other route and thrive in anger. Be the Cain to Ableists and relish in the urge to beat them with a rock. It's not healthy for you in the long-run, but righteous anger is a wonderful tool for maintaining some baseline of self-esteem until you can frame your existence in a more positive light. Best of luck to you, the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step and you have already taken that step.
Best of luck. Someone I care deeply for goes through much the same and fighting through the shitty treatment can mean fighting through processes designed to waste your time and burn your energy. It’s “easier” to let things slide, and half the time that’s by design, easier also for an organisation to make you lose the ability to complain than to change itself. So, good luck. You deserve better than that shit
What disability do you have if you don't mind me asking?
in 2021 i wrote a poem for myself in the notes section of my phone about my own fear in the pre-apocalypse; though i didn’t have a word for it until now:
“when the garden of humanity rots away
and i lift my hands undirtied to weep into my shaking palms,
the despair i will feel is the kind that chases itself around corners to gnaw at its own tail,
and i will fall helplessly into the earth to decay”
i am forever hopeful for better days ahead
Coming from a lakota background I feel like I live in a pre-apocalypse as I try to grasp what little knowledge of my people I can. My mother thought it best to never teach me her language and sent me off the Rez to live in white society with my father because she knew there would be no future for me there. It's depressing to think about and even worse when she admits part of her regrets it but she wouldn't change it as she saw no hope, still sees no hope, in the idea that our people and culture will survive.
Personally I'm filled with such rage at the idea of just leaving it at that, I participate in protests, share as much as I can, and grab hold of any sense of community and knowledge of what we are now to try and keep something alive and breathing for the new generations. We are still here!
That's my piece, just wanted to get it out there, thanks for the great video! Such a huge fan and legitimately brought to tears sometimes at how well you convey your points. Sending the best of vibes and wishes to all those who read this~ Keep on going, the fight isn't over until you give up.
The crazy thing about this is that your comment is timeless, so timeless that it seems to be said by a Celt, a Phrygian, a Hittite, a Palmerian, a Guarani, an Ohlone.
Strength and may your culture endure.
It will always be funny to me that the canonical users of Zettaflare are different versions of Bahamut, and DONAL DUCK.
The fact that Donald Duck of all people is arguably the strongest magic user in the FF universe is hilarious to me
There is also Bravely Default’s Airy, who also uses Zettaflare and uses it first.
I am a couple of minutes to the conclusion of this video, near tears and occassionally scrolling through the comments then I see this and taken back to around 20 minutes prior and thinking the same fucking thing because they talked about it on one of the episodes of um actually. Anyways thanks for this I think I can finish this video not bawling lol
Well, if you think about...Bahamut is just a really big duck so it makes sense.
(this is a joke)
Whenever the “pre-apocalypse” is discussed I always think about Never Let Me Go, it is this very sweet pastoral novel with this incredibly dark cloud of unavoidable death looming over it
intensely good book, deeply harrowing
Love the book, thrilled to see it mentioned. I'm even more excited to watch the video now.
Yup, I both love and am terrified of that book. It's an impossible situation in the first place but then everyone somehow taken an even worse 3rd option that is: do nothing! Sit back and let them do what they will. Let them have their way with you and die after a short, painful and inhumane life.
It's a cruel book, dressed up in the kindest clothes one could imagine, like a lethal injection in book form.
And that's why I both love and fear it.
I read that book not that long ago. It didn’t make me cry, it didn’t change my life, it didn’t change anything.
Edit: this comment is really long and prob isn’t even relevant to the discussion, but oh well. I might edit again to cut out the waffle I just got excited to talk about this book nobody I know wants to read.
The book to me was its own kind of beautiful with how the characters chose to spend their times, both clueless and in the know.
I’m not very good at explaining my thoughts on these kind of things, but the fact that it didn’t change anything about how I viewed how life “should be lived” was what affected me the most.
I recognised that I’d also be in the “do nothing” camp. I wouldn’t try to escape the fate which the characters would face at the end of the road either. It’s not noble, heroic or courageous. I’d live foolishly following the same kind of dreams I have now (a bit like Ruth). Not out of fear of “the end”, but because I’d have no other ideas of how to spend my life.
I can’t imagine the end, to me it’s incomprehensible. And so because of that, I cannot imagine the lead up to the end other than just doing what I already know.
What I hate about that book, and love that it was so well-written, is the sense of helplessness. Like things were always going to end in this way, and beliefs at change were just that - a nice belief.
We had an Extinction Rebellion protest at an intersection just a block down the street from my old apartment. I think the thing that stands out to me the most is the responses I heard after, of people complaining about how people - not even them, just people in general - were inconvenienced by it, and how that "drives people away" from the cause. Like maybe people would do something about the encroaching death of our planet, but because some protesters inconvenienced them they're not going to. It made me think thoughts I'm not going to put into print.
