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Being able to support a wife and two kids on a salesman's salary AND owning your very own house sounds like a success story by today's standards. This dude was a rockstar and didn't even know it.
Humans will always want, the “death” of the American dream is realizing that even if you were to live it you will remain eternally unsatisfied whether it be spiritually, emotionally, etc I think It’s just a symptom of the human condition, we can never be truly happy if we achieve all we wish to. kind of like this quote from football 17776 “People defeated scarcity. Everyone had what they needed, and nobody got sick, but they found that they needed things to be just a little bit difficult once in a while. They needed to stub their toe and wait in line and see that CHECK ENGINE light. They decided to leave their existence just a little short of perfect, because they wanted to want.”
@@eshanroveran7850 Eh. I'm working minimum wage and only barely able to afford rent, yet I'd say I'm satisfied with the state of affairs. As long as I can afford to use my computer, eat food, and pay for housing, I could probably live like this indefinitely.
@@godlyvex5543 Eshan might've been referring more to how most people who wish for more than they already have remain unsatisfied. This in contrast, like you, who are content as you are and possibly don't wish for much more (I relate some. Most of my life has been lived on low income, but am well content with whatever I have now). I'm sure Eshan can explain themselves, though. Just felt like responding since this video got me thinking
As a young man with 3 kids a wife no education I own my home and my wife has never worked it's absolutely possible but the reality of how hard it will be to maintain is as crushing as wanting more.
“who actually had their tv on live at 9:48 in the morning that day” kills me as a question because all i can think about is my mother. she worked at a blockbuster. she and her coworkers were *surrounded* on *every* side by screens of the second tower getting hit and falling. everyone was told to go home, and she said she didn’t know what to do with herself until she got a call from my brother’s school saying that broke his arm, so she focused on the only thing she could; being a mom.
Also alot of people who has their televisions tuned to live broadcast we're children and teachers. I was in high school when it happened. And at first it was teachers hurriedly whispering at each other. Then it was the TV's tuned to the news stations during study hall until the principal ordered that all talk and television of the attack be turned off. I watched one of the towers fall during my social studies/history class. One of the few teachers who disobeyed the principals order because "what kind of history teacher would I be if I turned off the TV now?"
I'm in the U.K. I was just sitting down to eat, switched the t.v on and called my housemate to come through from the kitchen. She initially thought it was a film. It was horrendous.
i can't remember it cause i was less than 2 years old but apparently while my birth parents were watching it on tv, i was playing with blocks and started recreating the plane smashing into the twin towers with my blocks.... i didn't even learn that about myself until i was, like, 17 or so, so it's wild for me to think about how i was so innocent that i didn't know what was going on was a horrible tragedy thousands of miles away, i thought it was just a scenario to try out while i played with my blocks
Creative writing teacher here. One of my students suggested your channel and I’m absolutely floored. This was a sublime piece of academic eloquence. Enargeia got referred to in the class last week as “Speech 100” and it’s nice to know that this is where the mention came from, as she must have probably just seen your video before our class started. Thanks, for the suggestion, P. 🤟🏾
Oh, btw. Speech 100 comes from a meme of the Game Skyrim. A role-playing-game where you can raise your skills, which one of them is Speech. Having it at level 100 is often referred when people sneakily try to seduce someone, ask for something big, hide something with success, etc. etc... Every time eloquence and speech can help to persuade others for the own benefit.
I only ever saw my Dad cry once, at his Mothers Funeral. Sitting on the pew in front of me, almost bent double, sobbing uncontrollably. The only boy among 5 sisters. My aunt put her arm around him and hugged him. It was the first time I ever realised how close he was to her, and not having a dad how he had been raised entirely around women, she had been his rock.
My dad bless his heart, once told me, when his father perished, he could feel his voice telling him “ You have to be a man. You have to be there for the family”, but when his Mom passed, he wanted nothing more than to do nothing but sob.
I don't think Jacob Geller has ever put out a un-interesting video, all of the content he makes is consistently interesting, in depth, and very well made. Keep up the good work!
@@traveltrail4388 that's an odd response. You politely disagreed but then instead of explaining why, you tossed out the name of one of his contemporaries. Do you understand how uninformative and strange that is? Edit: I see your edit. I don't know if "rambles" adequately describes his content. Rambling, to me, usually involves diatribes that consist of tangents that regularly digress from the intended point. I didn't feel he ever abandoned the intent of his thesis.
I don't mean to be rude, but 'keep up the good work' kinda makes me die inside, it takes a lot of passion and effort to make good videos, it doesn't come naturally
@@homesquared Sorry if that part came off kinda poorly. I was trying to kinda say like "Hey you're doing a great job with what you've been putting out, can't wait to see what else you may make." I didn't intend for that statement to come off as disrespectful. I also didn't view your comment as being "rude" in the slightest.
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality." This video in particular struck me pretty deeply. Thank you, Jacob.
The other thing to note about the play “Death of a salesman” that might also play into the fears of the men who cried, a lot of these men probably fought in WW2 or were sent over seas.
That's what I thought. I'm sure they were still raw under the surface in the late '40s, and the thought of being unable to provide a better life for your children must've been particularly difficult, 'unbearably poignant'.
Notably, the “train crashes through a station” scene in Hugo is also heavily based off the real life Montparnasse Derailment, where a train overran its final stop. In fact, the final position of the train in the movie is made to mimic a famous picture of the aftermath of the Montparnasse Derailment.
I had a film theory and history teacher who said that audiences ran out of "L`arrivee d`un train", not because they were afraid that the train would literally come out of the screen and run them over, but instead because they feared for the cameraman's safety and they they would be watching essentially a combination of Blair witch and snuff film.
but that doesn´t make much sense unless those people never stood at a train station when train passed by. the train is obviously not coming straight at them but is going past them. the same perspective that anyone that ever used a train station has had without panicking. and yes as OtakuUnitedStudio said there´s zero evidence that anything like that ever happens, it´s just a legend people keep passing along.
The last time I saw my Dad was just two days after the release of this video (the Saturday night) so the bit where he says: "Imagine your Dad crying" reminded me of when we would make fun of him for crying at Armageddon, but not the bit where Bruce Willis dies but instead he cried at the bit in the film a boy sees on the TV a man who had come to the door earlier but his mother just dismissed him as a salesman, so the boy sees him on the TV and shouts: "Mom, that salesman's on TV!" and so his Mum responds: "That's no salesman. That's your daddy." He cried at that before he even had children. I don't think I have clarified this: he died, he did not leave. I really enjoyed writing this comment. I really miss him.
Seeing people react to VR headsets always made me think of that train story. Stuff like the reactions to falling off a cliff in VR where people would scream and even fall over in real life. It made me wonder if one day VR would be so common that reactions like that would seem ridiculous in the same way.
I've watched a 3D movie on a full sized IMAX screen, that extends past your peripheral vision, and it's insane how your body reacts to what your eyes are telling you is happening. And it was a cartoon about aliens coming to earth, landing in a closed theme park, ending up on the rides and deciding earth was far too dangerous. I haven't tried VR yet, and I just hope there's no cameras rolling when I do.
I think VR is a little different, because your body is telling you that you are falling biologically. You can get nauseous because the fluid in your ears and your eyes don’t match. But there definitely are people who react wildly lol
I get motion sick, just like car sick easily playing with VR. Like my brain feels like it’s there, and moving. But my body is like ‘nah man, this is weird. I’m gonna start sounding the alarm bells, I got you’. But videos of people scared/surprised in VR is funny to me, especially older people. I do think it’s weird they told us not to sit close to the tv and now they’re like ‘here strap this to your face’.
When we think about existential horror and the authors who have best explored that theme, we think of H. P Lovecraft, Jeff Vandermeer or even Junji Ito. Arthur Miller's name doesn't usually appear on the list of authors in that genre but I think it should. With Death of a Salesman Miller perfectly described the horror of the mundane, the ordinary and the monotonous. With The Crucible he described the horror of a community turning in on itself, trying to make sense of the world by blaming their ills on demonic powers when the real demons haunting them are all the pent up resentments and petty hatreds that anyone who grew up in a small country town will probably be familiar with. The horrors in Miller's work are the fears and anxieties of daily existence.
When I was a kid, existential horror meant demons with tentacles and eldritch gods...as an adult, existential horror means spending more time in the office than at home, not recognizing the aging face starting back at me from the mirror, the fear every time the phone ring that it might signal news of an elderly loved one's passing... I'll take the eldritch gods any day.
In a sense, they are two different kinds of existential horror. The terrifying reality that we are but meaningless entities in an unending uncaring void, and the terrifying reality that no matter what we do with our lives, we must in the end resign ourselves to wake up in the morning and do the same thing we've done every day our whole lives, again and again. One sense of meaninglessness brought on by the massive scale of space, and the other brought on by the massive scale of time
@@DeltaCain13 yeah, existential horror is a much more grounded and understandable experience. Its the understanding that makes it horrifying, while a cosmic horror its the sense that you *can't* understand it that makes it horrifying.
Every single video you put out, I think "this is incredible, this has to be the best one that he'll ever make" and every single time you prove me wrong. This was astonishingly good, and brought me to tears thinking about how art affects us, even if we can't quite figure out how to describe it. Thank you so much for your excellent work!
My late grandmother was born in 1915. She used to tell me stories about her youth and childhood, some of which sound so alien to someone born in the late 80s such as myself that it took knowing her to actually believe it, if it makes any sense. She told me stories about how people genuinely believed you couldn't move from a country like Mexico to a colder climate such as Canada without dying of hypothermia, how slavery was very much present during her childhood, just not called slavery anymore and, more relevant to this video, how she wanted to watch Nosferatu when it was released but her mother thought her too young, so only her older sister was allowed. Returning home that evening, her sister was terrified, she was genuinely afraid that a vampire would attack her and drink her blood, so as a small act of revenge my grandma waited patiently until the middle of the night, sneaked through the house and slowly opened her sister's door with her pale hand just to hear her scream. I've lived in small cities where a man once asked me "didn't this guy die in the last soap opera?". I've seen actors being attacked on the street for playing evil characters. I have no doubt people were afraid of trains moving towards the screen, it may be an exaggeration that people ran from their seats, but that's all, an exaggeration based on a real observation.
As a folklore major who took a really fun class on urban legend a while back I wasn't expecting this to be about theater and film urban legends. I really love this, I always like having more legends in my brain
This is semi related but what do you do as a Folklore major? I've been thinking of doing anthropology or something like that and wanting to focus on folklore or something but I wasn't sure if it was a thing I could do
@@madotsuki715 Hi! from what I've seen, it's not the most common major out there, but my school has a dedicated folklore department because my little part of Canada prides itself on folklore based tourism lol. I know the American Folklore Society's website has a list of schools in the US and Canada that offer it though. (I'm not actually too sure about how it compares to an anthropology department, since I only took an intro for that like 4 years ago and it didn't click with me, probably because of the Prof I think lol) Subject wise, folklore is just informal knowledge, so it can be literally anything, anywhere, like stories, family recipes, workplace gossip, music etc. Unless it's an intro, each of my classes were about a specific topic (so that urban legend class for example), and usually you're either reading researchers' writings on whatever subject they were focused on or doing your own direct research by interviewing other people. I hope that helped! I honestly didn't even know it was a thing until my second year, since I'm also an English major and got into it while looking for a minor, so it's nice seeing people be interested in it going in.
I saw Wendell Pierce in Death of a Salesman in London just before the pandemic began. I didn't know it would be the last play I would see for the longest time of my life, but I'm quite glad it was. It was a phenomenal piece of theatre, and Wendell Pierce broke my heart into a thousand pieces
I gotta say, I read it as part of English class when I was in high school, and it is very depressing. I didn’t cry uncontrollably but I did go into a depressive episode for weeks after. It just hit me that I was told trying and practicing is enough to be successful, but it really isn’t, and that everyone who’s pushing you to succeed knows that sometimes you’ll never be successful in one area, because they lived it. This whole lie about ‘you can do anything if you put your mind to it’ hurts those who hear it and those who spread it, and it’s rampant in the western world. It’s inescapable. I admire it as a work, but I don’t think I can revisit it, even now, in my 30s. My whole class ended that unit on a depressing note. Nobody really spoke as the bell rang and we grabbed our things. Our teacher warned us that it would hit us in some sort of way, as it was the opposite of what we had learned our whole lives. This was also in the early 00s, and the beginning of the economic recession. I think everyone needs to experience it once, in their teens, so we can stop this lie that everyone will bed successful as long as they try, and every person can do any job out there, and that earning money is the only form of success. I feel more success from my volunteer work than any job/career that I’ve had. When I have a child, I will teach them that they will find something fulfilling and find a way to financially meet their needs, and that success isn’t in your things and bank account, but more an overall picture. If you are helping yourself and others more than you harm them, and you are fed, clothed, and sheltered, then you are successful to some degree.
I've said that it there's a silver lining to be had with covid, it's that people were woken up to the importance of family, friends, their own needs, and other intangibles. Even CEOs are recognizing this and are stepping down to be with family. There's a place for professional drive--some people thrive on it--but I think we're realizing that we can't all be CEOs, we can't all be successful millionaires. And we're realizing that money and professional success does not make one happy and content. Serving others, being around family--frankly, the things ancient religions tell us to do--make us content and give meaning to our lives. I hope we remember this long after covid is over.
"You can do anything you put your mind to" Is definitely flawed, and clearly often untrue. However, by trying your hardest, you'll likely end up with SOMETHING to show. Its certainly a lot better to live by then "nothing matters, so why try". The best truth is likely a compromise in the middle. Try your best, but temper expectations.
