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Excellent video, you have the soul of a poet my friend. I was feeling depressed with the weight of everything going on in the world right now, but I think my head is starting to clear. Thank you for that.
I am really glad I found your channel. When I write, I try to emulate a certain mood or element that I love to read. The problem is, if I don't know how to define the element I'm looking for, I can't write it and it can take me years to define it. Lately that hasn't been a problem because you always put out a video on the EXACT topics I currently struggle with. I could never find any info on my favorite magic trope until your video on the weirdest fairy tale trope. I never understood why I found cosmic horror comforting until this video.
Saw something like "Fear is knowing you're in a monster-filled forest. Terror is seeing one run at you. Horror is realizing your feet are glued to the ground" and I think that applies pretty well here. Jumpscares and stuff would fit under the spike of terror, where true horror is more a constant realization that there's nothing you can do about the terror.
For a real sense of horror, watch the Pale Lady scene from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark film. She just slowly ambles towards the kid but, no matter where he runs, there she is. He'll turn a corner and see her at the end of the hall making her way towards him. Then he runs away, turns another corner, and there she is again just a little bit closer. She never suddenly appears right behind him or anything, just slowly closes the distance. No jump scares, just that sinking sense of horror from the gradual realization that there's nothing he can do to escape.
Ironically, the concept of cosmic "bliss" instills a lot of fear to me by framing cosmic experiences as pleasure and gift in exchange of your puny life is very haunting. Imagine how many would fall for it if one should appear in current times where most feel worthless. Millions would just be gone in an instant like a snap.
We'll see soon enough, I'm sure. Its a fantasy to you but I've lived it. It's a story to you but very powerful people want it to happen. We can debate whether they take their guidance from Horrors, Aliens, or once Angels. But we'd be using the same word. Its debatable when it's coming or how its to be implemented, if people are taken or not because they don't even nessecarily know. But their utopia is coming and its not ours to enjoy.
You're quite right, such things are soul-consuming. And I mean ARE, as very similar things are real, and, for instance, every life destroying addiction you can think of is a vortex of bliss that consumes hundreds of millions (not an exaggeration) of people right now. Drugs, alcohol, gambling, video games, ideologies and religions - they can all be something a person simply touches and has a bit of fun with, or something that eats people whole while they love every moment of it.
I find it very interesting to think about the possibility that it *is* worth it. That the people destroying themselves aren't "falling for" anything at all, but are making an objectively correct choice. Like, what would it take for such a thing to be worth it to you? Maybe in the last instant they somehow experience an eternity of loving blissful fulfillment. If not that, then what would it have to be for YOU to "fall for" it?
To me the lack of fear from cosmic horror stuff is akin to walking alongside a highway. You can coexist quite (or almost) serenely with dangerously fast vehicles a couple of meters away from you, and only truly freak out when one really steers into you. No use losing one’s mind before anything’s happened. You can get queasy imagining the worst stuff, but you still got to move on.
When I was explaining my taste for very surreal and sublime styles in fiction and even in the way I want to present myself, a friend of mine coined the term "Eldritch Majesty" and it stuck with me since. This idea of being so grand, so immense, so powerful, that witnessing your beauty is so overwhelmingly shocking you can't turn away; while so beautiful you don't even want to, has really stuck with me. I don't fear the scale of the cosmos and my smallness compared to it. I see only wonder at the vastness and strangeness of it all: the potential that it holds is literally limitless. I want, in some way, to channel some of that beauty: to be something alien, something sublime. There is no such thing as oblivion, only change: no direction to go in life but forward. Even weighed down by burnout, I still dream of it. That my discovery of self will lead me to a form of transcendence. Way to influence a world I've felt powerless towards for too long. This really did inspire me and I've finally pushed past my anxiety to mention this.
As soon as you said "blissful" it clicked! I remember listening to a lot of cosmic horror a while back, and I strangely found the thought of an inevitable cosmic truth of futility comforting. It made me strangely stop worrying about the little things, zooming out to feel bliss
Ironically, I find the "hopeful" cosmic horror to be infinitely more terrifying than the one that's actually supposed to scare me. It's often said that the way the characters react to a situation changes how the audience perceives it. Generally, this is meant to imply that if the characters are scared, sad, happy, etc., then the audience will be, too. In this case, at least for me, I think it works the opposite. In a lot of cosmic horror, where the people go "mad," I think they're too self-aware of their madness for it to really be scary. Like... they're scared, they're trembling, that is the reaction they're supposed to have, which makes them sane, and that sanity makes it easy to stomach as an audience member. But if they react with bliss, hope, etc. to their own annihilation, which is contrary not just to their nature but their own established personalities beforehand, then doesn't that actually make them insane? I personally find that genuinely horrifying (never mind the parallels this has to severe depression, though that adds another layer, too). Like, what kind of horrific entity could essentially rewrite their way of thinking such that they abandon themselves in favor of death over some fleeting, meaningless feeling, event, or thing, especially because it makes them *happy* somehow? Not to mention just how cultish that is, which is perfectly in line with what you'd expect out of cosmic horror. I think this video sought out to establish a hopeful alternate to cosmic horror but instead showed me what actual effective cosmic horror looks like.
It's interesting that the idea of calmness or peace in the face of something you'd otherwise find horrifying is so much scarier to you. Almost like you value your fear response highly, and are more afraid of that being undermined than you are of the actual danger. -Benji, showrunner
@@TheTaleFoundry I was thinking about that, actually, but I don't think that's quite right. The neutral option is also comforting to me, as in just accepting things as they are or not overthinking them (or resisting without fear, just determination). I find that comforting probably even more than the fear response. But I think it's specifically the blissful embracing of it is what scares me. There's a chance this is psychologically tied to my religious background (I was raised in the kind of religion where you're supposed to worship something for eternity and fully fell out of it a couple years into adulthood due to my own realizations), but I don't think that's a topic this RUclips comment section needs to know about lol.
I think the fear is of losing control? That the "cosmic bliss" takes over and you're no longer able to make decisions? But whether that's a bad thing still comes down to a value assessment. -Benji, showrunner
@@TheTaleFoundry I'm actually writing a horror story where the entire theme is about control rather than death or the unknown, so that definitely seems right to me. And you're right that it comes down to a value assessment. Not everyone would find that scary. It's all subjective. I personally value having self-control and self-awareness (as much as possible), so having those taken from me would be pretty terrifying.
@TheTaleFoundry That's more or less my take on it too. Upon hearing that "green flame" story my mind just immediately went "that's a psychic angler fish!"
The cosmic doesn't make me feel small, it makes the universe feel grand and wondrous. It's something to explore and discover, not to cower and hide from.
Now, imagine the universe so vast, that even with the best methods of transportation theoretically possible you won't ever be able to reach the next point of interest and experience it personally. Something so big that this alone makes it impossible to even try to explore.
That's very interesting, because i literally had a nightmare, where some kind of otherworldy buzzing noise and echoed whisper tried to enter my mind and drive me crazy and i was so terrified that i decided that i should give in to it, because i thought "if i give in and become insane it won't terrify and hurt anymore" so i did it and it stopped. But then i woke up and realized it was my alarm clock lol.
Ahh, the daily horror of an ordinary life: the alarm clock of terror and not enough sleep ever. Fear thy, for once you've let it into your life it will dictate your every sleeps end with its wrathful ringing.
People forget that H.P. Lovecraft was not a Horror author. He wrote weird tales, for a weird tales magazine. It is a credit to Lovecraft that we think of him as a Horror writer.
Yup. There's quite a few Lovecraft stories that incorporate some version of this "cosmic bliss" concept. One of my favorite examples is "Beyond the Wall of Sleep," and there's some of it in the Randolph Carter stories, too.
Bruh. You don’t get to change what kind of author he was to suit your weird headcanon. He very clearly is a horror author. He massively influenced Cosmic HORROR with his countless HORROR stories.
I find the singing flame far more terrifying, unlike the cosmic horror with indifference and driving you insane in which you lose yourself, cosmic bliss seems to start with the death of the self, altering of who you are . Half the time in cosmic horror you have the capacity to stop digging and leave the cosmic bliss draws you in even when you stepped away like a sirens song
I feel like another way to describe cosmic bliss could be awe, when I go to the museum and see a skeleton of a dinosaur I feel in awe that it ever existed at all, if it was alive it could easily kill me and I would feel very scared but the fear goes away when you think about how beutiful of an animal it must have been when it was alive
have you ever thought about how a lot of fantasy is cosmic awe like narnia how did the closet get there when how all questions that cant be answered in narnia if you turn a wrong corner you die but the children just keep going in awe in wonder of this mysterious dimension
I felt that "Sublime" sensation when I was going home from college one day just when a typhoon dropped. The torrential rain, the whipping wind, and the sudden pause of human activity around as everyone fled and cars piled. I felt miniscule, but also excited, that I'm enduring a powerful storm just to reach home. It's was almost meditative because all I can hear was the rain on my umbrella and all I can feel was wet and cold. Every step forward felt like I'm defying it, and it was a formative experience.
I’d love to add a somewhat similar experience of mine! My father & I were going to look at this one house because we needed to eventually move in somewhere at the time, but a really big storm dropped as we left. I was just starting in awe in the passenger seat of the car while there was lightning, flooding, and strong winds abound. I realized at that moment, that while this event had an underlying feeling of unsafeness, I would never know when I would experience another storm as grand as that one again. So I put my headphones on and played the most fitting piece of music I knew at the time (Salmiakki by Frums) and I drank in as much as I could. It really was awe-some.
If anything, the Singing Flame sounds more terrifying than the Radiant Void ever was. We are not designed to interact with the void, but neither is it with us. The danger it poses is one of circumstance. The Flame draws us in, robs us of the choice of existence with the vague promise of something grander, yet in the end only brings inescapable destruction. It's description brings to mind the anglerfish, a bright beacon of promised salvation that is nothing but a lure, the tool of something hiding in the dark, willing to strip us of everything we are just to feed itself.
"What you don't get it?" "Why a god is concerned about me enough to harm me?" "Because it is the almighty, eldeich god of darkness! The ruler insanity! Who will pleage the world one day, beyond human's capacity of resistence!" "Then why care? if there's nothing I can do about it." ". . ."
@@wander7812 I don't really get the "why care if there's nothing I can do about it" sometimes, you don't feel mad or powerless or anything? Just gonna watch everything you love vanish with indifference?
@@DRangerRed Yes. Heres a more "mainstream" version to call it; "It is what it is." Cosmic Indifferencers cannot stress over something that we cannot control. It would just make it worse. We skip all phases of grief and go straight to acceptance, as this is the only outcome either way.
growing up in an abusive household kind of ruined horror for me, I usually fear the things that are known, because the unknown was always an escape for me.
I have severe anxiety both about dying and about the pressures of daily life. For me, cosmic horror invokes a sense of hope and wonder, but NOT in stories like the singing flame where the character dies. Being drawn into an incomprehensible world or being transformed into some incomprehensible being is a soothing escapist fantasy for me. It relaxes me to imagine a world where I could continue to exist while being liberated from the stress and banality of daily human life.
This is why I always turn to psychological dramas for my horror fix. Ghouls, demons, immortal killers and monsters don't scare me. People do. I've seen what they're capable of. I'd love to see a cosmic horror where the evil outside force gets so turned off by what we do to ourselves and each other in direct response to a cosmic threat that they decide annihilating us just isn't worth it.
I get so much more horrified when this “cosmic bliss” concept is used. It freaks me out more than regular horror. Watching somebody lose their sense of self, and autonomy is terrifying. And the seeing them be joyful about it!? Ugh it gives me chills. I never perceive it as bliss. I perceive it as someone on their last rope giving it all up to madness. Not even trying to live
Perhaps it could be used as a metaphor for things like watching a friend do substance abuse, or join a cult? Similar effect, though not exactly a 1 to 1
Spoilers if you havent watched bird box. I think the cosmic bliss applies to the crazy ones from that movie, the normal ones experiences cosmic terror that they kill themselves but the crazy ones were so happy about the experience that they made it their life's purpose to show it to everyone too.
That seems like a Susie thing to think. Some people just want to let go of ego and become one with a greater force. Others violently resist the idea. But I think that we need to respect people's personal decisions on the matter.
Honestly I find the Singing Flame _scarier_ than the Nameless City. To me it feels more insidious and more terrifying. The fact that its victims are _happy_ about destroying themselves just makes the horror worse, because that happiness isn't theirs. It's the flame itself, reaching into their mind, violating the sovereignty that a person has over their own life and self (something that is important but already tenuous, and for some must be fought hard for every day in order to maintain). They don't want it, it _makes_ them want it. There is no reason for them to want it other than its own hunger, if you can call it that. I guess it comes down to trust, or faith: whether you believe that the sublime object really is a blissful release, or if its compulsion is something more sinister. Personally, I can't bring myself to place that kind of trust in something, especially something alien and unknown. Maybe it's colored by the fact that I'm viewing it through the lens of someone who has grappled with suicidal ideation, but entities that promise sweet release from existence itself can be nothing but monstrous.
Quite true indeed This is one of the good things about religions like Christianity is that it both the shows the good and the bad of life and death, and it also says that you should not choose when you die (a.k.a don't commit suicide or you will end up in hell)but let God decide when, where, why, and how it should happen. So in short don't be self-absorbed and have faith in all powerful, all knowing unknowable being that exists beyond time and space Wow no wonder H.P. Lovecraft was scaredy cat
@@dnm3732 "Fun" fact: that part about don't commit suicide was written later on, because people WERE committing suicide as a short-cut to the after-life.
Indeed! Smith is my favorite cosmic horror writer, and I always found stories like "The City of the Singing Flame" to be terrifying because the horror they represent is the destruction or the subversion of the self. As someone who was born while the Cold War was still active, the idea that my life (and indeed, the entire existence that I knew and experienced on a day-to-day basis) endured at the mercy of forces outside of my control and beyond my comprehension was normalized, that some day men in Moscow or Washington might, for some unfathomable reason, decide to consign all of society and history to apocalyptic flame. I didn't need to read stories to confront the fact of my own insignificance in the cosmos, and when such stories were scary (such as in Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," which I found quite disturbing at age 10) it was because they caused a confrontation with reality. You can't have an existential crisis around something that you've already confronted and processed. But the attack on the _self,_ that's something different entirely. I may be nothing more than an ant in the scale of a vast, uncaring universe, but I'm still me, living my best ant life. And the concept that something might come into my own consciousness and change me, against my will, into something else, is a genuinely horrific prospect. And the idea of a force that convinces me that abandoning myself is a good thing is a far more existential threat than one that simply alters the scale.
there's a certain calmness in acepting chaos as is, and not trying to comprehend it, just experience it That's why I never found cosmic horror scary, but calming, the idea of having some primordial form of chaos is... relaxing? I don't know why, it just is
Imagine that you didn't cease to exist when you died - but went on, blind, alone, and *awake* f o r e v e r . And it hurt. No dreamless sleep, no fantastic visions - just a pitch black panic attack that never ends, and you have no way to habituate to it. You accept it, you cannot comprehend it - nor can you scream, though every fibre of your cruelly-unending being needs to.
Cosmic horror isn't scary because it doesn't really matter to us. It just is. Just as us humans exist, so do they. Maybe they can do things, maybe there are things out of our reach. Does it really matter? After all, despite all that, we still strive to do what we want to do. The realization changes nothing. So let's not worry about it too much, shall we? Let's focus on the more important things. After all, no matter what happens, we will continue to reach for our goals. That's what we've always done, and that's what we'll always do.
That is not a reflection of reality. That is a coping mechanism. Its blinding oneself because you just don't want to feel it, or are deadened to it for some reason. There are many real life examples of things that DO affect your goals. Terminally so. And many prefer to ignore those realities. How can horror be scary if you don't feel anything more than the urge of an ant to get your chores done?
@@Badficwriter I think there are various philosophical/existential questions that actually do matter. I think realizing if they do or don't is a big part that people tend to miss. For instance, I don't think free-will exists. Law and social conduct is determined by that free-will being a force that is true. If it's not, we're doing a lot of things very wrong. Also, if it does exist, we're still doing things wrong. But so many say it doesn't matter or that it's better to think we have it anyway. I also find this to be coping. if there was say a massive cosmic beast who in precisely 1.8 billion years will consume the universe, then yeah, I wanna know about it. See if there is anything I can do to stop it because that sounds pretty crappy. However, if I can't, well, then I can't hold on to that sense of dread. All I'd want to do is continue to help others understand the truth on the off chance that someone actually has a solution. Knowledge is still important. It's good to know, even if the information is uncomfortable. That said, letting it ruin your life quality for not having an answer is also not helpful in itself.
@@BadficwriterI dunno, its not like we are supposed to feel one way towards things of cosmic scale, just like how people aren't supposed to feel all the same way when looking at something more comparatively mundane, like an orange. For example If someone does not care for oranges, they are not in fact fooling themselves into denying their love of oranges, just like how cosmic indifference isn't just a cop out of the more "real" cosmic horror.
For me, I find comfort in the genre. The fact that someone else has put the emotion so perfectly into words mean that someone else has felt it. The Silver Key is arguably my favourite Lovecraft story. There is no monster, no undead wizard or grand conspiracy, just the dread of being alive in an uncaring society.
Anything can be scary with the right set of tools/skills, but horror as a genre is hard to do right. Cosmic horror for all its reputation and elements, is no exception to this. Probably more so as failing to sell the horror or intrigue will just make it look confusing and/or pretentious.
the downfall of Cthulhu is that everyone has seen the monster, cosmic horror doesn't work when you know the thing you are supposed to be afraid of. then you are just doing cheap terror, not true horror. the best cosmic horror come from exploiting the humans most basic fears, its about scratching at our lizard brain, all without showing what we are supposed to be afraid of.
The best horror is what you mind make up for it. That’s why monsters in the dark work very well. That and scilence. Because with scilence you hear stuff that don’t exist because that’s what you are expecting.
@@MimicToMetamorphosis if I want a real world cosmic horror. I would look towards Yahweh in his Christianity. A higher being we can't describe or we go mad for blind if we see his true form. He to do wherever he wants to create whatever he wants. Power to manipulate the fate so many life, power to create life, power to manipulate the world around us. Judge our souls to send to heaven or Hill. Power to manipulate the minds and wills of others. Everywhere every place every time.
I have a really good example of something that scares a lot of people and an interesting opinion. First I think an awesome and probably the scariest thing that everyone seems to get frighted of… Minecraft cave noises and caving. In the game when you go caving it is very silent except for your mining and then, (Loud scary noise) it is effective as it is sudden, but you don’t know why or what is causing the sounds and the daunting presents as you feel the isolation and fear of a tight space, darkness, mobs being able to sneak up on you at any time, and those noises are very horrifying. Next is my take on how you can make something scary for anyone. Mundane horror. Make it so someone see something abyssal or mind breaking, but when they see the creature nothing happens. No mind breaking, no panic attack. Just a lingering sense of indifference and mild bothering. Like a dull warm feeling that you feel in your stomach. The horror is how it stays. How the feeling doesn’t go away and you have to feel something. You have to know something. You need to do something. But you really have no idea what to do. You feel stuck. Stagnant. Like a volcano on the edge of bursting but stopping before it erupts. The stuff that makes you want to peel your skin off and crush your bones.