Do you want to know why?
It's because they sound like religious fanatics.
That's why.
my main issue with extinction rebellion is how it gets fighters arrested
Why not advocate for nuclear power?
@@profeseurchemical My main issue is how they are non-violent
@@johner3364 real
I wish I could forget. I wish I could forget the daughters I lost in 2018. I wish I could forget all the horror that I have experienced and perpetrated. I wish I could forget all of the humans I love so much. I wish I could forget who I am and what I have to do with my destiny and life. I pray for forgetting.
Your videos always help me to cry. I have a very hard time crying, these days, and you'll never know the kindness you give me when you make these video essays.
I am a haunted man living a haunted life in a haunted world in a haunted universe.
Hope you find peace man.
the mentions of the australia 2019 bushfires was a bit of a shock to me. i remember those - i remember my girlfriend had to evacuate because the fire was only a suburb away from her house. we both nearly lost everything. meanwhile our fucking PM went on holiday to hawaii. thank you for the acknowledgement of the fault of our government, fuck them for letting "kaiju" claim the land of the aboriginal people of australia.
Your PM went on holiday to ignore out of control wildfires back home by taking a trip to Hawaii.
And now Hawaii is experiencing some of the deadliest wildfires in recent history, having a similarly devastating effect particularly on the indigenous peoples just as Australia's did.
How grotesquely poetic.
@@MrxstGrssmnstMttckstPhlNelThot if you told me scomo shits hellfire because hes a devil given flesh i would 100% believe you
Aboriginals aren't classified as people. rather fauna. They are an earlier and less intelligent version of us.
roundly seconded
Thirded
There was a short story I heard a fellow writer praising at length, but I can't recall the name of it, only the premise;
The perspective character is woken up in the night by her boyfriend, who insists on taking her out that night to spend time together; tomorrow be damned. They do things like get iced cream and just spend time together around town.
She isn't sure *why* he's acting this way, but isn't opposed to spending quality time either.
Only, as the story goes on, it becomes gradually more apparent that something has happened to the sun, and the irradiated side of the Earth opposite them.
He just wanted to spend one last night with his girlfriend, before the dawn came for them, while most of the country around them sleeps in blissful ignorance.
All I know is it's very much *not* the show 'Into the Night' from 2020, which I only learned about minutes ago, which seems a lot cheesier and more 'Netflix original' in writing quality and tone.
Whatever it is, the story has stuck with me... Despite having never read it.
EDIT: It's Inconsistent Moon, by Larry Niven, courtesy of StephenLeaSheppard in the replies!
Sorry to give you false hopes with my notification, this is just a reply to see if anybody knows
^ Same I need this story to marinate my brain in like immediately. Somebody out there, for fucks sake help us find this
@@bivtheast At least I know I'm not the only one who needs this.
I'm almost tempted to just write it myself from the premise, and see how close I got if I can ever find the original one day...
Unless some glorious sauce-lord were to descend in a bright, unbearable reality, and end my years-long search.
@@TheJaironman99same
.
"Our choice, as is the choise of every generation, is whether to make the world contain more or less suffering" - Jacob Geller
This line almost made me cry. I need to cry, I almost cried yesterday. Nevertheless, I am a Nursing Student. I want to become a Doctor one day. So, this quote struck a coard with me. I hope one day to be a man who can take the pain and suffering away from others. I want to heal, to fix, to mend. I make it my mission to Reduce Entropy. I am not alone in my fight. I am surrounded my many many beautiful people who share my common goal. And together, we make the world a better place. One step at a time, one day at a time.
Thank You for making the world a more beautiful Place with your Art Jacob.
I'll see you in the Future.
- D.T.
I think seeing the aesthetics of 'art at the world's end' while being persuaded by other video essayists that it ISNT the end of the world has landed me in a place where, *SOME* worlds are ending, but we've picked and chosen whose... and when... and how...
Absolutely love the use of Rain World music, it’s so beautiful for the calm of an apocalypse
i genuinely teared up a bit and got shivers when i heard Pictures of the Past i love that game so goddamn much.
I thought for a second he was gonna use it to segue into rain world and I was about to go wild
Though calling rainworld an apocalypse never felt like the right word, I consider it a post utopia of sorts. The world didn't end, it never ended, it just moved on
I didn't know why I started to suddenly feel things, until I realized that that's Rain World soundtrack
@@someone_with_no_username similar thing as with Outer Wilds (even shown in this video for a brief moment). highly recommend playing if you haven't
I am SO unbelievably happy to hear you talk about Umurangi Generation. I recently wrote a (not so perfect) essay about the game and I'm happy to be able to engage with it some more. When I wrote about Umurangi I was also grappling with the question of "are the characters here apathetic to the present, if they're just 'vibing' through the apocalypse?"