I bawled like a baby in the middle of Soul. There was something about a middle aged man that couldn't get it together that struck something deep in me. It's more haunting than any horror I've ever watched or read
It’s this feeling of “I’ll figure it out, I have time” until you realize that you’ve spent so much time chasing something and you’ve failed so far to achieve. It’s this kind of thing that keeps me from dreaming big and staying ardently practical about my goals
It's funny you say that, because that aspect seemed so normal to me. My family had basically all gone through this, some to even longer/greater extents, so seeing Soul was just... Surprisingly normal? To me, it feels like nobody has any idea what's actually going on and nobody has it together
@@juicejooos The movie's suggestion, and mine, is to live in the present. Self-actualization need not be a future goal, it can be about living plentifully, earnestly, now
I was struggling with depression and anxiety disorder when Inside Out came around, I cried the whole freaking movie and even after the movie was over. The story of someone having his mind in utter chaos and the moral of understanding sadness place in life resonated so deep in me that I can't put into words. It's funny looking back into it tho, and imagining myself crying my eyes out before a pink elephant-thing with a small umbrella.
It's still a heartbreaking story that can scare a family man who have done everything they've possibly could to give their family anything and everything, but have been dealt the shit end of the stick. There were those men who left at 3am and walked miles from one job to another just to be told they weren't qualified, skipping lunch because he only had enough money for his kids to eat at school. To then come home and have your family thinks everything great but have no idea
Nowadays the majority of men will never know about fatherhood since being a husband is so dangerous. Not just in the west but everywhere. Some cope by thinking the east can provide a good wife. The poor saps.
@@notNajimi basically western men can’t get married anymore and all of their attempts at maintaining a family end up futile as the governments around the world encourage women to act on their lack of emotional control by blowing up their homes in the search of female independence from the oppressive and stupid male
A lot of the criticism of Welles' was less "you scared everyone" and more "it was a little irresponsible to make this the way you did on the eve of war" which was kinda fair. People really did panic, but not that many of them. Most of the letters and feedback they got were people upset because they didn't like hearing a news bulletin-style thing saying that american cities were dying in toxic clouds and invasion while they were also anxiously waiting for the spark that would ignite a European powderkeg.
Ultimately, we repeated this behavior after 9/11. Disaster films had a different atmosphere and intention. They retread the panic of the nation and premiered before the invasion of Iraq. Some were glorying the American response; some were warning of what Eisenhower had elucidated as the military industrial complex. And so often were these films used as bait for young, hopeless, helpless men and women with an axe to grind. What Welles did wrong became a blueprint for American film tradition.
These business types, these capitalists, they were so incredibly AFRAID of what Death of a Salesman displayed so clearly. Why were they so afraid? If they believed in their system, if they had any sort of faith in it, what would there be to fear? If the premise of the play were indeed so far detached from reality, why would they feel the need to reassure everyone that all is well? It was not a nation that America feared during the Red Scare. It was an idea. A bright, unbearable reality which threatened to illuminate things which certain people in very high places would rather remain in the dark.
@@DukeOnkled maybe they were scared of their freedom being taken away, their society destroyed, their rights trampled, their property and liberty being stolen... etc. As so happened in all the other utopias created by the takers.
I mean, we like to joke about “ooh people got scared of a train coming at them from a screen” but seriously I still flinch when seeing an object like a baseball fly towards the camera unexpectedly in a video
yeah we feel real comfortable judging those guys for people who have been watching movies all our lives. if was an 1800s frenchman who had never seen a picture move and you sat me in a room and projected a train coming right at me fuck i'd probably be scared too
The cinematography! The lighting! The impeccable camera “movement”! Plus all the depth and emotion I’ve come to expect. Is it gauche to suggest Inside’s impact generated a shockwave which can be literally felt in this video? If so, I hope it continues to spread. This may be my favorite video of yours yet, and I’ve said that before, numerous times. Mazel tov Jacob, you’ve done it again!
I love how Jacob Geller’s general appearance and video aesthetic is just slowly edging more and more towards a late 1800s doctor. Like at some point he could just be inserted into a movie of Jekyll and Hyde and I’d be like ‘yeah looks right.’
I had never heard of enargeia before, but it immediately made me think of “The Drowned Giant” by J. G. Ballard, and its adaptation in Netflix’s Love Death + Robot. The story tells the tale of a small town by the beach, where the corpse of a giant washes upon the shore. It’s not about the creature itself, which is left deliberately vague in the short story and represented as a gigantic man in the series, but rather about the impact it has on the townsfolk. The point is that the nature of the beached corpse is not important, the facts of the matter don’t matter. Through the narrator’s eyes, this creature, whatever it may be, is mythical. If it is a whale, then it is the arch nemesis of Moby Dick, if it is a giant squid, then it’s the Kraken itself. If it’s a man, then it’s no less than a mythological hero of old. The narrator is not a liar, nor is he delusional. The drowned giant is both a natural phenomenon and an otherworldly experience. To call it by any other name would take away from the impact it has. The story ends as the town slowly normalize the event. The giant is remembered as a whale by all, but the narrator remembers that to him, it was much more. I think this story is powerful in the way it bridges the gap between material reality and perceived reality. What I take away from it is that both sides are equally real and true. It was a whale, but to call it that would be to deny the reality of one man for whom is _was_ , before anything else, a drowned giant.
The lighting effects as Jacob recalls these legends is so fucking cool, like listening to someone tell a story over a campfire (or in a tent during a thunderstorm for the example of the Iliad).
I'm going to be completely honest, I was pretty antsy at the beginning of this video. I kept thinking "Is he missing the point? He can't be, can he?" when you were going over historical evidence for the story of the men who couldn't stop crying. You didn't, by the way, and I ended this video with tears in my eyes. I think, though, that these kinds of stories go beyond just expressing emotions that we can't really describe - these stories are also a safe way to express those emotions. If I tell you that I watched Death of a Salesman and that it frightened and saddened me, I'm inviting ridicule - what if I'm the only one that feels that way, and you laugh at how silly I'm being? But if I tell you that I watched Death of a Salesman and that it made men in the audience weep uncontrollably, I'm inviting you to marvel with me about how powerful the play was. Stories like this give us a way to talk about how emotionally powerful something is without having to admit that you were one of those men who couldn't stop crying.
Wow, that’s so true. I guess for women, it’s pretty common to say we cry about things, so we don’t see it in that way, but I understand that position. You made me see in a new light, and I agree wholeheartedly with your statement. You can say you cry though, promise we won’t laugh or ridicule you, we can empathize. Times have changed those gender limitations. I’m glad it’s not as ridiculous anymore. Yet, still, when a man cries, it always makes me cry. It makes me cry more than when I see a woman cry, because I know that for men to show that isn’t easy, so it means they are deeply saddened. It almost hurts my heart to see it.
I think that's also how ancient religious texts often work. They don't tell you that what's in them is untrue in the historical, literal sense. And the reason for that is because it conveys something true to the author, true to a culture.
Here’s something about which to weep. Arthur Miller’s second child was a son born with Down Syndrome. Miller had him institutionalized from infancy and never visited him once until his son-in-law Daniel Day Lewis persuaded him to after decades of neglect. He writes maudlin tales of failure, delusion, and suicide. Why anyone would inflict his work on themselves is a mystery. More importantly, that any person would allow his work influence their perspective on life is lunacy.
@@myrtle1234 To get a little personal for a second... Death of a Salesman is a distressingly accurate retelling of the last few years of my father's life. Oh sure, he died of alcoholism instead of a car crash, and he didn't have an affair, but those are just details. Those final years saw him sinking further and further into delusions about how he had FINALLY found a new job that would let him reclaim his self-identity as an Important Businessman, as he pickled his internal organs and pushed away his family. He died alone, far from home - forget having his body, we don't even know where he was buried. I'm legitimately happy that you think that Arthur Miller's play was maudlin. I wish I had that luxury. I wish that good people were the only ones who wrote things worth thinking about... but that's not the world we live in.
I come back to this video 11 months later to tell of my experience with enargeia. I was in a call with my band members, talking about music and whatnot, when I heard my mom yelling at me in the other room. It wouldn't be the first time, I thought it was something about our pets cause those were the only times I'd heard that kind of bewilderment in her voice, but then she said "Pappa har krockat med bilen." Dad has crashed the car...It was a moment where everything felt like it was standing still but also moving at hyperspeed at the same time. I was speechless for a few seconds before repeating what my mom had told me to my band members and telling them I had to go. I went with my mom cause we had to collect some things and also she really needed to know if he was majorly harmed. The drive to the site felt like hours, I felt myself supress my emotions because I wanted to take care of my parents in this situation. The moments I experienced enargeia was when I saw the glow of the police sirens in the distance and then when I saw my dad's car and him being lifted out of it. Luckily, he was both alive and concious, but seeing his car made my eyes fill with tears and it made my insides feel like they were forcing themselves through my throat. My legs went wobbly and I sat back down and called my girlfriend. She told me afterward that I was barely making sense and at first she hadn't heard what I had said had happened. Luckily, I was somewhat calmed down by the EMT staff that were there and the fact that I got to talk to him before he was loaded into the ambulance. We later followed it to the hospital and visited him. He has a fractured vertebrae and the doctors said he had contusions on his brain, so he'd have to be monitored until the next day to make sure it wasn't serious. Anyways, this is already long so I'll wrap it up here, he was unable to drive for a while because of the pain in his back and currently has trouble sitting down for too long for the same reason. The doctors said they estimate it take at least a year for the vertebrae to heal. Thank you for reading through this if you did. I suppose this is kind of a rant to me, but it was quite a traumatic moment, as it was for my dad. Thank you again, and have a lovely day ❤️
@@lt.dancepants Thank you for your kind words, stranger. He is trying his best and is doing well as far as I know. I make sure to ask him when I have the chance.
I'm sorry you and your mom had to experience that, especially since it sounds like your family is very close- I'm glad your dad is doing better though, and I hope you get many more years with both your parents!
This is by far my favorite UA-cam channel, I get so excited whenever I get the notification of a new vid. I used to read a lot and really appreciate art when I was a kid, highschool and college kinda whittled away my enthusiasm, but your videos have given that back to me a bit! Your videos also gave me inspiration to look into my Jewish cultural heritage a bit more, which is something I never really gave much thought to prior to seeing your videos. Thank you so much and please keep it up!
I can really relate to this (besides the Jewish heritage part). My parents are both writers and they very much instilled the love of reading and writing in me, and I kept it throughout high school. I felt very isolated and crushed and reading was a way to feel like I've been transported to another country (or world, maybe). But then after high school I just...stopped. I'm always addicted to UA-cam or some other internet thing and I never have the patience or the attention span or the "true alone time" to just read and it's quite sad.
I'd like to piggy back off this and say that Jacob has also helped get me back into reading :) it hasn't been all him, but I bought a couple of books by Ursula LeGuin and have been immensely enjoying her writing. Thanks, Jacob, I needed to rediscover scifi :)
Silent subscriber here: just wanna quickly say that I truly connect with the content you put out there. You find words for some of the thoughts I couldn't find the words for. Be it gaming, art, fears, fascinations and what have you. One video is better the the next. I am having a great time and wanted to let you know my deeply felt appreciation, Jacob. Thanks! - a friend from a far away place.
I don’t think it works for highschool kids anyway. They don’t have the experience to emotionally get it. They likely see their parents represented but, like teenagers do, think they’ll be different somehow.
@@youtubename7819 there are lots of things that high schoolers are taught that they don’t already “get,” the whole point is to expose them to new ideas and get them thinking about concepts beyond what they’ve considered before
@@z.qualia this isn’t a new concept like algebra though. If you don’t know what it feels like to work a 9 to 5 for thirty years you flat out can’t know what it’s like.
referring to maxim gorky, famed writer and quintuple nobel literature prize nominee, as "a russian journalist" has the same energy as calling barack obama "mishelle obama's husband"
It's weird how just witnessing someone's story or seeing it told through art can influence a person. I remember when markiplier was telling the story about the first time he really came to terms with the fact his dad was gone. He said that he'd found his glasses on a desk and thought to himself, oh I should bring him his glasses he probably needs them, then he remembered he would never need them again and upon realizing it was the first time he had grieved. It reminded me of my grandpa. He died of respiratory cancer at 65 in 2012. He owned a ranch with my grandma and he'd practically built it all from the ground up, the house, the corrals, even dug and filled the acre sized pond in front where I'd spent most my time as a child. During the time I had with him we would go on adventures fishing, catching moles and frogs and taking care of the animals. He was the one who showed me how to ride a horse for the first time, a horse he'd trained himself. I remember how it felt being there after he was gone. My grandma overrun by grief sold it and moved back into town. Before it was sold everything was still there, all the tools we used for upkeep, the horse tack, the custom made furniture, the animals, etc, but it felt like it didn't belong to us. It felt like it didn't belong to anyone anymore.
I didn't cry when I read _The Death of a Salesman,_ despite understanding it and seeing it deeply reflected in my father. I didn't cry because it wasn't new to me.
I'll drink to that, cowboy. I got a no good old man that thinks hes still on top of the world too. Let's just hope we dont end up as romantacised tyrants too, yeah?
I love how you started using incredible historical anecdotes to tell powerful stories about videgames to then pivot to just incredible anecdotes and powerful stories without videogames inside them. Also was that a true long shot ? Also, bravo !
In regards to the "War of the Worlds" panic, there is also the fact that newspapers had already become sensational and the truth was less important than telling a story that would sell more copies of the paper than your competitor's telling of the same event, so if even a few people thought the radio play was a real news report and panicked because of it, you can be sure the newspapers would emphasize that element.
The painting in the back is beautiful, but it totally caught me by surprise as it changed when the room went dark and red, only interrupted by flashes of lightning.
Dude was this all one take? Theater! That's theater and it fits the video so well! You had lots of fun writing and filming this and it shows. Also this exaggeration of events is common in every day life as you illustrated with your Gone Girl example, which makes it a crucial way to communicate experiences to people we wish were there, and I find it endearing. It's like clinging to an event. Like being afraid of the passing of time, and aging, and watching your father come back home after the theater and crying his heart out. It also feeds into our desperate need to tell and share stories. There is nothing more human than participating in the oldest tradition of all.