I love cosmic horror, but whenever my thoughts drift to how much I don’t matter in the vast expanse of the universe, it’s immediately followed by “why does it matter that I don’t matter? If I can never possibly be as great as the universe, why worry about it? All that matters to me is me and the people around me”
Simple. Imagine you didn't cease to be when you died. You just stayed awake, in the void, alone. You are not guaranteed an escape from the expanse. If you take that death is an out, for granted, then you are taking baseless comfort on faith, as much any religious person. There is no evidence that consciousness can be turned off once turned on - nor that with countless billions of years that bit that is *you* won't be doomed to flicker in and out for eternity. You can avoid thinking about it - but call a spade a spade. You don't worry because of faith, not because there's any guarantee at all that eternity doesn't hurt. Edit: After that, if you are able to apply that and remember why eternity and uncertainty are naturally terrifying on an animal level, you can then apply that same terror to the people you love. Your friends and family screaming forever in the undying void. Now lastly, remember that with technology - such things *can exist* . Your mind could be put into a computerized hell, dropped near the event horizon of a black hole, and experience such a eternity of time as that time stops having any meaning. Or merged with an extra-solar entity that views your pain as a necessary by-product. Once again, it is only modern sensibilities - a bland form of faith - that walls the imagination off from the true horizons of terror that exist in the unknown.
@@janterri3539 they mentioned how things don't matter in the grand scheme of things, which is the whole point of cosmic horror. If nothing matters in that case then their friends don't matter, you and I don't matter, no choice we make ever will matter. Worst part about cosmic horror is how true it is, humanity will be gone and our existence in this universe would have been nothing, no point. If all of humanity vanished along with everything created from it the universe wouldn't care, nor would it be effected negatively in any way. Kind of depressing.
@@The_medicine_frog What does and does not matter is in the eye of the beholder. We and any other sentient being are bestowed the position of the beholder, and that's empowering and terrifying rather than depressing as far as I see it
Something that will always haunt me with both its terror and wonder is the edge of the reef. Decades ago, while on vacation, I swam out from the beach, out past the shallows and over the reef to the very edge, and stopped. The reef ended abruptly, and all that lay beyond was the infinite. To this day, I can still feel what I felt that day.
I wasn't ready for this sightwhen I went snorkeling for the 2nd time. The first time had been in some shallows by craggy rocks. The second time they took us on a boat tour to a rock sticking out of the sea about an hour away from the island we were at. When I jumped out of the boat and looked down chills went up my spine and I immediately lifted my head out of the water! Eventually got over it and saw lots of fish and other cool things but the infinite blue darkness still kinda creeps me out. It made me feel like for a second the water might stop holding me and I could just fall all the way to the bottom.
For me, a lot of cosmic horror doesn't get to me because I simply never related to the idea that we were ever on the top of the cosmic totem pole, and never actually got the whole ant analogy. Life is life, its scale doesnt matter, and as an animist I'm also a believer in spirits of everything right down to the wider universe and everything connecting together, and also fully accepted us just being a small part of a greater universe, and that we need to cherish our little speck. That said, I do find stories like that fungis horrifying, although that feelsore like body horror. Also, the Reapers from Mass Effect. The fact that those bastards essentially made the galaxy into their own free range garden to harvest every 50 millennia and that we inadvertently fell right into their trap hook line and sinker was... Something
I love mass effect and it made so much sense when I learned that the reapers are based on lovecraftian horror. The book Annihilation might also be in your wheelhouse
Cosmic bliss is a pretty good descriptor of how i feel in adoration. Combined with disbelief and joy that such an entity actually cares about humanity let alone an individual
These descriptions of cosmic 'bliss', those stories are actually scarier to me. They are the same otherness, but one does not hide what it is, it is awesome and terrible and beyond all knowledge, and that is terrifying, and the fear keeps you at bay from that danger. The other is a temptation, an intenseness that overwhelms self-will and draws one into its dangers, masking them as 'bliss'. One is a warning sign, the other a trap.
It’s important to remain open eyed and aware for sure. I think you can enjoy it as well. Look up at the night sky and you can experience a bit of the sublime when you realize that our sun is itself another star like all those you see. The sky is blissfully beautiful. But we’re still aware of its dangers. Asteroids, gamma ray bursts, even god forbid strange matter. We know this and we work on protecting against it, yet we can still enjoy its beauty. There is no fire calling us to death. Space is beautiful, but we have no urge to destroy our atmosphere to embrace the sky.
it is not 'terrible', and there is absolutely nothing 'terrifying' at that. It doesn't keep you at bay from 'danger' 'self-will'? 'Masking'? Where is the 'trap'? It erequires backwards views
I like one analogy a friend said to me that didn't find Junji Ito (some he does) or H.P Lovecraft's work scary. Because it was too big (in the sense of scale), it is like numbers of people in a crowd, when seeing that number or hearing about it, it is hard to really vision how big that actually is, unless you see it yourself, and even then it is hard to really grasp how many it is, and you loose the personal part of it all, it becomes a statistic rather than Michael and Rachel for example. But 20 people in his room is much easier to grasp and he can vision it, and it feels more personal. That is why he enjoys more horror stories that have just a few characters and/or a much more close/claustrophobic feel. Not sure if I managed to explain it properly. But that was what made me understand why he had "issues" with those certain stories. For me it is the other way around, feeling insignificant and small in comparison to the rest of the world, the powerlessness of doing anything to change it is what scares me.
I say Christianity is the biggest form of cosmic horror. In the old testament and new one. If you see the angels as elder gods or elder beings. You see through the idea of it
If you recall the picture of The Pale Blue Dot popularised by Carl Sagan, of a photo of our solar system as taken from a satellite leaving such, we, being Earth, is shown as a mere blue dot among the black of space. For some, this might cause horror that our lives are so insignificant to the expanses of the universe, but to others, the scale simply will not register with them.
I remember thinking about what God might look like as an 11-year-old. I thought of a giant, star-sized mirror bending light and reality around themself. I also thought of the dreamlike music of the Stone Tower Temple upside down. I’ve always been drawn to the unknown expanses, whether the deep ocean or space
I might be a bit insane but I've always felt bliss from those, especially the liminal spaces, like all this neverending halls, empty abandoned, or just something gigantic, but so beautiful I understand that it is a threat, but I have to appreciate the beauty of it
Honestly, Cosmic Horror isn't Scary anymore* We been so over exposed to it , that it lost it's charm, the faceless has a face, the unpronounceable name now has a widely accepted way to pronounce it, we gave the unimaginable a form. It's like giving Cthulhu a stat sheet and HP. Yu are doing it wrong.
If we've been exposed to thrse concepts to a point where we're basically able to comprehend the incomprehensible, then we've hit a breakthrough in human understanding of the universe and self where no other has in history. Maybe it shows just how much we as humans have mentally evolved.
@@KatSpicert It's not mental evolution, it's something else. A useful analogy would be the following: imagine one day an entity shows up and announced that it is a god, and to prove it, it points at someone and they drop dead with no sign of external injury. 1000 years ago: Okay, that's godlike. Today: Huh. None? Chemical weapon, maybe? Some kind of bioweapon? Maybe a directed energy weapon of some sort? Ooo, maybe nanotech! Saw that in a James Bond film! Entity: What. For pretty much any miracle you can imagine, someone could likely point to an explanation, even one that is (currently) purely fictional, simply because of the culture we've grown up in. Just because it's a cultural touchstone for much of humanity, consider some of the miracles ascribed to Jesus and what people might say today. Raising Lazarus from the dead? Clone. Turning water into wine? Food dye and artificial flavouring. Feeding the multitudes? Food replicator. Walking on water? Aside from simple illusionist tricks, force field. Calming the storm? Accurate weather forecast. Healing the sick and dying? Advanced medications and nanotech medical treatment. Etc and so on. As time gets on the threshold for something to be considered a "miracle" or "divine" gets higher, not just because of our technology and knowledge, but because of the greater breadth of products of the imagination we've been exposed to. Lovecraft imagined beings so powerful it would be incomprehensible to stand against them. Today our first reaction? Try sending them a package consisting of a few megatons of concentrated instant sunlight. Sure, they might still be so unimaginably powerful that it doesn't work, but the next step isn't gibbering horror, but wondering how fast we could produce antimatter in quantity.
@@KatSpicert It's less that we mentally evolved and more that we filled in the blanks with manageable ideas. The incomprehensible monster is there, we just imagine it as a giant octopus-man. Humans are mentally the same as ever, rationalizing and ignoring uncomfortable truths. Heck, even the spreading idea, "I'm not a cosmic being so it doesn't matter if I'm cosmically insignificant," is some top tier coping mechanism to ignore what insignificance entails. Cosmic horror is no longer horror not because we adapted to cosmic horror itself but because we've replaced the label to entail cosmic monsters sometimes downright campy, not the absolute void (for us) it was meant to convey.
@@KatSpicertOur collective consciousness has simply taken the concept in, digested it and is now spitting out pulp fiction & tropes about the cosmic horror. Effectively neutralizing it.
Cosmic horror can be scary. But most of the time it awakens the very same flaw it portrays in the humans the stories depict. Curiosity. We aren't nearly as scared as we are fascinated. We want to know more. At least that's how I see it. The biggest reason it isn't as scary as it was in Lovecraft's time is because we have plenty of knowledge of the world. I still fear the idea of visiting a place like Insmouth, or getting caught up in an end of the world scenario without hopes of stopping it.
*COVID* was cosmic horror. Invisible, unexpected, no guaranteed defense, people turning against each other. Can't be reasoned with - not even truly alive. And many people still wear masks outdoors - like a modern crucifix; a good luck charm for all the same reasons. No one is ever to old to *learn* how to fear the unknown. It just takes the right unknown, and the right kind of pain.
Meh, some of the horror elements of his stories seem rather mundane, like Insmouth, for example. it is not that much different than a regular countryside village, a particularly bigoted one ,but still, with the exception of the fish monsters, it's pretty grounded.
@@dDoodle788the government would probably do a coverup story and either have them ‘vanish’, or isolate their town and have them and their patrons promise not to start attacking people.
@@dDoodle788 Isn't that kinda the point? The settings are mostly mundane, and the true horror only begins when you discover there is much more beneath the surface. Sure, not everyone maybe scared of it, but I understand what he was trying to convey.
@@dmin5782Did the Innsmouth residents even do anything particularly evil? I know the founder was an asshole, but the people of innsmouth weren't sacrificing babies or anything. I think the issue is that Lovecraft's message was literally that he was terrified of being part Welsh, so the terror becomes hilarious. I think Bloodborne did Innsmouth justice better than the actual book, because I actually felt visceral disgust and horror at what was shown and what could be read.
Being formerly suicidal and dealing with passive ideation even now, I find myself in the position to utter a sentence that is very rarely applicable: Lovercraft was the sensible one here. I can think of nothing scarier than an alluring excuse to die.
I don't know I wouldn't call it scary to dance with death, to taunt it and beg in the same breath hoping and knowing that the inevitable will come for all can be freeing. But I can see where one might feel that this is a sad and messed up way to look at things
I think a great author of cosmic horror is Junji-Ito. He gets that, I believe, for most the horror part of cosmic horror is the loss of control. Horrific forces beyond your control and too large may destroy you, at their whim at any time they feel like. And there's nothing you can do about it.
The story about the person shaped holes (The Enigma of the Amigara Fault) is a perfect example. People jumping gleefully into the hole they feel was made for them, stopping at nothing, & even after considering the possible consequences. The only thing they can think of, or care about, is going into their hole.
or worse destroying you without even realizing it, like an ant underfoot. or like germs on a hand being washed, it was intentional, but there was no malice, not destructive impulse, merely doing what is 'normal' and leaving you ruined.
I think one of the greatest cosmic horror on youtube is "velma meets other velma" or something along the lines. There feeling of hopelesness, the monster so beyond your reach, your understanding, beyond anything. And the fact "it" is not something that wants to harm you but just... controls every fiber of your being, existence. This was terrifying, uncanny and beautiful
As a aspiring Concept Artist who knows the importance of visual Story Telling and Philosophie of Design trough nuances and narrative parralels and looks for this spark in everything i do.... Im really glad i stumbled upon your channel your voice is soothing too i may even use your Videos to draw and just feel 🩶
So cosmic horror is a strange case for me. It's a genre that I find myself drawn to, I read any book or watch any movie or play any game remotely related to the concept. But I can't say that it particularly scares me, at least not in the Lovecraftian tradition. It does give me a sense of awe either, nor even ambivalence. I think I just find it narratively fascinating. Part of that is due to Lovecraft's own biases, his fear of the unknown, and by extension, anyone who didn't fit what he deemed as acceptable, which often even included himself. I fundamentally don't share that fear. When confronted with the unknown, I seek to understand it, and failing that, content myself with knowing that I cannot. What does fascinate me about cosmic horror, and scares me when done well, is how it relates to people and the systems we create. Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, they're just fathomless beings akin to gods that couldn't care less about us. But Nyarlathotep, that scares me. A being of such immense and unknowable power, much like his kin, but unlike them, it notices us. And it delights in our suffering. It goes out of its way to manipulate us, drive us to pain and cruelty, to control us through means eldritch and human in nature. What scares me, I suppose, is that idea that there are forces beyond us that want us to hurt, to be controlled all for some grand scheme or sheer sadism.
"We war not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities, against Powers, against Rulers of Dark Places." Lewis was probably a Paranoid Scitzophrenic and he likely got his stories from the Principalities themselves. Whether intentionally or unintentionally. Probably intentionally. Our kind just can't help but touch what we ought not.
I know this person, who used to suffer from constant anxiety and depression, and then they experienced a moment of sublime. THey regonized that they indeed are just dust in the universe, but for them, personally... I actually took away their anxiety and started their healing process from the depression. For them, their anxieties came pretty much everything feeling like the Hugest Thing(tm), and regocnizing that their mistakes and wins didn't really effect the whole world in staggeringly strong way was great relief, and gave them some freedom from their own head. So, I think insignifigance is only as scary or blissful as the angle you look at it. It kinda only matters if you want to be larger than life, or are just content to exists and experience life as it is. And of course, the mood you are in affects it too. Great video. Love your work
Thank you EXACTLY how I feel. I stood at the foot of an impossible mountain to even see the top. I felt small, so small but also free and not confined.I stared at the mountain for a long time I think I started even talking to it. :-). The mountain was some to inspire awe. However being chased by fish people in the dark is scary. If i was cut off from everything and just floating in the dark with nothing to feel sounds more heart wrenching than scary.
One of the best example of this, came as a short skit in Rick and Morty, where Rick builds a perfect flat piece of floor, for Morty to experience. It's just a flat surface, but it is perfect, and Mortys mind is not made to cope with perfection, even in such a small amount as a flat surface. It truly breakes him, and all the rest of the world now feels hollow, empty and wrong when compared to the perfection he once felt. It wasn't scary, painfull or dangerous in any way. Just a small inanimate area of floor, but it drowe him insane, and changed all his perspectives and priorities. Life became before and after the experience. Truly cosmic bliss
as many here already said - the descriptions of cosmic bliss used in this video are more horrifying than the horror ones. we guess it's because in all of bliss ones the person loses their free will, they are unnaturally compelled. the cosmic bliss - for us it would be more of the realisation and experience of being part of something so unimaginably great. on every scale world so different and chaotic that we may never comprehend it but so deeply beautiful and fascinating. and it's all around us. and we don't need to step into it because we are already part of it.
This video hands down explained why horror and especially cosmic horror has always been my escape from chronic depression and bad thoughts. It gives me peace like nothing else. And now I kinda get why. Thank you so much for this video ❤
I really think that one's past life experience makes or breaks cosmic horror stuff: as an autist, I grew up feeling life already was incomprehensible. I acutely knew of Dementia, Alzheimer's, rabies, prion diseases, radiation sickness, and other ways brains can horribly malfunction. I read and heard about how terrifying the world could be before starting school, stuff like the holocaust, racist and sexist murders, tortures, and so on - reading (hyperlexia) about history was not reassuring and showed how utterly mad and random life can be. That plus being emotionally abused by my parents to feel like absolutely everything was my fault, stuff like reading about the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy's torture box where you got to experience truly how utterly insignificant in relation to the universe sounded incredibly reassuring rather than terrifying. I already knew life wasn't fair, to be shown I don't matter at all would have been a huge weight off my shoulders and would have let me be more "selfish" (have more healthy boundaries).
I can relate to this. I find most attempts at cosmic horror either banal or outright ridiculous. When people try to explain why its "horrifying" I normally feel like they have somehow walked though life without seeing all the wonders and terrors that surround them every day. I am a small and insignificant speck of the universe, Life is not fair, I have little or no significant control over most of my life, and I really don't understand why any of these things should bother me. 🤷♀Just dealing with the few things I can influence takes all the time I have.
The funny thing is that there are many things in real life that would qualify as cosmic horror in the correct mood and abstraction. People drawn to always choose money even to their own deaths. The making wordless of those who have the right to speak. Crumbling infrastructure only repaired every once in a while, when people feel like it. Extreme fannish behavior. Doxxing. Working in a place where people subtly hate you. Loud noises from nowhere. A train that crashes in a town, turning it into a wasteland that is barely regarded and helped. These are all great background for cosmic horror stories. We do not have to imagine The Great Old Ones to make good cosmic horror stories. Heck, even the famous The Shadows Over Innsmouth had racism as the basis of cosmic horror, even if the point was that the horror was based in racism.
Yeah as someone who on the autism spectrum and is quite religious/spiritual, cosmic horror very rarely scary me. I'm more scared of the "mundane and down to earth horrors" like killers, wars, diseases, and dystopias, etc. As in more scared getting shot/stabbed then some eldritch thing that passes through earth.
There are some elements of the cosmic horror genre that basically boil down to: privileged (usually white) person realizes they're not the center of the universe and proceeds to have a Freak Out.
I don't know how many other people can relate, but personally I'm drawn to the works of Lovecraft because of my experience in an abusive religious household (Jehovah's Witnesses). Every day I was in deep thought about cosmic horrors of inevitable devine genocide, and my own salvation would be uncertain. I'm fully awake and out of that cult now, but that fear still resonates with me. It intrigues me seeing the same fear replicated in fiction, with the knowledge of it being fiction giving me comfort and healing my own trauma. I wonder if there are others who share this experience
@@glimmerofhope3074 I am from a very caring, loving household without any religious beliefs and i am still drawn to it, so maybe different reasons, same result 😊 But what i wanted to ask is, did you like the movie hereditary? Great movie on that topic.❤
I think a lot of religions have a similar feeling of something greater than you that is overwhelming to the mind, but in my case I realized how incredibly human and petty the Christian god is. For me, at least a major cause of leaving religion was the realization of how childish a lot of it was. I came from Catholicism and after reading through genesis and much of exodus, I realized that god was imagined not as some actually greater cosmic being, but as a petty, micromanaging murderous deluded tyrant. Someone who, despite creating the universe, just had to have the arc of the covenant covered in gold inside and out. That sounds incredibly human, the idea that an important thing has to be covered in shiny tat, cause it looks good. If god's that shallow then he doesn't deserve worship.
Cosmic bliss is such a beautiful concept. I read many are afraid of it but I resonate with it. The feeling of loosing yourself might be a bit sad, scary even but I feel like getting to go out in bliss is what I would love. Shed all earthly chains and know youll be happy, even if you meet your end shortly after. The most exciting concept to me was always total eraseur, noone knows you existed, noone tears and no sadness as you get consumed into the vast nothingness of nonexistance with a smile on your face. Im not suicidal, too many people I love and roo many that love me to even consider this life wasted, but as someone who struggles daily. Cosmic Bliss, is a beautiful.
I think it's worth noting that for HP Lovecraft and contemporary readers, they were living through a time when science and our understanding of the universe were being turned upside-down,. For them, quantum physics and relativity were new and exciting discoveries, and humanity's perceived position in the cosmos had shifted. There's a reason that non-Euclidean geometry appears as a recurring theme in Lovecraft. Modern readers have grown up with relativity and quantum mechanics as part of established science though, so their mysteries don't create the same sense of dread.