And while, yes, they rage against the avoidable actions and decisions that led the world to where it was, I also see vibing on a rooftop as a kind of rebellion in the face of a now-unstoppable future. Especially under the context of indignity, where continued existence is and has been under threat, to live outside of the contexts that government and circumstance push you towards feels like rebellion. So, maybe the most cyber punk thing to do in Umurangi Generation is to take a nice picture, even if soon there won't be anyone around to enjoy it?
but anyways idk i want to think about that more. love this game so much, thank you for this video.
It reminds me of a powerful sentiment I saw somewhere on social media that I have carried with me ever since. When the world wants you to die, the biggest act of rebellion is to live.
The most devastating and haunting thing about a pre apocalyptic scenario is that most people will (likely) not act against it. They’ll allow themselves to be led over the cliff, or even work to hasten it thinking they are doing the “right” thing
I am a Māori person and I was not expecting a shout out in a Jacob Gellar video. New Zealand mentioned!
I'm calling it now, this will become a certified hood classic. One of my favorite videos this year, great job.
It was released 13min ago,, you haven't even seen it. Stop capping lmao
@@Bauernade>21 hours ago
@janjoons I hope you find a cure for your blindness soon. ❤😊
How did you post this 21 hours ago if the video is only 39 minutes old
Wtf how did they make the comment rhat long ago
caring for the world is an act of rebellion
We're not in a pre-apocalypse. We're in a long apocalypse. Yes, the apocalypse is already here just unevenly distributed, but it's also EVERYWHERE in one way or another. This summer I was able to go out and enjoy the outdoors for a sum total of TWO WEEKS because my respiratory problems kept me from going out into the ever present smoke. The trees are sickly and I am hiding in my room surrounded by air filters because it's impossible to keep the air clean through my whole apartment it's polluted outside. My elderly friends are dying in front of my eyes because the air is choking them to death. This is just one small facet of a multi dimensional horror story that is playing out in droughts and fires and floods and storms and heat waves across the world CONSTANTLY. The apocalypse is already here but it isn't marked by a day or even a half year, just a long hellish moment that stretches indefinitely into a dying future. We can imagine different, better worlds in this moment and maybe make them happen through monumental effort, but the old world is dying one way or another and it is a grinding, suffocating death.
skill issue
Skill issue.
I don’t have the respiratory problems you describe. I have, however, suffered from migraines all my life; they used to keep an oxygen machine in the high school teacher’s lounge for me. Your comment makes me stop and consider just how many painful and exhausted hours I could have saved in a world without this compounding nightmare nipping at its heels.
The elderly, the physically disabled- we’re society’s canaries in the coal mine. And the people running this mine aren’t in the shaft to see us dropping.
@@technicolormischief-maker5683 Just read about a group of elderly ladies suing the Swiss government for endangering them with climate change since it's proven they're an at risk population. That kind of story gives me some fighting spirit!
While maybe not the main takeaway(?) or the ones being discussed in the comments, I found the concept of "On the Beach" and peoples urge for normalcy in the face of the apocalypse so incredibly compelling that this video actually made me order the novel straight away.
Played Umurangi Generation and I LOVE their take on cyberpunk. Usually it's just cyberpunk from the 80s but this is so much more modern and the street culture influence mixes so good with it.
The Pre-apocalypse is such a cool concept, I can't believe I never noticed it as it's own unique setting before. Also, I love Umurangi Generation so much, I only checked it out originally because of it's superficial similarity to the Jet Set Radio series, the music specifically lured me in, but what they built beyond that base was such a natural evolution and yet a completely new direction to take those aesthetics in. Plus, I've always thought Maori culture was super interesting. A game made for me, really
*māori
Would like to note that Te Reo Māori as a language has had some wins against the boot of colonialism recently and is very much alive, not a dying language spoken by a dwindling number of people as I felt was perhaps unintentionally portrayed here.
EDIT: in a sad update, Te Reo will NOT become mandatory in public schools in the near future, because New Zealand just voted in a right-wing government. No good.
I remember seeing that in the news! I was so stoked about it! It’s such a sad thing to let a language/a culture die. Every single one has something beautiful in it.
@@RhianKristen They weren't allowed to die. They were deliberately murdered by all the men in our history books.
Ayyy that's fantastic to hear!!
Glad to hear ^_^
Yay!
I watched pretty much the entire video through tears. I don't have much to say but, "Thank you for helping me understand what I've been wrestling with better".