I would like to share a story of mine related to this video. I remember it as the death of my childhood. (That sounds dramatic but bear with me) So every summer me my younger sister my mam and my dad would stay in a caravan in the countryside. This caravan is tucked away deep in the Irish countryside of west cork on an isolated plot, that's its charm. on one particular day, we had come home from the beach pretty late, as I remember it being dark. My sister or myself must have turned on the tiny CRT tv that we had in the kitchen area, there was only three or so channels on this tv. Whatever it was that we turned on grabbed my mams attention as she and my dad packed in the beach stuff. what was on the tv was pretty graphic, sailors in the English channel being pulled in from shore with eyes bleeding. then news reports that the nuclear plant Sellafield on the east coast of England had exploded. Nuclear fallout and radiation was being carried across Ireland according to the news reporter. My sister was to young to understand this, I was about 8 still a child but able to see that this was serious. I can still remember the fear in my mother's voice as she called my dad over. I remember trying to get my dads attention as I saw how panicked they both where. That was the moment that I refired to above where some of my childhood innocence died, I realised looking at my parents griped with fear that there are things in this world that they cannot protect me from, things far beyond there comprehenson. My mother still frozen in fear watching the increasingly drmatic news reports, my dad now packing something god knows what into the car, certanly not the beach gear he just took out. Then on the tv something like 'This was a rte prouced reinactment of what it might be like if cellafeild exploded' Christ almighty, I dont rember how things really went after that I guess we all laughed about it the next day, But I do rember that the fear we all felt was verry verry real and it still sticks with me. So I guess we are just stupid Irish cultuchies who got fooled by the tecnolgy of a 10 inch crt tv hahahahaha
When I was about 12 it popped up in the news that the army base in the next town over had secretly been there primarily to store chemical weapons all along, and now the chemicals were in a decrepit state and had to be carefully incinerated. They had to build a comprehensive incinerator facility there and it would take years to get through everything. Emergency sirens were erected everywhere in the danger zone, which was quite wide as what could happen would depend on the chemical and the wind, and we were given emergency broadcast radios and shelter in place kits. It was there that I grew up and lived my early adult years, always wondering if or when catastrophe would strike. They finally got it all burnt up without incident, but it's still wild to think about. Wilder still is how the area suffered economically much worse once the incineration was done and the base reduced to minimal function, than when it was in danger all those years.
@@ekki1993 There was the 1957 Windscale fire in Sellafield, in fact. It seems a little tasteless that they ever aired some phony recreation like this after the actual incident.
Made an art piece based on Death of a Sales man: a line of suits hanging up, with a man on the other side with a coat hanger hook for a head. Below I painted the set for the play. The Lowman house between two large skyscrapers. I actually forgot the paint in the door and when asked about it I BSed it and said "well he can't go home."
Maybe it was a subconscious idea that didn’t fully come into your consciousness until it was pointed out to you. Good catch on it though. Sounds like an interesting piece.
Elaborating on hearsay-as-oral-tradition by performing a monologue about it…every month I’m knocked out by how you innovate your stuff!! Absolutely amazing
Genuinely, every single one of your videos is an utter masterpiece. Utterly enrapturing, beautifully written, profound, thoughtful and thought provoking. You elicit a genuine sense of real happiness with all your videos. Not surface level happiness, but a deep happiness within the soul. Something that persists. So thank you for everything you do.
I think I've experienced enargeia once in my life: sitting next to my sister on the floor of the bedroom of our new apartment, my mom crouching down and sitting on the floor across from us, and telling us that they found our father's body, and the awful gasping noise that came out of my sister, and the feeling that I couldn't move if I tried
I don't think I've ever experienced it, but based on what you said, was it one of those rare moments where reality becomes too "real" or is bluntly undeniable that you're feelings & reaction become unconscious/you don't even know how to react?
Your comment made me realize that I think the only time in my life I’ve experienced enargeia was the moment my mom’s oncology team all gathered around her hospital bed in the ICU and told us that there was nothing more they could do. She looked at them in disbelief, still SO full of life, and said “Are you telling me I’m dying right now?” Despite being seated, I felt the sensation of my feet falling out from under me. She was dead just four days later, her decline faster than anyone could’ve imagined. And yet I still come back to that room full of people who tried their damndest to snuff out our hope with even a glimpse of compassion.
I adore how Jacob does the recital- he begins looking down at the book, as if reading from it, and then, at some unclear point while obscured by darkness (if you look really, really carefully, it's when he starts describing Pherecles's death) he *looks up* (he's got this whole thing MEMORIZED!) and recites directly to the camera, a change you don't even realize has occurred until a couple of lightning-flashes have passed and you catch his eyes boring into you. And then, after the passage is done, he puts away the book, carefully positioning his hands so that, when the light comes back on, it looks like he's been reading from the book the whole time.
My grandma had told me a similar story to the train one. She once took my great grandmother, her mother to the cinema for the first time and she started crying after hearing german planes from the movie, she couldn't tell if the planes were real or not.
I dont know why, but the line "But this, too, is a train of shadows" hit different. It reminds me of all of the people that are super excited to go into the future with VR and VR technology (I used to be one of those people) There's a rhetoric with those people that goes something like 'Simulated reality is no different than actual reality if you can't tell the difference' but I've always been able to tell the difference, and this line "but this, too, is a train of shadows" Encapsulates that feeling perfectly
If simulated reality ever matched actual reality, that's be terrifying. Realism is a good goal, but I hope that we can always tell what's actually real.
excellent exploration as always, but I can only comment on how much I loved seeing that "are we gonna keep this take" gleam in your eye every time the cat batted the camera.
I had a car with a broken radio, the only station I had was NPR. I had to listen all day January 6th while I worked (delivering mail) to the capital riots. It was crazy to me that All I could do was keep working and listening to the tidbits that were making out. I didn’t even have anyone to talk to until the end of the day when I got back to the office and had to break the news to my coworkers. It was a weird day.
I do have to watch your videos about several times to truly understand what you're saying sometimes. I really am trying to get better at literary analysis and understanding metaphors and I think you've done a better job than any of my english teachers. Maybe it's because I can go back and watch these so that the point can get closer and closer to nailing me in the head, or maybe it's because you talk about things I'm interested like video games and movies and old plays. But I just would like you to know that you are doing an incredible job. You, and the things you are passionate about, inspire a lot of the writing I try to make. I aspire to be as good at expressing myself as you someday. I wish you the best in all that you do.
Very best of luck to you on literary journey. I don't know if it is considered literature but my favorite book of all time is called "Illusions" by Richard Bach. Donald Shimoda is a character that from the first paragraph he has never left me. Anyway, just a suggestion and some encouragement from me!
@@Darkloid21 old hat Noun|Informal used to refer to something considered uninteresting, predictable, tritely familiar, or old-fashioned. Thank you. For taking the time out of your day to swoop in just to insult me for no good reason. Years ago I found an unexpected joy on the pages of this novel and I mentioned it here so that maybe someone else might enjoy it as well. I don't understand what purpose it serves for you to talk down to me when no one asked you. You don't like it, cool. Keep it to yourself. All you have accomplished is to portray yourself as a literary snob. Perhaps people who know you find that concept itself to be old hat.
@@the_pseudo_nim Again, not sure how it can serve others well since the book's idea really is old. There is nothing new about "What if this is all in our head"? It's not snobish to show people that this idea has been done before MANY times. But if you really take solace in a book that posits that this world is our creation for our entertainment and learning then I have to question your sanity much like the authors. Such an idea is borderline narcistic. While makes sense given your tone in regard to criticism.
@@Darkloid21 Just a suggestion, but when criticizing others it's a good idea to use spellcheck. Otherwise when you misspell a word you're using to belittle someone internet randos might show up and call you out on your inability to spell "narcissistic"
Just wanted to recognize the level of effort that went into the scoring of this video, the way the music swells as you deliver these concepts really makes this more than just a video essay. Keep doing what you're doing Jacob, thank you for your stories.
There is a fine line between wanting more from your life and having goals and becoming self destructive in the process. I know some people in my profession who are so into the grind , they never enjoyed the success. Every new rank and promotion they got , they immediately started grinding to get to the next one as quickly as possible and totally burnt out now.
Ok I’m from Grover’s Mill where “the Martians landed,” so I can confirm some of the panic! The “alien ships on the skyline” is generally believed to have been the Grover’s Mill water tower, which was found full of holes after many residents reported that they had “shot at the aliens.” My own great great grandfather drove through his garage door, seeing as it wouldn’t be needed after the invasion. Which makes sense! Not only was the whole country primed for terror from the radio, but Grover’s Mill specifically is just outside of Princeton. A large portion of the older population where or are astrophysicists. These days, there’s still monuments to our one claim to fame. A metal plaque in the park, which alien theorist come visit sometimes. There’s plenty of videoes online of them conspiring about how we try to “hide” the plaque in the bushes around it. It’s really just a yew bush, which if you know anything about them is really, really hard to cut back on. There’s also the coffee shop, full of alien merchandise. We’re small, and we’re currently just trying to design a new town logo.
I'm not sure why, perhaps it was the way that it was written but you describe your town in such a lovely little way. I don't know if you're a writer, but if you are, don't ever stop doing it. Just that one comment was the evocative, informative and somehow very charming and pleasant to me.
Which coffee shop? The Grover mills one at the mcaffrey strip mall? I always find the most interesting part about this area is how much white flight has occurred in certain parts (not Princeton)
I feel like they probably would have shot at the water tower thinking it was a tripod, because their ships were just big canisters. If the radio play aligns with the book that closely and my memory is correct
I guess I have my own men who can't stop crying in the theater moment. I saw the Mr. Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor in theaters with my mom a few years ago, and the whole time I remember being extremely emotionally struck by it all and holding back tears. I didn't grow up with Mr. Rogers' show, I just knew of him as a public figure so I only expected to see an interesting telling of his life. But as the movie ended, I burst into tears and could not. stop. crying. I realize now that a lot of the things I heard in that doc about self worth and finding your own value not in what you can contribute to the world but just me as a person was stuff I needed to hear for YEARS. I was in the middle of a huge struggle with depression and basically negative self esteem and everything I heard struck me to the core. I don't cry in public, I rarely ever cry in front of family. But in that theater I was sobbing out loud uncontrollably and I didn't stop crying until we got home half an hour later. Lots of built up emotion all brought out in an instant. I like to consider myself a pretty stoic person but this shook me up in a way I never expected before from any piece of media. It all just hit me..... like a train.
holy shit i had a super similar experience! i also watched it in theaters with my mom and i couldnt stop sobbing- starting about half an hour in and i didnt stop till like an hour after it was over. its the most ive ever cried at a piece of media in my life i think, my contacts felt weird the rest of the day
My mother took me to see "My Girl" (Macaulay Culkin etc) and I cried at the funeral scene, when she insists he needs his glasses. I cried all the way home. My mother laughed at me and said she'd never take me to a sad movie again, because I was so embarrassing. Sorry I showed an emotion, mom. Sorry I was developing depression. Sorry.
Your description of (what I think is) the synopsis of death of a salesman resonated. I've never heard of that play, but I can totally understand and empathise with those stunned or shocked at the end of it way back when. It hits on several insecurities that their lives had, some that still reach us easily to this day. It also has an interesting way of suggesting that one is setting up their own, presumably beloved, family for failure and hardship because they couldn't handle such an insecure 'what if' scenario.
The train scene in Hugo is also #4: *A REAL EVENT* The Montparnasse Derailment happened in Paris in 1895. The famous photo of it is recreated shot for shot in the movie.
Outstanding work! “That’s not how it was, but it is how it felt” will always be my defense of great art, and recollections of it, that capture a mood more than “truth.”
I'm thinking that maybe the reactions in all of those myths and especially the radio play one are, in part, the same as reactions to ARGs now. People who participate in ARGs know what they are, but still pretend to believe that it's the real thing because either it has an artistic impact on them, makes them feel things or just because it's fun. This seems implausible, but what if those people for example just really liked the idea of what reaction the radio play *could* bring out if it was real that they pretended to have it? Sometimes I wonder if our descendents, some less than a hundred years from now will think that we actually believed in Cicada 3301, Slenderman or any other internet folklore/AGR simply due to massive account of people taking part in the act.
@@JacobGeller Oh wow, I did not expect you to reply.. Just wanted to say, thank you for all your work. I've been watching and rewatching your videos since "Who's Afraid of Modern Art" and not one has failed to move me in some way. Even if i've watched your analysis? essay? before I still process it differently, take something else away from it. You really inspire me to keep learning about everything, expanding my field of knowledge as far as I can, because any media is created by people, even if different and a story about a frozen truck can very much relate to a video game and speak on the same things. Also thank you for putting yourself in every video. Your work is not at all objective and that's the greatest part. You put your own perspective, associations and experiences in what you talk about and I feel like that's the most beautiful that a review can give. A small insight into other person's mind. Which is also a thing I've been greatly inspired by and I can talk about your videos for hours and of course non of this will probably be new to you because you're the person who puts your videos together and I really should just stop rambling but I just wanted to let you know that what you're doing means a whole lot to me and thank you for that!
I love how the lighting of the dramatic bits of the video obscured the distinctions between the color bars of the painting. I’m sure its not that deep but it was really evocative to watch red, orange, and yellow blocks becoming visually less distinct as Jacob spoke about the way the distinctions between myth and fact lose meaning as well... taking on an emotional value rather than a rational one regardless of the reality of the event. Fantastic video!
I'm so happy I found this channel. Death of a salesman had a huge impact on me. I picked it up from Barnes and noble when I was 14 and as I read through it saw some of my idealisms crushed.
I smiled so big at "Highshool himbo" :) Wonderful video as always. I always get so excited when you upload. Honestly I was feeling really depressed recently. I just turned 21 and for the past few years I always get really sad around my birthday and I'm not really sure why. I'm young but I already see my birthday as a reminder that I'm going to die and I feel like I'm not growing and progressing as a person and with my skills as quickly as I feel I should... This video was perfectly timed for me. Thank you
Today is my birthday and, no joke, my doctor's "prescription" for me was to go to the hospital. 😅😅 My birthday is one of a handful of days in the year that I legit look forward to. I got one "Happy Birthday" which made me smile, followed immediately with that doctors appointment. I should be at the hospital right now yet here I am sharing this personal story about myself that absolutely no one cares about. Stalling...Stalling...I'm fucked up...stalling...God damnit...