I always understood the horror of cosmic horror comes from a direct attack to every narcissistic ideal you may posses. You have no narcissistic ideals, the perspective of an indifferent incognoscible power capable of obliterating you at any second’s notice, it’s neither frightening nor liberating. It’s just another Monday.
If you have self esteem issues it can even be fairly positive; there's something so vast and uncaring out there that it doesn't even notice your flaws.
Yeah, there are forces which we can't control and influence our lives. I's disease, politicians, corporations, economies, random sh!t that can happen at any time. It's called living in the real world. That's universal horror, and it's scarier than any book , because it's f*cking real.
You might be onto something here, as narcissism does have much to do with the sense of grandness or insignificance. But given the very well documented tendency in humans to create our own little worlds, place them at the centre of everything, make ourselves out to be the heart and epicentre of all conscious life, and have fits of rabid anger when any of those elements are stripped away, I would argue that most people who have indifferent reactions to cosmic horror are simply in denial. It'd better be a Tuesday at the office, because they wouldn't dare to glimpse the vastness of time and space... Then again, there might be people our there who have made their journey THERE and have come back. But they have something more interesting to say than "PFFF! THAT'S NOT SCARY."
I can't speak for others, but I always thought cosmic horror was scary. It's just something that goes so beyond my comprehention and makes me feel even smaller in the great scale of things, that it makes me feel overwhelmed, which contribute for my fear
That's what religion for and Christianity is the biggest form of example of cosmic horror. A god that can do anything he wants. manipulate the fates of others, manipulate the minds and emotions of his creation, your life and death is in his hands. Your soul will be sent to heaven or hell by his judgment. God have undefined power and can be anywhere anytime anyplace. It knows all be all is all
I don't feel that being cosmically small is bad. If nothing ultimately matters, then... everything matters. We can make our own meaning. We can make our own rules. It is the philosophy of the rebel, of those who fight for peace and justice, because they see that while they may only be grains of sand, so are the people who hold them down. They fight for a life that they chose, or a planet, for the small things that are beautiful. And as for the gaping, infinite maw of deep space that cannot care for mankind, if it notices us at all? It's full of glittering stars.
@@majesticgothitelle1802 yet said God is known to enjoy watching the world and it's people allowing free will and using it's power to limit itself from seeing ahead to not alter anything without permission or action from it's servants it is seen as a purely benevolent force of pure good making such an eldritch God the least horrific entity to exist a fascinated fascination as it were as both crave to see more of the other and wish to let things play out naturally even when the option is presented to alter or see more
@@majesticgothitelle1802 More like the power of baloney... especially if you read any of the pseudo-religious blasphemy written or listen to the blasphemers preaching the crap by the buckets... Pick a preacher, pour some cash in his liquor fund, and magically you're blessed into heaven every time... BUT until there's real liquor or hooker money added, you're just another lost soul on its way to Hell... without exception. Supposedly knows all??? BS... Otherwise, He planned mankind's entire damnation from the get-go... He DID make Lucifer first... engineered every aspect... HE is responsible, so not a caring God at all... Just more baloney. It's a pretty weak and unconvincing read over all... I'd give it 2 stars in the "might scare middle-schoolers" category... BUT past that age, especially in the 21st century, it's just not remotely "buy-able"... and let's not forget the preaching side, HE is the know-it-all and be-it-all, but HE is also terrible with money, or there'd be no end of HIS capacity to help those who authentically believe... which of course, ONLY HE can actually know for sure, being the know-it-all already. Baloney... ALL HAIL the power of Baloney... and I do NOT mean the over-processed luncheon meat product. ;o)
I’ve only sometimes found cosmic horror scary when I stopped to think about it. Something powerful and incomprehensible that could end you in an instant sounds terrifying. I’ve had a couple small fearful ideas of “what if something BIG appeared there?” But then I realized that I don’t care. If I’m gonna die on the spot or in a set time, at least I know it’s gonna happen then and there. If the world’s going to end and there’s nothing I can do about it, then all I CAN do is continue living as I have before.
The reason I don't find cosmic horror scary is because I'm not intimidated by the unknown. the sublime isn't horrible or unknowable - only beyond our reach for the moment. The existential themes and ineffable beings in cosmic horror don't worry me because they fail to make me question my worldview. They don't cause me to fear what I don't understand - there's just nothing to understand.
Honestly I feel like The Cosmic is only horror to those who are materialistic and self-absorbed. Meanwhile those who are religious and accept that there are grand immeasurable things beyond their understanding find The Cosmic to be bliss
@@dnm3732 I dont think one has to be religious tbh (im certainly not) but I do think it requires a certain amount of outer reflection The only people who struggle the hardest with this in my experience are the people who do not ever consider that strangers have as varied and interesting lives as they do, or at minimum never reflect on how others could potentially view them and their actions on a wider scale The self absorbed, in short, although not a complete determining factor, it's a big one
Consider it as not necessarily being fear of what you dont understand but rather fear of what you could never even begin to understand - as an ant would see us, we see 'something.' And I suppose the horror then is that they see us aswell, perhaps then as we see ants
@@jakebesselink9356 even if you can understand it, research it and communicate with it. We can still fear it by knowing what it can do, what effects it has on us and the world we live in and how it functions. That's why I listed those franchise creatures. All of them can be understood, researched, can be feared and killed. What we fear about them is what they can do, the effects they have on us, the other worldly behavior, the harm they can cost to every person and everything around us. Knowing you can be the next victim or be infected by them. The necromorph wants to infect all living organisms and emerge them into one being to become a brethren moon. The void want to silence and consume all life from other words. Demigorpion are being came from the apocalypse lifeless version of their own world with strange and odd biology and can affect people who are stuck in living there.
It's interesting I don't find cosmic horror scary usually. Cosmic bliss I often do tho. There's something about the dichotomy of the unknown and potentially dangers mixed with good feelings. Something scary or clearly bad is simple, even if you don't understand it. Simply reject it. However when that thing calls to you, generates awe and bliss it invites me to engage with it in a more meaningful way. There's a fear of losing control that almost reminds me of body horror. I love jini ito for this. He kinda touches all 3. Stories like Tomi and The Enigma of Amigara Fault. There's this unknowable thing, it's dangers yet it's awe inspiring. How that awe inspiringness, the experience of the sublime effects the characters and me. That scares me
Amusing concept. I actually started a Pathfinder game, myself and had a backdrop of this cosmic being trying to slowly transform the world. This was not meant to be the focus of the story, they were meant to use the rumors to follow into a land-war between various regional city-states. However, seeing the devotees to this Old God, how they were blissful in their love for it and the promises they say it gives it, it became a focus... So much a focus that, despite the characters being Pious to their own Gods (who in this setting are real and actually interact with their follows), they decided to seek out these cultists and... help them. One even being slowly corrupted by the offer of assistance and the promise of love when he communed with his God about how to help a series of undead, of all things. They have seen sights of the fate of the followers - they lose themselves, the living ones have difficulty with speech, slurring, losing the ability to connect coherent thoughts as this Old God give them knowledge so expansive it makes it difficult for the followers to keep their thoughts from spilling out or being overloaded. They see the ones who die in worship of this God takes them into itself, they become an amalgamation of emotions, knowledge, experiences and bodies. They are no longer individuals, they are together, feeling and knowing and sensing everything at once... And yet... They are helping it. I expected them to be disgusted by the physical transformations, writhing tentacles, losing their forms to become a melted mass of slime. They have increasing trouble to speak, to think, but they worship the being in hope and a promise of love and connection with it and the followers. I figured many would see this as traditional cult behavior, the love-bombing, the promises, the ostracization of society and the 'Proper' Religions making them outcasts. Though one player dropped out, the one who was more intense in following and helping the cult, the others continue on. They are even at the point when they make a connection that will irreversibly connect a part of the world they're on to be melded with this other-worldly entity's own, yet they continue. They even went against one of the Churches lead by a scholar. But, at the same time, they are morally good characters and it does seem the negative treatment of those desperate cultists, through their own lives - many of the ones who joined the cult did so because of them already being on the lower rung of society or treated unfairly - and especially through the Polythestic Churches that try to quash the belief of there being earlier, older Gods than the ones they follow. It could be they see the treatment of the cultists as unfair, the words of the God that they hear spoken through its acolytes and even the God speaking briefly to them and its desires making it sound they want the best for those who worship it. Especially when one of the Gods they communed with was harsh, blunt and focused on purity to be accepted for reincarnation.
This is probably one of my favorite videos of yours. I rarely comment on videos, but I just wanted to give my 2 cents on Cosmic Horror and explain why Lovecraft is my favorite author, even as someone who normally don’t like horror or spooky stuff. My biggest fear in life is being forgotten. The fact that when I die and some times has passed, there will be nothing in this world to indicate that I’ve ever been here. No one will remember my name, remember what I’ve done, remember my accomplishments, remember my struggles or anything else. It is something I think about nearly every day and something that has affected my life drastically. It’s one of the reasons why I first started playing music, in hopes of maybe getting remembered that way, but unless you’re someone like Mozart or The Beatles that’s pretty much impossible, since eventually people will forget about the music. That’s why I’m pursuing a career in academia, with the hope of doing some research and finding out something about our existence to expand our knowledge of the universe and us. Even when I’m long gone and my name might have been lost to time, at least I would have had a some kind of impact, no matter how unbelievably tiny. That’s why I think cosmic horror is so scary. It challenges my biggest fear in life, reminding me of my insignificance in the universe. But in some way, also reassures me that this is okay, in some weird way. That none of us are significant. None of us are special and we will all eventually be lost to time. And yet, I do everything I can to avoid this fate. Because to me, if I don’t try to make some kind of impact, then there isn’t really any reason for me to continue living. If I died right now my friends would forget about me after some time, after they’re dead my name will probably never be spoken again. As if I’m a grain of salt dissolving in the salty ocean. As a grain of salt I still am there, no matter how tiny in comparison to the ocean, but when dissolved I’m just completely gone.
"Because to me, if I don't try to make some kind of impact, then there isn't really any reason for me to continue living." Thing is, even if you don't make any impact, at what point would really be right to decide to not continue living? So long as you're alive, there might be a chance to at least find a new way to find that value. There's no more possibility to find that chance if you're dead. Also, feel like you can solve both the "how to make an impact" and "expand knowledge of universe and us" by helping with R&D of life-extension/immortality technology.
For what it's worth, you factually can never be truly forgotten. The collection of atoms that makes up you interacts with other atoms, taking part in an inconceivably massive pool table butterfly cascade. At the end of the universe, when all has settled into content heat, the sleeping arrangement will be influenced by your life today. If there were some species outside the constraints of the cosmos, capable of gathering complete information about the universe at that moment, they could then forensically infer your existence. Whatever you accomplish, you have already left an indelible mark on the cosmos, by living. ❤
I can’t help but recall the anime series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In it, Haruhi experiences a disappointing version of the sublime when she goes to a baseball game. She thought about how populated the stadium was and how small it was compared to the population of the rest of the world. She felt small, but it wasn’t humbling to her, it was humbling to humanity as a whole. Such vastness, yet no one felt special. One can’t stand out to her unless you’re an alien, an esper, or a time traveler. She spends the whole series looking for the truly sublime
Honestly, I find the summary of the singing flame story scarier than the summary of the nameless city story. The radiant void leaves the explorer terrified and questioning their own sanity, but there's no explicit warping of their mind beyond natural reaction. The singing flame is scarier to me because it raises the question "how much of the explorer is truly left after their encounter with it (prior to actually jumping into it of course)". Is the explorer in the story of the singing flame even truly themself once they've been entranced? Or has the singing flame tampered with their brain directly (certainly seems so to me). That forceful loss of self, that undermining of free will, is far scarier to me than "character encounters something indescribably terrifying and is now understandably terrified". The latter is too logical a reaction to something meant to defy logic. But something that can twist your mind and emotions to make you illogically want something you don't understand (particularly when you KNOW you don't understand it), especially when it's clearly a threat to you, feels like a far more effective attack on the sense of self than something that just leaves you terrified and grappling with the fact you didn't understand reality anywhere near as well as you thought you did. Because even if you have to conclude you didn't understand reality at all, how much can that truly effect how you live your life? Will your lack of understanding of reality really effect your life at all just cause you're made aware of it? Whatever the case, you still have a choice in how you deal with what you've confronted. There's potential for recovery from terror and confronting the fact you don't understand something, but there's no hope for recovery from a force that infects your mind and steals your ability to choose from you. How can you recover when the thing you'd be recovering from forcibly compels you surrender to it? Cosmic horror often has scary imagery, but cosmic "bliss" sounds to me like a far more insidious cosmic horror, because it's far more effective at destroying you, and it does so not through threat to your life or your sanity, but through a threat to your will. Cosmic horror makes you fear and/or run from the threat. Cosmic "bliss" give you no choice but to mindlessly amble towards the threat, because once you confront it, you're it's puppet.
I vibe with this one alot. Ideas of corruption into obsession or characters religiously devoted to something that destroys them just has a unique quality to me. Make it a slow burn, add some manipulation, let the characters think its their choice... *chefs kiss* One of my favourite modern examples is ASPs "Verfallen" Albums (MC falls in love with a hotel and the ghost who's living body it is painted as. Then the hotel starts eating it's guests.)
To be fair i am Muslim and aspiring creative writter. I upheld my religion seriously take my creative passion seriously. As aspiring writer i know really well the line between fiction and reality so when i want to write a story that have no correlation with any existing religion i just do it however i wouldn't necessarily promote the ideas that against my belief unless i have another intention instead. Like exploring and deconstructing concept of sin itself. Currently i as fascinated with idea of Cosmic Horror and decide to make some story with it but i also understand pretty much nothing about such concept itself at least that's what i thought before watching this. Turn out it just Islam that explained in the most ridiculous way and somehow it works. The strangest connection i found in fiction to God Himself. islam literally mean "Submission to Almighty God," a religion where you surrender your whole existence completely to Him alone as worthy to worship as God. The most important philosophy i learnt from Islam basically everything in this vast universe whether is bad or good are created by Him thus making He own everything and us literally own nothing at all. The things your "own" is something given by Him for a moment. Borrowed things basically so when He *took* it back you can't really do anything about it since it never yours from beginning. To non-muslim you probably thought we are crazy cultists or something. With infested materialism and narcissistic sense of self there no way you can *humble* yourself to even comprehend but for us despite knowing nothing truly yours and nothing is ever in your control in this life having a faith bring us comfort. God might be terrifying, omnipotent, an existence outside universe itself beyond human comprehension but He also very loving and most merciful in the way we couldn't never understand except just believe in Him. Sure God would purposely test in a way your heart would crumble over sheer hardship of it but no matter what He give you realize it ultimately for your own good in the way you never truly understand but could only feel. That's Allah Almighty. That's how Islam described God. Are truly Transcendental Existence Beyond humanity. Well something like cosmic horror but actually not at all. Not matter how pious you might be you can't never hope to truly understand Him by having a faith in Him release us from the shackle of world. The fear of losing something or someone precious, the anxiety over past and future, the fear of death. Every fears and anxieties just gone cuz everything in His hand just let Him does anything. As long we truly believe and worship Him, He would NEVER ever abounded us. That's Islam "Submission To God Himself,". So yeah i completely understand the story used as example and the liberating euphoria they feel upon encountering it 10:37, 13:22 . You basically describing a truly practicing muslim except we are not insane. Trying to learn about cosmic horror i rediscovered Him what a day for sure.
12:47 I find it curious that I felt more disturbed by the city of singing flame than by the nameless city. It felt more eerie, made me question a lot more things about the nature of that place, and just gave off a sensation that there was something inherently wrong hiding under the blankets of such a beautiful landscape, and that sucide-inducing flame. Meanwhile, the nameless city was Just... That. A strange city not made for humans, where all its wrongness didn't even feel that wrong, just slightly weird.
Most of lovecraft's "horror" hinges on the ideas of humanity being unimportant and small, or becoming tainted by something foreign, and had a strong focus on how repugnant both concepts were to him. In today's society, where it is well known that the universe and time are beyond vast, and that diversity in thought and appearance need not be rejected, much of his writing loses its edge. In contrast, the city of the singing flame appeals to fears that are reinforced by today's culture and knowledge. Being robbed of control, and of your individual identity. Both are prominent fears in today's society, and this story strikes at those feelings.
@@haroldsaxon1075 Agreed, H.P. Lovecraft concepts affect people that feel they belong to a bigger thing more than people that already accepts that there are far bigger things than themselves. If you feel like H.P. Lovecraft writing is not scary, most likely your not religious too.
@walter1383 knowing a great deal and being able to write stories that incorperates religion or is mainly based in religion and not religious aren't opposites
I'd argue that people today can't feel cosmic horror the way people used to. To me, the fear of the Radiant Void is knowing that you're already somewhere you don't belong, and suddenly you're feeling pressured to stay forever. People back then would feel that alien sense of unbelonging keenly, because they came from a world of relatively stable expectations. But we of the modern day are accustomed to dealing with culture shocks and resisting various pressures, and our modern self concept is far from what our forebearers would call a natural state of being. Our food, housing, clothing, technology, sexuality, cities, and driving from city to city daily... To our ancestors who lived relatively close with nature, surely they'd feel the horror of incompatibility if it was us beaconing them through the portal...
At most many people form cosmic horror from scientists who don't fully understand quantum, wormholes, black holes, white holes, dark matter, and dark energy.
Also more discovers of space and even the ocean. We discover we already living in a cosmic horror give the weird stuff that happens in space. I mean if you think about munch about religion and some philosophy is being at peace with it and even being enjoy the sublime of it.
@@starmaker75 that how I feel that Lovecraft eldritch god and Eldritch beings are more like something you can find in religion. Like some form of cosmic religion or cosmic pantheon I see something like doom slayer demons, stranger things Demigorgan, League of Legends void, Dead space necromorph, hellraiser Cenobite and so on more fitting of that title. SCP as comics cryptid and cosmic conspiracies. Next someone is going to come up with the idea of cosmic fantasy
It could for real. Imagine knowing your friends are trapped and are going to die. I would be depressed if my mom were to be eaten alive by cthullu while I can't do anything to change it.
@@piketheknight2581that’s less a cosmic horror and more a fear of helplessness, it could be anything dangerous that threatens someone you care about, but not specifically a cosmic horror
I'm going through and watching/listening to these videos while I'm working. And it is making me want to work on a story I've sat on for years. But also to experiment with new things and just see how they go. I greatly appreciate these videos.
I had one of these moments when I was looking into how Time Dilation works. It's horrifying, yet seeing how everything WORKS, knowing the shadows of reality and seeing this titanic filigree we are an immeasurably small part of... It gave me a sort of surreality.
I feel like Cosmic horror isn't scary and more so interesting. The story of the Singing Flame honestly made me feel more uncomfortable than any concept I've read from Lovecraft. This could be from my personal experience and perspective on things. The weight of expectations and hope for myself and humanity may lead to inevitable disappointment. The idea of humans being so small and insignificant offers a relief from these expectations. There is a comfort in knowing that my decisions and feelings are small, and knowing there is a is a higher being that I have no control over puts things in perspective (like the cosmic / bliss indifference you mentioned). It kind of seems similar to a religion, where faith in the higher being can give people the inner strength to tackle obstacles in their life, or fulling engross themselves in the culture. Back to cosmic horror, the mix of interesting lore and indescribable creatures leaves so much room for exploration, creativity, and mystery.
I will always view Beyond the Aquila Rift as one of the best examples of cosmic horror. The twist, although terrifying visually, is tragic in the sense that the protagonist doesn't understand what he's looking at and perceives it to be harmful, even though it is truly benevolent. Our understanding of what we see changes how we see it.
