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I have read the book a while back and i gnow what you mean. I think it is one of my favorite stories of the past years. So it is nice to See this Video. I hope you have a nice day.
Just a nitpick but can you guys pick a title for the video and stick with it? It gets confusing when trying to search for a video when it doesn’t even have the same name.
I named the family car and when I speak about said car to mom, I use his name, Kit (a 2007 Jeep)… I do the same thing with my mobility aids… edit, when one of my canes (Kane) broke in my hand I said he died, and for me, someone who depends on my mobility aids, Kane’s death was traumatic
I've loved Tale Foundry for a few years now - but I feel like I don't state my appreciation enough. Thank you for putting so much passion, work and knowledge into these videos, I enjoy them so much and learn even more. Thank you!
Aw dude, that's so nice of you to say! Really brightened my day a lot! I'll share this with my team. Credit to Sylvan, my research assistant, for coming up with this video's topic and doing the research. -Benji
When I was little, my older sister often threw tantrums and one day during lunch she had stormed off to her room, and my mom couldn't convince her to come back downstairs. Getting a little desperate, she decided to tell her that the slices of bread were really sad and crying on her plate because she wouldn't come eat them, but that just made my sister respond with a grumpy "no". Returning to the kitchen, however, my mom found me sobbing really hard because I felt so bad for the bread :') I actually did personify objects a lot during my childhood, and though it's not as bad anymore as back then, I still find myself doing it nowadays. But I ended up using these ideas as an inspiration for a characters powers in a story I'm working on right now, which I'm having a lot of fun with, and this video only made me more excited about it :D Thank you for talking about this topic
@@definitelynotat-rex72 It's a comic about two friends (one is a wizard, the other not very familiar with the world of magic) who do odd jobs and help people in a fairytale like world. The wizard has the ability to sense the emotions people attach to objects and sometimes bring objects to life, but I still got to work a little on the details of how it works :)
In my story, mana when it's consumed, or more accurately, burned it screams. Nobody is quite sure if its just a sound or something more. The main character compares it to a hawk, but there's an emptiness left in its wake. Seeing as mana is primarily burned as propellant in firearms, its hard to say if the feeling is from the mana scream or from the gun firing.
In Deadlands they have a "superfuel" called ghost rock that, if I remember correctly, is actually made of souls, and it screams when burned and people have said they see figures come out of the smoke. The general consensus? "Eh. It's probably fine. Throw more on the fire."
Yes to all the questions. It's a known symptom of autism, that we can overly attach to objects, we can feel more strongly and that the objects really are kind of alive. I think it's neat.
i remember spending hours as a child trying to process the fact that [insert inanimate object here] couldn't sense the world around it. this pen doesn't know it's a pen. this bagel doesn't know it's about to be eaten. and then i cried because i fell over and hurt the floor anyway. and now i still say goodnight to my phone when it runs out of charge and apologise repeatedly to my computer when i spill water on it. i also think it's pretty neat!
Its neat in all kinds or ways and thinking of how inanimate sympathy can extend to all things its really nice to be able to experience it. Honestly i could imagine myself having a nice chat with the grass XD you can learn alot of things from it :)
I might choose not to watch this video, in favor of reading _The Slow Regard for Silent Things_ myself. Because honestly, if it was worth an entire fifteen minutes of video dedicated to it, I think I want to experience it firsthand. [EDIT] Why was this so popular? I just felt guilty for stopping three minutes in!
Don't worry my friend, they didn't spoil it too much to ruin the experience, you can still watch the video, the only things they mention is the worldbuilding, setting, the existence of a certain character and that one character's main quirk Edit: grammatical correction.
Considering we have sayings like, “if only the walls could speak,” I’d find it more strange if we did not invest any care into what thoughts inanimate objects could have; even if we know that isn’t true, what if?
An interesting personification I found is the Human created spaces like buildings at night or empty rooms. Liminal spaces is probably an example, yet there is so much to it. A gothic cathedral in Barcelona, may seem noble and melancholic. As an artist, is always worth exploring the feeling or mood a building could give, if the viewer contemplates it enough.
I can agree. Cathedral, churches (old once) and monasteries are beautifull. But I can't stay in one for long, since the only time I've been in one of them, it was for something boring. Like, going to pray or just sit still and listen to whatever the other person infront of you is saying. Those memories still haunt me.
From the title, I thought this was about how to design "inhuman" characters, or characters who have not only different beliefs/culture but fundamentally different thought processes. Like how most stories handwaive demons as "oh, they're destructive and they can't be reasoned with" as enough characterisation to why demons do demon things. I admit I am very limited in reading stories, but the closest I have seen this been attempted is in "Frieren at the Funeral", where they explain demons as nearly identical to humans in capacity for thought, but lack the concept of malevolence. Another is a video which tackles the idea of communication and how it may differ between different types of beings, humans use words, computers use code, godly beings use imagery, etc. I guess I have been trying to think of this myself, or in how to create a character which has conceptual abilties which humans do not and which aren't hand waived away. I appreciate that this is nearly paradoxial since I am a human trying to think of a concept which cannot be fathomed by a human, but if i can't think I can at least invoke that feeling I hope. A sense of knowing that something is logical but not one explained using human concepts.
Makes me think how one of the things I like to imagine is that even if objects are just, well, objects and don't have souls, they can develop one if they're cared for. Because those who care about it pour their feelings into it. Pour parts of their own souls. And depending on how realistic the world it can either be a mirror situation (you smile and get a smile back) or the thing can actually develop a soul and sentience. Imagine having a cybertronic dog, built from scratch. And you treat it as a real friend and take care of it that once someone rewrites the program to make the dog attack you, the dog fights back against it because the feelings are strong enough to oppose the program. Besides... why does it matter if a thing has a soul or not? Why not treat it well by default? Regardless of if the thing feels it's surely healthier for us to treat it well rather than take our anger on it "just because we can and it's ok 'cuz it can't feel." If you emanate rancid vibes the world around you, much like a mirror, will reflect them to you. So why not be nice, patient and understanding and get back those things instead?
I personally say hello to my house and plants and such every day when I leave and come back, and I find it makes my day a lot better to treat things that I know aren't sentient, as if they are. It's like giving compassion to the world itself and it humbles you by giving it back. I even ran into a particularly low hanging branch, and rather than getting annoyed when it poked and prodded at my face, I just laughed it off thinking "I deserved that for not paying attention to where I was going, that was a very good and light-hearted prank the world decided to just play on me. Okay I'll be more mindful of where I'm going next time!"
that reminds me of how I sometimes tell branches "thank you thaaaaaank you okay-" whenever I ask them to move a little bit while I'm moving through them
i used to talk to my bedroom! it's the only place i feel safe so it felt like it was looking after me. i thanked it by keeping it clean. i imagined there was some sort of spirit in there, for want of a better word, who stopped people from coming in. i guess it's part of why i've never felt comfortable letting anyone, even those i trust, into my room, cause it was alive to me.
Just like the spren of Roshar in the Stormlight archives. Personification is so fun and I really love how every little object that they mention have their own applied personality. From the empty feeling of loss of the broken pieces of statues. To the simple minded complacency of the stick. It's really interesting how everything's personality just works.
I find myself doing this a lot with machines. I imagine most of them as temperamental and quitters. During work some times the signal is bad and it feels like if I use my phone while in a bad place it just doesn’t work the same way than if I started in a better area. I think to myself “come on you lazy phone! Just because I woke you up in a bad place you’re just going to quit on me?” My PS4 is an old man that can still do the job but struggles every step. My Car is such a trooper and reliable
I do feel like we do give objects a bit of life. Sometimes situations and objects react to our desires thoughts/ and feelings. Like asking a mechanism to work and it does.
Grown up I loved personifying objects though especially things like my house where the TV remote and I definitely always felt bad for abandon toys wherever I would find them and Maddie me and my relationship when claiming that toy out of something like Toy story
When I write, it's not me making the story. The story already exists, somewhere out there in the infinite multiverse, and it NEEDS to be told. It's like the original meaning of the word Genius; there's these spirits of knowledge that occasionally possess worthy artists or inventors, and channel divine knowledge through them. When I find inspiration, I do not imagine a story, I FEEL its presence, and when it recognizes my ability as a writer, it SHOVES its way into my fingertips, FORCING itself to be told. I can barely keep up with my brain and hands. I _hear_ the essence of it in my mind, all its beats and emotions and soul, and through my knowledge of language, I let it into our world. I tell every emotion, every important bit of knowledge, in exactly the pacing it desires. And when I'm done, the story has unfolded before me, like sunlight pouring out of a star. I have no choice in the matter, either; when the story finds me, it will pester me untill I let it out; I once tried to leave the ending of a short love story ambiguous, but when I went to bed that night, the rest of the story just kept pounding at my brain, NEEDING to be told, so I got out of bed, went to my keyboard, and wrote it all out. It's even on UA-cam, in the comment section of a the video that inspired it, under my alt. account's name, "Monster? No. Defineable? Never." The video is "The writer" by Lucas King, and the story is "The writer and the poet". By the time I was finished, the story had quadrupled in length. I ontended on writing the final part the next day, but It wouldn't let me sleep untill it was finished. So I know for a fact that stories ARE alive. They NEED to be told in as true a form to what they are as possible, I am just the Messenger.