@@edvfya9922 Aw I care. That really sucks I’m sorry :/ I have appointments all the time for some stuff and it honestly just gets so tiring so I totally get that. For what it’s worth; HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you at least get to enjoy some of it :)
When I was your age, the same thing happened to me on my birthdays... but the good thing is that, you just simply go on, keep living your life and start to realize that you really have a long time to do a lot of things. Just relax and enjoy whatever you have in your life now. And give yourself the credit for the things YOU enjoy doing, not for the things you're supposed to be doing 'at your age'. Eventually, soon or later, things will turn out in a good way. Now I'm 31, and I realize there's more time in a lifetime than what I thought when I was 21.. Greetings from Argentina!
I'm taken back to just how you were able to do all of this in seemingly one take. You showed bits of shows and articles, yeah. But it always went right back to you. That made this extremely gripping to watch.
Man Death of a Salesman was almost certainly planted a seed in my upper middle class head about the realities of the American Dream and capitalism and how dreadful the whole system is and it struck me so hard in high school, so seeing you talk about it feels right. Thanks for this one, Jacob.
Just dont raise kids that do weed and eat washing up pods as some sort of self impossed rebellion about capitalism because you feel people cant balance their life.
"memorial" reminds me of an activity my theater professor had us do one day. she gave a dozen or so students a piece of paper, and each paper had a different list of names on it. in total, the pages contained the names of every american soldier who died in the iraq war (this was a couple years ago, so that detail might be inaccurate). she then had us begin reading the names, one at a time, out loud to the whole class, all dozen or so students at once. it was an overwhelming experience that impressed on me a fraction of the gravity of war and death. the weight of all of those names - no longer a number, but people. "memorial" is much the same. i wish i could remember even one of the names of the people who died.
The first description of the salesman from death of a salesman reminded me so much of Quark from DS9 especially the episode where he thinks he’s going to die and almost commits suicide just to hold up the contract. Also, great video!
Your videos are what I hope to see in my e-mail notifications when I check them in the morning. This certainly lived up to the expectations which drive that desire.
I will always remember the first time I've seen my dad cry, I was probably fifteen or sixteen and something just cracked and he couldn't handle it. I just stood there, and I remember being terrified and confused. It was unreal.
I have never seen mine cry but I just want him to cry. Cry so much that he could get rid of all the stress he accumulated instead of drinking and smoking. Crying helps depression better than all temporary pleasures.
I always wondered if the first time I would see my dad cry is when my grandparents die. Turns out the first time I saw him cry when I was 26 and he was telling me and my sister about the abuse he suffered at their hands.
my favorite media experience was watching gakuen handsome, a harem anime thats intentinally bad. my first experience with it was at a con, the veiwing room was packed with others curious as to what gakuen handsome was..... this show, this show made that whole room constantly scream and cry "noooooooo...!" in anguish, yet no one LEFT. when the internet went out, stopping the show, that whole room was close to rioting genuinely as the whole fucking room screamed as loud as they could "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" bc the internet went out on the final episode, i was by the front, my sister was working the projector, there was nothing to be done by us but the crowd was going apeshit over bad anime so my sis did the only thing she could she played the card captor sakura back up that was downloaded onto the computer. gakuen handsome is no longer permitted at that con.
that's pretty hilarious. i also find it fascinating how "bad" entertainment can often still be so captivating. there's something about terrible quality of production that borders on pure humor yet is also incredibly cringe inducing. like you said no one left, i feel that way when watching really stupid horror films all the way to the end just to bad mouth it the entire time.
@@shoyupacket5572 if you like bad horror i reccomend killer sofa. Its not even a sofa its a recliner that you cannot be scared of bc they gave it lil marble button eyes it looks like a muppet its so bad
Jacob’s videos have always been amazing and inspiring and interesting to me, and i’ve learnt things from his videos that i never would have found otherwise, and developed interest in topics i used to think were boring. But this video is even better then his past videos. Because of your chanel ive decided to start writing a video essay of my own and intent to keep making more in the future. keep doing this mazing work jacob!
I’ve only started watching you recently, but you’ve quickly come quite possibly my absolute favourite creator on the site. This video was an incredible essay and piece of art in of itself, and I am certainly feeling things lol.
I would LOVE to see Jacob cover I Have No Mouth but I Must Scream. That story hit me on a primal level, it's almost indescribable how that story emotionally impacts you as the reader. Please give it a thought even though this comment is 2 weeks too late
Why do I feel like he mentioned it in one of his videos about architectural horror, either Control, or NaissancE? If it's not one of those two I think it's adjacent?
@@weatheranddarkness I don't think he has ever covered it. I've only seen Ryan Hollinger's video on it. But I think could do a great video on that story, it has so much depth
The unlocking of an unknown trauma, at an unexpected and vulnerable time, could have been debilitating for someone. But a story like this is the smoothed pebble of what truly happened.
The exaggerated reactions remind me of what's happening with vr in the modern day. Playing a Vr game is like being transported to another world, when I played valves portal lab and seen GLaDOS my jaw dropped yet...its not like another world you know its fiction, you can't smell or feel, movement might be limited. But that doesn't matter so long as emersion exists we will always describe fiction this way, even if in the moment we were sitting still.
I'm surprised you never mentioned the mythical "Rite of Spring riots" in this video. It seems to perfectly fit: the narrative of modern music being so subversive that it drove people into insanity and rioting.
Kind of wild that a piece that's become so prosaic was such a big deal at the time. Of course being in the same space as a full symphony orchestra punching you in the gut with some of those moments in the piece hits pretty different from an mp3 playing out of your iphone speakers.
Since graduating college to get into a position that didn't fit my expectation, and then my father losing his job just prior to the pandemic, and me staying out of work for nearly a year and a half... I've noticed myself thinking about Death of a Salesman a lot. Far more than my highschool self would have ever considered. Even here, where I would have felt "a bit safe from those thoughts" by focusing on video games, well, here it is again. Thankfully, at least at this time, I'm starting a new job with a big pay raise with far more directions of development, with the chance to step out into my own. Basically exactly what I needed. And my dad is starting to do "sustainably" in the day trading scene, continuing to get better by the week. So, hopefully this will be the last time I need to think about the deep similarities between myself and the Loman family.
The production value of this video was incredible, and just... wow. Got the feeling of a PhilosophyTube video, it was just that well made and all a continuous take, or a few long takes. Incredible, and this has quickly become one of my favourite channels.
No way dude, the tone in these videos is really chill and subdued. Philosophy Tube is borrowing indulgent capitalist aesthetics from Contrapoint's and became visually overdramatic. The nice thing about this video is that there is next to zero production value. I hope this channel stays the way it is.
@@SleepyMatt-zzz “indulgent capitalist aesthetics” Bruh, are you really gonna give capitalists a monopoly on dope visuals??? Leftism can’t survive if it’s only seen as a distant academic concept forever. We gotta make it sexy to reel people in, and then we dump the theory on ‘em
I just recently discovered your channel and....just...Wow. Bravo to you. I watched 'Fear Of The Cold' first and I was completely captivated by the way you can tell a story. It's absolutely incredible.
Death of a Salesman really struck a nerve with me when I read it back in Grade 11 - it weirdly reflects most of my experience with my own father, even down to him being a salesman, and it hurts to think about it because of how it really digs into how capitalism and the conservative ideal of the American dream is so insidious.
@@strangelyukrainian7314 Why would you seriously doubt this? What was the purpose of the American dream? Who benefits from the spreading of the lie that if average people work hard for a company their entire life they will find meaning and happiness? It definitely couldn't have been a propaganda tool to convince the average Joe that slaving their life away to a capitalist is the true path to happiness and fulfillment. Why would a capitalist even want people to think that?
@@johkupohkuxd1697 that idea is rooted under capitalism. You're conditioned to think that "life is rough" under every system because any other thought process otherwise leads to....well not capitalism
“Twin Peaks Funeral Level” that’s fantastic. I have never seen this play but wow, it sounds amazing. Now I want to see it. Oh my lord, you even show citations? Bless your literary heart. That’s amazing. Subbed!
I am able to make videos as in-depth and off-beat as this one because of people who support me on Patreon. Please consider joining them: www.patreon.com/JacobGeller
Its unbelievable that it is one take. Its a masterpiece.
another cheery one from the Geller.
edit: and vaguely anti capitalist. I love this channel.
I appreciate that you didn't need to segue into a Skillshare pitch at the end. You made good art.
No way... Jacob Geller has the gigachad beard, just look... :()
Jacob, please watch Koyaanisqatsi, it is literally this with our modern contemporary world and you will love it. Guaranteed.
Being able to support a wife and two kids on a salesman's salary AND owning your very own house sounds like a success story by today's standards. This dude was a rockstar and didn't even know it.
Humans will always want, the “death” of the American dream is realizing that even if you were to live it you will remain eternally unsatisfied whether it be spiritually, emotionally, etc
I think It’s just a symptom of the human condition, we can never be truly happy if we achieve all we wish to.
kind of like this quote from football 17776
“People defeated scarcity. Everyone had what they needed, and nobody got sick, but they found that they needed things to be just a little bit difficult once in a while. They needed to stub their toe and wait in line and see that CHECK ENGINE light. They decided to leave their existence just a little short of perfect, because they wanted to want.”
@@eshanroveran7850 Eh. I'm working minimum wage and only barely able to afford rent, yet I'd say I'm satisfied with the state of affairs. As long as I can afford to use my computer, eat food, and pay for housing, I could probably live like this indefinitely.
@@godlyvex5543 Eshan might've been referring more to how most people who wish for more than they already have remain unsatisfied. This in contrast, like you, who are content as you are and possibly don't wish for much more (I relate some. Most of my life has been lived on low income, but am well content with whatever I have now). I'm sure Eshan can explain themselves, though. Just felt like responding since this video got me thinking
As a young man with 3 kids a wife no education I own my home and my wife has never worked it's absolutely possible but the reality of how hard it will be to maintain is as crushing as wanting more.
@@kelteckin Bro I need your life story right now
"He's married, owns a house, has two kids"
Even one of those things these days could qualify as a life goal.
Thanks I hate this realistic comment
None of the above right here probably never will
He has *two kids
@@joelbedulla4
Yeah, that's what I said ;^)
What the hell happened to us?
“who actually had their tv on live at 9:48 in the morning that day” kills me as a question because all i can think about is my mother. she worked at a blockbuster. she and her coworkers were *surrounded* on *every* side by screens of the second tower getting hit and falling. everyone was told to go home, and she said she didn’t know what to do with herself until she got a call from my brother’s school saying that broke his arm, so she focused on the only thing she could; being a mom.
Also alot of people who has their televisions tuned to live broadcast we're children and teachers. I was in high school when it happened. And at first it was teachers hurriedly whispering at each other. Then it was the TV's tuned to the news stations during study hall until the principal ordered that all talk and television of the attack be turned off. I watched one of the towers fall during my social studies/history class. One of the few teachers who disobeyed the principals order because "what kind of history teacher would I be if I turned off the TV now?"
I'm in the U.K. I was just sitting down to eat, switched the t.v on and called my housemate to come through from the kitchen. She initially thought it was a film. It was horrendous.
@@bunnystick that last quote from your teacher deserves to be in an action blockbuster
i can't remember it cause i was less than 2 years old but apparently while my birth parents were watching it on tv, i was playing with blocks and started recreating the plane smashing into the twin towers with my blocks.... i didn't even learn that about myself until i was, like, 17 or so, so it's wild for me to think about how i was so innocent that i didn't know what was going on was a horrible tragedy thousands of miles away, i thought it was just a scenario to try out while i played with my blocks
I ran the teleprompter at a news station.
It was a rough few weeks watching it over and over and over again.
Jacob out here giving English teachers a free lesson plan.
True
Better call Saul
Lmao I'm currently in a credential program to be an English teacher. I'm definitely taking some notes on Geller's videos. I love his content
This dude is chiller than Socrates. That guy had no chill.
We literally never covered this in English class. Would have been interesting to see it in school though!
Creative writing teacher here.
One of my students suggested your channel and I’m absolutely floored. This was a sublime piece of academic eloquence.
Enargeia got referred to in the class last week as “Speech 100” and it’s nice to know that this is where the mention came from, as she must have probably just seen your video before our class started.
Thanks, for the suggestion, P. 🤟🏾
Oh I'm so glad to hear that! I owe a ton to my creative writing teachers ☺️
I just love your username
Oh, btw. Speech 100 comes from a meme of the Game Skyrim. A role-playing-game where you can raise your skills, which one of them is Speech. Having it at level 100 is often referred when people sneakily try to seduce someone, ask for something big, hide something with success, etc. etc... Every time eloquence and speech can help to persuade others for the own benefit.
You’re my favorite teacher based on profile picture alone.
yaaaaaaas speech queen enargeia let’s gooooo!!!
I only ever saw my Dad cry once, at his Mothers Funeral. Sitting on the pew in front of me, almost bent double, sobbing uncontrollably. The only boy among 5 sisters. My aunt put her arm around him and hugged him. It was the first time I ever realised how close he was to her, and not having a dad how he had been raised entirely around women, she had been his rock.
My dad bless his heart, once told me, when his father perished, he could feel his voice telling him “ You have to be a man. You have to be there for the family”, but when his Mom passed, he wanted nothing more than to do nothing but sob.
I don't think Jacob Geller has ever put out a un-interesting video, all of the content he makes is consistently interesting, in depth, and very well made. Keep up the good work!
Especially his pacing and order is something I appreciate. It really keeps me engaged
@@traveltrail4388 that's an odd response. You politely disagreed but then instead of explaining why, you tossed out the name of one of his contemporaries.
Do you understand how uninformative and strange that is?