Weirldly I think I actually found this version /more/ frightening xD I think its that in Cosmic Horror, if I'm afriad of the thing then well, yeah it makes sense to be afraid and fight back against oblivion,even if its useless. But to be in someway made to /want/ oblivion, to see the dissolution of my Self as desirable, to have my individuality not undone by mere death but be made to Want it...thats actually terrifying to me
This really put cosmic horror in a context I think I understand. Having read so much Judeo-Christian philosophy and theology, the idea of an existential loss of control and significance seemed kind of passe to me, and I figured out what I've been missing. That flame story and the song lines up almost perfectly with my actual world-view, except that the leaping into the flame, giving up control, isn't destruction but a completion of purpose having surrendered that devotion of self to something, as you said, sublime. In some ways it reminds me of the allegory of the cave, where anyone not hearing the flame's song, or else fighting it, could be seen as the people still in the darkness. Still it explains the disconnect I've had with the genre; when the cosmic isn't something to be terrified of, but delighted in, stories about its horror and dangers kind of bounce off the psyche.
For me Lovecraftian stories aren't scary (except for the most cruel ones), they are fascinating like a dark fairy tail. The concept of alien creatures who are so different that we barely can understand (if at all) is very fascinating. The stupid, dull and merciless horrors of everyday life without any mystery are way scarier. For example the Elder Ones in the Mountains of Madness aren't scary at all. Awake in unfamiliar world from their long anabyosis attacked by dogs and see their fellows vivisected, they reacted exactly like humans would react in that kind of situation
Cosmic Horror has always fascinated me because it's beautiful? Mesmerizing? I don't really know what word ro use and i want to share it to my friends but i can't really tell them because i know they'll not understand but oh well, great video btw!
Lovecraft was terrified of many things a modern sci-fi audience views with joy. As a result, much of his writing falls flat for modern readers. For example: Lovecraft was convinced that meeting an alien would shatter a human's mind, but we now have an entire sub-genre of "first contact" novels that view the event with excitement. Lovecraft was terrified of almost everything. When he shared his terror over things we could agree with, he was one of the best at it. When he tries to make us scared of things we already like, it falls flat.
Didn’t expect to see Zero from Kirby in this video 0:01. (And yes, there’s a Kirby character that is literally based on a demonic, biblically accurate eye.)
@@RowanWisteria777You didn’t play Kirby and the Crystal Shards, and reached the final boss which literally shoots blood from its… entire body due to it being 100% eye!?
Weirdly cosmic horror falls into the bliss category for me. I want there to be something more than the mundane. The thought of it brings me a sense of almost ecstasy.
Cosmic horror affects me less in the sense of being insignificant in the face of entities to whom we are less than a speck of dust, and more in the sense of their absolute incomprehensibility. I feel in myself a powerful urge to know, to catalogue, to categorize, and the knowledge that there exist things that do not, will not, and cannot be known, do not fit into categories, and laugh at any attempts at comprehension, generates a sort of deep despair. It doesn’t make me feel insignificant because I’m small, it makes me feel insignificant because my reason, the faculty we pride ourselves on as humans, is revealed as useless, our quest for knowledge nothing more than a cosmic joke.
I feel like the "scariness" of cosmic horror is more due to how it's just further from our reach. We don't know what it is, so we're afraid. Fear of the unknown. Though imo, the scariest horror tend to be more "personal" fears and threats than something as grand and cosmic as Cthulhu or Azathoth
i had this video on my watch later forever to watch as i draw. I literally almost fall off my chair when u mentioned annihilation bc i was thinking of it so much i flailed my hands on the air and did a silent little wail bc its 2 am. I love this video i love annihilation im so autism ab this rn
i think it's impossible to talk about cosmic horror without mentioning Annihilation atp. the movie is probably the only one that ticks all the boxes in the genre.
I guess the best example of "Cosmic Bliss" I can think of off the top of my head is "Mother Void, the Maker" from the Eldertubbies series. She is an unfathomable cosmic being and yet she isn't malicious or even indifferent. She views all things as her children and seeks to protect them, broadcasting a "signal" to comfort those in sorrow. When she arrived, she pulled all dispair and evil into her event horizon, freeing the world from negativity. A nice addon someone said about her is when a man asked her to teach him her word, she said:" My word is... that you are loved." Truly sublime.
one thing I've noticed about old horror movies is that the object of fear tends to be symbolism that represents an aspect of the "human condition". This is what makes concepts like them sit with you, because they can become the personification of your own personal fear of something, like change, loss, or situations you cannot control. While I think that the latter is what cosmic horror is meant to represent, I don't think many modern-day movies capture that sentiment without indulging too much in SFX and a grandiose message that would be better left ambiguous/unsaid. Movies like "The Thing", and even "Predator" come to mind with this, and even Chucky -- the idea that something can exist and haunt you, but nobody believes you until it's too late is terrifying on its own. The representation of this as a child and a scary murderous doll really captures the essence of that feeling, but the remakes feel hollow because it doesn't translate this to something relatable in the modern age.
An observation I find thought-provoking is that while listening to your description of the singing flame, the emotion I felt was something like a deep yearning. I’m not an emotional person in reality so having a noticeable internal reaction stood out to me, and I wondered for a moment: Was this what the character felt when he left the city? He went home, but deep down he longed to ‘go home’ to the flame… From an outside perspective I imagine it could be taken as oddly disturbing that this was my genuine reaction. The idea that the flame in the story is so alluring that even the reader (myself) on the other side of the fourth wall, grounded in the real world, could feel the same draw to it - I picture that’s the impression one can get from my anecdote. As for me I find the idea of the flame comforting, even heartwarming. The idea that a vast and incomprehensible force in the universe would be so compassionate to mortal things like ourselves as to welcome us into its embrace so kindly. It offers to lift the burdens from our shoulders and guide us home. In a way, it feels like the unconditional love of a cosmic parental figure. It also makes me think about how incredibly easy it would be to turn me into a cultist or even cult leader character if I lived in one of these cosmic horror stories. Hahaha
There is an idea this video was so teetering on the cusp of. Cosmic bliss does not need to revolve around annihilation--at least, not eternal annihilation. Although not mentioned with the same popularity, Lovecraft also wrote a few stories about a fantastic world of dreams, similar in its scale of wonder to the vast terrors of the cosmos. The visceral reaction to looking over a ledge and seeing an endless pit of hellish nothing can also be experienced when cresting a peak and looking out to see an endless landscape of possibilities. When I read The Nameless City, I couldn't help but wonder what lay beyond the light. What if it was a heavenly existence, and all the alien beings were potential friends? I felt similarly when I read The Shadow Over Innsmouth; I remember thinking, "how amazingly lucky, a whole new life to explore!" Of course, with both of these examples, the protagonist would need to embrace a new existence, and eschew the old entirely; this could be viewed, in a way, as "death." But, instead of viewing things as endings and beginnings, there's an opportunity to view them as growth and change.
Gotta be honest, the whole "humanity is insignificant in the universe" thing just feels like a challenge to me rather than a "crushing horror" or whatever.
Not even only on a universal scale, i always find it aggravating when humans in stories are depicted as inferior to other beings like demons or angels or whatever. Then i always try to come up with ways for humans to surpass them. Maybe that's why i love the concept of magic. When faced with something superior, i want to overcome it and leave it behind me. It won't happen in real life, but in my head, always.
@@Ultimabuster92 Yeah, I always kind of like stories where humans go into the wider galaxy and aren't looked down upon. I especially find it amusing when we're actually pretty top tier. There's a creepy past that made me laugh where we basically wind up trolling the entire galaxy because of a communications error and we just kinda went with it.
Many people prefer the Hell part in the Divina Comedia, however my favorite part is the heaven because all of it is filled with cosmic bliss, and this is much more scary
(TW SUICIDE!!) I feel like this "Cosmic Bliss" Works perfectly as a metaphor for being suicidal. As someone who still gets suicidal thoughts even after trying so hard to recover, the allure of stopping to exist and ending this crisis I never asked to be part of is still in the back of my mind. Today I learned about a new way of writing cosmic horror that actually resonates with me which makes it even more frightening.
That description is literally, what I feel about suicide. I've never understood in the time I could remember why people hate, actively and passionately avoid the death. Suddenly I can understand them after seeing this comment. The death is meant to be cosmic horror, not cosmic bliss. Edit: Now I went from cosmic bliss to cosmic indifference, so that is good. And one more thing I can tell you is when the death feels like cosmic bliss, the opposite, life, becomes the cosmic horror. It could be other way around in reality, but hopefully that makes sense.
@@vextronx Death is the opposite of existence. It itself isn't the fear, ending is. IE never being able to either cry, laugh, suffer, feel happy, feel hope, feel at all is the part people don't like. A lot of major religions are centered around the idea of using cosmic bliss to quell that fear. Nirvana, euphoria, things being only good, only light or basically, things being nothing. Entropy is change. You can't change when you no longer exist. They're all just death though. In different forms. I think the acceptance of death in this way, be it from religion or other sources has actually lead to suffering, which is something I don't abide by. There is a lot of passiveness to thinking "we all die anyway, so who cares?" that can lead to a metric ton of ignoring, excusing and otherwise dismissing the suffering of others, including the self. I think that's the most insidious part about it all. Promotion of not caring. Apathy the true "evil" because it's not caring about something at all. It's basically denying the existence of a thing as a thing to exist. Nothing and absence of care. I think if life is the cosmic horror, that's mainly because people try to be so blasé about what makes it horrifying, because they're thinking "it will end eventually, so why bother?" I've seen this a lot on posts about horrific happenings to others, about how death was a release, but rarely about how no one did anything to stop it the abuse or horrific happening and that death as a release is the last resort only when all other options have been explored. Death can release suffering, but why not actually focus on what is causing the suffering instead of expecting death, god or anything else to fix it? That's what gets me about the way people see it. Accepting death as a thing that happens is facing reality. Feeling kinship or hope about it being there feels like a coping mechanism that encourages more suffering in between it actually arriving. Especially when it takes effort to alleviate suffering. Simply put, death is a simple solution to a complex problem. it's an easy route the same as saying that a god or some other being will fix things. That said, I know suicide is a different matter and way of thinking. I get it, I've felt it, but I still hold fast to the idea that it's one of many when you really look at it as just another expectation of someone or something else to fix a problem that feels unsolvable, which leads to far more problems than it solves. I don't want people to suffer, but I also want to focus on what causes the suffering. That's the part that's "evil" so to speak. Why do people suffer? What can we do to reduce it with out resorting to a blanket permeant solution that takes away all other possible options? If the goal is maximize quality of life and longevity, then out current answers are so incredibly wrong that it goes past being absurdly funny and a new level of horrifying that I don't think there is a word for.
The stories you talk as examples of bliss, I found them more terrifying than the cosmic horror, the flame, and the "spore" seem to be more horrid, because, they are a threat, but you don't notice it.
Once experienced a storm while camping. All night my tent was on the verge of blowing away and if I wasn’t in it, the tent probably would’ve. The next morning after the storm had passed I felt such a joy and quiet. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
Let me start by saying: you have SUCH a soothing voice, it's PERFECT for this topic. the description on how such huge sublime entities barely notice us humans, and the reverence some people feel towards it puts my mind at such ease THAT is almost terrifying. I would also like to add: with how bad the world seems to be right now, Cosmic Horror feels less like Horror since no matter how bad things seem, we're all the same: a microscopic piece of dust on a mite floating through the mouse of space. Corporations are poisoning us? same end all around. Nothing matters, Nothing cares, we came from Nothing, and to Nothing we shall end up. As Depressing as it seems, that Everlasting Nothing is Peaceful, Serene. Thank you for putting this to words.
I’ve never been able to explain it. But Lovecraft stories always comforted me. I often fall asleep to audiobooks of his. This is a great explanation, thank you.
I love a good creepy story, but am often struck by how often something scary can also be incredibly funny. I think it has to do with the fact that, at certain points, horror becomes absurd. When faced with an unreasonable or illogical happening/thing we are either terrified by its strangeness and what it could mean to our world, or we are overwhelmed with the fact that such a thing is so out of place and impossible that it becomes silly. Humor is a common response to difficult situations, and can either be born of ignorance or level-headedness. It's a similar reason why I think that comedies that rely on the absurd tend to be (for the most part) fairly niche. To some people, the impossibilities of the absurd or its uncanny way of reflecting what is true is incredibly comic. To others it might be so outlandish it becomes stupid. I have a feeling that the differences come not only from our personalities but from what we are willing to see and experience when we partake of a story.
As a spiritual person and having studied yogic philosophy i know that the biggest, most sublime isnt really anything to fear. I suppose there are things that shallowly could feel good yet are still bad, and those would be scary to get trapped in. But really, "be not afraid" is good advice for a reason. Also, if you want real life cosmic horror stories, look up salvia divinorum trip reports.
I've barely started this video but I just had to pause it and say how much I love your intro. The animation style is so whimsical and reminds me of the DreamWorks stop motion movies. You have the coolest intro I've ever seen. Congratulations, it's the fastest I've ever subbed to a channel haha.
And now here I stand at the edge of a paradox, for I find the examples of cosmic bliss presented in this video all the more horrifying than any story of cosmic horror I know of.
Maybe the door to the radiant void slammed shut because the creatures within the radiance got a good look at the human approaching and screamed, "GAAAAH! What is that?!? Shut the door before it gets in here! Shut it, shut it!!!"
“You’re on a small boat in the middle of the ocean. Everywhere you look, nothing but waves lapping at the horizon. You don’t know exactly how deep the water reaches beneath you, but it might as well be an endless void from where you are, staring at its gently rolling surface. On this sliver of placid gravity between the endlessly open sky and the endlessly yawning water beneath you, the sense is one of overwhelming vastness. You can’t help but notice how small you are. Then, out of nowhere, a figure rises out of the sea next to you, blotting out the sun and casting a great shadow over you. No, not Cthulhu or Dagon. A whale. A real living creature, larger than any you’ve ever seen in your life, and it’s less than 30 meters away. Here in this moment, heart pounding in your chest, boat rocking on the surface of the water, you feel yourself caught between two extremes. Your brain registers that you might actually die here, that this creature could end your life without even noticing. Just by surfacing in the wrong place. At the same time, so close to this impossibly large thing, close enough that you can feel that salt spray of its breach on your face, you somehow feel… more alive than ever.” - Tale Foundry
The fall into insanity I didn’t really understand. But I heard somewhere that Lovecraft was terrified of his own descent into madness being unavoidable with both his parents being hospitalized for mental health.
Lovecraft was a deeply terrified man of anything 'other'. The idea that there is more to the world like elder gods or whatever is horrifying to him. He found other cultures that weren't like his hometown horrifying. Just for being different. So yes cosmic horror is absolutely terrifying if you dislike... well, exotic and new things? He legitimately believes someone would go insane just by things being 'different' from the norm. Though I think he was mostly speaking for himself. I've always loved cosmic horror for the complete opposite, I find all of that stuff fascinating, fun. It's never been scary to me, but I do enjoy it. Exploring the new and the unknown, which Lovecrafts books paint as a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I think he was a talented writer and I love his stories, but they aren't horror to me, it's more just a look into another world? More fascinating and a little eerie at times, in a good way.
I’m not that afraid of cosmic horror, but I think that the explanation given for indifference towards the sublime as just shutting off one’s emotions or as a coping mechanism to be lacking. For example, someone that never cared about philosophy could be completely unfazed by the sublime since their position in the universe never mattered to them, like a person that’s not interested in flowers would feel nothing when coming across a flower they have never seen in their lives. Also in the positive side of the spectrum, rather than just the exaltation of wanting to be part of the sublime, another reaction that should not be ignored is the unyielding desire to tame it, to tame the unknown the infinite and make it ours, for this feeling of excitement is what has pushed science to develop for scientists upon seeing the abyss their reaction was one of a challenger, shaping that unknown infinity with our very hands. As technology is but nature which we have taught tricks to, like how we communicate by blasting light into the atmosphere and have it bounce back from the air, how we harnessed the fundamental forces of the universe that make up matter to yield the energy we desire through nuclear reactors, and so forth. As a math student, infinity is just the starting line, the truly fun things lie way beyond.
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Excellent video, you have the soul of a poet my friend. I was feeling depressed with the weight of everything going on in the world right now, but I think my head is starting to clear. Thank you for that.
I am really glad I found your channel. When I write, I try to emulate a certain mood or element that I love to read. The problem is, if I don't know how to define the element I'm looking for, I can't write it and it can take me years to define it. Lately that hasn't been a problem because you always put out a video on the EXACT topics I currently struggle with. I could never find any info on my favorite magic trope until your video on the weirdest fairy tale trope. I never understood why I found cosmic horror comforting until this video.
Saw something like "Fear is knowing you're in a monster-filled forest. Terror is seeing one run at you. Horror is realizing your feet are glued to the ground" and I think that applies pretty well here. Jumpscares and stuff would fit under the spike of terror, where true horror is more a constant realization that there's nothing you can do about the terror.
For a real sense of horror, watch the Pale Lady scene from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark film.
She just slowly ambles towards the kid but, no matter where he runs, there she is. He'll turn a corner and see her at the end of the hall making her way towards him. Then he runs away, turns another corner, and there she is again just a little bit closer.
She never suddenly appears right behind him or anything, just slowly closes the distance. No jump scares, just that sinking sense of horror from the gradual realization that there's nothing he can do to escape.
Well put!
Cool observation
And lust is when you-
@@etcetera1995 the misatribution of arousal is real after all...
Ironically, the concept of cosmic "bliss" instills a lot of fear to me by framing cosmic experiences as pleasure and gift in exchange of your puny life is very haunting. Imagine how many would fall for it if one should appear in current times where most feel worthless. Millions would just be gone in an instant like a snap.
We'll see soon enough, I'm sure. Its a fantasy to you but I've lived it. It's a story to you but very powerful people want it to happen. We can debate whether they take their guidance from Horrors, Aliens, or once Angels. But we'd be using the same word. Its debatable when it's coming or how its to be implemented, if people are taken or not because they don't even nessecarily know. But their utopia is coming and its not ours to enjoy.
You're quite right, such things are soul-consuming. And I mean ARE, as very similar things are real, and, for instance, every life destroying addiction you can think of is a vortex of bliss that consumes hundreds of millions (not an exaggeration) of people right now. Drugs, alcohol, gambling, video games, ideologies and religions - they can all be something a person simply touches and has a bit of fun with, or something that eats people whole while they love every moment of it.
yeah, I find the bliss one far more horrifying
I find it very interesting to think about the possibility that it *is* worth it. That the people destroying themselves aren't "falling for" anything at all, but are making an objectively correct choice. Like, what would it take for such a thing to be worth it to you? Maybe in the last instant they somehow experience an eternity of loving blissful fulfillment. If not that, then what would it have to be for YOU to "fall for" it?
Isn't that basically a perfect description of the "Rapture"?
To me the lack of fear from cosmic horror stuff is akin to walking alongside a highway. You can coexist quite (or almost) serenely with dangerously fast vehicles a couple of meters away from you, and only truly freak out when one really steers into you. No use losing one’s mind before anything’s happened. You can get queasy imagining the worst stuff, but you still got to move on.
You worded that perfectly. Very interesting way to see this and I totally agree
This! This is exactly why cosmic horror never really affects me.
Fear of heights is a better analegory you can fall off at the slight
Sometimes the cars follow you home.
Yeah that's all fun and games until it actually happens lol
When I was explaining my taste for very surreal and sublime styles in fiction and even in the way I want to present myself, a friend of mine coined the term "Eldritch Majesty" and it stuck with me since. This idea of being so grand, so immense, so powerful, that witnessing your beauty is so overwhelmingly shocking you can't turn away; while so beautiful you don't even want to, has really stuck with me.
I don't fear the scale of the cosmos and my smallness compared to it. I see only wonder at the vastness and strangeness of it all: the potential that it holds is literally limitless. I want, in some way, to channel some of that beauty: to be something alien, something sublime. There is no such thing as oblivion, only change: no direction to go in life but forward.