When I was 14 years old I had a nightmare where I am in my small hometown (France). In the sky I see a plane, then a black dot drop from the distant plane. In my nightmare this was meant a nuclear bomb, so I try to run as far as I can. I see military cars and fleeing the town. Realizing that even if I go we them I’ll die, I ran as fast as I can to my house. There I see all my family gatherings in the living room. I sense a feeling of end so hard at that moment like the bomb will explode, I just make a giant hug to all my family, I remember vividly the face of my grandparents and then Black. Enough time for my brain to process that I was dead, then I woke up and cried.
I will always remember this nightmare… maybe my worst.
The disturbing facts is that my grandpa at the age of fifteen got his small town in Normandie Bombed in the end of Ww2.
I live right next to an airbase and during the first 10 years of my life, I was waiting for a bomb to drop on my house every time I heard an airplane
I’ve never seen anyone talk about this, it is quite a peculiar concept, it’s something that very much could happen but is completely unimaginable.
The UA-camr Sophie from Mars recently released a video with a similar concept, The World is Not Ending. I think it’s safe to say this is on people’s minds
Could happen... brother, it's happening
@@willheinemann6534 i guess hoodles is the reaction cited in this video
We are, in fact, in the "pre-apocalypse", so to speak. Come back to this comment section in 10 years and see where we stand. You'll wish for things to be this good again.
It's only unimaginable if you haven't paid a wink of attention to what has been and is happening in the world at the hands of our leadership, between the climate collapse they have knowingly spent the last decades fostering in pursuit of the short term bottom line, to the democidal negligence in the face of the long term harmful outcomes of the *ongoing* panini in an apparent attempt to deal with the consequences of their actions by whittling down competition for the inevitable increasing scarcity of resources they are knowingly causing again in pursuit of short term profit for themselves. And it's this flavor of denialism which enables them
Man, this was uncomfortable to watch for me. I (along with I think a lot of my generation) struggle a lot with the balance between being informed and staying sane, because my GOD there is SO much injustice in the world it feels like I'm going insane, how the hell am I supposed to do both?? I really loved your conclusion to this video, and I do genuinely believe (out of necessity if not for else) in humanity's power to change for the better. I suppose most of the time the best I can do is to simply spread love to those around me, even with the forces of oppression and apathy tearing the world apart. It's not easy, and this is going to sound corny, but I hope that with enough hearts full of love we can change the world.
There's also the sense of peace in knowing that even if this is it, and the world as we know it is going to end... that maybe some vestige of humanity will live on happier the next time around. That this destructive end is just the natural cycle of things.
@@clueless_cutie I've spent a worrying amount of time imagining how the world would look like if humans disappeared and nature took over, it'd be really cool to just hop into spectator mode and explore
@@eeli8295 There was actually a TV show based on that concept, "Life After People".
Granted, I only watched it as a kid because I liked seeing all the buildings fall over in late-00s CGI glory...
@@patnewbie2177 Hey thanks I'll check it out
@@clueless_cutie it is decidedly not the natural cycle of things
1:08 an ORBITAL LASER???? Insane Jacob Geller reference
Fun fact!! One of the only other characters in canon that can use zettaflare is Donald Duck in kingdom hearts 3 :DD
this is very important
@@JacobGeller indeed!!
I can't even explain how deeply this video touches me. We're dealing with so many avoidable, or at least re-workable, problems and, still, people don't get angry enough and I couldn't understand how. How could they know what I know and just carry on? So, I feel like I gained a new perspective on not only why, but how I can better approach this subject. Best video of the year for me, thank you!
This actually is explainable. While the problems of the world are apparent, first, people are fragmented more than ever. If there is some way to make an uprising, it will not easily happen. Second, with the advent of the internet is the advent of deluges of information or more accurately, misinformation, disinformation, and people yelling across each other. This is not to even say about the dominant narrative being pushed, which also inspires hopelessness. Third, even if we were to break through both, whatever would exist would be quashed at a moment’s notice. This can either be done by celebrities, corporations, or the government. In a sense, it does not matter if people awaken to the fact that they will do something, though they should because mitigation should be attempted. Rather, it is that they have utterly won. If there is a victory, it will basically be nudging the world back a few decimals of degrees down. I also did not mention the fact that after some climatic tipping point, change back to the way the world was well before whatever is no longer possible.
What would people get angry about?
What's anger for?
@@DavidSartor0 idk, being angry at the apathy, or worse, outright malicious behavior of powerful people and the callous disregard they seem to have for the world in which we live, so they can enrich themselves to the detriment of so many? That's a pretty good reason to be angry.
Anger for the purpose of motivating change, I'd hope.