Edit: I see your edit. I don't know if "rambles" adequately describes his content. Rambling, to me, usually involves diatribes that consist of tangents that regularly digress from the intended point. I didn't feel he ever abandoned the intent of his thesis.
I don't mean to be rude, but 'keep up the good work' kinda makes me die inside, it takes a lot of passion and effort to make good videos, it doesn't come naturally
My favorite is still cities without people.
@@homesquared Sorry if that part came off kinda poorly. I was trying to kinda say like "Hey you're doing a great job with what you've been putting out, can't wait to see what else you may make."
I didn't intend for that statement to come off as disrespectful.
I also didn't view your comment as being "rude" in the slightest.
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality."
This video in particular struck me pretty deeply. Thank you, Jacob.
Straight Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy mood
“Hill House, not sane.”
The characterization of the house is everything.
Hi, your username is amazing.
@@qsmith2514 Thank you!
You pick your poison on what to be fucking stupid about.
The other thing to note about the play “Death of a salesman” that might also play into the fears of the men who cried, a lot of these men probably fought in WW2 or were sent over seas.
That's what I thought. I'm sure they were still raw under the surface in the late '40s, and the thought of being unable to provide a better life for your children must've been particularly difficult, 'unbearably poignant'.
Miller's A View From The Bridge was one of my favourites, funny that one doesn't get any respect.
Notably, the “train crashes through a station” scene in Hugo is also heavily based off the real life Montparnasse Derailment, where a train overran its final stop. In fact, the final position of the train in the movie is made to mimic a famous picture of the aftermath of the Montparnasse Derailment.
thought it looked familiar..
The train even has the exact same number on it.
i remember owning a picture book with that photo in it. It was my favourite photo because of that movie
Exactly.
this video is a genuine masterpiece bro
thank u king
@@JacobGeller OwO
fancy meeting you here, guy who told me about why my favorite disney movie failed.
Two titans of video essay
Yeah I've seen several of his others that were fine but this one is what makes me subscribe
I had a film theory and history teacher who said that audiences ran out of "L`arrivee d`un train", not because they were afraid that the train would literally come out of the screen and run them over, but instead because they feared for the cameraman's safety and they they would be watching essentially a combination of Blair witch and snuff film.
A more logical and less cynical conclusion were one necessary. But of course it's likely to have never even happened.
but that doesn´t make much sense unless those people never stood at a train station when train passed by. the train is obviously not coming straight at them but is going past them. the same perspective that anyone that ever used a train station has had without panicking. and yes as OtakuUnitedStudio said there´s zero evidence that anything like that ever happens, it´s just a legend people keep passing along.
@@OtakuUnitedStudiolike most of history
The last time I saw my Dad was just two days after the release of this video (the Saturday night) so the bit where he says: "Imagine your Dad crying" reminded me of when we would make fun of him for crying at Armageddon, but not the bit where Bruce Willis dies but instead he cried at the bit in the film a boy sees on the TV a man who had come to the door earlier but his mother just dismissed him as a salesman, so the boy sees him on the TV and shouts: "Mom, that salesman's on TV!" and so his Mum responds: "That's no salesman. That's your daddy."
He cried at that before he even had children.
I don't think I have clarified this: he died, he did not leave.
I really enjoyed writing this comment. I really miss him.
my condolences
God rest his soul
I know your pain. Not only did I lose my dad, but I also saw him two days before he died. God bless you and your dad.
I'm sorry for your loss, rest in peace to your dad
May his soul rest in peace and my condoleances to you
Seeing people react to VR headsets always made me think of that train story. Stuff like the reactions to falling off a cliff in VR where people would scream and even fall over in real life. It made me wonder if one day VR would be so common that reactions like that would seem ridiculous in the same way.
I've watched a 3D movie on a full sized IMAX screen, that extends past your peripheral vision, and it's insane how your body reacts to what your eyes are telling you is happening. And it was a cartoon about aliens coming to earth, landing in a closed theme park, ending up on the rides and deciding earth was far too dangerous.
I haven't tried VR yet, and I just hope there's no cameras rolling when I do.
thats what he said about "showing a bunch of arcade kids the newest gen graphics"
I think VR is a little different, because your body is telling you that you are falling biologically. You can get nauseous because the fluid in your ears and your eyes don’t match. But there definitely are people who react wildly lol
@@MsJazbren that’s adorable :3
I get motion sick, just like car sick easily playing with VR. Like my brain feels like it’s there, and moving. But my body is like ‘nah man, this is weird. I’m gonna start sounding the alarm bells, I got you’. But videos of people scared/surprised in VR is funny to me, especially older people. I do think it’s weird they told us not to sit close to the tv and now they’re like ‘here strap this to your face’.
When we think about existential horror and the authors who have best explored that theme, we think of H. P Lovecraft, Jeff Vandermeer or even Junji Ito. Arthur Miller's name doesn't usually appear on the list of authors in that genre but I think it should. With Death of a Salesman Miller perfectly described the horror of the mundane, the ordinary and the monotonous. With The Crucible he described the horror of a community turning in on itself, trying to make sense of the world by blaming their ills on demonic powers when the real demons haunting them are all the pent up resentments and petty hatreds that anyone who grew up in a small country town will probably be familiar with. The horrors in Miller's work are the fears and anxieties of daily existence.
When I was a kid, existential horror meant demons with tentacles and eldritch gods...as an adult, existential horror means spending more time in the office than at home, not recognizing the aging face starting back at me from the mirror, the fear every time the phone ring that it might signal news of an elderly loved one's passing...
I'll take the eldritch gods any day.
In a sense, they are two different kinds of existential horror.
The terrifying reality that we are but meaningless entities in an unending uncaring void, and the terrifying reality that no matter what we do with our lives, we must in the end resign ourselves to wake up in the morning and do the same thing we've done every day our whole lives, again and again.
One sense of meaninglessness brought on by the massive scale of space, and the other brought on by the massive scale of time
@@rbgg2010 You confused Existential horror for Cosmic horror.
@@EHyde-ir9gb Interesting way of putting it.
@@DeltaCain13 yeah, existential horror is a much more grounded and understandable experience. Its the understanding that makes it horrifying, while a cosmic horror its the sense that you *can't* understand it that makes it horrifying.
Every single video you put out, I think "this is incredible, this has to be the best one that he'll ever make" and every single time you prove me wrong. This was astonishingly good, and brought me to tears thinking about how art affects us, even if we can't quite figure out how to describe it. Thank you so much for your excellent work!
Thanks putting into words what I feel everytime I watch a new Jacob video 😃
"The Men Who Couldn't Stop Crying" would make a good title for film or novel.
or video essay by jacob geller
@@eyeballgrocery Or that.
It reminds me of "Men Who Stare At Goats" lol
@@chris.hartliss That was a confusing film when i was young
"Sadbois: a nuBlog"
My late grandmother was born in 1915. She used to tell me stories about her youth and childhood, some of which sound so alien to someone born in the late 80s such as myself that it took knowing her to actually believe it, if it makes any sense. She told me stories about how people genuinely believed you couldn't move from a country like Mexico to a colder climate such as Canada without dying of hypothermia, how slavery was very much present during her childhood, just not called slavery anymore and, more relevant to this video, how she wanted to watch Nosferatu when it was released but her mother thought her too young, so only her older sister was allowed. Returning home that evening, her sister was terrified, she was genuinely afraid that a vampire would attack her and drink her blood, so as a small act of revenge my grandma waited patiently until the middle of the night, sneaked through the house and slowly opened her sister's door with her pale hand just to hear her scream.
I've lived in small cities where a man once asked me "didn't this guy die in the last soap opera?". I've seen actors being attacked on the street for playing evil characters. I have no doubt people were afraid of trains moving towards the screen, it may be an exaggeration that people ran from their seats, but that's all, an exaggeration based on a real observation.
Though those times would have been tough.. It seems very simpler by today's standard! ❤
What an insightful comment.
Me when more people can attack other people because they didn't like something they did years ago and seeing that nothing actually changed
You grandma was a menace 😂
Moral of the story: don't let your younger sister be bitter.
As a folklore major who took a really fun class on urban legend a while back I wasn't expecting this to be about theater and film urban legends. I really love this, I always like having more legends in my brain
This is semi related but what do you do as a Folklore major? I've been thinking of doing anthropology or something like that and wanting to focus on folklore or something but I wasn't sure if it was a thing I could do
@@madotsuki715 Hi! from what I've seen, it's not the most common major out there, but my school has a dedicated folklore department because my little part of Canada prides itself on folklore based tourism lol. I know the American Folklore Society's website has a list of schools in the US and Canada that offer it though. (I'm not actually too sure about how it compares to an anthropology department, since I only took an intro for that like 4 years ago and it didn't click with me, probably because of the Prof I think lol)
Subject wise, folklore is just informal knowledge, so it can be literally anything, anywhere, like stories, family recipes, workplace gossip, music etc. Unless it's an intro, each of my classes were about a specific topic (so that urban legend class for example), and usually you're either reading researchers' writings on whatever subject they were focused on or doing your own direct research by interviewing other people.
I hope that helped! I honestly didn't even know it was a thing until my second year, since I'm also an English major and got into it while looking for a minor, so it's nice seeing people be interested in it going in.
folklore major?? that sounds so cool, like part anthropology part literature part communication…
@@tutterbear98 thank you! It sounds very interesting!
i agree the more legends i learn the better
I saw Wendell Pierce in Death of a Salesman in London just before the pandemic began. I didn't know it would be the last play I would see for the longest time of my life, but I'm quite glad it was. It was a phenomenal piece of theatre, and Wendell Pierce broke my heart into a thousand pieces
I gotta say, I read it as part of English class when I was in high school, and it is very depressing. I didn’t cry uncontrollably but I did go into a depressive episode for weeks after. It just hit me that I was told trying and practicing is enough to be successful, but it really isn’t, and that everyone who’s pushing you to succeed knows that sometimes you’ll never be successful in one area, because they lived it. This whole lie about ‘you can do anything if you put your mind to it’ hurts those who hear it and those who spread it, and it’s rampant in the western world. It’s inescapable. I admire it as a work, but I don’t think I can revisit it, even now, in my 30s. My whole class ended that unit on a depressing note. Nobody really spoke as the bell rang and we grabbed our things. Our teacher warned us that it would hit us in some sort of way, as it was the opposite of what we had learned our whole lives. This was also in the early 00s, and the beginning of the economic recession. I think everyone needs to experience it once, in their teens, so we can stop this lie that everyone will bed successful as long as they try, and every person can do any job out there, and that earning money is the only form of success. I feel more success from my volunteer work than any job/career that I’ve had. When I have a child, I will teach them that they will find something fulfilling and find a way to financially meet their needs, and that success isn’t in your things and bank account, but more an overall picture. If you are helping yourself and others more than you harm them, and you are fed, clothed, and sheltered, then you are successful to some degree.
I've said that it there's a silver lining to be had with covid, it's that people were woken up to the importance of family, friends, their own needs, and other intangibles. Even CEOs are recognizing this and are stepping down to be with family.
There's a place for professional drive--some people thrive on it--but I think we're realizing that we can't all be CEOs, we can't all be successful millionaires. And we're realizing that money and professional success does not make one happy and content. Serving others, being around family--frankly, the things ancient religions tell us to do--make us content and give meaning to our lives.
I hope we remember this long after covid is over.
Thank you for this insightful comment
"You can do anything you put your mind to" Is definitely flawed, and clearly often untrue. However, by trying your hardest, you'll likely end up with SOMETHING to show. Its certainly a lot better to live by then "nothing matters, so why try". The best truth is likely a compromise in the middle. Try your best, but temper expectations.
Horatio Alger must die
It's the most damaging lie
This is gonna be existential isn’t it?
Hell yeah it is.
it's Jacob, he could make cookies onto an existencial video and still be great
@@cinnamonbummer9504 i mean cookie clicker is existential enough
Doesn't matter, got cookies
Of course it's existential, it's jacob
I'm sorry, but your comment is painful. Please, next time use "deep" or "profound" instead of "existential", ty.
I bawled like a baby in the middle of Soul. There was something about a middle aged man that couldn't get it together that struck something deep in me. It's more haunting than any horror I've ever watched or read
It’s this feeling of “I’ll figure it out, I have time” until you realize that you’ve spent so much time chasing something and you’ve failed so far to achieve. It’s this kind of thing that keeps me from dreaming big and staying ardently practical about my goals
It's funny you say that, because that aspect seemed so normal to me. My family had basically all gone through this, some to even longer/greater extents, so seeing Soul was just... Surprisingly normal? To me, it feels like nobody has any idea what's actually going on and nobody has it together
@@Madhatter1781 So, how do you think self-realization could be possible, if it could be at all?
@@juicejooos The movie's suggestion, and mine, is to live in the present. Self-actualization need not be a future goal, it can be about living plentifully, earnestly, now
I was struggling with depression and anxiety disorder when Inside Out came around, I cried the whole freaking movie and even after the movie was over. The story of someone having his mind in utter chaos and the moral of understanding sadness place in life resonated so deep in me that I can't put into words. It's funny looking back into it tho, and imagining myself crying my eyes out before a pink elephant-thing with a small umbrella.
It's still a heartbreaking story that can scare a family man who have done everything they've possibly could to give their family anything and everything, but have been dealt the shit end of the stick. There were those men who left at 3am and walked miles from one job to another just to be told they weren't qualified, skipping lunch because he only had enough money for his kids to eat at school. To then come home and have your family thinks everything great but have no idea
Nowadays the majority of men will never know about fatherhood since being a husband is so dangerous. Not just in the west but everywhere. Some cope by thinking the east can provide a good wife. The poor saps.