Even weighed down by burnout, I still dream of it. That my discovery of self will lead me to a form of transcendence. Way to influence a world I've felt powerless towards for too long.
This really did inspire me and I've finally pushed past my anxiety to mention this.
I feel you. We got this. Bit by bit, step by step, but we got this.
Look up “Beatific Vision”
As soon as you said "blissful" it clicked! I remember listening to a lot of cosmic horror a while back, and I strangely found the thought of an inevitable cosmic truth of futility comforting. It made me strangely stop worrying about the little things, zooming out to feel bliss
Ironically, I find the "hopeful" cosmic horror to be infinitely more terrifying than the one that's actually supposed to scare me. It's often said that the way the characters react to a situation changes how the audience perceives it. Generally, this is meant to imply that if the characters are scared, sad, happy, etc., then the audience will be, too. In this case, at least for me, I think it works the opposite. In a lot of cosmic horror, where the people go "mad," I think they're too self-aware of their madness for it to really be scary. Like... they're scared, they're trembling, that is the reaction they're supposed to have, which makes them sane, and that sanity makes it easy to stomach as an audience member. But if they react with bliss, hope, etc. to their own annihilation, which is contrary not just to their nature but their own established personalities beforehand, then doesn't that actually make them insane? I personally find that genuinely horrifying (never mind the parallels this has to severe depression, though that adds another layer, too). Like, what kind of horrific entity could essentially rewrite their way of thinking such that they abandon themselves in favor of death over some fleeting, meaningless feeling, event, or thing, especially because it makes them *happy* somehow? Not to mention just how cultish that is, which is perfectly in line with what you'd expect out of cosmic horror.
I think this video sought out to establish a hopeful alternate to cosmic horror but instead showed me what actual effective cosmic horror looks like.
It's interesting that the idea of calmness or peace in the face of something you'd otherwise find horrifying is so much scarier to you. Almost like you value your fear response highly, and are more afraid of that being undermined than you are of the actual danger.
-Benji, showrunner
@@TheTaleFoundry I was thinking about that, actually, but I don't think that's quite right. The neutral option is also comforting to me, as in just accepting things as they are or not overthinking them (or resisting without fear, just determination). I find that comforting probably even more than the fear response. But I think it's specifically the blissful embracing of it is what scares me.
There's a chance this is psychologically tied to my religious background (I was raised in the kind of religion where you're supposed to worship something for eternity and fully fell out of it a couple years into adulthood due to my own realizations), but I don't think that's a topic this RUclips comment section needs to know about lol.
I think the fear is of losing control? That the "cosmic bliss" takes over and you're no longer able to make decisions?
But whether that's a bad thing still comes down to a value assessment.
-Benji, showrunner
@@TheTaleFoundry I'm actually writing a horror story where the entire theme is about control rather than death or the unknown, so that definitely seems right to me. And you're right that it comes down to a value assessment. Not everyone would find that scary. It's all subjective. I personally value having self-control and self-awareness (as much as possible), so having those taken from me would be pretty terrifying.
@TheTaleFoundry That's more or less my take on it too. Upon hearing that "green flame" story my mind just immediately went "that's a psychic angler fish!"
The cosmic doesn't make me feel small, it makes the universe feel grand and wondrous. It's something to explore and discover, not to cower and hide from.
Nice way to put it. If we are small, so is our world
It will kill you. Or worse.
@@liamodahl1205maybe. But not in this lifetime
Now, imagine the universe so vast, that even with the best methods of transportation theoretically possible you won't ever be able to reach the next point of interest and experience it personally. Something so big that this alone makes it impossible to even try to explore.
Yeah, to me the scariest thing of all would be if there was absolutely nothing out there. Disappointment is scarier than any monster.
That's very interesting, because i literally had a nightmare, where some kind of otherworldy buzzing noise and echoed whisper tried to enter my mind and drive me crazy and i was so terrified that i decided that i should give in to it, because i thought "if i give in and become insane it won't terrify and hurt anymore" so i did it and it stopped.
But then i woke up and realized it was my alarm clock lol.
That is... way too funny for something that was supposed to be horrifying
LMFAOO 😂
This sounds like an author’s note
Ahh, the daily horror of an ordinary life: the alarm clock of terror and not enough sleep ever. Fear thy, for once you've let it into your life it will dictate your every sleeps end with its wrathful ringing.
Well, alarm clocks are truly terrifying.
People forget that H.P. Lovecraft was not a Horror author. He wrote weird tales, for a weird tales magazine. It is a credit to Lovecraft that we think of him as a Horror writer.
He did write about his nightmares though
I see Kafka in him. I don’t think he was thinking about sci-fi. These are a manifestation of extreme fear and alienation.
Yup. There's quite a few Lovecraft stories that incorporate some version of this "cosmic bliss" concept. One of my favorite examples is "Beyond the Wall of Sleep," and there's some of it in the Randolph Carter stories, too.
Ah yes my favorite genre weird, I hate how plain and mundane horror stories are
Bruh. You don’t get to change what kind of author he was to suit your weird headcanon. He very clearly is a horror author. He massively influenced Cosmic HORROR with his countless HORROR stories.
I find the singing flame far more terrifying, unlike the cosmic horror with indifference and driving you insane in which you lose yourself, cosmic bliss seems to start with the death of the self, altering of who you are . Half the time in cosmic horror you have the capacity to stop digging and leave the cosmic bliss draws you in even when you stepped away like a sirens song
I feel like another way to describe cosmic bliss could be awe, when I go to the museum and see a skeleton of a dinosaur I feel in awe that it ever existed at all, if it was alive it could easily kill me and I would feel very scared but the fear goes away when you think about how beutiful of an animal it must have been when it was alive
have you ever thought about how a lot of fantasy is cosmic awe like narnia how did the closet get there when how all questions that cant be answered in narnia if you turn a wrong corner you die but the children just keep going in awe in wonder of this mysterious dimension
@@Jayden_Yugiohplayer4000-zb9sb woahhhh that's actually such a good point
yeah just a thought that came to me when he talked about the whale@@sheepgrass500
Magic School bus goes to Rhy'leh?
See the bones and imagine the feathers...
I felt that "Sublime" sensation when I was going home from college one day just when a typhoon dropped. The torrential rain, the whipping wind, and the sudden pause of human activity around as everyone fled and cars piled. I felt miniscule, but also excited, that I'm enduring a powerful storm just to reach home. It's was almost meditative because all I can hear was the rain on my umbrella and all I can feel was wet and cold. Every step forward felt like I'm defying it, and it was a formative experience.
This is NEAT both as a quote and as an experience, for storytelling.
I’d love to add a somewhat similar experience of mine! My father & I were going to look at this one house because we needed to eventually move in somewhere at the time, but a really big storm dropped as we left. I was just starting in awe in the passenger seat of the car while there was lightning, flooding, and strong winds abound. I realized at that moment, that while this event had an underlying feeling of unsafeness, I would never know when I would experience another storm as grand as that one again. So I put my headphones on and played the most fitting piece of music I knew at the time (Salmiakki by Frums) and I drank in as much as I could. It really was awe-some.
If anything, the Singing Flame sounds more terrifying than the Radiant Void ever was. We are not designed to interact with the void, but neither is it with us. The danger it poses is one of circumstance. The Flame draws us in, robs us of the choice of existence with the vague promise of something grander, yet in the end only brings inescapable destruction. It's description brings to mind the anglerfish, a bright beacon of promised salvation that is nothing but a lure, the tool of something hiding in the dark, willing to strip us of everything we are just to feed itself.
"Behold, cosmic horrors beyond your comprehension!"
"..."
"What, are you not afraid?"
"I don't get it"
but steel is heavier than feathers
"What you don't get it?"
"Why a god is concerned about me enough to harm me?"
"Because it is the almighty, eldeich god of darkness! The ruler insanity! Who will pleage the world one day, beyond human's capacity of resistence!"
"Then why care? if there's nothing I can do about it."
". . ."
@@wander7812 I don't really get the "why care if there's nothing I can do about it" sometimes, you don't feel mad or powerless or anything? Just gonna watch everything you love vanish with indifference?
@@DRangerRed Yes.
Heres a more "mainstream" version to call it;
"It is what it is."
Cosmic Indifferencers cannot stress over something that we cannot control. It would just make it worse. We skip all phases of grief and go straight to acceptance, as this is the only outcome either way.
@@wander7812skipping stages of grief is a form of denial.
growing up in an abusive household kind of ruined horror for me, I usually fear the things that are known, because the unknown was always an escape for me.
I’ve had a nightmare as a child then woke up back to reality and wished I could go back to the nightmare so I know that feeling.
I have severe anxiety both about dying and about the pressures of daily life. For me, cosmic horror invokes a sense of hope and wonder, but NOT in stories like the singing flame where the character dies. Being drawn into an incomprehensible world or being transformed into some incomprehensible being is a soothing escapist fantasy for me. It relaxes me to imagine a world where I could continue to exist while being liberated from the stress and banality of daily human life.
This is why I always turn to psychological dramas for my horror fix. Ghouls, demons, immortal killers and monsters don't scare me. People do. I've seen what they're capable of. I'd love to see a cosmic horror where the evil outside force gets so turned off by what we do to ourselves and each other in direct response to a cosmic threat that they decide annihilating us just isn't worth it.
Fuck, thats sad as hell... I'm really sorry bro
Fuck me, well put
I get so much more horrified when this “cosmic bliss” concept is used. It freaks me out more than regular horror. Watching somebody lose their sense of self, and autonomy is terrifying. And the seeing them be joyful about it!? Ugh it gives me chills. I never perceive it as bliss. I perceive it as someone on their last rope giving it all up to madness. Not even trying to live
Perhaps it could be used as a metaphor for things like watching a friend do substance abuse, or join a cult? Similar effect, though not exactly a 1 to 1
Spoilers if you havent watched bird box.
I think the cosmic bliss applies to the crazy ones from that movie, the normal ones experiences cosmic terror that they kill themselves but the crazy ones were so happy about the experience that they made it their life's purpose to show it to everyone too.
That seems like a Susie thing to think.
Some people just want to let go of ego and become one with a greater force. Others violently resist the idea. But I think that we need to respect people's personal decisions on the matter.
@@yvaskhmir Religion, every day people commit themselves to a thing they believe in as greater than themselves.
@@yvaskhmirviolation "free will" is the only thing I view as "criminal" behavior... be it manipulation, coercion, or more fantastical like hypnosis.
Honestly I find the Singing Flame _scarier_ than the Nameless City. To me it feels more insidious and more terrifying. The fact that its victims are _happy_ about destroying themselves just makes the horror worse, because that happiness isn't theirs. It's the flame itself, reaching into their mind, violating the sovereignty that a person has over their own life and self (something that is important but already tenuous, and for some must be fought hard for every day in order to maintain). They don't want it, it _makes_ them want it. There is no reason for them to want it other than its own hunger, if you can call it that.
I guess it comes down to trust, or faith: whether you believe that the sublime object really is a blissful release, or if its compulsion is something more sinister. Personally, I can't bring myself to place that kind of trust in something, especially something alien and unknown. Maybe it's colored by the fact that I'm viewing it through the lens of someone who has grappled with suicidal ideation, but entities that promise sweet release from existence itself can be nothing but monstrous.
I agree wholeheartedly. One is an uncomfortable truth, the other a beautiful lie. One lets you know it's a danger, and the other lures you in.
Quite true indeed
This is one of the good things about religions like Christianity is that it both the shows the good and the bad of life and death, and it also says that you should not choose when you die (a.k.a don't commit suicide or you will end up in hell)but let God decide when, where, why, and how it should happen.
So in short don't be self-absorbed and have faith in all powerful, all knowing unknowable being that exists beyond time and space
Wow no wonder H.P. Lovecraft was scaredy cat
@@dnm3732 "Fun" fact: that part about don't commit suicide was written later on, because people WERE committing suicide as a short-cut to the after-life.
Indeed! Smith is my favorite cosmic horror writer, and I always found stories like "The City of the Singing Flame" to be terrifying because the horror they represent is the destruction or the subversion of the self. As someone who was born while the Cold War was still active, the idea that my life (and indeed, the entire existence that I knew and experienced on a day-to-day basis) endured at the mercy of forces outside of my control and beyond my comprehension was normalized, that some day men in Moscow or Washington might, for some unfathomable reason, decide to consign all of society and history to apocalyptic flame. I didn't need to read stories to confront the fact of my own insignificance in the cosmos, and when such stories were scary (such as in Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," which I found quite disturbing at age 10) it was because they caused a confrontation with reality. You can't have an existential crisis around something that you've already confronted and processed.
But the attack on the _self,_ that's something different entirely. I may be nothing more than an ant in the scale of a vast, uncaring universe, but I'm still me, living my best ant life. And the concept that something might come into my own consciousness and change me, against my will, into something else, is a genuinely horrific prospect. And the idea of a force that convinces me that abandoning myself is a good thing is a far more existential threat than one that simply alters the scale.
@@Vaeldarg fun fact 90% of everything was written later cause that's how time works
there's a certain calmness in acepting chaos as is, and not trying to comprehend it, just experience it
That's why I never found cosmic horror scary, but calming, the idea of having some primordial form of chaos is... relaxing? I don't know why, it just is
Imagine that you didn't cease to exist when you died - but went on, blind, alone, and *awake* f o r e v e r .
And it hurt. No dreamless sleep, no fantastic visions - just a pitch black panic attack that never ends, and you have no way to habituate to it.
You accept it, you cannot comprehend it - nor can you scream, though every fibre of your cruelly-unending being needs to.
Im not sure id say its calming to me but it definitely sparks curiosity for me like i cant impact it no matter what i do may as well learn cool shit
@@EgoEroTergum sounds like Christian "Hell" minus the blind and alone parts. The threat of forever torture is really common in religions.
Basically accepting its a fundamental part of life not trying to fight it or dissect it.
@@EgoEroTergumwouldn't you just stop thinking or existing at some point?
Cosmic horror isn't scary because it doesn't really matter to us.
It just is.
Just as us humans exist, so do they.
Maybe they can do things, maybe there are things out of our reach.
Does it really matter?
After all, despite all that, we still strive to do what we want to do.
The realization changes nothing.
So let's not worry about it too much, shall we?
Let's focus on the more important things.
After all, no matter what happens, we will continue to reach for our goals.
That's what we've always done, and that's what we'll always do.
That is not a reflection of reality. That is a coping mechanism. Its blinding oneself because you just don't want to feel it, or are deadened to it for some reason. There are many real life examples of things that DO affect your goals. Terminally so. And many prefer to ignore those realities. How can horror be scary if you don't feel anything more than the urge of an ant to get your chores done?
@@Badficwriter I think there are various philosophical/existential questions that actually do matter. I think realizing if they do or don't is a big part that people tend to miss.
For instance, I don't think free-will exists. Law and social conduct is determined by that free-will being a force that is true. If it's not, we're doing a lot of things very wrong. Also, if it does exist, we're still doing things wrong.
But so many say it doesn't matter or that it's better to think we have it anyway. I also find this to be coping. if there was say a massive cosmic beast who in precisely 1.8 billion years will consume the universe, then yeah, I wanna know about it. See if there is anything I can do to stop it because that sounds pretty crappy. However, if I can't, well, then I can't hold on to that sense of dread. All I'd want to do is continue to help others understand the truth on the off chance that someone actually has a solution. Knowledge is still important. It's good to know, even if the information is uncomfortable. That said, letting it ruin your life quality for not having an answer is also not helpful in itself.
@@BadficwriterI dunno, its not like we are supposed to feel one way towards things of cosmic scale, just like how people aren't supposed to feel all the same way when looking at something more comparatively mundane, like an orange. For example If someone does not care for oranges, they are not in fact fooling themselves into denying their love of oranges, just like how cosmic indifference isn't just a cop out of the more "real" cosmic horror.
For me, I find comfort in the genre. The fact that someone else has put the emotion so perfectly into words mean that someone else has felt it.
The Silver Key is arguably my favourite Lovecraft story. There is no monster, no undead wizard or grand conspiracy, just the dread of being alive in an uncaring society.
That story makes me sad. :( The horror is Life, and he is so relieved to be rid of it.
Never read it, but man if that ain’t modern city-living. That you have no means to escape.
This is the dark step on the path to true enlightenment. Don't stop here
Anything can be scary with the right set of tools/skills, but horror as a genre is hard to do right. Cosmic horror for all its reputation and elements, is no exception to this. Probably more so as failing to sell the horror or intrigue will just make it look confusing and/or pretentious.
the downfall of Cthulhu is that everyone has seen the monster, cosmic horror doesn't work when you know the thing you are supposed to be afraid of. then you are just doing cheap terror, not true horror. the best cosmic horror come from exploiting the humans most basic fears, its about scratching at our lizard brain, all without showing what we are supposed to be afraid of.
I think the dead space necromorph, dooms demons, League of Legends the void, silent Hill, the stranger things demi Gordon are better cosmic horror.
The best horror is what you mind make up for it. That’s why monsters in the dark work very well. That and scilence. Because with scilence you hear stuff that don’t exist because that’s what you are expecting.
@@MimicToMetamorphosis if I want a real world cosmic horror. I would look towards Yahweh in his Christianity. A higher being we can't describe or we go mad for blind if we see his true form. He to do wherever he wants to create whatever he wants. Power to manipulate the fate so many life, power to create life, power to manipulate the world around us. Judge our souls to send to heaven or Hill. Power to manipulate the minds and wills of others. Everywhere every place every time.
I have a really good example of something that scares a lot of people and an interesting opinion. First I think an awesome and probably the scariest thing that everyone seems to get frighted of… Minecraft cave noises and caving. In the game when you go caving it is very silent except for your mining and then, (Loud scary noise) it is effective as it is sudden, but you don’t know why or what is causing the sounds and the daunting presents as you feel the isolation and fear of a tight space, darkness, mobs being able to sneak up on you at any time, and those noises are very horrifying. Next is my take on how you can make something scary for anyone. Mundane horror. Make it so someone see something abyssal or mind breaking, but when they see the creature nothing happens. No mind breaking, no panic attack. Just a lingering sense of indifference and mild bothering. Like a dull warm feeling that you feel in your stomach. The horror is how it stays. How the feeling doesn’t go away and you have to feel something. You have to know something. You need to do something. But you really have no idea what to do. You feel stuck. Stagnant. Like a volcano on the edge of bursting but stopping before it erupts. The stuff that makes you want to peel your skin off and crush your bones.
I love cosmic horror, but whenever my thoughts drift to how much I don’t matter in the vast expanse of the universe, it’s immediately followed by “why does it matter that I don’t matter? If I can never possibly be as great as the universe, why worry about it? All that matters to me is me and the people around me”
Simple.
Imagine you didn't cease to be when you died. You just stayed awake, in the void, alone.
You are not guaranteed an escape from the expanse. If you take that death is an out, for granted, then you are taking baseless comfort on faith, as much any religious person.
There is no evidence that consciousness can be turned off once turned on - nor that with countless billions of years that bit that is *you* won't be doomed to flicker in and out for eternity.
You can avoid thinking about it - but call a spade a spade. You don't worry because of faith, not because there's any guarantee at all that eternity doesn't hurt.
Edit:
After that, if you are able to apply that and remember why eternity and uncertainty are naturally terrifying on an animal level, you can then apply that same terror to the people you love. Your friends and family screaming forever in the undying void.
Now lastly, remember that with technology - such things *can exist* . Your mind could be put into a computerized hell, dropped near the event horizon of a black hole, and experience such a eternity of time as that time stops having any meaning.
Or merged with an extra-solar entity that views your pain as a necessary by-product.