Same for me. I'm an artist, and quite often I get these "visions" that are like lightning-fast glimpses of complete images, sometimes even sequences of animation. They're spontaneous and then I'm left with the task of making it exist. I can force myself to make stuff by thought and technique, the visions never fail to be liked by people. Big part of why I draw is so people can see what I see so easily, impossible worlds of wonder and awe
@@toniann3416 Of course, the surprise that I have talent in the field certainly helps, but yeah, I cannot fully take credit for my stories, I am but a puny mortal vessel ekeing out their existence into our language.
Most of my writings come from my dreams. Actually visiting the settings, and for a time living in those settings. Sitting around, learning about characters from themselves. People sometimes have suggestions on stuff and tend to feel a bit dejected if it's something that just wouldn't fit. But, I have to remind them that I can't just do X willy-nilly, because these are characters and places I interact with regularly in my dreams. For filling in details, or times when I'm actively crafting stuff beyond what I dream of, it does feel very much like like you describe. Trying to force things to work tends to backfire. The trick is figuring out what the details are supposed to be, rather than just saying that something has to be A, while the feeling is that it really needs to be B or C.
Chris Gosden, author of 'The History of Magic', describes similar moments where the distinction between inanimate and animate objects breaks down such as swearing at a printer when it isn't working. He considers this an example of magical thinking, though that isn't something he says to be strictly derogatory. He considers magic to be 1 of 3 major strands of thought in human history: science and religion being the other two. It says that humans, being part of the universe, can participate in the universe and it can participate in them. Reality is hugely interconnected in this way of thinking. Gosden uses the example of Early Modern Astrology. The belief that the planets and stars above somehow affect us humans down below in such a precise measure as to make us ill or healthy on a given day? This is now thought of as crazy yet it formed the basis of scientific inquiry that led to astronomy since ancient times in Babylon, only being separated once more rigorous standards of evidence were formalised. Rather than concertedly sticking to the detached rationalism of science, and its assertion of a cold uncaring universe, sometimes it helps (or rather, sometimes it is necessary) to make the universe habitable again. To think of ourselves as intimately and inevitably situated within it. To recognise our mistake when we treat a stone as a living creature, but not seek to eliminate this imaginative and empathetic component of our psyche. I think if we truly did, then there would be nothing wondrous about the universe at all to us, and we would cease to even care to investigate it further, except maybe in the dire and desperate hope that we might find some meaning under the microscope rather than within our own psyche. The more I think about this the more significant it seems, but I should probably leave it at that.
One piece the going merry. Yeah objects can have character even without a personality. Other anime bleach the swords have souls but they all have unique designs and we can see how they work with the characters Robots I do like seeing the difference between a normal one and one who gains sentience as it goes into exploring the line between human and machine.
Human being's pack bonding instinct, the psychological processes that allow us to recognize, empathize and care for one another, especially our young, is famously just ALL jacked up and oversensitive. We put so much of ourselves into just about anything that we can imbue emotion onto. See anyone who has ever pet a roomba.
The toy part was true. I still have this plush horse I saw on the side of the road one day while I was driving home from work. Passed it by at nearly sixty miles per hour, thought about it for a few moments and turned around. went back, over shot, turned arund again, stopped and picked it up. He sat on the passenger seat all the way home, listening to classic rock with me and listening to me gripe about my day. After that, he was carefully washed, dried and placed on my desk where he sits to this day. However, it is the tiny giraffe that now rides upon the dashboard of my truck, seeing the world go y through the windshield. A proper co-pilot through rain, and cold, hot days, dark nights. aggravating traffic and wide open lanes. a few occasions he's been knocked from the perch only to be quickly placed back with a word of apology.. I know that they're just polyester fluff and so forth and they're not alive. That's not the point, sure there are perhaps thousands like them, mass produced, but they are not the ones I have now. Found on the side of a highway or plucked from the pile of dirt and trash swept from the floor of a store. Discarded from whomever had them before carelessly, and that I found sad. Sad that for all of our life we collect things, bits of our lives that someone else has no connection to at all. That after we are gone, all those things can end up tossed in garbage by careless individuals, Each bit of our lives whittled away and forgotten. That maybe someone will pick them up from the side of the road, give them a wash and smile when they look at them and take them as part of their life so that in small way, we can live on wit the thought that at one time, someone before us loved and cared about the thing we leave behind.
I was very surprised when the “true names” video from a few months back never covered kingkiller, but I am very happy we are now seeing your take on the stories rothfuss has made!
There’s a thing developers do where they have a rubber ducky and they talk about the problem in there program or game and sometimes just saying it out loud helps them think
0:54 mmmm fabric mother, it's an interesting experiment that was done. the infant monkeys had the choice between a metal mom with food and a fabric one but with no food. the monkeys always chose the fabric one, taught us a lot about the need for comfort. i recommend checking it out :]
I have a little story where abandoned buildings hold memories in the walls, trapped by roofs, and at a certain time at night, you can hear the voices of those who lived in the buildings, and sometimes, even see them. When someone dies, sometimes the building feel so hurt or misses the memories of the inhabitants so much, they trap them in as ghosts just to feel the warmth again. Really, this story is more of a personification of the feeling certain buildings give off, and to me, the personaliy of some buildings. It's probably one of my favorite things to think about, and sometimes I find myself patting the walls and asking them "you've seen a lot, haven't you?"
To go a slightly different route with objects having personality and emotions, I'm a fan of when inanimate objects become malicious due to lack of use, specifically with buildings. Such as The Oldest House from Control, a building that shifts around you and has seemingly existed longer than humans have. Or the house from Anatomy by Kitty Horrorshow, a house that was abandoned and now hates you to the point of breaking the game and growing teeth to consume you. Or even the titular Monster House from Gil Kenan's Monster House, which terrorises the protagonists. Jacob Geller has a great video essay about it, and I think it's a fantastic world building/character trait
This is my first time watching your channel and I love your calm demeanor and voice, I absolutely adore your avatar, I've always loved gears and trinkets and vintage knickknacks, your whole persona just warms my heart.
I love audible! And have read/listened to “the slow regard of silent things” and loved it. Currently listening/ reading “rhythm of war” by Brandon Sanderson.
I find that there are so many areas in my life where I do this more than I thought. I distinctly remember the afternoon I replaced my old drawing tablet with a new one. Almost as if it were an old friend I was parting ways with, I gave my old tablet a hug as a sort of "parting gift" for it's service in all my time as an artist, and I distinctly remember radiating a warmth that I would in a real hug. And then there's the times when I use Autodesk Maya for my honework, when I beg for mercy and interrogate the program why it behaves the way it is
I cannot thank you enough for doing a piece on "A Slow Regard for Silent Things". Rothfuss is my favorite author when it comes to immersive fiction, and despite my deep love for his other work, I firmly believe that this is his best work, for exactly the reasons you spoke about here. The meaning she pulls from the world around her is a beautiful stained glass window. Seemingly needlessly complex, and incredibly difficult to actually peer through, yet it remains hauntingly beautiful all the same. Not to mention the deep respect I have for writing anything in stream of consciousness format. That shit is ridiculously hard, at least to me and those I know. It has so much potential, but all my work with it comes out garbled and almost condescending when you take more than a page of it together. blegh Never has a channel more quickly earned my subscription.
if anybody reads this I recommend them to find out how to use a wayback machine it's a website that can save other websites for us to look back on so that we'll be able to see any changes in the future, it's like saving history but for websites I'm saying this because I think I might be able to make a difference to few people who'll realize that they can save their work online using it making their own history and maybe even using it creatively like changing descriptions of their own playlists to talk to the viewer on different topics over they years
Empathy that overflows naturally, without intention. Sometimes, empathy towards objects and fictional characters comes easier than towards very alive and real human beings. I feel awful when mistreating objects which have kept me company for many, many years. Guilt from not playing with decades old toys creeps in from time to time. But it's not all bad: when moving far, far away from the home and the beloved people (and cat) I've always known, one of the first thigns I did was decorating my new habitat with a number of things I took from home with me. It helped to feel much less alone. I give love to these inanimate things and, in a way, they give it back to me. It's a comforting thought.