Heck, it scares me. And I've already generally given up on all things hopeful and pleasant
@@ColdEmperor what
@@notNajimi basically western men can’t get married anymore and all of their attempts at maintaining a family end up futile as the governments around the world encourage women to act on their lack of emotional control by blowing up their homes in the search of female independence from the oppressive and stupid male
@@ColdEmperoreww you’re a trad. No woman in the East would actually enjoy being with you
A lot of the criticism of Welles' was less "you scared everyone" and more "it was a little irresponsible to make this the way you did on the eve of war" which was kinda fair. People really did panic, but not that many of them. Most of the letters and feedback they got were people upset because they didn't like hearing a news bulletin-style thing saying that american cities were dying in toxic clouds and invasion while they were also anxiously waiting for the spark that would ignite a European powderkeg.
Ultimately, we repeated this behavior after 9/11. Disaster films had a different atmosphere and intention. They retread the panic of the nation and premiered before the invasion of Iraq. Some were glorying the American response; some were warning of what Eisenhower had elucidated as the military industrial complex. And so often were these films used as bait for young, hopeless, helpless men and women with an axe to grind. What Welles did wrong became a blueprint for American film tradition.
I busted out laughing after you talked about "Career of a Salesman". It's so absurd that only possible reaction was comic disbelief.
These business types, these capitalists, they were so incredibly AFRAID of what Death of a Salesman displayed so clearly. Why were they so afraid? If they believed in their system, if they had any sort of faith in it, what would there be to fear? If the premise of the play were indeed so far detached from reality, why would they feel the need to reassure everyone that all is well?
It was not a nation that America feared during the Red Scare. It was an idea. A bright, unbearable reality which threatened to illuminate things which certain people in very high places would rather remain in the dark.
It's real! ua-cam.com/video/jb14SE_UXrA/v-deo.html
@@DukeOnkled maybe they were scared of their freedom being taken away, their society destroyed, their rights trampled, their property and liberty being stolen... etc. As so happened in all the other utopias created by the takers.
@@tienglongmy They DESERVED IT.
Such a showing would have been this... poetic irony. As if you are seeing those lofty ideals of the character made manifest.
I mean, we like to joke about “ooh people got scared of a train coming at them from a screen” but seriously I still flinch when seeing an object like a baseball fly towards the camera unexpectedly in a video
yeah we feel real comfortable judging those guys for people who have been watching movies all our lives. if was an 1800s frenchman who had never seen a picture move and you sat me in a room and projected a train coming right at me fuck i'd probably be scared too
I dodge projectiles from video games. With my physical body
@@bullfrogboss8008 Same here. Sometimes I physically turn my head when I saw a flashbang being thrown in front of me in-game.
@@bullfrogboss8008 try a bullet hell
@@bullfrogboss8008 also the famous example of people leaning when they're turning really hard in racing games!
The cinematography! The lighting! The impeccable camera “movement”! Plus all the depth and emotion I’ve come to expect. Is it gauche to suggest Inside’s impact generated a shockwave which can be literally felt in this video? If so, I hope it continues to spread.
This may be my favorite video of yours yet, and I’ve said that before, numerous times. Mazel tov Jacob, you’ve done it again!
So gay bro
@@peterlawson8040 Thank you!
Yeah, totally, all amazing and delightful. I would never expect that camera movement @ 1:14
@@BeyondFugazi 100%. While the use zoom was one thing (cause that counts as camera movement), the the moment you linked was perfection.
The zoom at 9:40 was impeccable
I love how Jacob Geller’s general appearance and video aesthetic is just slowly edging more and more towards a late 1800s doctor. Like at some point he could just be inserted into a movie of Jekyll and Hyde and I’d be like ‘yeah looks right.’
His outfit today is still a little Leonardo Dicaprio, but I give it a month max.
Hello there fellow Williams
This is going to be all i can think about now
This doods a vampire, I’d bet he’s like 800 years old
I thought it was like a dressed down orthodox jewish look lol I do get 19th century doctor now though
I had never heard of enargeia before, but it immediately made me think of “The Drowned Giant” by J. G. Ballard, and its adaptation in Netflix’s Love Death + Robot.
The story tells the tale of a small town by the beach, where the corpse of a giant washes upon the shore. It’s not about the creature itself, which is left deliberately vague in the short story and represented as a gigantic man in the series, but rather about the impact it has on the townsfolk. The point is that the nature of the beached corpse is not important, the facts of the matter don’t matter. Through the narrator’s eyes, this creature, whatever it may be, is mythical. If it is a whale, then it is the arch nemesis of Moby Dick, if it is a giant squid, then it’s the Kraken itself. If it’s a man, then it’s no less than a mythological hero of old.
The narrator is not a liar, nor is he delusional. The drowned giant is both a natural phenomenon and an otherworldly experience. To call it by any other name would take away from the impact it has. The story ends as the town slowly normalize the event. The giant is remembered as a whale by all, but the narrator remembers that to him, it was much more.
I think this story is powerful in the way it bridges the gap between material reality and perceived reality. What I take away from it is that both sides are equally real and true. It was a whale, but to call it that would be to deny the reality of one man for whom is _was_ , before anything else, a drowned giant.
Watch my video on big things underwater! I talk about that story!
The lighting effects as Jacob recalls these legends is so fucking cool, like listening to someone tell a story over a campfire (or in a tent during a thunderstorm for the example of the Iliad).
I'm going to be completely honest, I was pretty antsy at the beginning of this video. I kept thinking "Is he missing the point? He can't be, can he?" when you were going over historical evidence for the story of the men who couldn't stop crying. You didn't, by the way, and I ended this video with tears in my eyes.
I think, though, that these kinds of stories go beyond just expressing emotions that we can't really describe - these stories are also a safe way to express those emotions. If I tell you that I watched Death of a Salesman and that it frightened and saddened me, I'm inviting ridicule - what if I'm the only one that feels that way, and you laugh at how silly I'm being? But if I tell you that I watched Death of a Salesman and that it made men in the audience weep uncontrollably, I'm inviting you to marvel with me about how powerful the play was.
Stories like this give us a way to talk about how emotionally powerful something is without having to admit that you were one of those men who couldn't stop crying.
Wow, that’s so true. I guess for women, it’s pretty common to say we cry about things, so we don’t see it in that way, but I understand that position. You made me see in a new light, and I agree wholeheartedly with your statement. You can say you cry though, promise we won’t laugh or ridicule you, we can empathize. Times have changed those gender limitations. I’m glad it’s not as ridiculous anymore. Yet, still, when a man cries, it always makes me cry. It makes me cry more than when I see a woman cry, because I know that for men to show that isn’t easy, so it means they are deeply saddened. It almost hurts my heart to see it.
Both brilliant comments 🥺💔💗
I think that's also how ancient religious texts often work. They don't tell you that what's in them is untrue in the historical, literal sense. And the reason for that is because it conveys something true to the author, true to a culture.
Here’s something about which to weep. Arthur Miller’s second child was a son born with Down Syndrome. Miller had him institutionalized from infancy and never visited him once until his son-in-law Daniel Day Lewis persuaded him to after decades of neglect. He writes maudlin tales of failure, delusion, and suicide. Why anyone would inflict his work on themselves is a mystery. More importantly, that any person would allow his work influence their perspective on life is lunacy.
@@myrtle1234 To get a little personal for a second... Death of a Salesman is a distressingly accurate retelling of the last few years of my father's life. Oh sure, he died of alcoholism instead of a car crash, and he didn't have an affair, but those are just details. Those final years saw him sinking further and further into delusions about how he had FINALLY found a new job that would let him reclaim his self-identity as an Important Businessman, as he pickled his internal organs and pushed away his family. He died alone, far from home - forget having his body, we don't even know where he was buried.
I'm legitimately happy that you think that Arthur Miller's play was maudlin. I wish I had that luxury. I wish that good people were the only ones who wrote things worth thinking about... but that's not the world we live in.
I come back to this video 11 months later to tell of my experience with enargeia.
I was in a call with my band members, talking about music and whatnot, when I heard my mom yelling at me in the other room. It wouldn't be the first time, I thought it was something about our pets cause those were the only times I'd heard that kind of bewilderment in her voice, but then she said "Pappa har krockat med bilen." Dad has crashed the car...It was a moment where everything felt like it was standing still but also moving at hyperspeed at the same time. I was speechless for a few seconds before repeating what my mom had told me to my band members and telling them I had to go. I went with my mom cause we had to collect some things and also she really needed to know if he was majorly harmed. The drive to the site felt like hours, I felt myself supress my emotions because I wanted to take care of my parents in this situation. The moments I experienced enargeia was when I saw the glow of the police sirens in the distance and then when I saw my dad's car and him being lifted out of it. Luckily, he was both alive and concious, but seeing his car made my eyes fill with tears and it made my insides feel like they were forcing themselves through my throat. My legs went wobbly and I sat back down and called my girlfriend. She told me afterward that I was barely making sense and at first she hadn't heard what I had said had happened. Luckily, I was somewhat calmed down by the EMT staff that were there and the fact that I got to talk to him before he was loaded into the ambulance. We later followed it to the hospital and visited him. He has a fractured vertebrae and the doctors said he had contusions on his brain, so he'd have to be monitored until the next day to make sure it wasn't serious. Anyways, this is already long so I'll wrap it up here, he was unable to drive for a while because of the pain in his back and currently has trouble sitting down for too long for the same reason. The doctors said they estimate it take at least a year for the vertebrae to heal.
Thank you for reading through this if you did. I suppose this is kind of a rant to me, but it was quite a traumatic moment, as it was for my dad. Thank you again, and have a lovely day ❤️
Thank you for sharing your story, and I'm glad your father wasn't injured any more seriously than that
hope your dad is recovering okay and getting the rest he needs
@@Ciabattaonions Thank you, that is nice to hear from a stranger. I'm glad too
@@lt.dancepants Thank you for your kind words, stranger. He is trying his best and is doing well as far as I know. I make sure to ask him when I have the chance.
I'm sorry you and your mom had to experience that, especially since it sounds like your family is very close- I'm glad your dad is doing better though, and I hope you get many more years with both your parents!
This is by far my favorite UA-cam channel, I get so excited whenever I get the notification of a new vid. I used to read a lot and really appreciate art when I was a kid, highschool and college kinda whittled away my enthusiasm, but your videos have given that back to me a bit! Your videos also gave me inspiration to look into my Jewish cultural heritage a bit more, which is something I never really gave much thought to prior to seeing your videos. Thank you so much and please keep it up!
thank you so much
I can really relate to this (besides the Jewish heritage part). My parents are both writers and they very much instilled the love of reading and writing in me, and I kept it throughout high school. I felt very isolated and crushed and reading was a way to feel like I've been transported to another country (or world, maybe).
But then after high school I just...stopped. I'm always addicted to UA-cam or some other internet thing and I never have the patience or the attention span or the "true alone time" to just read and it's quite sad.
I'd like to piggy back off this and say that Jacob has also helped get me back into reading :) it hasn't been all him, but I bought a couple of books by Ursula LeGuin and have been immensely enjoying her writing. Thanks, Jacob, I needed to rediscover scifi :)
Silent subscriber here: just wanna quickly say that I truly connect with the content you put out there. You find words for some of the thoughts I couldn't find the words for. Be it gaming, art, fears, fascinations and what have you. One video is better the the next. I am having a great time and wanted to let you know my deeply felt appreciation, Jacob. Thanks!
- a friend from a far away place.
I totally agree with this comment!
“A friend from a faraway place” is the sweetest and loveliest sign off I think I’ve ever seen!
i never learned about death of a salesman in high school and i feel so robbed right now
I don’t think it works for highschool kids anyway. They don’t have the experience to emotionally get it. They likely see their parents represented but, like teenagers do, think they’ll be different somehow.
@@youtubename7819 there are lots of things that high schoolers are taught that they don’t already “get,” the whole point is to expose them to new ideas and get them thinking about concepts beyond what they’ve considered before
@@z.qualia this isn’t a new concept like algebra though. If you don’t know what it feels like to work a 9 to 5 for thirty years you flat out can’t know what it’s like.
sry "concerned parents" banned it lol
Thank you for giving me more information to tell at parties so I can sound interesting.
Same here Jasmine, same here
referring to maxim gorky, famed writer and quintuple nobel literature prize nominee, as "a russian journalist" has the same energy as calling barack obama "mishelle obama's husband"
That's like calling Biden: not one of the top 3 trump supporters of all time
Its like calling steve irwin a reptile hobbyist
Yeah, that kind of hurt a little...
let's be fair, here.
"american politician"
Could you keep a straight face at a name like Gorky?
It's weird how just witnessing someone's story or seeing it told through art can influence a person. I remember when markiplier was telling the story about the first time he really came to terms with the fact his dad was gone. He said that he'd found his glasses on a desk and thought to himself, oh I should bring him his glasses he probably needs them, then he remembered he would never need them again and upon realizing it was the first time he had grieved. It reminded me of my grandpa. He died of respiratory cancer at 65 in 2012. He owned a ranch with my grandma and he'd practically built it all from the ground up, the house, the corrals, even dug and filled the acre sized pond in front where I'd spent most my time as a child. During the time I had with him we would go on adventures fishing, catching moles and frogs and taking care of the animals. He was the one who showed me how to ride a horse for the first time, a horse he'd trained himself. I remember how it felt being there after he was gone. My grandma overrun by grief sold it and moved back into town. Before it was sold everything was still there, all the tools we used for upkeep, the horse tack, the custom made furniture, the animals, etc, but it felt like it didn't belong to us. It felt like it didn't belong to anyone anymore.
I didn't cry when I read _The Death of a Salesman,_ despite understanding it and seeing it deeply reflected in my father. I didn't cry because it wasn't new to me.
I'll drink to that, cowboy. I got a no good old man that thinks hes still on top of the world too. Let's just hope we dont end up as romantacised tyrants too, yeah?
@@affordablecybersecurity6604 Yeah :(
welcome to *current year *
Wow that's deep
what an edge lord, arent you cool
I love how you started using incredible historical anecdotes to tell powerful stories about videgames to then pivot to just incredible anecdotes and powerful stories without videogames inside them.
Also was that a true long shot ?
Also, bravo !