Once again, it is only modern sensibilities - a bland form of faith - that walls the imagination off from the true horizons of terror that exist in the unknown.
You are deeply into cosmic indiference, come here in the cosmic horror spectrum and lets enjoy that wonderful cosmic bliss with the singing flame!
@@The_medicine_frogWell they do to them personally.
@@janterri3539 they mentioned how things don't matter in the grand scheme of things, which is the whole point of cosmic horror. If nothing matters in that case then their friends don't matter, you and I don't matter, no choice we make ever will matter. Worst part about cosmic horror is how true it is, humanity will be gone and our existence in this universe would have been nothing, no point. If all of humanity vanished along with everything created from it the universe wouldn't care, nor would it be effected negatively in any way. Kind of depressing.
@@The_medicine_frog What does and does not matter is in the eye of the beholder. We and any other sentient being are bestowed the position of the beholder, and that's empowering and terrifying rather than depressing as far as I see it
Something that will always haunt me with both its terror and wonder is the edge of the reef. Decades ago, while on vacation, I swam out from the beach, out past the shallows and over the reef to the very edge, and stopped. The reef ended abruptly, and all that lay beyond was the infinite. To this day, I can still feel what I felt that day.
Even reading this, I feel like I can sense that same exact feeling
I wasn't ready for this sightwhen I went snorkeling for the 2nd time. The first time had been in some shallows by craggy rocks. The second time they took us on a boat tour to a rock sticking out of the sea about an hour away from the island we were at. When I jumped out of the boat and looked down chills went up my spine and I immediately lifted my head out of the water! Eventually got over it and saw lots of fish and other cool things but the infinite blue darkness still kinda creeps me out. It made me feel like for a second the water might stop holding me and I could just fall all the way to the bottom.
Yeah, I had this to. That feeling when you go over the edge and you feel like you’ll never return. That’s what I had atleast.
I scuba dove on a sea stack once. On one side was a wall, teaming with life and beauty. Behind me was infinite black going down forever...
Some people have no visual imagination. Lovecraft made me SEE things
For me, a lot of cosmic horror doesn't get to me because I simply never related to the idea that we were ever on the top of the cosmic totem pole, and never actually got the whole ant analogy. Life is life, its scale doesnt matter, and as an animist I'm also a believer in spirits of everything right down to the wider universe and everything connecting together, and also fully accepted us just being a small part of a greater universe, and that we need to cherish our little speck.
That said, I do find stories like that fungis horrifying, although that feelsore like body horror. Also, the Reapers from Mass Effect. The fact that those bastards essentially made the galaxy into their own free range garden to harvest every 50 millennia and that we inadvertently fell right into their trap hook line and sinker was... Something
I love mass effect and it made so much sense when I learned that the reapers are based on lovecraftian horror. The book Annihilation might also be in your wheelhouse
Cosmic bliss is a pretty good descriptor of how i feel in adoration. Combined with disbelief and joy that such an entity actually cares about humanity let alone an individual
That would be very interesting to experience.
Adoration is incredible when approached that way. The Infinite looks back at the finite and says "I love you"
These descriptions of cosmic 'bliss', those stories are actually scarier to me. They are the same otherness, but one does not hide what it is, it is awesome and terrible and beyond all knowledge, and that is terrifying, and the fear keeps you at bay from that danger. The other is a temptation, an intenseness that overwhelms self-will and draws one into its dangers, masking them as 'bliss'. One is a warning sign, the other a trap.
It’s important to remain open eyed and aware for sure. I think you can enjoy it as well. Look up at the night sky and you can experience a bit of the sublime when you realize that our sun is itself another star like all those you see.
The sky is blissfully beautiful. But we’re still aware of its dangers. Asteroids, gamma ray bursts, even god forbid strange matter. We know this and we work on protecting against it, yet we can still enjoy its beauty.
There is no fire calling us to death. Space is beautiful, but we have no urge to destroy our atmosphere to embrace the sky.
I think Neon Genesis Evangelion will be really interesting to you, so I figured I'd mention it in case you haven't seen it yet 🙂
It is the fae`s glamor.
it is not 'terrible', and there is absolutely nothing 'terrifying' at that. It doesn't keep you at bay from 'danger'
'self-will'? 'Masking'? Where is the 'trap'? It erequires backwards views
I like one analogy a friend said to me that didn't find Junji Ito (some he does) or H.P Lovecraft's work scary. Because it was too big (in the sense of scale), it is like numbers of people in a crowd, when seeing that number or hearing about it, it is hard to really vision how big that actually is, unless you see it yourself, and even then it is hard to really grasp how many it is, and you loose the personal part of it all, it becomes a statistic rather than Michael and Rachel for example.
But 20 people in his room is much easier to grasp and he can vision it, and it feels more personal.
That is why he enjoys more horror stories that have just a few characters and/or a much more close/claustrophobic feel.
Not sure if I managed to explain it properly. But that was what made me understand why he had "issues" with those certain stories. For me it is the other way around, feeling insignificant and small in comparison to the rest of the world, the powerlessness of doing anything to change it is what scares me.
So the big revelation was that people fear different things? Mind. Blown.
you know, horrors beyond your comprehension
@@timrosswood4259 Well yeah, it boils down to that, but I just thought the reasoning behind why he thought that way was interesting, at least to me.
I say Christianity is the biggest form of cosmic horror. In the old testament and new one. If you see the angels as elder gods or elder beings. You see through the idea of it
If you recall the picture of The Pale Blue Dot popularised by Carl Sagan, of a photo of our solar system as taken from a satellite leaving such, we, being Earth, is shown as a mere blue dot among the black of space. For some, this might cause horror that our lives are so insignificant to the expanses of the universe, but to others, the scale simply will not register with them.
I remember thinking about what God might look like as an 11-year-old. I thought of a giant, star-sized mirror bending light and reality around themself. I also thought of the dreamlike music of the Stone Tower Temple upside down. I’ve always been drawn to the unknown expanses, whether the deep ocean or space
I might be a bit insane but I've always felt bliss from those, especially the liminal spaces, like all this neverending halls, empty abandoned, or just something gigantic, but so beautiful I understand that it is a threat, but I have to appreciate the beauty of it
Honestly, Cosmic Horror isn't Scary anymore*
We been so over exposed to it , that it lost it's charm, the faceless has a face, the unpronounceable name now has a widely accepted way to pronounce it, we gave the unimaginable a form.
It's like giving Cthulhu a stat sheet and HP. Yu are doing it wrong.
If we've been exposed to thrse concepts to a point where we're basically able to comprehend the incomprehensible, then we've hit a breakthrough in human understanding of the universe and self where no other has in history. Maybe it shows just how much we as humans have mentally evolved.
@@KatSpicert It's not mental evolution, it's something else. A useful analogy would be the following: imagine one day an entity shows up and announced that it is a god, and to prove it, it points at someone and they drop dead with no sign of external injury.
1000 years ago: Okay, that's godlike.
Today: Huh. None? Chemical weapon, maybe? Some kind of bioweapon? Maybe a directed energy weapon of some sort? Ooo, maybe nanotech! Saw that in a James Bond film!
Entity: What.
For pretty much any miracle you can imagine, someone could likely point to an explanation, even one that is (currently) purely fictional, simply because of the culture we've grown up in. Just because it's a cultural touchstone for much of humanity, consider some of the miracles ascribed to Jesus and what people might say today. Raising Lazarus from the dead? Clone. Turning water into wine? Food dye and artificial flavouring. Feeding the multitudes? Food replicator. Walking on water? Aside from simple illusionist tricks, force field. Calming the storm? Accurate weather forecast. Healing the sick and dying? Advanced medications and nanotech medical treatment. Etc and so on.
As time gets on the threshold for something to be considered a "miracle" or "divine" gets higher, not just because of our technology and knowledge, but because of the greater breadth of products of the imagination we've been exposed to. Lovecraft imagined beings so powerful it would be incomprehensible to stand against them. Today our first reaction? Try sending them a package consisting of a few megatons of concentrated instant sunlight. Sure, they might still be so unimaginably powerful that it doesn't work, but the next step isn't gibbering horror, but wondering how fast we could produce antimatter in quantity.
@@KatSpicert As TV tropes says, humans are Cthulhu.
@@KatSpicert It's less that we mentally evolved and more that we filled in the blanks with manageable ideas. The incomprehensible monster is there, we just imagine it as a giant octopus-man. Humans are mentally the same as ever, rationalizing and ignoring uncomfortable truths. Heck, even the spreading idea, "I'm not a cosmic being so it doesn't matter if I'm cosmically insignificant," is some top tier coping mechanism to ignore what insignificance entails. Cosmic horror is no longer horror not because we adapted to cosmic horror itself but because we've replaced the label to entail cosmic monsters sometimes downright campy, not the absolute void (for us) it was meant to convey.
@@KatSpicertOur collective consciousness has simply taken the concept in, digested it and is now spitting out pulp fiction & tropes about the cosmic horror. Effectively neutralizing it.
Cosmic horror can be scary. But most of the time it awakens the very same flaw it portrays in the humans the stories depict.
Curiosity. We aren't nearly as scared as we are fascinated. We want to know more. At least that's how I see it.
The biggest reason it isn't as scary as it was in Lovecraft's time is because we have plenty of knowledge of the world. I still fear the idea of visiting a place like Insmouth, or getting caught up in an end of the world scenario without hopes of stopping it.
*COVID* was cosmic horror.
Invisible, unexpected, no guaranteed defense, people turning against each other.
Can't be reasoned with - not even truly alive.
And many people still wear masks outdoors - like a modern crucifix; a good luck charm for all the same reasons.
No one is ever to old to *learn* how to fear the unknown. It just takes the right unknown, and the right kind of pain.
Meh, some of the horror elements of his stories seem rather mundane, like Insmouth, for example.
it is not that much different than a regular countryside village, a particularly bigoted one ,but still, with the exception of the fish monsters, it's pretty grounded.
@@dDoodle788the government would probably do a coverup story and either have them ‘vanish’, or isolate their town and have them and their patrons promise not to start attacking people.
@@dDoodle788 Isn't that kinda the point? The settings are mostly mundane, and the true horror only begins when you discover there is much more beneath the surface.
Sure, not everyone maybe scared of it, but I understand what he was trying to convey.
@@dmin5782Did the Innsmouth residents even do anything particularly evil? I know the founder was an asshole, but the people of innsmouth weren't sacrificing babies or anything.
I think the issue is that Lovecraft's message was literally that he was terrified of being part Welsh, so the terror becomes hilarious.
I think Bloodborne did Innsmouth justice better than the actual book, because I actually felt visceral disgust and horror at what was shown and what could be read.
Being formerly suicidal and dealing with passive ideation even now, I find myself in the position to utter a sentence that is very rarely applicable: Lovercraft was the sensible one here.
I can think of nothing scarier than an alluring excuse to die.
Extremely acute, sir.
I don't know I wouldn't call it scary to dance with death, to taunt it and beg in the same breath hoping and knowing that the inevitable will come for all can be freeing. But I can see where one might feel that this is a sad and messed up way to look at things
@@Name.......... It's more that it ain't that cute when you've had to fight your own mind not to go there.
Death is inevitable. Praise death. 🙏💀
@@KnightofEkron When the time comes. I'm in no rush.
I think a great author of cosmic horror is Junji-Ito. He gets that, I believe, for most the horror part of cosmic horror is the loss of control. Horrific forces beyond your control and too large may destroy you, at their whim at any time they feel like. And there's nothing you can do about it.
The story about the person shaped holes (The Enigma of the Amigara Fault) is a perfect example. People jumping gleefully into the hole they feel was made for them, stopping at nothing, & even after considering the possible consequences. The only thing they can think of, or care about, is going into their hole.
That’s more in the cosmic bliss side
Like natural catastrophes.
Doesn't that mirror real life?
or worse destroying you without even realizing it, like an ant underfoot. or like germs on a hand being washed, it was intentional, but there was no malice, not destructive impulse, merely doing what is 'normal' and leaving you ruined.
I think one of the greatest cosmic horror on youtube is "velma meets other velma" or something along the lines. There feeling of hopelesness, the monster so beyond your reach, your understanding, beyond anything. And the fact "it" is not something that wants to harm you but just... controls every fiber of your being, existence. This was terrifying, uncanny and beautiful
I Think the same
As a aspiring Concept Artist who knows the importance of visual Story Telling and Philosophie of Design trough nuances and narrative parralels and looks for this spark in everything i do....
Im really glad i stumbled upon your channel your voice is soothing too i may even use your Videos to draw and just feel 🩶
So cosmic horror is a strange case for me. It's a genre that I find myself drawn to, I read any book or watch any movie or play any game remotely related to the concept. But I can't say that it particularly scares me, at least not in the Lovecraftian tradition. It does give me a sense of awe either, nor even ambivalence. I think I just find it narratively fascinating.
Part of that is due to Lovecraft's own biases, his fear of the unknown, and by extension, anyone who didn't fit what he deemed as acceptable, which often even included himself. I fundamentally don't share that fear. When confronted with the unknown, I seek to understand it, and failing that, content myself with knowing that I cannot.
What does fascinate me about cosmic horror, and scares me when done well, is how it relates to people and the systems we create. Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, they're just fathomless beings akin to gods that couldn't care less about us. But Nyarlathotep, that scares me. A being of such immense and unknowable power, much like his kin, but unlike them, it notices us. And it delights in our suffering. It goes out of its way to manipulate us, drive us to pain and cruelty, to control us through means eldritch and human in nature. What scares me, I suppose, is that idea that there are forces beyond us that want us to hurt, to be controlled all for some grand scheme or sheer sadism.
"We war not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities, against Powers, against Rulers of Dark Places."
Lewis was probably a Paranoid Scitzophrenic and he likely got his stories from the Principalities themselves. Whether intentionally or unintentionally. Probably intentionally. Our kind just can't help but touch what we ought not.
So then you're full circle back to the demonic/pure evil trope.
I know this person, who used to suffer from constant anxiety and depression, and then they experienced a moment of sublime. THey regonized that they indeed are just dust in the universe, but for them, personally... I actually took away their anxiety and started their healing process from the depression. For them, their anxieties came pretty much everything feeling like the Hugest Thing(tm), and regocnizing that their mistakes and wins didn't really effect the whole world in staggeringly strong way was great relief, and gave them some freedom from their own head.
So, I think insignifigance is only as scary or blissful as the angle you look at it. It kinda only matters if you want to be larger than life, or are just content to exists and experience life as it is. And of course, the mood you are in affects it too.
Great video. Love your work
Thank you EXACTLY how I feel. I stood at the foot of an impossible mountain to even see the top. I felt small, so small but also free and not confined.I stared at the mountain for a long time I think I started even talking to it. :-). The mountain was some to inspire awe. However being chased by fish people in the dark is scary. If i was cut off from everything and just floating in the dark with nothing to feel sounds more heart wrenching than scary.
One of the best example of this, came as a short skit in Rick and Morty, where Rick builds a perfect flat piece of floor, for Morty to experience. It's just a flat surface, but it is perfect, and Mortys mind is not made to cope with perfection, even in such a small amount as a flat surface. It truly breakes him, and all the rest of the world now feels hollow, empty and wrong when compared to the perfection he once felt. It wasn't scary, painfull or dangerous in any way. Just a small inanimate area of floor, but it drowe him insane, and changed all his perspectives and priorities. Life became before and after the experience. Truly cosmic bliss
Bliss?
Rick and Morty S3 E8 - "Morty's Mind Blowers"@@BeautifulEarthJa
That sounds like how I've heard people describe meth
@@rakkatytamI'm about to hit 3 days awake on it, I love the Shadow ppl.
@@danielclapham4236 Damn, your house must be clean
as many here already said - the descriptions of cosmic bliss used in this video are more horrifying than the horror ones.
we guess it's because in all of bliss ones the person loses their free will, they are unnaturally compelled.
the cosmic bliss - for us it would be more of the realisation and experience of being part of something so unimaginably great. on every scale world so different and chaotic that we may never comprehend it but so deeply beautiful and fascinating. and it's all around us. and we don't need to step into it because we are already part of it.
This video hands down explained why horror and especially cosmic horror has always been my escape from chronic depression and bad thoughts. It gives me peace like nothing else. And now I kinda get why. Thank you so much for this video ❤
I really think that one's past life experience makes or breaks cosmic horror stuff: as an autist, I grew up feeling life already was incomprehensible. I acutely knew of Dementia, Alzheimer's, rabies, prion diseases, radiation sickness, and other ways brains can horribly malfunction. I read and heard about how terrifying the world could be before starting school, stuff like the holocaust, racist and sexist murders, tortures, and so on - reading (hyperlexia) about history was not reassuring and showed how utterly mad and random life can be. That plus being emotionally abused by my parents to feel like absolutely everything was my fault, stuff like reading about the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy's torture box where you got to experience truly how utterly insignificant in relation to the universe sounded incredibly reassuring rather than terrifying. I already knew life wasn't fair, to be shown I don't matter at all would have been a huge weight off my shoulders and would have let me be more "selfish" (have more healthy boundaries).
I can relate to this. I find most attempts at cosmic horror either banal or outright ridiculous. When people try to explain why its "horrifying" I normally feel like they have somehow walked though life without seeing all the wonders and terrors that surround them every day. I am a small and insignificant speck of the universe, Life is not fair, I have little or no significant control over most of my life, and I really don't understand why any of these things should bother me. 🤷♀Just dealing with the few things I can influence takes all the time I have.
The funny thing is that there are many things in real life that would qualify as cosmic horror in the correct mood and abstraction. People drawn to always choose money even to their own deaths. The making wordless of those who have the right to speak. Crumbling infrastructure only repaired every once in a while, when people feel like it. Extreme fannish behavior. Doxxing. Working in a place where people subtly hate you. Loud noises from nowhere. A train that crashes in a town, turning it into a wasteland that is barely regarded and helped. These are all great background for cosmic horror stories. We do not have to imagine The Great Old Ones to make good cosmic horror stories. Heck, even the famous The Shadows Over Innsmouth had racism as the basis of cosmic horror, even if the point was that the horror was based in racism.
Yeah as someone who on the autism spectrum and is quite religious/spiritual, cosmic horror very rarely scary me. I'm more scared of the "mundane and down to earth horrors" like killers, wars, diseases, and dystopias, etc. As in more scared getting shot/stabbed then some eldritch thing that passes through earth.
There are some elements of the cosmic horror genre that basically boil down to: privileged (usually white) person realizes they're not the center of the universe and proceeds to have a Freak Out.
It's a great day when Tale Foundry uploads, keep it up, TaleBot :D
YOOO I GOT A HEART FROM ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHANNELS LESGO
@@zk2741great job my friend :D
I don't know how many other people can relate, but personally I'm drawn to the works of Lovecraft because of my experience in an abusive religious household (Jehovah's Witnesses). Every day I was in deep thought about cosmic horrors of inevitable devine genocide, and my own salvation would be uncertain. I'm fully awake and out of that cult now, but that fear still resonates with me. It intrigues me seeing the same fear replicated in fiction, with the knowledge of it being fiction giving me comfort and healing my own trauma. I wonder if there are others who share this experience
I do. I've never been able to put it this well though. Thank you
@@glimmerofhope3074
I am from a very caring, loving household without any religious beliefs and i am still drawn to it, so maybe different reasons, same result 😊
But what i wanted to ask is, did you like the movie hereditary? Great movie on that topic.❤
I think a lot of religions have a similar feeling of something greater than you that is overwhelming to the mind, but in my case I realized how incredibly human and petty the Christian god is. For me, at least a major cause of leaving religion was the realization of how childish a lot of it was. I came from Catholicism and after reading through genesis and much of exodus, I realized that god was imagined not as some actually greater cosmic being, but as a petty, micromanaging murderous deluded tyrant. Someone who, despite creating the universe, just had to have the arc of the covenant covered in gold inside and out. That sounds incredibly human, the idea that an important thing has to be covered in shiny tat, cause it looks good. If god's that shallow then he doesn't deserve worship.