Something that I would like to mention is that when I see something like an abandoned teddy bear or a work of art, the feelings you described can also come from imagining the story behind it. For example, the abandoned teddy bear is a toy that a child supposedly abandoned for whatever reason and thinking about that reason, even if it’s simple like the child grew up can be a surprisingly solemn experience. So, other than personification, the imaginary stories we can create in our heads surrounding that object can also do the trick. Maybe that is a part of personification to begin with and is a reason why we do it as a means to interact with a deeper level of the world around us. Not so much ‘What is the teddy bear doing here?’ but ‘Why and how is it there?’
I see the way we think of things as it is true pain they feel. But in us. As we create their pain when we think they’re in pain since they don’t actually have a soul, and are bound to creativity. So think of that 😌
Me, I get angry with the furniture I bump into, mumble or yell angrily, then genuinely apologize because they didn’t do anything And the stuffed animal one is scarily accurate lol
Something else that comes to mind with personification is actually how in video games people can get attached to characters that aren't meant to be part of a story the developers have written. We know they're just software I know in the Call Of Duty franchise, some will go out of their way to save the randomly generated soldiers and try to keep them alive. Random characters designed to die for dramatic effect, you got nothing but a name and some players will go to some stupid crazy lengths including breaking the game to try and save as many as they can. Another example I can think of is Pokemon Nuzlock runs, which for those that don't know is just a bunch of self imposed rules, in those one of the most important rules is you are forced to name each Pokemon you catch specifically so you get attached. I have a few personal examples, Skyrim with some mods for extra companions and some improvements and has actually once made me draw tears due to losing a companion that I had for a long time, but the most impactful I ever had was with Rimworld. In that game your colonists are randomly generated, granted you don't have a mods on (which I know your lying if say you don't), to which in my case lot characters are "mostly" random. Characters that are throw away, nobodies, pawns designed for disposal. But I end up caring about a lot of them, even if someone them get upset after they choose to not eat without a table, I try everything I can to help them to not only survive but thrive. Even if I have a play through goal, like my current one is to gather as many of the same race as I can and only recruit that race into the main colony, I'll end up doing things that goes against what I was trying to, such as letting a individual that isn't part of the same race take residence because one of the colonist feel in love with them or making a bunch of outposts because I wanted to free some of the natives from slavery but couldn't let them into the main colony. Whatever it is, I'll go out of my way to try and make the best and happiest future for these pawns who are made of literal collections of 1s and 0s because they shown off so well despite just being randomly made with no bigger purpose I end up personifying them.
I like to think that our personification of objects gives them a sort of ethereal life, not embedded in the objects themselves, but rather life through the perception of their beholders. When we discuss the inanimate as if it is alive, we create a sort of life that exists as an emergent property of our social interactions. Like what's said in the video, the act of empathizing with the inanimate actually allows us to "share" our emotions. Our social behavior acts as a sort of vessel for the feelings of the inanimate
Ah yes, when the intro speaks of things that you've never felt. I've never thought about objects in such ways. I really do just see them as objects. But alas, still a great video.
I was thinking of writing an autobiography but in the point of view of the a Treecko doll I used to have. But I haven't gotten the slightest clue where or how to start because I don't remember how I got it. I also don't remember much of those child days. All I can remember is making my own little world with it.
Everytime i hit an object harder than i should i instantly apologize and give it a kiss if i can. It has become so natural to me that i dont really look much into it at this point, it just kind of happens
That’s why I love Object shows (aside from a good idea and tdi and survivor inspiration) are kinda one of these things making living objects talk or have personalities,Pixar for a bit of it’s time did the same for objects in there movies and heck I before watching this watched a “Alphabet Lore” video and even tho is random the fact it exist and the video actually or pull a tiny bit of my heart strings or knowing the “characters” is amazing (I don’t know how much to a point for this case there are some I saw that maybe touches on what you said (object shows and the other stuff I saw but like I said I don’t know tho.)
Whenever I think of personification, I think of the Finn sword. Uncivilized Elk had a video on it if I remembered correctly. This topic and similar ones just make me mesmerized. I love this channel. To anyone reading this, I’m sorry for the rambling.
I like to think, that when I apologize or thank an inanimate object... I am giving myself something I need more of. I hate it when I am walking through an area and I get bumped into, no one apologizes because they are in a rush and don't think it's more important than what they are rushing to. So when I am rushing around the house and I bump into something... I make sure to put aside work over decency I am not used to getting everywhere else.
So yea...I think we do this to understand our own feelings about an object. It is self-reflection externalized. Of course, it is more whimisical when you read about someone else doing it. I wouldn't think it proper to stifle it in a person, especially if they are their own sounding board. It loses an ephemeral quality when I say, "The rain made me feel sad.", instead of, "The rain was melancholy that day.". Hmmm...the fine line between a lie and a truth said in a different way. Nice video, thanks.
This video gave me an idea for an artist: she thinks that all her paintings are her friends. Plot twist: The paintings are "alive". She can literally grant them life.
Woow... I do the same. Ironed my toys like living things and now as an adult feel the same with my car 🚗. Thought it a bit crazy like some say, but helps me love them more.... like some of my plants and home. It's also inspired me to try writing ✍. 😉
i once read a story in which a character was a robot who had never lived and yet he was scared to die and it was a story that has stuck in my mind since i read it
Though I am certainty too old to believe that stuffed animals are alive (and on a fundamental level, I know they are not) I refuse to hurt them in anyway. The other day I was reaching for a stuffed animal that I had dropped off the side of my bed, and when I grabbed onto its leg and tried to pull it up… it’s leg popped off. I cried and apologized and rapped a bandage around his stumpy leg, than wrapped the detached leg in cloth and placed it in a drawer. I still can’t look at him without apologizing, even though I know he can’t hear me and I did nothing wrong. It’s pretty crazy how stuff like that works.
when you started, I thought you were going for the characterization of the inanimate, in regards to storytelling significance. for example, I immediately thought of how coinage in the Kingkiller Chronicles functions kinda like a character of its own, giving weight to certain scenes, and becoming familliar, or even creating powerful emotional responses to the receipt or expense of them. when you then immediately mentioned Rothfuss, I was dumbfounded. doubly so when it was about a very different topic than I initially thought!
I get the idea that more complex objects tend to be seen as more developed "mentally". Machines like cars and computers often have devious plans or carry on despite any adversity - in people's eyes. In my bubble at least, these are the things most yelled at and most coerced or persuaded to do your bidding. Extra points foe yelling to the screen instead of the tower. Way to shoot the messenger. Funnily enough, I once created a race (the Desreki) for a SciFi-rpg that had this very same belief made into the base of a culture and held these so-called cybernetic souls sacred. They are a tribal and spiritual culture who see the universe as full of souls. People destroying natural objects to create man-made ones also creates these cybernetic souls; the bigger and more complex, the more intelligent. So, sharpening a stone to cut something is not a big deal, but things with lots of moving parts or power usage... The most advanced cybernetic soul is supposed to have super-human wisdom and nests in the largest space station reactor. Shamans confer with it in what is known as the Machine Oracle. Creation puts responsibility on people's shoulder, as they made not only an object, but a living thing and so these people value them highly. This leads to them being the best mechanics in the known universe, because repairpeople are basically doctors in this culture. Of course, nothing about all this has any tangible effects. Is the Desreki the best mechanic, because they burn sacred herbs while performing the repairs? Is the chanting appeasing the ship to go that bit faster or is it a memetic tool to remind them of all the routines? Who knows?
I'm not gonna watch any more of the video before I comment this but since you said "art is indifferent to its beholders" I just had a powerful idea for a magic/supernatural story.
WOAH EPISODE FEATURE THE SLOW REGARD!!! LOVE THAT ONE! Oh, also, in context of PR's works, I'd assume that Auri is a knower she knows the nature of things, and where they belong. There are many kinds of magic in the world of Temmerant, and The Fae, (Faerant?) including sympathy, sygaldry, possibly yllish knots count, and naming. To name is to understand the true name of part of the world, and in doing so exercise control. And I do think that Auri is aware of the hidden nature and desires of the world.
Have you ever read the *Young Wizards* series? It's fascinating world building. The oath young wizards must take. Their eternal battle against entropy. How everything has its own persona and wizards have the gift of communicating universally. For instance, to get your wand you must ask a tree for a branch. To walk on air, you must coax the air to remember a time it was trapped in a solid shape like ice. There are 3 major wizarding species on earth (humans, cats and cetaceans-dogs sacrificed their chance and chose to stand by humans instead) and many more alien wizards across the universe who have all taken the same oath- including an entire species of robots. So much magic has been used in Ireland over the millennia that there are strict laws for wizards there because of how the immense magical residue left behind can scramble and amplify spells if not handled carefully.
i do thanks and say sorry every time i drop something off table(or just drop it) or klank plate(or something) too againts anything as "thanks not breaking/sorry for doing that"
I actually have a slender man toy on my shelf and I felt so sorry that he couldn't use his hand anymore, we reattached it with duct tape, let it look to another direction or even let it look at text for it to read to pass the time and let it sleep on 3 other blocks placed together like a bed heck I even thought of how the other toys would try to attack each other after waking up so I just put the weapons and items to places which would give the weaker ones a bigger advantage this hasn't happened when I was a small child either
Maybe theres also a belief we want the world to be more alive than it already is. Like singing happy birthday to the mars rover, or getting attached to your roomba. We appreciate what these objects do for us, but they can’t and won’t accept that appreciation. But we do it anyway because we’re social like that, and we like to think that they know they’re loved.