There was at least one cut from what I saw, but still a amazing performance for an amazing episode nonetheless!
i dont think it was one take, there was definitely one cut and the black screens were maybe cuts as well. either way an incredible video
In regards to the "War of the Worlds" panic, there is also the fact that newspapers had already become sensational and the truth was less important than telling a story that would sell more copies of the paper than your competitor's telling of the same event, so if even a few people thought the radio play was a real news report and panicked because of it, you can be sure the newspapers would emphasize that element.
The painting in the back is beautiful, but it totally caught me by surprise as it changed when the room went dark and red, only interrupted by flashes of lightning.
Dude was this all one take? Theater! That's theater and it fits the video so well! You had lots of fun writing and filming this and it shows.
Also this exaggeration of events is common in every day life as you illustrated with your Gone Girl example, which makes it a crucial way to communicate experiences to people we wish were there, and I find it endearing. It's like clinging to an event. Like being afraid of the passing of time, and aging, and watching your father come back home after the theater and crying his heart out. It also feeds into our desperate need to tell and share stories. There is nothing more human than participating in the oldest tradition of all.
i noticed a cut, and the blackscreen couldve been cuts
30:16 not one take
I would like to share a story of mine related to this video. I remember it as the death of my childhood. (That sounds dramatic but bear with me)
So every summer me my younger sister my mam and my dad would stay in a caravan in the countryside.
This caravan is tucked away deep in the Irish countryside of west cork on an isolated plot, that's its charm.
on one particular day, we had come home from the beach pretty late, as I remember it being dark.
My sister or myself must have turned on the tiny CRT tv that we had in the kitchen area, there was only three or so channels on this tv.
Whatever it was that we turned on grabbed my mams attention as she and my dad packed in the beach stuff.
what was on the tv was pretty graphic, sailors in the English channel being pulled in from shore with eyes bleeding. then news reports that the nuclear plant Sellafield on the east coast of England had exploded. Nuclear fallout and radiation was being carried across Ireland according to the news reporter.
My sister was to young to understand this, I was about 8 still a child but able to see that this was serious. I can still remember the fear in my mother's voice as she called my dad over. I remember trying to get my dads attention as I saw how panicked they both where. That was the moment that I refired to above where some of my childhood innocence died, I realised looking at my parents griped with fear that there are things in this world that they cannot protect me from, things far beyond there comprehenson. My mother still frozen in fear watching the increasingly drmatic news reports, my dad now packing something god knows what into the car, certanly not the beach gear he just took out. Then on the tv something like 'This was a rte prouced reinactment of what it might be like if cellafeild exploded' Christ almighty, I dont rember how things really went after that I guess we all laughed about it the next day, But I do rember that the fear we all felt was verry verry real and it still sticks with me.
So I guess we are just stupid Irish cultuchies who got fooled by the tecnolgy of a 10 inch crt tv hahahahaha
When I was about 12 it popped up in the news that the army base in the next town over had secretly been there primarily to store chemical weapons all along, and now the chemicals were in a decrepit state and had to be carefully incinerated. They had to build a comprehensive incinerator facility there and it would take years to get through everything. Emergency sirens were erected everywhere in the danger zone, which was quite wide as what could happen would depend on the chemical and the wind, and we were given emergency broadcast radios and shelter in place kits. It was there that I grew up and lived my early adult years, always wondering if or when catastrophe would strike. They finally got it all burnt up without incident, but it's still wild to think about. Wilder still is how the area suffered economically much worse once the incineration was done and the base reduced to minimal function, than when it was in danger all those years.
Thank you both for your stories. Speaks to me in this way i cant quite connecg to right now
Not knowing UK/Irish history I just assumed there was a small nuclear accident on the UK I haven't heard about.
Yall got fuckin trolled
@@ekki1993 There was the 1957 Windscale fire in Sellafield, in fact. It seems a little tasteless that they ever aired some phony recreation like this after the actual incident.
Made an art piece based on Death of a Sales man: a line of suits hanging up, with a man on the other side with a coat hanger hook for a head. Below I painted the set for the play. The Lowman house between two large skyscrapers. I actually forgot the paint in the door and when asked about it I BSed it and said "well he can't go home."
Hahaha nice one! No mistakes, only happy accidents!
Maybe it was a subconscious idea that didn’t fully come into your consciousness until it was pointed out to you. Good catch on it though. Sounds like an interesting piece.
Great art is one part Inspiration, one part dedication, and one part improvised BS during critique.
Lol
Elaborating on hearsay-as-oral-tradition by performing a monologue about it…every month I’m knocked out by how you innovate your stuff!! Absolutely amazing
It took me until today at the ripe old age of 38 to realize that Jacob Geller talking about things is my favorite genre.
Genuinely, every single one of your videos is an utter masterpiece. Utterly enrapturing, beautifully written, profound, thoughtful and thought provoking.
You elicit a genuine sense of real happiness with all your videos. Not surface level happiness, but a deep happiness within the soul. Something that persists. So thank you for everything you do.
I think I've experienced enargeia once in my life: sitting next to my sister on the floor of the bedroom of our new apartment, my mom crouching down and sitting on the floor across from us, and telling us that they found our father's body, and the awful gasping noise that came out of my sister, and the feeling that I couldn't move if I tried
I'm so sorry. :(
I don't think I've ever experienced it, but based on what you said, was it one of those rare moments where reality becomes too "real" or is bluntly undeniable that you're feelings & reaction become unconscious/you don't even know how to react?
Your comment made me realize that I think the only time in my life I’ve experienced enargeia was the moment my mom’s oncology team all gathered around her hospital bed in the ICU and told us that there was nothing more they could do. She looked at them in disbelief, still SO full of life, and said “Are you telling me I’m dying right now?” Despite being seated, I felt the sensation of my feet falling out from under me.
She was dead just four days later, her decline faster than anyone could’ve imagined. And yet I still come back to that room full of people who tried their damndest to snuff out our hope with even a glimpse of compassion.
I adore how Jacob does the recital- he begins looking down at the book, as if reading from it, and then, at some unclear point while obscured by darkness (if you look really, really carefully, it's when he starts describing Pherecles's death) he *looks up* (he's got this whole thing MEMORIZED!) and recites directly to the camera, a change you don't even realize has occurred until a couple of lightning-flashes have passed and you catch his eyes boring into you. And then, after the passage is done, he puts away the book, carefully positioning his hands so that, when the light comes back on, it looks like he's been reading from the book the whole time.
I love his delivery, but there are such things as teleprompters, too. :D
When storytelling as an art and its relation to our understanding of ourselves is both the medium *and* the subject under discussion.
that's the channel!!
Aside from the script which is obviously great, can I just say the lighting work in this is fantastic?
The reading of Memorial was incredible.
my only complaint is the flickering firelight comes from behind the camera, not the fireplace jacob is standing infront of
My grandma had told me a similar story to the train one. She once took my great grandmother, her mother to the cinema for the first time and she started crying after hearing german planes from the movie, she couldn't tell if the planes were real or not.
Honestly sounds like your grandma might have had a traumatic flashback in the theatre 😅
I dont know why, but the line "But this, too, is a train of shadows" hit different. It reminds me of all of the people that are super excited to go into the future with VR and VR technology (I used to be one of those people)
There's a rhetoric with those people that goes something like 'Simulated reality is no different than actual reality if you can't tell the difference' but I've always been able to tell the difference, and this line "but this, too, is a train of shadows" Encapsulates that feeling perfectly
guess you could say those people are on a hype train of shadows
@@douglasparkinson4123 I suppose you could
If simulated reality ever matched actual reality, that's be terrifying. Realism is a good goal, but I hope that we can always tell what's actually real.
Someday, the physical world will be the train of shadows.
@@jimmyjohnson501 we already can't!
excellent exploration as always, but I can only comment on how much I loved seeing that "are we gonna keep this take" gleam in your eye every time the cat batted the camera.
I had a car with a broken radio, the only station I had was NPR. I had to listen all day January 6th while I worked (delivering mail) to the capital riots. It was crazy to me that All I could do was keep working and listening to the tidbits that were making out. I didn’t even have anyone to talk to until the end of the day when I got back to the office and had to break the news to my coworkers. It was a weird day.
I do have to watch your videos about several times to truly understand what you're saying sometimes. I really am trying to get better at literary analysis and understanding metaphors and I think you've done a better job than any of my english teachers. Maybe it's because I can go back and watch these so that the point can get closer and closer to nailing me in the head, or maybe it's because you talk about things I'm interested like video games and movies and old plays. But I just would like you to know that you are doing an incredible job. You, and the things you are passionate about, inspire a lot of the writing I try to make. I aspire to be as good at expressing myself as you someday. I wish you the best in all that you do.
Very best of luck to you on literary journey. I don't know if it is considered literature but my favorite book of all time is called "Illusions" by Richard Bach. Donald Shimoda is a character that from the first paragraph he has never left me. Anyway, just a suggestion and some encouragement from me!
@@the_pseudo_nim that book is pretty much old hat. It’s just another variation of solipsism, an idea as old as philosophy itself.
@@Darkloid21 old hat
Noun|Informal
used to refer to something considered uninteresting, predictable, tritely familiar, or old-fashioned.
Thank you. For taking the time out of your day to swoop in just to insult me for no good reason. Years ago I found an unexpected joy on the pages of this novel and I mentioned it here so that maybe someone else might enjoy it as well. I don't understand what purpose it serves for you to talk down to me when no one asked you. You don't like it, cool. Keep it to yourself. All you have accomplished is to portray yourself as a literary snob. Perhaps people who know you find that concept itself to be old hat.
@@the_pseudo_nim Again, not sure how it can serve others well since the book's idea really is old. There is nothing new about "What if this is all in our head"? It's not snobish to show people that this idea has been done before MANY times.
But if you really take solace in a book that posits that this world is our creation for our entertainment and learning then I have to question your sanity much like the authors. Such an idea is borderline narcistic. While makes sense given your tone in regard to criticism.
@@Darkloid21 Just a suggestion, but when criticizing others it's a good idea to use spellcheck. Otherwise when you misspell a word you're using to belittle someone internet randos might show up and call you out on your inability to spell "narcissistic"
Just wanted to recognize the level of effort that went into the scoring of this video, the way the music swells as you deliver these concepts really makes this more than just a video essay. Keep doing what you're doing Jacob, thank you for your stories.
There is a fine line between wanting more from your life and having goals and becoming self destructive in the process. I know some people in my profession who are so into the grind , they never enjoyed the success. Every new rank and promotion they got , they immediately started grinding to get to the next one as quickly as possible and totally burnt out now.
Ok I’m from Grover’s Mill where “the Martians landed,” so I can confirm some of the panic!
The “alien ships on the skyline” is generally believed to have been the Grover’s Mill water tower, which was found full of holes after many residents reported that they had “shot at the aliens.” My own great great grandfather drove through his garage door, seeing as it wouldn’t be needed after the invasion. Which makes sense! Not only was the whole country primed for terror from the radio, but Grover’s Mill specifically is just outside of Princeton. A large portion of the older population where or are astrophysicists.
These days, there’s still monuments to our one claim to fame. A metal plaque in the park, which alien theorist come visit sometimes. There’s plenty of videoes online of them conspiring about how we try to “hide” the plaque in the bushes around it. It’s really just a yew bush, which if you know anything about them is really, really hard to cut back on. There’s also the coffee shop, full of alien merchandise. We’re small, and we’re currently just trying to design a new town logo.
I'm not sure why, perhaps it was the way that it was written but you describe your town in such a lovely little way. I don't know if you're a writer, but if you are, don't ever stop doing it. Just that one comment was the evocative, informative and somehow very charming and pleasant to me.
how many people have to shoot at a water tower before they realize its not a UFO ?
@@fernandothatsonofabitch in the dark- quite a few!
Which coffee shop? The Grover mills one at the mcaffrey strip mall?
I always find the most interesting part about this area is how much white flight has occurred in certain parts (not Princeton)
I feel like they probably would have shot at the water tower thinking it was a tripod, because their ships were just big canisters. If the radio play aligns with the book that closely and my memory is correct
I guess I have my own men who can't stop crying in the theater moment. I saw the Mr. Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor in theaters with my mom a few years ago, and the whole time I remember being extremely emotionally struck by it all and holding back tears. I didn't grow up with Mr. Rogers' show, I just knew of him as a public figure so I only expected to see an interesting telling of his life. But as the movie ended, I burst into tears and could not. stop. crying. I realize now that a lot of the things I heard in that doc about self worth and finding your own value not in what you can contribute to the world but just me as a person was stuff I needed to hear for YEARS. I was in the middle of a huge struggle with depression and basically negative self esteem and everything I heard struck me to the core. I don't cry in public, I rarely ever cry in front of family. But in that theater I was sobbing out loud uncontrollably and I didn't stop crying until we got home half an hour later. Lots of built up emotion all brought out in an instant. I like to consider myself a pretty stoic person but this shook me up in a way I never expected before from any piece of media. It all just hit me..... like a train.
holy shit i had a super similar experience! i also watched it in theaters with my mom and i couldnt stop sobbing- starting about half an hour in and i didnt stop till like an hour after it was over. its the most ive ever cried at a piece of media in my life i think, my contacts felt weird the rest of the day
My mother took me to see "My Girl" (Macaulay Culkin etc) and I cried at the funeral scene, when she insists he needs his glasses. I cried all the way home.
My mother laughed at me and said she'd never take me to a sad movie again, because I was so embarrassing.
Sorry I showed an emotion, mom. Sorry I was developing depression. Sorry.
Your description of (what I think is) the synopsis of death of a salesman resonated. I've never heard of that play, but I can totally understand and empathise with those stunned or shocked at the end of it way back when. It hits on several insecurities that their lives had, some that still reach us easily to this day. It also has an interesting way of suggesting that one is setting up their own, presumably beloved, family for failure and hardship because they couldn't handle such an insecure 'what if' scenario.
The train scene in Hugo is also #4: *A REAL EVENT*
The Montparnasse Derailment happened in Paris in 1895. The famous photo of it is recreated shot for shot in the movie.