Cosmic bliss is such a beautiful concept. I read many are afraid of it but I resonate with it. The feeling of loosing yourself might be a bit sad, scary even but I feel like getting to go out in bliss is what I would love. Shed all earthly chains and know youll be happy, even if you meet your end shortly after. The most exciting concept to me was always total eraseur, noone knows you existed, noone tears and no sadness as you get consumed into the vast nothingness of nonexistance with a smile on your face.
Im not suicidal, too many people I love and roo many that love me to even consider this life wasted, but as someone who struggles daily. Cosmic Bliss, is a beautiful.
❤
Ex Oblivion
I think it's worth noting that for HP Lovecraft and contemporary readers, they were living through a time when science and our understanding of the universe were being turned upside-down,. For them, quantum physics and relativity were new and exciting discoveries, and humanity's perceived position in the cosmos had shifted. There's a reason that non-Euclidean geometry appears as a recurring theme in Lovecraft. Modern readers have grown up with relativity and quantum mechanics as part of established science though, so their mysteries don't create the same sense of dread.
I always understood the horror of cosmic horror comes from a direct attack to every narcissistic ideal you may posses. You have no narcissistic ideals, the perspective of an indifferent incognoscible power capable of obliterating you at any second’s notice, it’s neither frightening nor liberating. It’s just another Monday.
If you have self esteem issues it can even be fairly positive; there's something so vast and uncaring out there that it doesn't even notice your flaws.
Yeah, there are forces which we can't control and influence our lives. I's disease, politicians, corporations, economies, random sh!t that can happen at any time.
It's called living in the real world. That's universal horror, and it's scarier than any book , because it's f*cking real.
In the face of crushing capitalism. Cosmic Horror becomes bliss.
I mean, hell, as a disabled trans person, that's already kinda my life 🙃
You might be onto something here, as narcissism does have much to do with the sense of grandness or insignificance. But given the very well documented tendency in humans to create our own little worlds, place them at the centre of everything, make ourselves out to be the heart and epicentre of all conscious life, and have fits of rabid anger when any of those elements are stripped away, I would argue that most people who have indifferent reactions to cosmic horror are simply in denial. It'd better be a Tuesday at the office, because they wouldn't dare to glimpse the vastness of time and space... Then again, there might be people our there who have made their journey THERE and have come back. But they have something more interesting to say than "PFFF! THAT'S NOT SCARY."
I can't speak for others, but I always thought cosmic horror was scary. It's just something that goes so beyond my comprehention and makes me feel even smaller in the great scale of things, that it makes me feel overwhelmed, which contribute for my fear
That's what religion for and Christianity is the biggest form of example of cosmic horror. A god that can do anything he wants. manipulate the fates of others, manipulate the minds and emotions of his creation, your life and death is in his hands. Your soul will be sent to heaven or hell by his judgment. God have undefined power and can be anywhere anytime anyplace. It knows all be all is all
I don't feel that being cosmically small is bad. If nothing ultimately matters, then... everything matters. We can make our own meaning. We can make our own rules. It is the philosophy of the rebel, of those who fight for peace and justice, because they see that while they may only be grains of sand, so are the people who hold them down. They fight for a life that they chose, or a planet, for the small things that are beautiful.
And as for the gaping, infinite maw of deep space that cannot care for mankind, if it notices us at all?
It's full of glittering stars.
@@majesticgothitelle1802 yet said God is known to enjoy watching the world and it's people allowing free will and using it's power to limit itself from seeing ahead to not alter anything without permission or action from it's servants it is seen as a purely benevolent force of pure good making such an eldritch God the least horrific entity to exist a fascinated fascination as it were as both crave to see more of the other and wish to let things play out naturally even when the option is presented to alter or see more
@@majesticgothitelle1802 More like the power of baloney... especially if you read any of the pseudo-religious blasphemy written or listen to the blasphemers preaching the crap by the buckets... Pick a preacher, pour some cash in his liquor fund, and magically you're blessed into heaven every time... BUT until there's real liquor or hooker money added, you're just another lost soul on its way to Hell... without exception.
Supposedly knows all??? BS... Otherwise, He planned mankind's entire damnation from the get-go... He DID make Lucifer first... engineered every aspect... HE is responsible, so not a caring God at all...
Just more baloney. It's a pretty weak and unconvincing read over all... I'd give it 2 stars in the "might scare middle-schoolers" category... BUT past that age, especially in the 21st century, it's just not remotely "buy-able"... and let's not forget the preaching side, HE is the know-it-all and be-it-all, but HE is also terrible with money, or there'd be no end of HIS capacity to help those who authentically believe... which of course, ONLY HE can actually know for sure, being the know-it-all already.
Baloney... ALL HAIL the power of Baloney... and I do NOT mean the over-processed luncheon meat product. ;o)
I’ve only sometimes found cosmic horror scary when I stopped to think about it. Something powerful and incomprehensible that could end you in an instant sounds terrifying. I’ve had a couple small fearful ideas of “what if something BIG appeared there?”
But then I realized that I don’t care. If I’m gonna die on the spot or in a set time, at least I know it’s gonna happen then and there. If the world’s going to end and there’s nothing I can do about it, then all I CAN do is continue living as I have before.
The reason I don't find cosmic horror scary is because I'm not intimidated by the unknown. the sublime isn't horrible or unknowable - only beyond our reach for the moment. The existential themes and ineffable beings in cosmic horror don't worry me because they fail to make me question my worldview. They don't cause me to fear what I don't understand - there's just nothing to understand.
Honestly I feel like The Cosmic is only horror to those who are materialistic and self-absorbed.
Meanwhile those who are religious and accept that there are grand immeasurable things beyond their understanding find The Cosmic to be bliss
I think the dead space necromorph, doom guy demons, League of Legends the void, silent Hill, the stranger things demi Gordon are better cosmic horror.
@@dnm3732 I dont think one has to be religious tbh (im certainly not) but I do think it requires a certain amount of outer reflection
The only people who struggle the hardest with this in my experience are the people who do not ever consider that strangers have as varied and interesting lives as they do, or at minimum never reflect on how others could potentially view them and their actions on a wider scale
The self absorbed, in short, although not a complete determining factor, it's a big one
Consider it as not necessarily being fear of what you dont understand but rather fear of what you could never even begin to understand - as an ant would see us, we see 'something.' And I suppose the horror then is that they see us aswell, perhaps then as we see ants
@@jakebesselink9356 even if you can understand it, research it and communicate with it. We can still fear it by knowing what it can do, what effects it has on us and the world we live in and how it functions.
That's why I listed those franchise creatures. All of them can be understood, researched, can be feared and killed. What we fear about them is what they can do, the effects they have on us, the other worldly behavior, the harm they can cost to every person and everything around us. Knowing you can be the next victim or be infected by them.
The necromorph wants to infect all living organisms and emerge them into one being to become a brethren moon. The void want to silence and consume all life from other words. Demigorpion are being came from the apocalypse lifeless version of their own world with strange and odd biology and can affect people who are stuck in living there.
It's interesting I don't find cosmic horror scary usually. Cosmic bliss I often do tho. There's something about the dichotomy of the unknown and potentially dangers mixed with good feelings. Something scary or clearly bad is simple, even if you don't understand it. Simply reject it. However when that thing calls to you, generates awe and bliss it invites me to engage with it in a more meaningful way. There's a fear of losing control that almost reminds me of body horror.
I love jini ito for this. He kinda touches all 3. Stories like Tomi and The Enigma of Amigara Fault. There's this unknowable thing, it's dangers yet it's awe inspiring. How that awe inspiringness, the experience of the sublime effects the characters and me. That scares me
Amusing concept. I actually started a Pathfinder game, myself and had a backdrop of this cosmic being trying to slowly transform the world. This was not meant to be the focus of the story, they were meant to use the rumors to follow into a land-war between various regional city-states. However, seeing the devotees to this Old God, how they were blissful in their love for it and the promises they say it gives it, it became a focus... So much a focus that, despite the characters being Pious to their own Gods (who in this setting are real and actually interact with their follows), they decided to seek out these cultists and... help them. One even being slowly corrupted by the offer of assistance and the promise of love when he communed with his God about how to help a series of undead, of all things.
They have seen sights of the fate of the followers - they lose themselves, the living ones have difficulty with speech, slurring, losing the ability to connect coherent thoughts as this Old God give them knowledge so expansive it makes it difficult for the followers to keep their thoughts from spilling out or being overloaded. They see the ones who die in worship of this God takes them into itself, they become an amalgamation of emotions, knowledge, experiences and bodies. They are no longer individuals, they are together, feeling and knowing and sensing everything at once... And yet... They are helping it.
I expected them to be disgusted by the physical transformations, writhing tentacles, losing their forms to become a melted mass of slime. They have increasing trouble to speak, to think, but they worship the being in hope and a promise of love and connection with it and the followers. I figured many would see this as traditional cult behavior, the love-bombing, the promises, the ostracization of society and the 'Proper' Religions making them outcasts. Though one player dropped out, the one who was more intense in following and helping the cult, the others continue on. They are even at the point when they make a connection that will irreversibly connect a part of the world they're on to be melded with this other-worldly entity's own, yet they continue.
They even went against one of the Churches lead by a scholar. But, at the same time, they are morally good characters and it does seem the negative treatment of those desperate cultists, through their own lives - many of the ones who joined the cult did so because of them already being on the lower rung of society or treated unfairly - and especially through the Polythestic Churches that try to quash the belief of there being earlier, older Gods than the ones they follow. It could be they see the treatment of the cultists as unfair, the words of the God that they hear spoken through its acolytes and even the God speaking briefly to them and its desires making it sound they want the best for those who worship it. Especially when one of the Gods they communed with was harsh, blunt and focused on purity to be accepted for reincarnation.
This is probably one of my favorite videos of yours. I rarely comment on videos, but I just wanted to give my 2 cents on Cosmic Horror and explain why Lovecraft is my favorite author, even as someone who normally don’t like horror or spooky stuff.
My biggest fear in life is being forgotten. The fact that when I die and some times has passed, there will be nothing in this world to indicate that I’ve ever been here. No one will remember my name, remember what I’ve done, remember my accomplishments, remember my struggles or anything else. It is something I think about nearly every day and something that has affected my life drastically. It’s one of the reasons why I first started playing music, in hopes of maybe getting remembered that way, but unless you’re someone like Mozart or The Beatles that’s pretty much impossible, since eventually people will forget about the music. That’s why I’m pursuing a career in academia, with the hope of doing some research and finding out something about our existence to expand our knowledge of the universe and us. Even when I’m long gone and my name might have been lost to time, at least I would have had a some kind of impact, no matter how unbelievably tiny. That’s why I think cosmic horror is so scary. It challenges my biggest fear in life, reminding me of my insignificance in the universe. But in some way, also reassures me that this is okay, in some weird way. That none of us are significant. None of us are special and we will all eventually be lost to time. And yet, I do everything I can to avoid this fate. Because to me, if I don’t try to make some kind of impact, then there isn’t really any reason for me to continue living. If I died right now my friends would forget about me after some time, after they’re dead my name will probably never be spoken again. As if I’m a grain of salt dissolving in the salty ocean. As a grain of salt I still am there, no matter how tiny in comparison to the ocean, but when dissolved I’m just completely gone.
"Because to me, if I don't try to make some kind of impact, then there isn't really any reason for me to continue living." Thing is, even if you don't make any impact, at what point would really be right to decide to not continue living? So long as you're alive, there might be a chance to at least find a new way to find that value. There's no more possibility to find that chance if you're dead. Also, feel like you can solve both the "how to make an impact" and "expand knowledge of universe and us" by helping with R&D of life-extension/immortality technology.
For what it's worth, you factually can never be truly forgotten. The collection of atoms that makes up you interacts with other atoms, taking part in an inconceivably massive pool table butterfly cascade. At the end of the universe, when all has settled into content heat, the sleeping arrangement will be influenced by your life today. If there were some species outside the constraints of the cosmos, capable of gathering complete information about the universe at that moment, they could then forensically infer your existence. Whatever you accomplish, you have already left an indelible mark on the cosmos, by living. ❤
I can’t help but recall the anime series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In it, Haruhi experiences a disappointing version of the sublime when she goes to a baseball game. She thought about how populated the stadium was and how small it was compared to the population of the rest of the world. She felt small, but it wasn’t humbling to her, it was humbling to humanity as a whole. Such vastness, yet no one felt special. One can’t stand out to her unless you’re an alien, an esper, or a time traveler. She spends the whole series looking for the truly sublime
Kind of an ironic goal for her, considering... well, you know. She's sort of sublime herself, in her own way.
@@blarg2429 Sort of is an understatement
Honestly, I find the summary of the singing flame story scarier than the summary of the nameless city story. The radiant void leaves the explorer terrified and questioning their own sanity, but there's no explicit warping of their mind beyond natural reaction. The singing flame is scarier to me because it raises the question "how much of the explorer is truly left after their encounter with it (prior to actually jumping into it of course)". Is the explorer in the story of the singing flame even truly themself once they've been entranced? Or has the singing flame tampered with their brain directly (certainly seems so to me). That forceful loss of self, that undermining of free will, is far scarier to me than "character encounters something indescribably terrifying and is now understandably terrified". The latter is too logical a reaction to something meant to defy logic. But something that can twist your mind and emotions to make you illogically want something you don't understand (particularly when you KNOW you don't understand it), especially when it's clearly a threat to you, feels like a far more effective attack on the sense of self than something that just leaves you terrified and grappling with the fact you didn't understand reality anywhere near as well as you thought you did. Because even if you have to conclude you didn't understand reality at all, how much can that truly effect how you live your life? Will your lack of understanding of reality really effect your life at all just cause you're made aware of it? Whatever the case, you still have a choice in how you deal with what you've confronted. There's potential for recovery from terror and confronting the fact you don't understand something, but there's no hope for recovery from a force that infects your mind and steals your ability to choose from you. How can you recover when the thing you'd be recovering from forcibly compels you surrender to it? Cosmic horror often has scary imagery, but cosmic "bliss" sounds to me like a far more insidious cosmic horror, because it's far more effective at destroying you, and it does so not through threat to your life or your sanity, but through a threat to your will. Cosmic horror makes you fear and/or run from the threat. Cosmic "bliss" give you no choice but to mindlessly amble towards the threat, because once you confront it, you're it's puppet.
I vibe with this one alot. Ideas of corruption into obsession or characters religiously devoted to something that destroys them just has a unique quality to me. Make it a slow burn, add some manipulation, let the characters think its their choice... *chefs kiss*
One of my favourite modern examples is ASPs "Verfallen" Albums (MC falls in love with a hotel and the ghost who's living body it is painted as. Then the hotel starts eating it's guests.)
To be fair i am Muslim and aspiring creative writter. I upheld my religion seriously take my creative passion seriously. As aspiring writer i know really well the line between fiction and reality so when i want to write a story that have no correlation with any existing religion i just do it however i wouldn't necessarily promote the ideas that against my belief unless i have another intention instead. Like exploring and deconstructing concept of sin itself. Currently i as fascinated with idea of Cosmic Horror and decide to make some story with it but i also understand pretty much nothing about such concept itself at least that's what i thought before watching this. Turn out it just Islam that explained in the most ridiculous way and somehow it works. The strangest connection i found in fiction to God Himself. islam literally mean "Submission to Almighty God," a religion where you surrender your whole existence completely to Him alone as worthy to worship as God. The most important philosophy i learnt from Islam basically everything in this vast universe whether is bad or good are created by Him thus making He own everything and us literally own nothing at all. The things your "own" is something given by Him for a moment. Borrowed things basically so when He *took* it back you can't really do anything about it since it never yours from beginning. To non-muslim you probably thought we are crazy cultists or something. With infested materialism and narcissistic sense of self there no way you can *humble* yourself to even comprehend but for us despite knowing nothing truly yours and nothing is ever in your control in this life having a faith bring us comfort. God might be terrifying, omnipotent, an existence outside universe itself beyond human comprehension but He also very loving and most merciful in the way we couldn't never understand except just believe in Him. Sure God would purposely test in a way your heart would crumble over sheer hardship of it but no matter what He give you realize it ultimately for your own good in the way you never truly understand but could only feel. That's Allah Almighty. That's how Islam described God. Are truly Transcendental Existence Beyond humanity. Well something like cosmic horror but actually not at all.
Not matter how pious you might be you can't never hope to truly understand Him by having a faith in Him release us from the shackle of world. The fear of losing something or someone precious, the anxiety over past and future, the fear of death. Every fears and anxieties just gone cuz everything in His hand just let Him does anything. As long we truly believe and worship Him, He would NEVER ever abounded us. That's Islam "Submission To God Himself,". So yeah i completely understand the story used as example and the liberating euphoria they feel upon encountering it 10:37, 13:22 . You basically describing a truly practicing muslim except we are not insane. Trying to learn about cosmic horror i rediscovered Him what a day for sure.
12:47 I find it curious that I felt more disturbed by the city of singing flame than by the nameless city. It felt more eerie, made me question a lot more things about the nature of that place, and just gave off a sensation that there was something inherently wrong hiding under the blankets of such a beautiful landscape, and that sucide-inducing flame. Meanwhile, the nameless city was Just... That. A strange city not made for humans, where all its wrongness didn't even feel that wrong, just slightly weird.
Most of lovecraft's "horror" hinges on the ideas of humanity being unimportant and small, or becoming tainted by something foreign, and had a strong focus on how repugnant both concepts were to him.
In today's society, where it is well known that the universe and time are beyond vast, and that diversity in thought and appearance need not be rejected, much of his writing loses its edge.
In contrast, the city of the singing flame appeals to fears that are reinforced by today's culture and knowledge. Being robbed of control, and of your individual identity. Both are prominent fears in today's society, and this story strikes at those feelings.
@@haroldsaxon1075 Agreed, H.P. Lovecraft concepts affect people that feel they belong to a bigger thing more than people that already accepts that there are far bigger things than themselves. If you feel like H.P. Lovecraft writing is not scary, most likely your not religious too.
@walter1383 knowing a great deal and being able to write stories that incorperates religion or is mainly based in religion and not religious aren't opposites
I'd argue that people today can't feel cosmic horror the way people used to.
To me, the fear of the Radiant Void is knowing that you're already somewhere you don't belong, and suddenly you're feeling pressured to stay forever. People back then would feel that alien sense of unbelonging keenly, because they came from a world of relatively stable expectations.
But we of the modern day are accustomed to dealing with culture shocks and resisting various pressures, and our modern self concept is far from what our forebearers would call a natural state of being. Our food, housing, clothing, technology, sexuality, cities, and driving from city to city daily... To our ancestors who lived relatively close with nature, surely they'd feel the horror of incompatibility if it was us beaconing them through the portal...
At most many people form cosmic horror from scientists who don't fully understand quantum, wormholes, black holes, white holes, dark matter, and dark energy.
Also more discovers of space and even the ocean. We discover we already living in a cosmic horror give the weird stuff that happens in space. I mean if you think about
munch about religion and some philosophy is being at peace with it and even being enjoy the sublime of it.
@@starmaker75 that how I feel that Lovecraft eldritch god and Eldritch beings are more like something you can find in religion. Like some form of cosmic religion or cosmic pantheon
I see something like doom slayer demons, stranger things Demigorgan, League of Legends void, Dead space necromorph, hellraiser Cenobite and so on more fitting of that title.
SCP as comics cryptid and cosmic conspiracies.