@@elizabethhicks4181I wholeheartedly agree with the message behind this, and suspect I don't agree with DavidSartor0's politics (though I can't be sure), but I have to say: try reading into what the Stoics had to say about anger, specially Seneca, he dismantles most arguments in favor of anger being a constructive emotion.
I understand why one would want this, but there are other ways to achieve social change, and anger often backfires.
@@fellinuxvi3541 I trust your judgment, that some types of people are more likely to produce my questions than others (assuming that's what you meant, not that your politics are uncommon for this comment section).
I have no idea which ones.
What did you think of me?
This reminds me of the Talos Principle. You don’t play through the pre-apocalypse, but you get glimpses of people’s lives during their pre-apocalypse. How they have fliers to let out pets before the disease wipes out humanity, or mentally struggle with the despair of it all. Def recommend playing it
i beat that game and had no idea thats what the game was about
I'm glad Jacob mentioned Sophie's video because I highly recommend giving it a watch especially after this video since I see a couple of folks here feeling hopeless and useless. I don't have comforting words but the world isn't ending; continue to live and continue to strive for the change you want to see in this world through acts big and small
just fucking wrong, but ok
"All art that I create is art about the pre- apocalypse"
Holy shit.
We live in a stillborn season. And our eyes stare like those of a baby who never cried out and just watches the sterile, bright and white world of hospital walls, windows, clothes and eyes and skin.
You make art by dissecting art. Thank you for these videos from the bottom of my heart. I got chills from this one.
I've always felt an attachment to the vocal logs of Alexandra Drennan in "The Talos Principle". The world is experiencing a viral apocalypse with no cure, and she's recording her thoughts on the nature of her work, to preserve some form of "after" for AI. Initially, it's philosophical musings on why she's doing the project and what she's thinking as the world slowly ends. Then, after people close to her begin to die, she begins to reflect on the actual shortness of time remaining. Finally, as she herself inevitably begins to die, she reflects on how she chose not to spend time with friends, family, loved ones, etc. instead of working on something that might mean nothing in the end.
Ever since playing that game, I've wondered how I myself might face the pre-apocalypse. In the ensuing near decade since the game's release, the puzzles of the game have long since left my memory, but those vocal logs have lived rent-free in my mind ever since.
I rlly need to pee rn but my cat is sleeping peacefully on my lap
My apologies keep fighting the good fight my brother
What has that fucker ever done for you?
I have had several family members battle with cancer both successful and not.
On the beach is a book that honestly feels like that. Everyone being told they have maybe a month maybe more but less than a year. Everyone who survived the bombs has a terminal diagnosis of incurable radioactive fallout and there is no treatment other than an act of God.
It made me cry. It made me reflect. It made me admire these people for resolutely not letting the impending End change who they were as people.
"When do we choose to escalate?"
Now.
I survived the Hawai'i fake missile alert of 2018. Mostly I slept through it, but in between hearing about it, and seeing the announcements on twitter that it wasn't real, I had a moment of, what will I do if these are actually my lost moments, and I just put on some clothes.
Afterward, I called my mom and apologized for not calling her when I thought I my be dying.
Bro, nothing happened, you didnt survive anything
@steviewonderstricycle840 what is it like to be purposefully ignorant?
Having watched this on both Nebula and here on UA-cam, I can say with all sincerity that this essay is what we needed
Jacob, now that I hear you use the Rainworld soundtrack, I think that you would have a BLAST covering the story of the world. It’s all so interesting, and generally, the story behind the game itself is so interesting. Hell, the mechanics and art is interesting.
i’m praying to every god i know that he makes a video using the game as a source
This reminds me a lot of that time when Hawaii was accidentally warned of an incoming, possibly nuclear missile attack. I remember strongly, this one video of a guy who recorded his to-be last message while he headed out to play golf.
When there's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and death is on your doorstep; there's something I connect with so intimately about just.. doing what makes you happy as death comes after you. It comes after all of us, whether it's a missile attack or not, whether it's speeding or taking its time.
I remember that video every time I come to question whether I'm wasting time or not. Time enjoyed is never a waste, no matter how much you have of it left.
I’m glad people like you exist.
Lately, me and my partner have found ourselves in this rut of cycles. We were dirt poor when we moved from my hometown, hoping to find somewhere where we could start our lives properly. A year later and we find ourselves back in the same situation, somehow earning more but drowning in the increasing cost of living, working next to people we know would judge us for our struggle. Our careers are shaking while trying to stand, like those baby giraffes you see in documentaries. We are insecure, unsure of our futures and desperately searching for a purpose in it all. It’s hard not to be angry at it all.
But people like you exist, searching for meaning in the struggle, sharing our successes and failures and beat downs to let other people like us know that we aren’t alone. Because we aren’t. We may need to ration our food, wonder how we’re gonna make rent once the student loans kick in, mask our frustrations to strangers. But we’re going to make it out of this bog. One way or another.