For some reason your videos gives me intense Coraline vibes, i think it's the quiet musics that sound nostalgic and similar for me with the background somehow, it's feels nice tho.
I agree with everything you’ve said in this video. In a way, people like us not only give life to the world, but the world shares life with us. One can’t really exist without the other.
So my grandfather on my dad's side died in 2003. Iirc, Kirby Air Ride was _made_ in 2003. I've had a copy of KAR for as long as I can remember. And sometimes, just sometimes, I think it knows me. Sometimes I'll touch the game again after I'd not've in a long time, and the game graces me with good RNG. Plenty of Top Speed, good events, the Dragoon with plenty of minutes left to spare... Other times, I feel as if the game is mad at me or is trolling me. In one recent round, I remember I was trying to find positive Turn patches because of things regarding Top Speed, Turn, and the Compact Star (if you're on that machine and have high speed but low turn, your. Turns. Will. Feel. PAINFUL but if you have high turn/low speed steering the compact star will feel chaotic.) But everywhere I look... I open a box: negative turn. I open another box: THREE negatives!! Zooming around the city as time is ticking down and not but a SINGLE Turn for probably a full minute! And I'm even saying out loud, "where's Turn? I need Turn!" But it's just NOT THERE. Other (recent) times the game gives my BROTHER good RNG when I'm not playing and he has to be one to tell me about it. Top Speed's what's In The Box? YOU LUCKY ----- I think I've yet to experience that in my life! I swear! These are examples of the game trolling me! I'm convinced! And none of that accounts for some of the events! I should calm down-
I really felt that intro There are characters in a game series I love who look human but are just Personified Game Consoles and Game Companies giving them full on human characteristics A character named Noire in it, is a Personification of Playstation home systems her sister is the PSP/PS VITA They both look human but are just the Creator of the series giving the Console Wars faces to each of the Consoles Because I like the series so much I basically start giving the emotions of how feel about the character of Noire with my actual PlayStation (I love to play games one playstation)
I think some of the personification comes from the knowledge that things were created by a person for a purpose, or at least an intent. Especially in the case of art, toys, or tools. They have been ingnored, lost, or broken. The objects have lost their purpose. No child to play with. No work to do. No one to appreciate or speculate on the effort put into it's creation or the thoughts intended to provoke. Things like apologizing to the desk are more than just personifying it though. It's reflex as well as self admonishing. And in some case just expressing your own emotions. And then lakes are calm, not in that they have emotions, but on that they are still, undisturbed by environment, animal, or man. They can also be calmING, which is a different thing. But, I guess the most important part of personification, is seeing how people feel about things that have no feeling. You see an old bottle in the woods, decades old...and you knock it over. It breaks. It was whole. Existing in peace. And now it's existing in pieces. Why did you do that? How do you feel?
I am a MEGA empath, when I see a dying bug I feel like I’m about to cry. Unless it’s a bug that bit me or wants to kill me. But even then I still feel bad. And same goes for stuffed animals, I feel bad when I see one alone. Heck when I was little I had this yellow blanket that I loved a lot and I even gave it a name and gender. It was something like galaxy or something. Sometimes when I have an anxiety attack (and I just have sensory issues too so this contributes to it) or if I’m just feeling depressed, I find it and just kinda hold it for a bit. Heck on a really bad night I will cuddle it while sleeping. And I always kinda felt like it was alive and I would always feel bad if I got a stain on it, or threw up on it (which has happened a lot. And made me feel awful every time, cause I would feel gross if someone puked on me) or even got a rip along the edge or a tiny hole in it from my cat. I feel like I’ve connected so much with a small piece of soft fabric that I feel immature to have as a coping mechanism. The times I have cried into it over something stupid i couldn’t count, but I feel better because I can kinda spill my emotions to it and of course being inanimate, it doesn’t judge me. I kinda projected a huggable friendly optimistic personality to it (along with it being yellow which often means happiness) even though I know very well that it doesn’t care for my feelings and doesn’t have any sentience or life… but it’s still fun to project personality onto inanimate objects. Heck look at toy story, that’s all in the view of a toy, those darn movies made me feel empathy for non living things. Also side rant: toy story 3 was too sad for me to handle and it stressed little me out as a kid to see lotso’s sad backstory and hearing that baby doll cry. GAH makes me tear up thinking about it still!!! I can’t watch that movie and I hate it because it makes me SO FRIGGEN SAD!!!!
In the Law of one books it’s said that all things in existence have some level of consciousness. That their souls evolve into higher forms of existence.
There´s a spanish Author and UA-camr called Lorena Amkie. In one of her writing videos about characters she says: "Characters don´t have any more _Soul_ than the amount you let them borrow from you" This is in essence what you say at the end. As writers and as people we project our own souls into fictional characters and inanimate objects. The way we see them is no more than a reflection of our own selves. Thats -for example- why everytime that the argument about Sentient Robots pop up I judge people a little bit on their answer. Because if you ever came across a robot that claimed to be sentient and you could just disregard it on the sole premise that its a bunch of cables and metal... well that just means you are not seeing anything reflected back from that "mirror" so you probably don´t have a soul yourself....
Auri is one of my favorite characters in the series. Her heart is so pure. And I tend to think about it like way some Native American tribes do, every object can have a spirit.
Oh yes, one of my favorite books I love whenerver this channel ends up talking about one that I know Although I also love when it recomends books, it ends up giving some new favorites
AUDIBLE ➤ www.audible.com/talefoundry/
Sign up for a free 30-day trial of audible and get any audiobook of YOUR CHOICE for FREE! Including The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which we talked about in this video! It's a great way to support the show for free!
I have read the book a while back and i gnow what you mean. I think it is one of my favorite stories of the past years. So it is nice to See this Video. I hope you have a nice day.
Just a nitpick but can you guys pick a title for the video and stick with it?
It gets confusing when trying to search for a video when it doesn’t even have the same name.
I named the family car and when I speak about said car to mom, I use his name, Kit (a 2007 Jeep)… I do the same thing with my mobility aids… edit, when one of my canes (Kane) broke in my hand I said he died, and for me, someone who depends on my mobility aids, Kane’s death was traumatic
Ĺ
Or maybe atomic behaviors of the basics of want color is wave length emotions are wavelengths
“Have you ever bumped into a desk and apologized to it?” When I bump into a desk I usually swear at it. The two types of people.
So would I
I would just go ”aw you rectangly idiot table MOTHERFU-”
Yeah. The stuffed animal analogy hits hard, though.
Duality of man
“Ah you fookin bastard”
I've loved Tale Foundry for a few years now - but I feel like I don't state my appreciation enough. Thank you for putting so much passion, work and knowledge into these videos, I enjoy them so much and learn even more. Thank you!
Aw dude, that's so nice of you to say! Really brightened my day a lot! I'll share this with my team. Credit to Sylvan, my research assistant, for coming up with this video's topic and doing the research.
-Benji
You both create amazing videos! The atmosphere you put into your scp content makes them super immersive.
Hey 2 of my fave UA-camrs interacting
Cue Mr. Peanut Butter
Hey, I guess you would know alot about having making inanimate objects living huh?
When I was little, my older sister often threw tantrums and one day during lunch she had stormed off to her room, and my mom couldn't convince her to come back downstairs. Getting a little desperate, she decided to tell her that the slices of bread were really sad and crying on her plate because she wouldn't come eat them, but that just made my sister respond with a grumpy "no". Returning to the kitchen, however, my mom found me sobbing really hard because I felt so bad for the bread :')
I actually did personify objects a lot during my childhood, and though it's not as bad anymore as back then, I still find myself doing it nowadays. But I ended up using these ideas as an inspiration for a characters powers in a story I'm working on right now, which I'm having a lot of fun with, and this video only made me more excited about it :D Thank you for talking about this topic
might I ask what you are currently working on
got a good chuckle out of me 😂
@@definitelynotat-rex72 It's a comic about two friends (one is a wizard, the other not very familiar with the world of magic) who do odd jobs and help people in a fairytale like world. The wizard has the ability to sense the emotions people attach to objects and sometimes bring objects to life, but I still got to work a little on the details of how it works :)
I wish you the best of luck in your endeaver. 🍀🐞
@@TesnuzzikArt: That sounds interesting.
