Men. Abuse. Trauma.

July 29, 2019 5:56 AM

"And then suddenly the door to hell opens, and Garcin has an opportunity to leave... only, he doesn't." (YouTube link) Philosophy Tube himself, aka Oliver Thorn, created this stunning work of YouTube, in which he discusses Sartre, Descartes, Shakespeare, and himself.

Content warning: suicide, abuse, domestic violence, and Shrek

"...part of the awful tension is that there's no cuts..."

At the end, Thorn references hbomberguy's Donkey Kong 64 charity stream, which featured a cameo from, among others, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Here's Thorn's video on split mind theory, which he mentions midway through this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AuFvboGKrQ

Philosophy Tube previously on metafilter: 1, 2.

posted by Kybard (20 comments total)

I watched the video this weekend. It was very powerful & moving, and a great reminder that relationships are very hard, that abuse can often not feel like such, and that we should value ourselves enough to know when to walk away, if we can.
posted by xingcat at 7:52 AM on July 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

I should not have watched that at work; very difficult viewing (in a good way). Spoke a lot to me about things in my past and about how they still affect me on an everyday basis. I'd never heard of this guy before, but will be checking out more videos.
posted by Fish Sauce at 8:54 AM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

His Art or Reality episode on parasocial relationships is quite a trip.
posted by sjswitzer at 9:05 AM on July 29, 2019

More men need to do things like this and more men need to see them.

I think I'm also hooked on his channel. This is really good stuff. I don't know how I missed the previous posts.
posted by Hactar at 9:20 AM on July 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

WOW
posted by MiraK at 9:37 AM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

HEAVY STUFF"...Aristotle...chuckle...what is my job?"
This has been in my queue since it came out. I'm glad this showed up on the Blue to urge me to watch it. As a result, I've shared this with my circle of male friends who also initiated their divorce.
posted by mfu at 10:01 AM on July 29, 2019

This is a /great/ script, delivered masterfully. (Normally Olly sets my teeth on edge for reasons I’ve never quite been able to pin down.)
posted by pharm at 11:12 AM on July 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

Thanks for this, will probably watch again tonight with my (very supportive) partner.
posted by Hutch at 11:38 AM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

Note to MRAs: this is how it looks when you address the abuse experienced by men without turning it into a zero-sum, us-against-them thing. But then, that never really was the point, was it?

I'm constantly amazed at the quality work these youtube kids are able to come up with. Some time ago, when I realized I was getting old, I made a conscious decision not to criticize (well, not too much anyway) young people and the way they understand and adapt to the world previous generations have created for them. They -- a lot of them anyway -- are doing an amazing job. I'm pretty sure I have learned a lot more from them than from my elders.
posted by klanawa at 11:58 AM on July 29, 2019 [11 favorites]

I think that was one take. Incredible.
posted by Acey at 12:35 PM on July 29, 2019

I think that was one take. Incredible.

the only possible cut, I think, is somewhere in the camera turn when he switches clothes, but I'm perfectly willing to believe he could nail the whole thing in a single take. as pharm says, it's a brilliant script, and part of that is how well it's tailored to support him working through it continuously -- lots of careful pauses, steady builds and releases, that sort of thing.
posted by Kybard at 12:41 PM on July 29, 2019

This is amazing.
posted by Wretch729 at 1:09 PM on July 29, 2019

I highly recommend watching the credits with close captioning on, where he not only joyfully describes the guitar sounds of the excellent Gagarin track by Public Service Broadcasting but also confirms that indeed, the video was shot in one take (including wardrobe change).
posted by Hutch at 1:29 PM on July 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

This was a pretty great video — but as someone who doesn't watch Philosophy Tube much, I did not get all the Bowie-esque branding on it? I legitimately expected the video to be about Bowie and his abuse (i.e. having sex with Lori Maddox when she was like 14). Glad I watched it, but, yeah — little help?
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 1:59 PM on July 29, 2019

He did a previous video about his own encounters with suicidality, where he inhabits the character of the "Cosmonaut." It's also quite an affecting video. There are other characters (e.g., "The Arsonist") that reappear, so it helps to view the videos in order.
posted by klanawa at 2:45 PM on July 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

Re: Rev. Syung Myung Me

In the cosmonaut video (which this video is definitely a continuation of) he left this as a comment:

Well, there's a reason I put "Blackstar" in the thumbnail and the recommended reading: Bowie wrote that album when he knew he was dying and when it came out I saw someone say he was the only artist in the world who could look at his own death and go, “I can use this.” Making this video has been Hellish but I wanted to take these feelings and put them to work creating something nobody has made before: a YouTube video about suicide that's educational AND critical AND personal AND artistic. That just seems more worthwhile to me than sitting on these feelings, or making a video about this subject that's any less than the best I can possibly make it.

posted by tealNoise at 10:24 PM on July 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

I don't know that I liked this video, but I'll be rewatching it a few times.

It took a few months for my therapist to convince me that my marriage was abusive. I thought, after my childhood, and what I went through with my son's mother that I would know better.

I didn't.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:04 AM on July 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

Most of Olly's stuff is great. He has a background in theater, which helps to explains his ease with a script and a camera.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 12:49 PM on July 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

I should have left her when I found the love poem I had written her wadded up in the back of a drawer.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:18 PM on July 31, 2019

This YouTubee has been putting out some of the best TV this year (Vox)
posted by The Whelk at 8:40 AM on August 3, 2019