It really is so easy to feel hopeless. We can march and protest and chain ourselves to property but in reality we have no negotiation power other than the one they choose to give to us. If we always have to rely on elected representatives who then has to play along in a rigged game in a system that is buckling under the weight of bloated bureaucracy then all we really have is a prayer. They have all the money, the property, and the private armies to protect them and it. I feel like there's a stark difference between the tones of "On the Beach" and "Umurangi Generation" with the difference in the people being represented. "On the Beach" largely features a bunch of middle-class civilians, mostly if not all white, whereas "Umurangi Generation" pretty noticeably is about the continuous displacement, exploitation, and violent subjugation of native populations and marginalized people. "On the Beach" is remorseful, almost as if they're all thinking "we did this", 'we' as in humanity as a collective, even if the characters never had a chance to stop it. In "Umurangi Generation" it's "they did this". We are not on the same team as "them".
Amazing video as always.
That's a nice lie you're telling yourself there, "they" have as much power as you give them, they're not gods, they don't have superpowers, if enough humans stand up to "them" it's all over and they know that, which is they are terrified of unity, you're thinking exactly like they want to, so keep praying I guess and tell me how that works out for you
"They" are mortal, and have addresses. It is all of our obligations to decide when it is appropriate to remember that.
And they wield a lot of power.
Good luck trying to hunt them down, I won't be surprised you'll end up on the street in an evening news dead, or your car or house blown up
There is a lil something called a 💣 and corporate offices
@@Wamsuo58u ...*knock knock, it's the FBI*
Absolutely love this, the pre - apocalypse state of the world is one we all must strive to maintain in the "pre" state
Maybe a Not - possible - apocalypse state would be better lol
@enzomadruga3501 that hasn't been, and unfortunately will probably never be, the state of things since 1945
@@samt3412 Considering what happened to the dinosaurs, apocalypses have always been possible. Our species has certainly done a "great" job of making them more likely, though!
At 10:24 the track "Pictures of the past" from the video game Rain World started to play... Very on brand with the video and made me really emotional 😢
That would be awesome if Jacob covered the sense of scale and the many emotions in this game one day 😃
I actually teared up at just the first few notes. Rain World is SO GOOD. Pictures of the Past is perfect here.
As a young artist, one of the few things that gives me hope of a world with less suffering is seeing the current and next generations coming up. The ferocity I sense in my fellow creatives as we hone our crafts is unlike what I know of any generation before. Call it naivety if you want, but I hold on to hope that we can change the fuckin world, man.
It's not naive if you choose hope. It's courage.
Perfect timing. Been carrying a weight lately, and your videos have an uncanny ability to clarify what I've been trying to articulate to myself. Think I gotta get nebula
youve been thinking about art in the pre apocalypse?
@@harrywatson2694 I've been thinking that all art is in the pre apocalypse
like why most good movies were made in a time of great peace like 1999? and then there is a dark spot post 9/11 which is cleared 2004?@@cronk8219
After this, I think I gotta *-------------...
@@cronk8219 of course during the apocalypse everyone is dying quickly so no art can be produced unless it’s a long apocalypse then you can get some stanzig the sad clown shit
A manga that I like that feels very in-line with this topic is Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction by Asano Inio. It's very much about the absurdity of having to go about your daily life, pretending that everything is fine when the looming uncertainty of the future(in this case a giant alien spaceship hovering over Tokyo) hangs over everything you do, as well as how the government and corporations/businesses find ways to commercialize and exploit such a precarious situation to control and divide people. Worth a read!
Asano Inio??? I already got it ordered bro goddamn, I can't believe how certain I am this story is a certified banger already and this is the first I'm hearing of it lmao. Thank you and bless you and I love you for this recommendation ❤
Oh boy it's by the Punpun author, I am probably in for a treat, the kind that has razor blades in it
there's gonna be a 2-part movie coming up as well. Hope it's good
I’m so glad to see a video essay already being made about How To Blow Up A Pipeline, its such a thrilling film, sure its probably less complex than the book, but the high-octane, tightly paced, efficiently-written thriller, akin to Neo-Westerns, and Heist movies. With a score directly homaging Sorcerer, with that same desperate frantic energy. And while it feels like such a classic thriller script, it is also extremely modern and very Gen-Z, they feel preachy perhaps but in-character, the movie doesn’t preach to you the success or virtue of doing this act, it just shows you how the characters feel and think about it, and just gives you a real well-rounded film.
I fear you might have done this vid a bit prematurely, cause "Goodbye Volcano High" would definitely fit in here, I'd say. Worth it to check out. Played it in one sitting. Real beautiful game that will stick with me for a while.