In my story, mana when it's consumed, or more accurately, burned it screams. Nobody is quite sure if its just a sound or something more. The main character compares it to a hawk, but there's an emptiness left in its wake.
Seeing as mana is primarily burned as propellant in firearms, its hard to say if the feeling is from the mana scream or from the gun firing.
In Deadlands they have a "superfuel" called ghost rock that, if I remember correctly, is actually made of souls, and it screams when burned and people have said they see figures come out of the smoke.
The general consensus?
"Eh. It's probably fine. Throw more on the fire."
That it is a really interesting concept, sounds like a good read
that reminds me of the flame from Promare!!!
Idk why but this comment made me think of FF6-7 and Full Metal Alchemist
aaaaaaAAAAAAA A A A A A A AA A A A A A A A A A A A A AA A AAAA A AA A A A A A A A _A_ A A A A AAA
Terry Pratchett put it best: "Imagination, not intelligence, is what makes us human"
@@flameofthephoenix8395 yeah no
@@flameofthephoenix8395 try and debate the 4th and 5th dimensions with a squirrel. Ill wait
Maybe its both.
breaking up with a partner because you had a dream that they cheated is the most human thing ever 💀
Objects as characters is one of my absolute favorite… tropes? Literary devices?
Have you read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane? It one of my favorite books with this trope
You like objects as characters? Well if you haven't I could recommend you the OSC? (Object show community)
@@CreativitySkys THE OSC
Have I got the community for you
Yes to all the questions. It's a known symptom of autism, that we can overly attach to objects, we can feel more strongly and that the objects really are kind of alive.
I think it's neat.
That explains a lot
i remember spending hours as a child trying to process the fact that [insert inanimate object here] couldn't sense the world around it. this pen doesn't know it's a pen. this bagel doesn't know it's about to be eaten. and then i cried because i fell over and hurt the floor anyway. and now i still say goodnight to my phone when it runs out of charge and apologise repeatedly to my computer when i spill water on it. i also think it's pretty neat!
It is
Its neat in all kinds or ways and thinking of how inanimate sympathy can extend to all things its really nice to be able to experience it. Honestly i could imagine myself having a nice chat with the grass XD you can learn alot of things from it :)
Sounds very unhealthy to me.
I might choose not to watch this video, in favor of reading _The Slow Regard for Silent Things_ myself. Because honestly, if it was worth an entire fifteen minutes of video dedicated to it, I think I want to experience it firsthand.
[EDIT] Why was this so popular? I just felt guilty for stopping three minutes in!
Don't worry my friend, they didn't spoil it too much to ruin the experience, you can still watch the video, the only things they mention is the worldbuilding, setting, the existence of a certain character and that one character's main quirk
Edit: grammatical correction.
Well, you can get the audible version for free. See 12:13 for more detail.
It is such a fabulous read, please do!
Considering we have sayings like, “if only the walls could speak,” I’d find it more strange if we did not invest any care into what thoughts inanimate objects could have; even if we know that isn’t true, what if?
An interesting personification I found is the Human created spaces like buildings at night or empty rooms. Liminal spaces is probably an example, yet there is so much to it.
A gothic cathedral in Barcelona, may seem noble and melancholic. As an artist, is always worth exploring the feeling or mood a building could give, if the viewer contemplates it enough.
Liminal spaces are pretty interesting
I can agree. Cathedral, churches (old once) and monasteries are beautifull.
But I can't stay in one for long, since the only time I've been in one of them, it was for something boring. Like, going to pray or just sit still and listen to whatever the other person infront of you is saying.
Those memories still haunt me.
From the title, I thought this was about how to design "inhuman" characters, or characters who have not only different beliefs/culture but fundamentally different thought processes. Like how most stories handwaive demons as "oh, they're destructive and they can't be reasoned with" as enough characterisation to why demons do demon things. I admit I am very limited in reading stories, but the closest I have seen this been attempted is in "Frieren at the Funeral", where they explain demons as nearly identical to humans in capacity for thought, but lack the concept of malevolence. Another is a video which tackles the idea of communication and how it may differ between different types of beings, humans use words, computers use code, godly beings use imagery, etc.
I guess I have been trying to think of this myself, or in how to create a character which has conceptual abilties which humans do not and which aren't hand waived away. I appreciate that this is nearly paradoxial since I am a human trying to think of a concept which cannot be fathomed by a human, but if i can't think I can at least invoke that feeling I hope. A sense of knowing that something is logical but not one explained using human concepts.
I watched this looking for a how-to-make-a-specific-kinda-character video, but I find myself now questioning my way of existing.
Makes me think how one of the things I like to imagine is that even if objects are just, well, objects and don't have souls, they can develop one if they're cared for. Because those who care about it pour their feelings into it. Pour parts of their own souls. And depending on how realistic the world it can either be a mirror situation (you smile and get a smile back) or the thing can actually develop a soul and sentience. Imagine having a cybertronic dog, built from scratch. And you treat it as a real friend and take care of it that once someone rewrites the program to make the dog attack you, the dog fights back against it because the feelings are strong enough to oppose the program.
Besides... why does it matter if a thing has a soul or not? Why not treat it well by default? Regardless of if the thing feels it's surely healthier for us to treat it well rather than take our anger on it "just because we can and it's ok 'cuz it can't feel." If you emanate rancid vibes the world around you, much like a mirror, will reflect them to you. So why not be nice, patient and understanding and get back those things instead?
I personally say hello to my house and plants and such every day when I leave and come back, and I find it makes my day a lot better to treat things that I know aren't sentient, as if they are. It's like giving compassion to the world itself and it humbles you by giving it back.
I even ran into a particularly low hanging branch, and rather than getting annoyed when it poked and prodded at my face, I just laughed it off thinking "I deserved that for not paying attention to where I was going, that was a very good and light-hearted prank the world decided to just play on me. Okay I'll be more mindful of where I'm going next time!"
that reminds me of how I sometimes tell branches "thank you thaaaaaank you okay-" whenever I ask them to move a little bit while I'm moving through them
i used to talk to my bedroom! it's the only place i feel safe so it felt like it was looking after me. i thanked it by keeping it clean. i imagined there was some sort of spirit in there, for want of a better word, who stopped people from coming in. i guess it's part of why i've never felt comfortable letting anyone, even those i trust, into my room, cause it was alive to me.
If locations can be characters, so can objects.
Just like the spren of Roshar in the Stormlight archives. Personification is so fun and I really love how every little object that they mention have their own applied personality. From the empty feeling of loss of the broken pieces of statues. To the simple minded complacency of the stick. It's really interesting how everything's personality just works.
I am a stick!
I find myself doing this a lot with machines. I imagine most of them as temperamental and quitters. During work some times the signal is bad and it feels like if I use my phone while in a bad place it just doesn’t work the same way than if I started in a better area. I think to myself “come on you lazy phone! Just because I woke you up in a bad place you’re just going to quit on me?”
My PS4 is an old man that can still do the job but struggles every step.
My Car is such a trooper and reliable
I do feel like we do give objects a bit of life. Sometimes situations and objects react to our desires thoughts/ and feelings. Like asking a mechanism to work and it does.
Grown up I loved personifying objects though especially things like my house where the TV remote and I definitely always felt bad for abandon toys wherever I would find them and Maddie me and my relationship when claiming that toy out of something like Toy story
Robots are objects and yet they're characters
That's such a Black and White way to put it, though.
@@RF-Ataraxiais it not true though? Robots aren’t sentient and have no life. They’re objects
Not exactly, most robots as characters have gained personhood.
*Looks at BFDI*
Hmm.. I don’t see why not Objects can’t be characters
But nice video!! :D I love this channel so much
Yes.
_its as if objects can do challenges_
why is this whole video art? the visuals are gorgaous drawings and the audio is perfect poetry and sweet music god i love this
No, YOU'RE a work of art. Because wholesome comments like this are so rare. Thank you.
can’t believe i’ve only just stumbled upon this channel
When I write, it's not me making the story. The story already exists, somewhere out there in the infinite multiverse, and it NEEDS to be told. It's like the original meaning of the word Genius; there's these spirits of knowledge that occasionally possess worthy artists or inventors, and channel divine knowledge through them. When I find inspiration, I do not imagine a story, I FEEL its presence, and when it recognizes my ability as a writer, it SHOVES its way into my fingertips, FORCING itself to be told. I can barely keep up with my brain and hands. I _hear_ the essence of it in my mind, all its beats and emotions and soul, and through my knowledge of language, I let it into our world. I tell every emotion, every important bit of knowledge, in exactly the pacing it desires. And when I'm done, the story has unfolded before me, like sunlight pouring out of a star. I have no choice in the matter, either; when the story finds me, it will pester me untill I let it out; I once tried to leave the ending of a short love story ambiguous, but when I went to bed that night, the rest of the story just kept pounding at my brain, NEEDING to be told, so I got out of bed, went to my keyboard, and wrote it all out. It's even on UA-cam, in the comment section of a the video that inspired it, under my alt. account's name, "Monster? No. Defineable? Never." The video is "The writer" by Lucas King, and the story is "The writer and the poet". By the time I was finished, the story had quadrupled in length. I ontended on writing the final part the next day, but It wouldn't let me sleep untill it was finished.