I’m losing my mind at the idea of “Career Of A Salesman”. Absolutely incredible
I've pasted this a couple times in the comments since it's only got 200 views, but the damn thing is real!: ua-cam.com/video/jb14SE_UXrA/v-deo.html
@@weatheranddarkness NICE
Outstanding work! “That’s not how it was, but it is how it felt” will always be my defense of great art, and recollections of it, that capture a mood more than “truth.”
I'm thinking that maybe the reactions in all of those myths and especially the radio play one are, in part, the same as reactions to ARGs now. People who participate in ARGs know what they are, but still pretend to believe that it's the real thing because either it has an artistic impact on them, makes them feel things or just because it's fun.
This seems implausible, but what if those people for example just really liked the idea of what reaction the radio play *could* bring out if it was real that they pretended to have it?
Sometimes I wonder if our descendents, some less than a hundred years from now will think that we actually believed in Cicada 3301, Slenderman or any other internet folklore/AGR simply due to massive account of people taking part in the act.
that's a great connection
@@JacobGeller Oh wow, I did not expect you to reply.. Just wanted to say, thank you for all your work. I've been watching and rewatching your videos since "Who's Afraid of Modern Art" and not one has failed to move me in some way. Even if i've watched your analysis? essay? before I still process it differently, take something else away from it. You really inspire me to keep learning about everything, expanding my field of knowledge as far as I can, because any media is created by people, even if different and a story about a frozen truck can very much relate to a video game and speak on the same things.
Also thank you for putting yourself in every video. Your work is not at all objective and that's the greatest part. You put your own perspective, associations and experiences in what you talk about and I feel like that's the most beautiful that a review can give. A small insight into other person's mind. Which is also a thing I've been greatly inspired by and I can talk about your videos for hours and of course non of this will probably be new to you because you're the person who puts your videos together and I really should just stop rambling but I just wanted to let you know that what you're doing means a whole lot to me and thank you for that!
those are way too many words
@@mintok4407 there are never enough words when you're passionate about something. Loved your comments and I share your enthusiasm :)
What is an ARG?
I love how the lighting of the dramatic bits of the video obscured the distinctions between the color bars of the painting. I’m sure its not that deep but it was really evocative to watch red, orange, and yellow blocks becoming visually less distinct as Jacob spoke about the way the distinctions between myth and fact lose meaning as well... taking on an emotional value rather than a rational one regardless of the reality of the event. Fantastic video!
Life imitates art
When you realize the video itself has become a perfect example of the vocab word that Prof. Geller was describing. A+
This channel has quickly become one of my favorites, you can talk about paint drying and I’d watch it
I'm so happy I found this channel. Death of a salesman had a huge impact on me. I picked it up from Barnes and noble when I was 14 and as I read through it saw some of my idealisms crushed.
This was beautifully done, recently found your videos and I am floored by your ability to tell these stories and connect everything together
I smiled so big at "Highshool himbo" :) Wonderful video as always. I always get so excited when you upload. Honestly I was feeling really depressed recently. I just turned 21 and for the past few years I always get really sad around my birthday and I'm not really sure why. I'm young but I already see my birthday as a reminder that I'm going to die and I feel like I'm not growing and progressing as a person and with my skills as quickly as I feel I should... This video was perfectly timed for me. Thank you
Today is my birthday and, no joke, my doctor's "prescription" for me was to go to the hospital. 😅😅 My birthday is one of a handful of days in the year that I legit look forward to. I got one "Happy Birthday" which made me smile, followed immediately with that doctors appointment. I should be at the hospital right now yet here I am sharing this personal story about myself that absolutely no one cares about. Stalling...Stalling...I'm fucked up...stalling...God damnit...
@@edvfya9922 Aw I care. That really sucks I’m sorry :/ I have appointments all the time for some stuff and it honestly just gets so tiring so I totally get that. For what it’s worth; HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you at least get to enjoy some of it :)
@@yikesaghost4002 Thank you! I appreciate your kind words, truly, they put the second smile on my face for the week :)
@@yikesaghost4002 Another thing, doctors appointments...🤢🤮! Nothing but bad news every time, and no answers. Anyway, thanks again.
When I was your age, the same thing happened to me on my birthdays... but the good thing is that, you just simply go on, keep living your life and start to realize that you really have a long time to do a lot of things. Just relax and enjoy whatever you have in your life now. And give yourself the credit for the things YOU enjoy doing, not for the things you're supposed to be doing 'at your age'. Eventually, soon or later, things will turn out in a good way. Now I'm 31, and I realize there's more time in a lifetime than what I thought when I was 21..
Greetings from Argentina!
I'm taken back to just how you were able to do all of this in seemingly one take. You showed bits of shows and articles, yeah. But it always went right back to you. That made this extremely gripping to watch.
Everything you make whether it's whimsical or aggressively depressing is so interesting and compassionately told, thank you for doing this stuff ❤
Man Death of a Salesman was almost certainly planted a seed in my upper middle class head about the realities of the American Dream and capitalism and how dreadful the whole system is and it struck me so hard in high school, so seeing you talk about it feels right. Thanks for this one, Jacob.
How did you get around that unbearable reality?
@@ToriKo_ think I’m still trying to figure that out haha
Just dont raise kids that do weed and eat washing up pods as some sort of self impossed rebellion about capitalism because you feel people cant balance their life.
"memorial" reminds me of an activity my theater professor had us do one day. she gave a dozen or so students a piece of paper, and each paper had a different list of names on it. in total, the pages contained the names of every american soldier who died in the iraq war (this was a couple years ago, so that detail might be inaccurate). she then had us begin reading the names, one at a time, out loud to the whole class, all dozen or so students at once. it was an overwhelming experience that impressed on me a fraction of the gravity of war and death. the weight of all of those names - no longer a number, but people. "memorial" is much the same. i wish i could remember even one of the names of the people who died.
That last part about the Iliad made me feel that my heart would burst out of my chest by pure emotion... Wonderful video
Cat: *bumps camera*
Jacob: *doesn't bat an eye*
What a professional
The first description of the salesman from death of a salesman reminded me so much of Quark from DS9 especially the episode where he thinks he’s going to die and almost commits suicide just to hold up the contract.
Also, great video!
I distinctly "remember" seeing the airplane hit the towers live despite having credible record of being in my elementary school classroom at the time.
Your videos are what I hope to see in my e-mail notifications when I check them in the morning. This certainly lived up to the expectations which drive that desire.
How did you comment 19 hours ago the video was released 9 mins ago
@@hesh1491 Patreon.
I will always remember the first time I've seen my dad cry, I was probably fifteen or sixteen and something just cracked and he couldn't handle it. I just stood there, and I remember being terrified and confused. It was unreal.
I have never seen mine cry but I just want him to cry. Cry so much that he could get rid of all the stress he accumulated instead of drinking and smoking. Crying helps depression better than all temporary pleasures.
@@exosproudmamabear558 funny. after i cry all i get out of it is emptiness, only for everything i just let out to return again a couple weeks later
I always wondered if the first time I would see my dad cry is when my grandparents die. Turns out the first time I saw him cry when I was 26 and he was telling me and my sister about the abuse he suffered at their hands.
my favorite media experience was watching gakuen handsome, a harem anime thats intentinally bad. my first experience with it was at a con, the veiwing room was packed with others curious as to what gakuen handsome was..... this show, this show made that whole room constantly scream and cry "noooooooo...!" in anguish, yet no one LEFT. when the internet went out, stopping the show, that whole room was close to rioting genuinely as the whole fucking room screamed as loud as they could "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" bc the internet went out on the final episode, i was by the front, my sister was working the projector, there was nothing to be done by us but the crowd was going apeshit over bad anime
so my sis did the only thing she could
she played the card captor sakura back up that was downloaded onto the computer.
gakuen handsome is no longer permitted at that con.
that's pretty hilarious. i also find it fascinating how "bad" entertainment can often still be so captivating. there's something about terrible quality of production that borders on pure humor yet is also incredibly cringe inducing. like you said no one left, i feel that way when watching really stupid horror films all the way to the end just to bad mouth it the entire time.
@@shoyupacket5572 if you like bad horror i reccomend killer sofa. Its not even a sofa its a recliner that you cannot be scared of bc they gave it lil marble button eyes it looks like a muppet its so bad
@@gordonmorgan3131 oh god.... thanks for the recommendation haha.
Jacob’s videos have always been amazing and inspiring and interesting to me, and i’ve learnt things from his videos that i never would have found otherwise, and developed interest in topics i used to think were boring. But this video is even better then his past videos. Because of your chanel ive decided to start writing a video essay of my own and intent to keep making more in the future. keep doing this mazing work jacob!
I'm so glad to hear that!
Really! He covers a lot of content I probably wouldn’t pay much attention to otherwise.
"Maxim Gorky-"
-"a Russian journalist"
*music stops*
This blunder aside, that description is something that is incredibly Gorky
I’ve only started watching you recently, but you’ve quickly come quite possibly my absolute favourite creator on the site. This video was an incredible essay and piece of art in of itself, and I am certainly feeling things lol.
You have recontextualized so many pieces of media i've consumed in like...what...35mins?
I would LOVE to see Jacob cover I Have No Mouth but I Must Scream. That story hit me on a primal level, it's almost indescribable how that story emotionally impacts you as the reader. Please give it a thought even though this comment is 2 weeks too late
Why do I feel like he mentioned it in one of his videos about architectural horror, either Control, or NaissancE? If it's not one of those two I think it's adjacent?
@@weatheranddarkness I don't think he has ever covered it. I've only seen Ryan Hollinger's video on it. But I think could do a great video on that story, it has so much depth
There is one but idk what video
@@sampton4779 "Returnal is a Hell of Our Own Creation"
this comment was a while ago, but wendigoon did a great video on it
The unlocking of an unknown trauma, at an unexpected and vulnerable time, could have been debilitating for someone. But a story like this is the smoothed pebble of what truly happened.
The exaggerated reactions remind me of what's happening with vr in the modern day. Playing a Vr game is like being transported to another world, when I played valves portal lab and seen GLaDOS my jaw dropped yet...its not like another world you know its fiction, you can't smell or feel, movement might be limited.
But that doesn't matter so long as emersion exists we will always describe fiction this way, even if in the moment we were sitting still.
I'm surprised you never mentioned the mythical "Rite of Spring riots" in this video. It seems to perfectly fit: the narrative of modern music being so subversive that it drove people into insanity and rioting.
That's exactly what I was thinking do!
Kind of wild that a piece that's become so prosaic was such a big deal at the time. Of course being in the same space as a full symphony orchestra punching you in the gut with some of those moments in the piece hits pretty different from an mp3 playing out of your iphone speakers.
Probably because it really happened and the riot was caused over an argument over the technicalities of playing an oboe, I believe
@@Dong_Harvey "if that's a bassoon, then i'm a baboon!" - an aristocrat annoyed at the range the opening bassoon was playing in.
Since graduating college to get into a position that didn't fit my expectation, and then my father losing his job just prior to the pandemic, and me staying out of work for nearly a year and a half... I've noticed myself thinking about Death of a Salesman a lot. Far more than my highschool self would have ever considered. Even here, where I would have felt "a bit safe from those thoughts" by focusing on video games, well, here it is again.
Thankfully, at least at this time, I'm starting a new job with a big pay raise with far more directions of development, with the chance to step out into my own. Basically exactly what I needed. And my dad is starting to do "sustainably" in the day trading scene, continuing to get better by the week.
So, hopefully this will be the last time I need to think about the deep similarities between myself and the Loman family.
It's annoying at how underrated this man is, literally becoming one of my favorite you tubers.
The production value of this video was incredible, and just... wow. Got the feeling of a PhilosophyTube video, it was just that well made and all a continuous take, or a few long takes. Incredible, and this has quickly become one of my favourite channels.
Yeah I got that same vibe. It seems to borrow some of the aesthetics of a contrapoints or philosophy tube video essay, which I really dig
No way dude, the tone in these videos is really chill and subdued. Philosophy Tube is borrowing indulgent capitalist aesthetics from Contrapoint's and became visually overdramatic.
The nice thing about this video is that there is next to zero production value. I hope this channel stays the way it is.
@@SleepyMatt-zzz “indulgent capitalist aesthetics”
Bruh, are you really gonna give capitalists a monopoly on dope visuals??? Leftism can’t survive if it’s only seen as a distant academic concept forever. We gotta make it sexy to reel people in, and then we dump the theory on ‘em
@@SleepyMatt-zzz This has the same non-argument energy as criticizing someone on the left for having an iPhone.
@Are You Going To Do The 'Ora Ora' Thing? this has been said about every single individual who has ever spoken publicly about philosophy
I just recently discovered your channel and....just...Wow. Bravo to you. I watched 'Fear Of The Cold' first and I was completely captivated by the way you can tell a story. It's absolutely incredible.
The most breathtaking and thought provoking 35 minutes and 41 seconds of my life, thank you from the bottom of my soul Jacob
Death of a Salesman really struck a nerve with me when I read it back in Grade 11 - it weirdly reflects most of my experience with my own father, even down to him being a salesman, and it hurts to think about it because of how it really digs into how capitalism and the conservative ideal of the American dream is so insidious.
Capitalism bad
@@brownboots9403 it is though
@@colenicholson96 No, not particulary. Life is rough under every system ever deviced.
@@strangelyukrainian7314 Why would you seriously doubt this? What was the purpose of the American dream? Who benefits from the spreading of the lie that if average people work hard for a company their entire life they will find meaning and happiness? It definitely couldn't have been a propaganda tool to convince the average Joe that slaving their life away to a capitalist is the true path to happiness and fulfillment. Why would a capitalist even want people to think that?
@@johkupohkuxd1697 that idea is rooted under capitalism. You're conditioned to think that "life is rough" under every system because any other thought process otherwise leads to....well not capitalism
“Twin Peaks Funeral Level” that’s fantastic. I have never seen this play but wow, it sounds amazing. Now I want to see it. Oh my lord, you even show citations? Bless your literary heart. That’s amazing. Subbed!