Edit: Just saw your tweet about playing it. Would love to know how you enjoyed it.
Absolutely ❤
Persona 3 spoilers
One of my favorite examples of the Pre-Apocalypse is in the ending section of Persona 3. Through out the course of the game, you accidentally unseal the raw concept of death, and this concept is approaching the world. Certainly causing life on it to end, you have two choices, each haunting in their own regard. One choice is that you can forget that you know the world is ending, and it plays a sequence where everyone just unknowingly goes about their lives with guaranteed death coming, the only comfort is they don't know about it. If you choose not to forget, choose to fight the concept. You play through the better part of a month where the world feels melancholy, your casts try their best to participate in normalcy that is fading fast. Even if they fight, its still all but certain they aren't going to make it.
10:22 ears perked up immediately when you pulled from the Rain world OST for this bit. Considering the subject matter, couldn't have chosen anything better for it really.
same dude, perfect choice for an apocalypse
This is the only pretentious essay channel that I don’t hate
same
This channel will go down in history as one of the best video essay channels, period.
I think there's a comfort to post apocalyptic stories. The end happened, what's next? It's like the feeling of throwing out all your dishes instead of cleaning them - a thing I'm guilty of doing. It feels easier to start anew than to fix what you already have. Maybe that's where we get fantasies of creating a new earth, when the one we have is right here, and hope is not lost, no matter how much the people at the top try and insist it is.
These videos always make me want to write comments that rival the length of the video itself, but I'll keep it short: the conclusion struck me to my very core. As is often the case, your video will stick in my brain for years. Incredible stuff.
As a big D&D fan, the short campaign, Calamity (Made through Critical Role), that gives a really interesting interpretation of pre-apocalypse.
One of the main characters leads to the apocalypse, but they’re framed as so morally grey and excited about their scientific discovery that you can’t hate the character. She loves so much, but she made a mistake.
Another main character comes from humble beginnings, riding atop this fast flying city. He realizes, as he’s dying, that his dreams won’t be understood, won’t be related to by anyone in the future. He smiles, and accepts it. His dreams won’t be understood, but he smiles because he found happiness, and helped all he could.
Another is given a chance to survive, being offered to go to a completely new world and survive. He refuses, because he believes he’s nothing without those he’s grown so attached through.
Another functions very similar to the photographer in Seasons. She finds purpose in the pre-apocalypse by passing knowledge. She struggles in breaking away from a society doomed to fail, but realizes that free knowledge, left undisturbed by bias or class.
This group, so ingrained in their flawed society, both perpetuates and fights against the inevitable end of their society. They try to find purpose in their suffering, and realize they can’t stop it. The world goes on, but it remains a fraction of what it once was. Memories are both lost and remembered. It’s a beautiful show.
Analogously, which the video makes all the prescient: “it’s easier to see the end of the world then the end of capitalism “ - Frederic Jameson
Your essays never stop to amaze me. Had goose bumps throughout the video. Great theme and source material!
im literally conceptualizing a painting series right now called "tales from the pre-apocalypse", been workshopping it for a few months. The fact that a lot of creatives are independently coming to this conclusion about the state of the world to the point that we're using the same language word for word is very telling !
do it!
i’ve heard some indigenous creatives talk about how indigenous-authored dystopian fiction often comes from a completely different lens than that written by white people, because many of the things that white people imagine as “dystopian” (lack of resources, large and empty spaces, apathetic or even malicious government) are things that indigenous communities already deal with in the modern world. the themes of constant injustice in umurangi generation really seem to exemplify that. great video
Rain World music being used to back the commentary on a game about some far observer seeing the “before” world is such a nice touch
10:20 I jolted when I heard that track!
Would love to see you talk about Rain World someday. At least you seem aware of it :)
i think i would explode if he talked about it
I was surprised you didn't mention Majora's Mask. Not that I've played it, but that spooky moon sure is iconic
Only to hazard a guess, but it's likely because he's already spoken at length about the darkness of Majora's Mask in the "Every Zelda is the darkest Zelda" video
I can't believe he didn't talk about mother 3 :(((
its kinda refreshing that he didnt, so many video essays talk about majoras mask lol
Jacob's
every Zelda Story is the Darkest Story video feels like a strong companion to this
I love the fact that Jacob has Rain World music; just the fact of I'm making a video about the game, the emotion, the journey is something I want to see.
I think what makes apocalypse stories so compelling is the notion of criticality. Pre-apocalypse stories are nearing a state of criticality. One in which all stakes are on and life as we know it is going to die. On the flip side, post-apocalypse stories both tap into our innate interest regarding what comes after and the fight to survive.