So I know for a fact that stories ARE alive. They NEED to be told in as true a form to what they are as possible, I am just the Messenger.
My own thoughts expressed perfectly.👍
My family calls us folk channe
Same for me. I'm an artist, and quite often I get these "visions" that are like lightning-fast glimpses of complete images, sometimes even sequences of animation. They're spontaneous and then I'm left with the task of making it exist. I can force myself to make stuff by thought and technique, the visions never fail to be liked by people.
Big part of why I draw is so people can see what I see so easily, impossible worlds of wonder and awe
@@toniann3416 Of course, the surprise that I have talent in the field certainly helps, but yeah, I cannot fully take credit for my stories, I am but a puny mortal vessel ekeing out their existence into our language.
Most of my writings come from my dreams. Actually visiting the settings, and for a time living in those settings. Sitting around, learning about characters from themselves. People sometimes have suggestions on stuff and tend to feel a bit dejected if it's something that just wouldn't fit. But, I have to remind them that I can't just do X willy-nilly, because these are characters and places I interact with regularly in my dreams. For filling in details, or times when I'm actively crafting stuff beyond what I dream of, it does feel very much like like you describe. Trying to force things to work tends to backfire. The trick is figuring out what the details are supposed to be, rather than just saying that something has to be A, while the feeling is that it really needs to be B or C.
Chris Gosden, author of 'The History of Magic', describes similar moments where the distinction between inanimate and animate objects breaks down such as swearing at a printer when it isn't working. He considers this an example of magical thinking, though that isn't something he says to be strictly derogatory. He considers magic to be 1 of 3 major strands of thought in human history: science and religion being the other two. It says that humans, being part of the universe, can participate in the universe and it can participate in them. Reality is hugely interconnected in this way of thinking. Gosden uses the example of Early Modern Astrology. The belief that the planets and stars above somehow affect us humans down below in such a precise measure as to make us ill or healthy on a given day? This is now thought of as crazy yet it formed the basis of scientific inquiry that led to astronomy since ancient times in Babylon, only being separated once more rigorous standards of evidence were formalised.
Rather than concertedly sticking to the detached rationalism of science, and its assertion of a cold uncaring universe, sometimes it helps (or rather, sometimes it is necessary) to make the universe habitable again. To think of ourselves as intimately and inevitably situated within it. To recognise our mistake when we treat a stone as a living creature, but not seek to eliminate this imaginative and empathetic component of our psyche. I think if we truly did, then there would be nothing wondrous about the universe at all to us, and we would cease to even care to investigate it further, except maybe in the dire and desperate hope that we might find some meaning under the microscope rather than within our own psyche. The more I think about this the more significant it seems, but I should probably leave it at that.
This is a perfect explanation for hoarding you build a bond with items and can't get rid of them (i as a hoardercan conferm this)
I believe the idea of Objects as Characters is called Romanticism.
Charles Dickens books are a nice example☺️!
Honestly non-living entities are probably the most fascinating thing to ever explore.
One piece the going merry. Yeah objects can have character even without a personality. Other anime bleach the swords have souls but they all have unique designs and we can see how they work with the characters
Robots I do like seeing the difference between a normal one and one who gains sentience as it goes into exploring the line between human and machine.
Well, they can certainly be Tsukomogami!
Human being's pack bonding instinct, the psychological processes that allow us to recognize, empathize and care for one another, especially our young, is famously just ALL jacked up and oversensitive. We put so much of ourselves into just about anything that we can imbue emotion onto.
See anyone who has ever pet a roomba.
The toy part was true. I still have this plush horse I saw on the side of the road one day while I was driving home from work. Passed it by at nearly sixty miles per hour, thought about it for a few moments and turned around. went back, over shot, turned arund again, stopped and picked it up. He sat on the passenger seat all the way home, listening to classic rock with me and listening to me gripe about my day. After that, he was carefully washed, dried and placed on my desk where he sits to this day.
However, it is the tiny giraffe that now rides upon the dashboard of my truck, seeing the world go y through the windshield. A proper co-pilot through rain, and cold, hot days, dark nights. aggravating traffic and wide open lanes. a few occasions he's been knocked from the perch only to be quickly placed back with a word of apology..
I know that they're just polyester fluff and so forth and they're not alive. That's not the point, sure there are perhaps thousands like them, mass produced, but they are not the ones I have now. Found on the side of a highway or plucked from the pile of dirt and trash swept from the floor of a store. Discarded from whomever had them before carelessly, and that I found sad. Sad that for all of our life we collect things, bits of our lives that someone else has no connection to at all. That after we are gone, all those things can end up tossed in garbage by careless individuals, Each bit of our lives whittled away and forgotten. That maybe someone will pick them up from the side of the road, give them a wash and smile when they look at them and take them as part of their life so that in small way, we can live on wit the thought that at one time, someone before us loved and cared about the thing we leave behind.
That is absolutely an adorable thing to read through
I was very surprised when the “true names” video from a few months back never covered kingkiller, but I am very happy we are now seeing your take on the stories rothfuss has made!
I'm fairly certain that video does mention kingkiller though
-Benji, showrunner
Oh did it? Damn I need to rewatch it I did not remember that
There’s a thing developers do where they have a rubber ducky and they talk about the problem in there program or game and sometimes just saying it out loud helps them think
0:54 mmmm fabric mother, it's an interesting experiment that was done. the infant monkeys had the choice between a metal mom with food and a fabric one but with no food. the monkeys always chose the fabric one, taught us a lot about the need for comfort. i recommend checking it out :]
I have a little story where abandoned buildings hold memories in the walls, trapped by roofs, and at a certain time at night, you can hear the voices of those who lived in the buildings, and sometimes, even see them.
When someone dies, sometimes the building feel so hurt or misses the memories of the inhabitants so much, they trap them in as ghosts just to feel the warmth again. Really, this story is more of a personification of the feeling certain buildings give off, and to me, the personaliy of some buildings.
It's probably one of my favorite things to think about, and sometimes I find myself patting the walls and asking them "you've seen a lot, haven't you?"
To go a slightly different route with objects having personality and emotions, I'm a fan of when inanimate objects become malicious due to lack of use, specifically with buildings. Such as The Oldest House from Control, a building that shifts around you and has seemingly existed longer than humans have. Or the house from Anatomy by Kitty Horrorshow, a house that was abandoned and now hates you to the point of breaking the game and growing teeth to consume you. Or even the titular Monster House from Gil Kenan's Monster House, which terrorises the protagonists. Jacob Geller has a great video essay about it, and I think it's a fantastic world building/character trait
This is my first time watching your channel and I love your calm demeanor and voice, I absolutely adore your avatar, I've always loved gears and trinkets and vintage knickknacks, your whole persona just warms my heart.
I love audible! And have read/listened to “the slow regard of silent things” and loved it. Currently listening/ reading “rhythm of war” by Brandon Sanderson.
As a fan of the Supernatural series, I can tell you that inanimate objects can, indeed, become characters.
Example please???
Oh shit. The Impala is the prime example 🤦♂️
@@danecarrington4326 Yes, I was talking about the Impala. XD
There’s also a type of yokai that’s latterly an object given life after 100 years of use
I find that there are so many areas in my life where I do this more than I thought.
I distinctly remember the afternoon I replaced my old drawing tablet with a new one. Almost as if it were an old friend I was parting ways with, I gave my old tablet a hug as a sort of "parting gift" for it's service in all my time as an artist, and I distinctly remember radiating a warmth that I would in a real hug.
And then there's the times when I use Autodesk Maya for my honework, when I beg for mercy and interrogate the program why it behaves the way it is
I cannot thank you enough for doing a piece on "A Slow Regard for Silent Things". Rothfuss is my favorite author when it comes to immersive fiction, and despite my deep love for his other work, I firmly believe that this is his best work, for exactly the reasons you spoke about here. The meaning she pulls from the world around her is a beautiful stained glass window. Seemingly needlessly complex, and incredibly difficult to actually peer through, yet it remains hauntingly beautiful all the same.
Not to mention the deep respect I have for writing anything in stream of consciousness format. That shit is ridiculously hard, at least to me and those I know. It has so much potential, but all my work with it comes out garbled and almost condescending when you take more than a page of it together. blegh
Never has a channel more quickly earned my subscription.