Next someone is going to come up with the idea of cosmic fantasy
Maybe the real cosmic horror was the friends we made along the way.
Cthulhu chan Shoggoth kun
It could for real. Imagine knowing your friends are trapped and are going to die. I would be depressed if my mom were to be eaten alive by cthullu while I can't do anything to change it.
*Fiends* we made along the way.
Sorry, I had to.
@@AlabasterHarleqinneThat's it, I'm waking Azathoth-senpai.
@@piketheknight2581that’s less a cosmic horror and more a fear of helplessness, it could be anything dangerous that threatens someone you care about, but not specifically a cosmic horror
I'm going through and watching/listening to these videos while I'm working. And it is making me want to work on a story I've sat on for years. But also to experiment with new things and just see how they go. I greatly appreciate these videos.
I had one of these moments when I was looking into how Time Dilation works. It's horrifying, yet seeing how everything WORKS, knowing the shadows of reality and seeing this titanic filigree we are an immeasurably small part of... It gave me a sort of surreality.
I feel like Cosmic horror isn't scary and more so interesting. The story of the Singing Flame honestly made me feel more uncomfortable than any concept I've read from Lovecraft. This could be from my personal experience and perspective on things. The weight of expectations and hope for myself and humanity may lead to inevitable disappointment. The idea of humans being so small and insignificant offers a relief from these expectations. There is a comfort in knowing that my decisions and feelings are small, and knowing there is a is a higher being that I have no control over puts things in perspective (like the cosmic / bliss indifference you mentioned). It kind of seems similar to a religion, where faith in the higher being can give people the inner strength to tackle obstacles in their life, or fulling engross themselves in the culture. Back to cosmic horror, the mix of interesting lore and indescribable creatures leaves so much room for exploration, creativity, and mystery.
I will always view Beyond the Aquila Rift as one of the best examples of cosmic horror. The twist, although terrifying visually, is tragic in the sense that the protagonist doesn't understand what he's looking at and perceives it to be harmful, even though it is truly benevolent. Our understanding of what we see changes how we see it.
Weirldly I think I actually found this version /more/ frightening xD
I think its that in Cosmic Horror, if I'm afriad of the thing then well, yeah it makes sense to be afraid and fight back against oblivion,even if its useless.
But to be in someway made to /want/ oblivion, to see the dissolution of my Self as desirable, to have my individuality not undone by mere death but be made to Want it...thats actually terrifying to me
This really put cosmic horror in a context I think I understand. Having read so much Judeo-Christian philosophy and theology, the idea of an existential loss of control and significance seemed kind of passe to me, and I figured out what I've been missing. That flame story and the song lines up almost perfectly with my actual world-view, except that the leaping into the flame, giving up control, isn't destruction but a completion of purpose having surrendered that devotion of self to something, as you said, sublime. In some ways it reminds me of the allegory of the cave, where anyone not hearing the flame's song, or else fighting it, could be seen as the people still in the darkness.
Still it explains the disconnect I've had with the genre; when the cosmic isn't something to be terrified of, but delighted in, stories about its horror and dangers kind of bounce off the psyche.
For me Lovecraftian stories aren't scary (except for the most cruel ones), they are fascinating like a dark fairy tail. The concept of alien creatures who are so different that we barely can understand (if at all) is very fascinating. The stupid, dull and merciless horrors of everyday life without any mystery are way scarier. For example the Elder Ones in the Mountains of Madness aren't scary at all. Awake in unfamiliar world from their long anabyosis attacked by dogs and see their fellows vivisected, they reacted exactly like humans would react in that kind of situation
The aliens from The Arribal are more scary than the old ones 🔥🔥🔥🐉🐉🐉
Cosmic Horror has always fascinated me because it's beautiful? Mesmerizing? I don't really know what word ro use and i want to share it to my friends but i can't really tell them because i know they'll not understand but oh well, great video btw!
Its not necessarily scary to me, but more beautiful in a grotesque way
These cosmic bliss stories you gave as examples. Terrifying. Far scarier than cosmic horror tales I´ve read/heard.
Lovecraft was terrified of many things a modern sci-fi audience views with joy. As a result, much of his writing falls flat for modern readers.
For example: Lovecraft was convinced that meeting an alien would shatter a human's mind, but we now have an entire sub-genre of "first contact" novels that view the event with excitement.
Lovecraft was terrified of almost everything. When he shared his terror over things we could agree with, he was one of the best at it. When he tries to make us scared of things we already like, it falls flat.
Didn’t expect to see Zero from Kirby in this video 0:01. (And yes, there’s a Kirby character that is literally based on a demonic, biblically accurate eye.)
WHAT
(no but seriously, Kirby??? Cool)
@@RowanWisteria777You didn’t play Kirby and the Crystal Shards, and reached the final boss which literally shoots blood from its… entire body due to it being 100% eye!?
wtf is a “biblically accurate eye”? eyes are a part of the human body brother. We dont need the bible to know what they look like
Weirdly cosmic horror falls into the bliss category for me. I want there to be something more than the mundane. The thought of it brings me a sense of almost ecstasy.
Cosmic horror affects me less in the sense of being insignificant in the face of entities to whom we are less than a speck of dust, and more in the sense of their absolute incomprehensibility. I feel in myself a powerful urge to know, to catalogue, to categorize, and the knowledge that there exist things that do not, will not, and cannot be known, do not fit into categories, and laugh at any attempts at comprehension, generates a sort of deep despair. It doesn’t make me feel insignificant because I’m small, it makes me feel insignificant because my reason, the faculty we pride ourselves on as humans, is revealed as useless, our quest for knowledge nothing more than a cosmic joke.
I guess then, cosmic bliss is the invitation to laugh with the universe at its own joke. Actually, that might be absurdism.
Dude, I feel this!
@@lucasmilone5902 Okay, it's a combo of the aforementioned physical powerlessness AND rendering the search of knowledge pointless for me.
if it laughs at your attempt to understand, you have in a way affected and thus gained significance in it's presence, you've affected it
I feel like the "scariness" of cosmic horror is more due to how it's just further from our reach. We don't know what it is, so we're afraid. Fear of the unknown.
Though imo, the scariest horror tend to be more "personal" fears and threats than something as grand and cosmic as Cthulhu or Azathoth
i had this video on my watch later forever to watch as i draw. I literally almost fall off my chair when u mentioned annihilation bc i was thinking of it so much i flailed my hands on the air and did a silent little wail bc its 2 am. I love this video i love annihilation im so autism ab this rn
i think it's impossible to talk about cosmic horror without mentioning Annihilation atp. the movie is probably the only one that ticks all the boxes in the genre.
I guess the best example of "Cosmic Bliss" I can think of off the top of my head is "Mother Void, the Maker" from the Eldertubbies series. She is an unfathomable cosmic being and yet she isn't malicious or even indifferent. She views all things as her children and seeks to protect them, broadcasting a "signal" to comfort those in sorrow.
When she arrived, she pulled all dispair and evil into her event horizon, freeing the world from negativity.
A nice addon someone said about her is when a man asked her to teach him her word, she said:" My word is... that you are loved."
Truly sublime.
My response to the white void is just "Where's the shotgun! there's evil to vanquish!"
I like cosmic horror as an impossible foe to stand against
one thing I've noticed about old horror movies is that the object of fear tends to be symbolism that represents an aspect of the "human condition". This is what makes concepts like them sit with you, because they can become the personification of your own personal fear of something, like change, loss, or situations you cannot control. While I think that the latter is what cosmic horror is meant to represent, I don't think many modern-day movies capture that sentiment without indulging too much in SFX and a grandiose message that would be better left ambiguous/unsaid. Movies like "The Thing", and even "Predator" come to mind with this, and even Chucky -- the idea that something can exist and haunt you, but nobody believes you until it's too late is terrifying on its own. The representation of this as a child and a scary murderous doll really captures the essence of that feeling, but the remakes feel hollow because it doesn't translate this to something relatable in the modern age.
An observation I find thought-provoking is that while listening to your description of the singing flame, the emotion I felt was something like a deep yearning. I’m not an emotional person in reality so having a noticeable internal reaction stood out to me, and I wondered for a moment: Was this what the character felt when he left the city? He went home, but deep down he longed to ‘go home’ to the flame…
From an outside perspective I imagine it could be taken as oddly disturbing that this was my genuine reaction. The idea that the flame in the story is so alluring that even the reader (myself) on the other side of the fourth wall, grounded in the real world, could feel the same draw to it - I picture that’s the impression one can get from my anecdote.
As for me I find the idea of the flame comforting, even heartwarming. The idea that a vast and incomprehensible force in the universe would be so compassionate to mortal things like ourselves as to welcome us into its embrace so kindly. It offers to lift the burdens from our shoulders and guide us home. In a way, it feels like the unconditional love of a cosmic parental figure.
It also makes me think about how incredibly easy it would be to turn me into a cultist or even cult leader character if I lived in one of these cosmic horror stories. Hahaha
No but I felt the exact same way! It sounds rather lovely, in its way
There is an idea this video was so teetering on the cusp of. Cosmic bliss does not need to revolve around annihilation--at least, not eternal annihilation.
Although not mentioned with the same popularity, Lovecraft also wrote a few stories about a fantastic world of dreams, similar in its scale of wonder to the vast terrors of the cosmos. The visceral reaction to looking over a ledge and seeing an endless pit of hellish nothing can also be experienced when cresting a peak and looking out to see an endless landscape of possibilities. When I read The Nameless City, I couldn't help but wonder what lay beyond the light. What if it was a heavenly existence, and all the alien beings were potential friends? I felt similarly when I read The Shadow Over Innsmouth; I remember thinking, "how amazingly lucky, a whole new life to explore!" Of course, with both of these examples, the protagonist would need to embrace a new existence, and eschew the old entirely; this could be viewed, in a way, as "death." But, instead of viewing things as endings and beginnings, there's an opportunity to view them as growth and change.
Gotta be honest, the whole "humanity is insignificant in the universe" thing just feels like a challenge to me rather than a "crushing horror" or whatever.
Not even only on a universal scale, i always find it aggravating when humans in stories are depicted as inferior to other beings like demons or angels or whatever. Then i always try to come up with ways for humans to surpass them. Maybe that's why i love the concept of magic. When faced with something superior, i want to overcome it and leave it behind me. It won't happen in real life, but in my head, always.
@@Ultimabuster92 Yeah, I always kind of like stories where humans go into the wider galaxy and aren't looked down upon. I especially find it amusing when we're actually pretty top tier. There's a creepy past that made me laugh where we basically wind up trolling the entire galaxy because of a communications error and we just kinda went with it.
Many people prefer the Hell part in the Divina Comedia, however my favorite part is the heaven because all of it is filled with cosmic bliss, and this is much more scary
"Fear is a luxury for those who still have a sliver of hope." I can't exactly remember where I heard that quote, but I think it applies here.
(TW SUICIDE!!)
I feel like this "Cosmic Bliss" Works perfectly as a metaphor for being suicidal.
As someone who still gets suicidal thoughts even after trying so hard to recover, the allure of stopping to exist and ending this crisis I never asked to be part of is still in the back of my mind.
Today I learned about a new way of writing cosmic horror that actually resonates with me which makes it even more frightening.
The Sublime, is also known as the "Mysterium Tremendum"
That description is literally, what I feel about suicide. I've never understood in the time I could remember why people hate, actively and passionately avoid the death. Suddenly I can understand them after seeing this comment. The death is meant to be cosmic horror, not cosmic bliss.
Edit: Now I went from cosmic bliss to cosmic indifference, so that is good. And one more thing I can tell you is when the death feels like cosmic bliss, the opposite, life, becomes the cosmic horror. It could be other way around in reality, but hopefully that makes sense.
@@desolatedsoulsYeah, life is much more cosmic horror than death is.
@@vextronx Death is the opposite of existence. It itself isn't the fear, ending is. IE never being able to either cry, laugh, suffer, feel happy, feel hope, feel at all is the part people don't like.
A lot of major religions are centered around the idea of using cosmic bliss to quell that fear. Nirvana, euphoria, things being only good, only light or basically, things being nothing. Entropy is change. You can't change when you no longer exist. They're all just death though. In different forms.
I think the acceptance of death in this way, be it from religion or other sources has actually lead to suffering, which is something I don't abide by. There is a lot of passiveness to thinking "we all die anyway, so who cares?" that can lead to a metric ton of ignoring, excusing and otherwise dismissing the suffering of others, including the self. I think that's the most insidious part about it all. Promotion of not caring. Apathy the true "evil" because it's not caring about something at all. It's basically denying the existence of a thing as a thing to exist. Nothing and absence of care.
I think if life is the cosmic horror, that's mainly because people try to be so blasé about what makes it horrifying, because they're thinking "it will end eventually, so why bother?" I've seen this a lot on posts about horrific happenings to others, about how death was a release, but rarely about how no one did anything to stop it the abuse or horrific happening and that death as a release is the last resort only when all other options have been explored. Death can release suffering, but why not actually focus on what is causing the suffering instead of expecting death, god or anything else to fix it? That's what gets me about the way people see it. Accepting death as a thing that happens is facing reality. Feeling kinship or hope about it being there feels like a coping mechanism that encourages more suffering in between it actually arriving. Especially when it takes effort to alleviate suffering. Simply put, death is a simple solution to a complex problem. it's an easy route the same as saying that a god or some other being will fix things.
That said, I know suicide is a different matter and way of thinking. I get it, I've felt it, but I still hold fast to the idea that it's one of many when you really look at it as just another expectation of someone or something else to fix a problem that feels unsolvable, which leads to far more problems than it solves. I don't want people to suffer, but I also want to focus on what causes the suffering. That's the part that's "evil" so to speak. Why do people suffer? What can we do to reduce it with out resorting to a blanket permeant solution that takes away all other possible options? If the goal is maximize quality of life and longevity, then out current answers are so incredibly wrong that it goes past being absurdly funny and a new level of horrifying that I don't think there is a word for.
The stories you talk as examples of bliss, I found them more terrifying than the cosmic horror, the flame, and the "spore" seem to be more horrid, because, they are a threat, but you don't notice it.
Once experienced a storm while camping. All night my tent was on the verge of blowing away and if I wasn’t in it, the tent probably would’ve. The next morning after the storm had passed I felt such a joy and quiet. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.
Let me start by saying: you have SUCH a soothing voice, it's PERFECT for this topic. the description on how such huge sublime entities barely notice us humans, and the reverence some people feel towards it puts my mind at such ease THAT is almost terrifying.
I would also like to add: with how bad the world seems to be right now, Cosmic Horror feels less like Horror since no matter how bad things seem, we're all the same: a microscopic piece of dust on a mite floating through the mouse of space. Corporations are poisoning us? same end all around. Nothing matters, Nothing cares, we came from Nothing, and to Nothing we shall end up. As Depressing as it seems, that Everlasting Nothing is Peaceful, Serene.
Thank you for putting this to words.
I’ve never been able to explain it. But Lovecraft stories always comforted me. I often fall asleep to audiobooks of his. This is a great explanation, thank you.
I love his Dream Cycle stories
I love a good creepy story, but am often struck by how often something scary can also be incredibly funny. I think it has to do with the fact that, at certain points, horror becomes absurd. When faced with an unreasonable or illogical happening/thing we are either terrified by its strangeness and what it could mean to our world, or we are overwhelmed with the fact that such a thing is so out of place and impossible that it becomes silly. Humor is a common response to difficult situations, and can either be born of ignorance or level-headedness. It's a similar reason why I think that comedies that rely on the absurd tend to be (for the most part) fairly niche. To some people, the impossibilities of the absurd or its uncanny way of reflecting what is true is incredibly comic. To others it might be so outlandish it becomes stupid. I have a feeling that the differences come not only from our personalities but from what we are willing to see and experience when we partake of a story.
As a spiritual person and having studied yogic philosophy i know that the biggest, most sublime isnt really anything to fear. I suppose there are things that shallowly could feel good yet are still bad, and those would be scary to get trapped in. But really, "be not afraid" is good advice for a reason. Also, if you want real life cosmic horror stories, look up salvia divinorum trip reports.
I've barely started this video but I just had to pause it and say how much I love your intro. The animation style is so whimsical and reminds me of the DreamWorks stop motion movies.
You have the coolest intro I've ever seen. Congratulations, it's the fastest I've ever subbed to a channel haha.
And now here I stand at the edge of a paradox, for I find the examples of cosmic bliss presented in this video all the more horrifying than any story of cosmic horror I know of.
I don't think that's a paradox lol
This was beautiful and really sums up what I couldn’t articulate about why i love the Annihilation series
Just read call of cthulhu....and have almost completed mandela catalogue...now here for a perspective...
Maybe the door to the radiant void slammed shut because the creatures within the radiance got a good look at the human approaching and screamed, "GAAAAH! What is that?!? Shut the door before it gets in here! Shut it, shut it!!!"
“You’re on a small boat in the middle of the ocean. Everywhere you look, nothing but waves lapping at the horizon. You don’t know exactly how deep the water reaches beneath you, but it might as well be an endless void from where you are, staring at its gently rolling surface. On this sliver of placid gravity between the endlessly open sky and the endlessly yawning water beneath you, the sense is one of overwhelming vastness. You can’t help but notice how small you are.
Then, out of nowhere, a figure rises out of the sea next to you, blotting out the sun and casting a great shadow over you. No, not Cthulhu or Dagon. A whale. A real living creature, larger than any you’ve ever seen in your life, and it’s less than 30 meters away.
Here in this moment, heart pounding in your chest, boat rocking on the surface of the water, you feel yourself caught between two extremes. Your brain registers that you might actually die here, that this creature could end your life without even noticing. Just by surfacing in the wrong place. At the same time, so close to this impossibly large thing, close enough that you can feel that salt spray of its breach on your face, you somehow feel… more alive than ever.”
- Tale Foundry
Can't get over how stunning the new opening is.
To me, seeing others in eldritch bliss and hering its call in my mind is the most potent form of eldritch horror.
The fall into insanity I didn’t really understand. But I heard somewhere that Lovecraft was terrified of his own descent into madness being unavoidable with both his parents being hospitalized for mental health.
Lovecraft was a deeply terrified man of anything 'other'. The idea that there is more to the world like elder gods or whatever is horrifying to him. He found other cultures that weren't like his hometown horrifying. Just for being different. So yes cosmic horror is absolutely terrifying if you dislike... well, exotic and new things? He legitimately believes someone would go insane just by things being 'different' from the norm. Though I think he was mostly speaking for himself.
I've always loved cosmic horror for the complete opposite, I find all of that stuff fascinating, fun. It's never been scary to me, but I do enjoy it. Exploring the new and the unknown, which Lovecrafts books paint as a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I think he was a talented writer and I love his stories, but they aren't horror to me, it's more just a look into another world? More fascinating and a little eerie at times, in a good way.
I’m not that afraid of cosmic horror, but I think that the explanation given for indifference towards the sublime as just shutting off one’s emotions or as a coping mechanism to be lacking.
For example, someone that never cared about philosophy could be completely unfazed by the sublime since their position in the universe never mattered to them, like a person that’s not interested in flowers would feel nothing when coming across a flower they have never seen in their lives.
Also in the positive side of the spectrum, rather than just the exaltation of wanting to be part of the sublime, another reaction that should not be ignored is the unyielding desire to tame it, to tame the unknown the infinite and make it ours, for this feeling of excitement is what has pushed science to develop for scientists upon seeing the abyss their reaction was one of a challenger, shaping that unknown infinity with our very hands. As technology is but nature which we have taught tricks to, like how we communicate by blasting light into the atmosphere and have it bounce back from the air, how we harnessed the fundamental forces of the universe that make up matter to yield the energy we desire through nuclear reactors, and so forth. As a math student, infinity is just the starting line, the truly fun things lie way beyond.