I should get around to writing an essay on this…
the discor elysium track under talking about blowing up a pipeline is just perfect. these are all stories i loooove, thank you for making this one
when jacob publish is always a treat
Its hard not to be apathetic. As individuals, there is never enough we can do, and organizations often get nothing done either because of corruption or because they are limited by bigger fish. Part of me wants to get angry, to lash out, to fight back against the still preventable apocalypse. But I can't will myself to anger. I can't convince myself to get upset at something I've already accepted.
I think knowing that, no matter how bad things get, I'll not be a victim can make me complacent. I'll likely be dead before climate change gets to a point of total annihilation. Of course I'd see some of its effects in my life, we all already have. But its the coming generation that might seriously have to start concidering their own mortality on a global scale and decide just what that means.
It can be hard to allow yourself to be empathetic to such a large group of people. So hard to quantify the feeling of billions of voices crying out. After all, there are millions crying out today. There has been, seemingly as far back as history, a constant suffering by so many groups. In contemporary, we have people dying of hunger, worker exploitation of a global scale, injustice and bigotry treated as topics to be argued about but never resolved, and countless other sources of pain for so many people. How can any of us be truly empathetic to so many people. We could do something to ease some of this, couldn't we? Even as individuals, we could give up so many unnecessary things and directly make someone elses existence a little more bearable. But we don't, because its too inconvenient, or we're too selfish, or we care more about a few people we know personally than a hundred faces we'll never see. And should any of us be suprised by this? If we aren't willing to give up our comforts to save the world, should we give them up to save a stranger?
this gave me a hankering for a post apocalypse healing type of video like how rainworld begins to heal after "people" are gone, but is forever changed by their decisions and changes to the world
"it is easier for some to learn to die than learn to fight.... "
I'm so angry thank you for this video
Jacob's videos always make me feel such a wide range of emotions. It's a rollercoaster every time.
I am an amateur Paraguayan writer midway trough my very long first novel, a fantasy one. I'm toying with the idea of my next story which originally was going to be set in space and with great fights and empires to be overthrown and all that stuff but I realized the parts I was into the most were every time my protagonist was in Earth living a mundane but dreadful life fearing of what's beyond. I'm gonna change the setting of my story, make him a civilian stuck in Earth and deal with hopelessness trying to find meaning in a short life because that's the feeling I was truly trying to convey. Thank you to put me back on track I guess. But first I have to finish my first story.
I appreciate the rainworld music very much as that game slots right into the apocalypse narrative just at the other end
Aight no more lifetime memberships for the time being, but the Nebula annual plan is still a great value and still directly supports me! go.nebula.tv/jacob-geller
I'm not seeing an option to buy the lifetime membership?
I wish I could join Nebula. If only they'd accept PayPal.
Well, you got me. I'm onboard.
@@G3rmanGsnLPClick through once. It's $300, or 10x the price of the discounted yearly rate that link gives, so the site would have to live 10 years for it to break even (if the renew rate on the yearly doesn't change). I'd definitely see it as more of a half-donation to support what they're doing, half actual sub.
Its there when you try to sign up. Costs 300$ damn. @@G3rmanGsnLP
Using the Gris soundtrack “in your hands” when im already going through so many emotions is a bit unfair. Bravo
10:29 HAHAHAH I love the musical nod to the themes of a decaying civilization in Rainworld that parallel what you're talking about! Such a beautiful track
Realizing much of the music I've been making these last few years fit neatly into this pre-apocalypse train of thought as well. I've described various projects as time capsules, celebratory, escapist, haunted, and hopeful. I don't normally plug on other people's videos, but listen to my FAUNA EP or shh! LP and all these scary themes come into focus.
"Hitting every red light going somewhere I don't want to go"
"When I'm done writing this song one billion crabs gone
And everybody's thinking about their next paycheck"
"Throw a seed bomb in the concrete jungle"
"Not another snake snummer bummer"
Banger video, Jacob
What an incredible and hopeful and driven message, this is an incredible video and is going to be one of my favorite videos of yours yet.
Its hard to explain how much Umarangi generation effected me in 2020. A pandemic, massive wildfires, watching the police and national guard beat and shoot protesters in the aftermath of George Floyd, in my own country seeing statues of slavers being pulled down. That time really did feel like a culmination of something. On that final level I remember spraying "20X0: END TIMES COMING" and watching your in game friends stare at it in the midst of the protest. I thought maybe it was the end of the world, but it was just the end of the before.
This struck a chord with me because I often find myself thinking about my childhood home, how I left it one day and never returned and can never return to the place that made me who I am. There is a sense of "before and after" which I feel sometimes very sharply.
Really appreciate the effort that’s gone into finding new ways of saying “I think about this moment a lot”