I KNEW IT! JUST FROM THE TITLE! Honestly I was so excited to see you cover this book! It's one of my favorites!
as a Toby Fox fan,i can say Ralsei's character design is absolutely GOATed
I always love TF's poignant take on stories. I get the feeling that this book appealed to your aesthetic more than most.
3:35 I can hear the excuses now: "I'm sorry professor, but the Haloed-Hair Girl stole my homework."
if anybody reads this I recommend them to find out how to use a wayback machine
it's a website that can save other websites for us to look back on so that we'll be able to see any changes in the future, it's like saving history but for websites
I'm saying this because I think I might be able to make a difference to few people who'll realize that they can save their work online using it making their own history and maybe even using it creatively like changing descriptions of their own playlists to talk to the viewer on different topics over they years
Finally! They drew something humanoid without giving them robo-arms! They're trying out different styles!
Empathy that overflows naturally, without intention. Sometimes, empathy towards objects and fictional characters comes easier than towards very alive and real human beings. I feel awful when mistreating objects which have kept me company for many, many years. Guilt from not playing with decades old toys creeps in from time to time. But it's not all bad: when moving far, far away from the home and the beloved people (and cat) I've always known, one of the first thigns I did was decorating my new habitat with a number of things I took from home with me.
It helped to feel much less alone. I give love to these inanimate things and, in a way, they give it back to me. It's a comforting thought.
Something that I would like to mention is that when I see something like an abandoned teddy bear or a work of art, the feelings you described can also come from imagining the story behind it. For example, the abandoned teddy bear is a toy that a child supposedly abandoned for whatever reason and thinking about that reason, even if it’s simple like the child grew up can be a surprisingly solemn experience. So, other than personification, the imaginary stories we can create in our heads surrounding that object can also do the trick. Maybe that is a part of personification to begin with and is a reason why we do it as a means to interact with a deeper level of the world around us. Not so much ‘What is the teddy bear doing here?’ but ‘Why and how is it there?’
I see the way we think of things as it is true pain they feel. But in us. As we create their pain when we think they’re in pain since they don’t actually have a soul, and are bound to creativity. So think of that 😌
Me, I get angry with the furniture I bump into, mumble or yell angrily, then genuinely apologize because they didn’t do anything
And the stuffed animal one is scarily accurate lol
8:54 For some reason, I think the image here of a Taleoid with its eyes closed and heart showing looks beautiful.
Something else that comes to mind with personification is actually how in video games people can get attached to characters that aren't meant to be part of a story the developers have written. We know they're just software
I know in the Call Of Duty franchise, some will go out of their way to save the randomly generated soldiers and try to keep them alive. Random characters designed to die for dramatic effect, you got nothing but a name and some players will go to some stupid crazy lengths including breaking the game to try and save as many as they can.
Another example I can think of is Pokemon Nuzlock runs, which for those that don't know is just a bunch of self imposed rules, in those one of the most important rules is you are forced to name each Pokemon you catch specifically so you get attached.
I have a few personal examples, Skyrim with some mods for extra companions and some improvements and has actually once made me draw tears due to losing a companion that I had for a long time, but the most impactful I ever had was with Rimworld. In that game your colonists are randomly generated, granted you don't have a mods on (which I know your lying if say you don't), to which in my case lot characters are "mostly" random. Characters that are throw away, nobodies, pawns designed for disposal. But I end up caring about a lot of them, even if someone them get upset after they choose to not eat without a table, I try everything I can to help them to not only survive but thrive. Even if I have a play through goal, like my current one is to gather as many of the same race as I can and only recruit that race into the main colony, I'll end up doing things that goes against what I was trying to, such as letting a individual that isn't part of the same race take residence because one of the colonist feel in love with them or making a bunch of outposts because I wanted to free some of the natives from slavery but couldn't let them into the main colony. Whatever it is, I'll go out of my way to try and make the best and happiest future for these pawns who are made of literal collections of 1s and 0s because they shown off so well despite just being randomly made with no bigger purpose I end up personifying them.
I like to think that our personification of objects gives them a sort of ethereal life, not embedded in the objects themselves, but rather life through the perception of their beholders. When we discuss the inanimate as if it is alive, we create a sort of life that exists as an emergent property of our social interactions. Like what's said in the video, the act of empathizing with the inanimate actually allows us to "share" our emotions. Our social behavior acts as a sort of vessel for the feelings of the inanimate
Ah yes, when the intro speaks of things that you've never felt.
I've never thought about objects in such ways. I really do just see them as objects.
But alas, still a great video.
I was thinking of writing an autobiography but in the point of view of the a Treecko doll I used to have. But I haven't gotten the slightest clue where or how to start because I don't remember how I got it. I also don't remember much of those child days. All I can remember is making my own little world with it.
Everytime i hit an object harder than i should i instantly apologize and give it a kiss if i can. It has become so natural to me that i dont really look much into it at this point, it just kind of happens
That’s why I love Object shows (aside from a good idea and tdi and survivor inspiration) are kinda one of these things making living objects talk or have personalities,Pixar for a bit of it’s time did the same for objects in there movies and heck I before watching this watched a “Alphabet Lore” video and even tho is random the fact it exist and the video actually or pull a tiny bit of my heart strings or knowing the “characters” is amazing (I don’t know how much to a point for this case there are some I saw that maybe touches on what you said (object shows and the other stuff I saw but like I said I don’t know tho.)
Whenever I think of personification, I think of the Finn sword. Uncivilized Elk had a video on it if I remembered correctly. This topic and similar ones just make me mesmerized. I love this channel. To anyone reading this, I’m sorry for the rambling.
I like to think, that when I apologize or thank an inanimate object... I am giving myself something I need more of. I hate it when I am walking through an area and I get bumped into, no one apologizes because they are in a rush and don't think it's more important than what they are rushing to. So when I am rushing around the house and I bump into something... I make sure to put aside work over decency I am not used to getting everywhere else.
So yea...I think we do this to understand our own feelings about an object. It is self-reflection externalized. Of course, it is more whimisical when you read about someone else doing it. I wouldn't think it proper to stifle it in a person, especially if they are their own sounding board.
It loses an ephemeral quality when I say, "The rain made me feel sad.", instead of, "The rain was melancholy that day.". Hmmm...the fine line between a lie and a truth said in a different way.
Nice video, thanks.
This video gave me an idea for an artist: she thinks that all her paintings are her friends. Plot twist: The paintings are "alive". She can literally grant them life.
Woow... I do the same. Ironed my toys like living things and now as an adult feel the same with my car 🚗. Thought it a bit crazy like some say, but helps me love them more.... like some of my plants and home. It's also inspired me to try writing ✍. 😉
When you called her Ori my heart stopped because that's my name and she sounds exactly like me.
OMG, Slow Regard is me favorite book 💜🖤 I read it every time I feel a bit sad or alone
i once read a story in which a character was a robot who had never lived and yet he was scared to die and it was a story that has stuck in my mind since i read it
Though I am certainty too old to believe that stuffed animals are alive (and on a fundamental level, I know they are not) I refuse to hurt them in anyway. The other day I was reaching for a stuffed animal that I had dropped off the side of my bed, and when I grabbed onto its leg and tried to pull it up… it’s leg popped off. I cried and apologized and rapped a bandage around his stumpy leg, than wrapped the detached leg in cloth and placed it in a drawer. I still can’t look at him without apologizing, even though I know he can’t hear me and I did nothing wrong. It’s pretty crazy how stuff like that works.
when you started, I thought you were going for the characterization of the inanimate, in regards to storytelling significance. for example, I immediately thought of how coinage in the Kingkiller Chronicles functions kinda like a character of its own, giving weight to certain scenes, and becoming familliar, or even creating powerful emotional responses to the receipt or expense of them.
when you then immediately mentioned Rothfuss, I was dumbfounded. doubly so when it was about a very different topic than I initially thought!
I get the idea that more complex objects tend to be seen as more developed "mentally". Machines like cars and computers often have devious plans or carry on despite any adversity - in people's eyes. In my bubble at least, these are the things most yelled at and most coerced or persuaded to do your bidding. Extra points foe yelling to the screen instead of the tower. Way to shoot the messenger.
Funnily enough, I once created a race (the Desreki) for a SciFi-rpg that had this very same belief made into the base of a culture and held these so-called cybernetic souls sacred. They are a tribal and spiritual culture who see the universe as full of souls. People destroying natural objects to create man-made ones also creates these cybernetic souls; the bigger and more complex, the more intelligent. So, sharpening a stone to cut something is not a big deal, but things with lots of moving parts or power usage... The most advanced cybernetic soul is supposed to have super-human wisdom and nests in the largest space station reactor. Shamans confer with it in what is known as the Machine Oracle.
Creation puts responsibility on people's shoulder, as they made not only an object, but a living thing and so these people value them highly. This leads to them being the best mechanics in the known universe, because repairpeople are basically doctors in this culture.
Of course, nothing about all this has any tangible effects. Is the Desreki the best mechanic, because they burn sacred herbs while performing the repairs? Is the chanting appeasing the ship to go that bit faster or is it a memetic tool to remind them of all the routines? Who knows?
I'm not gonna watch any more of the video before I comment this but since you said "art is indifferent to its beholders" I just had a powerful idea for a magic/supernatural story.
Patrick Rothfuss is by far my favorite author of all time. The name of the wind is an excellent, excellent book.
Ah. You understand the slow regard.... *nod* that explains so much. So few people do.
WOAH EPISODE FEATURE THE SLOW REGARD!!! LOVE THAT ONE!
Oh, also, in context of PR's works, I'd assume that Auri is a knower she knows the nature of things, and where they belong. There are many kinds of magic in the world of Temmerant, and The Fae, (Faerant?) including sympathy, sygaldry, possibly yllish knots count, and naming. To name is to understand the true name of part of the world, and in doing so exercise control. And I do think that Auri is aware of the hidden nature and desires of the world.
Have you ever read the *Young Wizards* series? It's fascinating world building. The oath young wizards must take. Their eternal battle against entropy. How everything has its own persona and wizards have the gift of communicating universally. For instance, to get your wand you must ask a tree for a branch. To walk on air, you must coax the air to remember a time it was trapped in a solid shape like ice. There are 3 major wizarding species on earth (humans, cats and cetaceans-dogs sacrificed their chance and chose to stand by humans instead) and many more alien wizards across the universe who have all taken the same oath- including an entire species of robots. So much magic has been used in Ireland over the millennia that there are strict laws for wizards there because of how the immense magical residue left behind can scramble and amplify spells if not handled carefully.
Been coming back to this channel for a while honestly for videos that are extremely long this one keeps my attention. 👍
i do thanks and say sorry every time i drop something off table(or just drop it) or klank plate(or something) too againts anything as "thanks not breaking/sorry for doing that"
I actually have a slender man toy on my shelf and I felt so sorry that he couldn't use his hand anymore, we reattached it with duct tape, let it look to another direction or even let it look at text for it to read to pass the time and let it sleep on 3 other blocks placed together like a bed
heck I even thought of how the other toys would try to attack each other after waking up so I just put the weapons and items to places which would give the weaker ones a bigger advantage
this hasn't happened when I was a small child either
Maybe theres also a belief we want the world to be more alive than it already is. Like singing happy birthday to the mars rover, or getting attached to your roomba. We appreciate what these objects do for us, but they can’t and won’t accept that appreciation. But we do it anyway because we’re social like that, and we like to think that they know they’re loved.
For some reason your videos gives me intense Coraline vibes, i think it's the quiet musics that sound nostalgic and similar for me with the background somehow, it's feels nice tho.
I agree with everything you’ve said in this video. In a way, people like us not only give life to the world, but the world shares life with us. One can’t really exist without the other.
So my grandfather on my dad's side died in 2003. Iirc, Kirby Air Ride was _made_ in 2003.
I've had a copy of KAR for as long as I can remember. And sometimes, just sometimes, I think it knows me. Sometimes I'll touch the game again after I'd not've in a long time, and the game graces me with good RNG. Plenty of Top Speed, good events, the Dragoon with plenty of minutes left to spare...
Other times, I feel as if the game is mad at me or is trolling me. In one recent round, I remember I was trying to find positive Turn patches because of things regarding Top Speed, Turn, and the Compact Star (if you're on that machine and have high speed but low turn, your. Turns. Will. Feel. PAINFUL but if you have high turn/low speed steering the compact star will feel chaotic.) But everywhere I look... I open a box: negative turn. I open another box: THREE negatives!! Zooming around the city as time is ticking down and not but a SINGLE Turn for probably a full minute! And I'm even saying out loud, "where's Turn? I need Turn!" But it's just NOT THERE.
Other (recent) times the game gives my BROTHER good RNG when I'm not playing and he has to be one to tell me about it. Top Speed's what's In The Box? YOU LUCKY ----- I think I've yet to experience that in my life! I swear! These are examples of the game trolling me! I'm convinced! And none of that accounts for some of the events!
I should calm down-
I really felt that intro
There are characters in a game series I love who look human but are just Personified Game Consoles and Game Companies giving them full on human characteristics
A character named Noire in it, is a Personification of Playstation home systems her sister is the PSP/PS VITA
They both look human but are just the Creator of the series giving the Console Wars faces to each of the Consoles
Because I like the series so much I basically start giving the emotions of how feel about the character of Noire with my actual PlayStation (I love to play games one playstation)
*Sapient is a better term to use since it means you are aware of the self, sentient means you have senses.
Great series and characters, but this is still in my top five stories I've ever read!
I think some of the personification comes from the knowledge that things were created by a person for a purpose, or at least an intent. Especially in the case of art, toys, or tools. They have been ingnored, lost, or broken. The objects have lost their purpose. No child to play with. No work to do. No one to appreciate or speculate on the effort put into it's creation or the thoughts intended to provoke.
Things like apologizing to the desk are more than just personifying it though. It's reflex as well as self admonishing. And in some case just expressing your own emotions.
And then lakes are calm, not in that they have emotions, but on that they are still, undisturbed by environment, animal, or man. They can also be calmING, which is a different thing.
But, I guess the most important part of personification, is seeing how people feel about things that have no feeling.
You see an old bottle in the woods, decades old...and you knock it over. It breaks. It was whole. Existing in peace. And now it's existing in pieces. Why did you do that? How do you feel?
I am a MEGA empath, when I see a dying bug I feel like I’m about to cry. Unless it’s a bug that bit me or wants to kill me. But even then I still feel bad. And same goes for stuffed animals, I feel bad when I see one alone. Heck when I was little I had this yellow blanket that I loved a lot and I even gave it a name and gender. It was something like galaxy or something. Sometimes when I have an anxiety attack (and I just have sensory issues too so this contributes to it) or if I’m just feeling depressed, I find it and just kinda hold it for a bit. Heck on a really bad night I will cuddle it while sleeping. And I always kinda felt like it was alive and I would always feel bad if I got a stain on it, or threw up on it (which has happened a lot. And made me feel awful every time, cause I would feel gross if someone puked on me) or even got a rip along the edge or a tiny hole in it from my cat. I feel like I’ve connected so much with a small piece of soft fabric that I feel immature to have as a coping mechanism. The times I have cried into it over something stupid i couldn’t count, but I feel better because I can kinda spill my emotions to it and of course being inanimate, it doesn’t judge me. I kinda projected a huggable friendly optimistic personality to it (along with it being yellow which often means happiness) even though I know very well that it doesn’t care for my feelings and doesn’t have any sentience or life… but it’s still fun to project personality onto inanimate objects. Heck look at toy story, that’s all in the view of a toy, those darn movies made me feel empathy for non living things.
Also side rant: toy story 3 was too sad for me to handle and it stressed little me out as a kid to see lotso’s sad backstory and hearing that baby doll cry. GAH makes me tear up thinking about it still!!! I can’t watch that movie and I hate it because it makes me SO FRIGGEN SAD!!!!
Something about your voice is oddly soothing and helps me get in the mood about writing
I was too in my head and just needed this. Thank you! 🖤
The anthropic principle,in affect...
In the Law of one books it’s said that all things in existence have some level of consciousness. That their souls evolve into higher forms of existence.
There´s a spanish Author and UA-camr called Lorena Amkie. In one of her writing videos about characters she says:
"Characters don´t have any more _Soul_ than the amount you let them borrow from you"
This is in essence what you say at the end. As writers and as people we project our own souls into fictional characters and inanimate objects. The way we see them is no more than a reflection of our own selves.
Thats -for example- why everytime that the argument about Sentient Robots pop up I judge people a little bit on their answer.
Because if you ever came across a robot that claimed to be sentient and you could just disregard it on the sole premise that its a bunch of cables and metal... well that just means you are not seeing anything reflected back from that "mirror" so you probably don´t have a soul yourself....
Auri is one of my favorite characters in the series. Her heart is so pure. And I tend to think about it like way some Native American tribes do, every object can have a spirit.
Boosting the video cause I love yalls stories, they are so well made and yall deserve so many views.
Object shows, e.g. bfdi (battle for dream island)
Rolled high on Inland Empire check and suddenly everything alive.
thank you for this video. I am currently writing a novella about personified fingers and this video has helped alot
Oh yes, one of my favorite books I love whenerver this channel ends up talking about one that I know
Although I also love when it recomends books, it ends up giving some new favorites
Wow never thought to hear the day our robot friend saying "jackass"
while watching videos at 2am: **phone drops on my face**
me: FUCK YOU PHONE