Astrophe: The Feeling of Being Stuck on Earth

[@obscuresorrows]

It's odd, but this definition felt personally darker, angrier than most others I've done, even though it's about astronomy. Since I was a kid, lonely and out of place, science has brought me such escapist joy that to confront the realities of that escapism is a bitter experience. Even just the thought that all the planets could fit in the space between the Earth and the moon makes me angry more than anything else. I can't wrap my head around it. I've always pictured Jupiter and Saturn as 'giants,' and the moon as our tantalizingly close companion in the sky-but it turns out at least one of those things isn't really true. And it sucks. I still have a life to get through, carrying around that little tidbit. Thinking that way about the planets is like meeting your heroes, and seeing them diminished in person. Or, I guess, the thought that you don't really know anybody. We're all small potatoes, scattered to the winds. The flipside of this is, the Apollo program truly was monumental. They were the giants.

[@insertname2510]

I felt this one was one of the best and touched me on a very personal level. It seemed like the words you were saying we're something that you really meant.

[@kingtyson88]

Funny how I suck with communication skillz but you wow that's it right there thanks I needed that :)

[@camium]

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows The fact that even after 13 years I can't truly imagine how big space is and that our sun is a atom compared to VY Canis Majoris.. Even then the size of our observable universe is impossibly small compared to a googolplex; and that our lives are tinier than a nano second in comparison.

[@mikew3758]

This reminds me of another obscure but related sorrow. The feeling I get when listening to people like Ray Kurzweil or Aubrey de Gray talk about how the first person to live to 1000 may be alive today or that the singularity is near. Ish. That either my generation will be the last to die, or the last to experience the death of our loved ones from aging. That we may, by no fault of our own, be born mere moments before the people who get to go out to the stars but that we ourselves will not, because we're trapped by our own biology. It makes me so glad for the human race but personally angry.

[@AlielJorax]

Michael Clarke I get your point 100%

[@Amba_Aradam]

"There are constellations that feature our sun..." That knocked me out. I caught myself staring at a blank wall above the screen, trying to imagine what I had just heard.

[@alienhoboszombies]

Earth is our cradle. Please don't let it be our grave, too.

[@oniichanyumnam3327]

Wtf are you saying

[@GOATaro_]

Spiral Fall it would kind of suck if we went extinct due to nuclear war or pandemic on earth, considering that there is so much opportunity out there that is pretty much at our fingertips at this point.

[@Abcdefu420]

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

[@TwoSoulsInOneBody]

But it is.

[@obscuresorrows]

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek. Depending on how you slice it, astrophe could mean a couple different things: a-strophe would be the act of not turning, or astro-(stro)phe, the act of turning to the stars. Either way, it's a frustrated, unrealistic sort of desire.

[@Krokonil]

***** I caught the Greek also, but I thought the etymology could be a combination between astron, aster - Greek for star and atrophy (like in muscles atrophy, the waste away and weaken of the muscles or organs due to lack of use or trauma). For us the stars are wasting away, because we will never reach them.

[@obscuresorrows]

Krokonil That's brilliant, thank you.

[@Jep_productions]

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows It also made me thing of how our muscles atrophy when stuck in bed after an injury or how astronauts' muscles atrophy after lack of use in space.

[@SiliconBong]

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows *gives you kitten.

[@limbdarkening]

+Krokonil Or we are wasting away before we get to them.

[@watvid1]

Can you do a video about the feeling of being alive please? The feeling experienced when you just think about how many generations have passed before you and now this is your turn to give life a shot.

[@MettheSlayer]

watvid1 then he would have to make another channel called the dictionary of obscure joys :P

[@l337z0r]

watvid1 The anxiety of not getting laid like the billions of lifeforms that came before you.

[@watvid1]

MettheSlayer I don't know if I explained it well but it's not a good feeling. It's like when you're just really aware that "this is life". Don't know how to explain it that's why we have this channel lol

[@eloisefvg924]

Consciousness?

[@sena167]

l337z0r lol

[@FarewellRocketShip1]

this one got me

[@randomnumbers84269]

I don't really share this feeling. Sure I do gaze in the stars whenever I can and wonder and feel mystified. But I don't really feel 'stuck' here. It's too vast for me to feel stuck at. However, I have a similar feeling, perhaps the father of this feeling. I feel like fear, sometimes almost panic, that I never ascend. That I will just fiddle away feeling less and less when I get older. That I never reach the other side. I have this uncanny yearning to do something amazing, feel and become like god or transcend this reality. To do something impossible that no-one has done before. To break the possibilities barrier. And I feel like I absolutely must do it or everything is in vain. Or I should say 'feel it' because it's all about the feeling. I feel that 'normal' life is an absolute waste.

[@ayato2165]

KvalnirFox I have this too, very well articulated :)

[@randomnumbers84269]

James Miller Thanks James.. I thought my articulation was shit to be honest but thanks!

[@SergheyKatastrofenko]

KvalnirFox How many of those impossible things have you done so far?

[@randomnumbers84269]

Marius Gabriel Lupu None of course.. That's why there is the calling. I've tasted the fruit though; seen glimpses and felt the elusive taste on the tip of my tongue.

[@nathanielharrison4396]

KvalnirFox I feel Astrophe watching anything about NASA or the ISS.

[@confusedstockimage9807]

So kinda what happened to most of humanity in Interstellar. I believe Astrophe has become my new favourite word.

[@diegozolhos]

John, You have a gift that is so rare... It´s truly amazing! All texts are inspiring, the soundtrack... all the choices are simply brilliant. Cudos from Brazil!

[@coolfiery1516]

I really love this word, mainly because I have always had this feeling and now, having some sort of recognition that I and not ostracized for this feeling is truly comforting. It is having a grasp that other can have the same concept and mind sets as you and even go so far as to make a word to help cope.

[@Yacov2938]

It seems to me that this video has an underlying theme - that of disconnection. Whether you think you are trapped here or you think you aren’t, you’re right. Because it is our minds which trap us and which free us. They can hold us in chains or they can let us soar among the stars. It is a choice. You can see empty space as the lack of something or the lack of nothing - as a void of darkness or a blank canvas, waiting to be painted. We are stuck here only as much as we think ourselves to be. This is truly a touching video. John, thank you for the inspiration.

[@kp8129]

The Universe.... the most beautiful thing about creation, about life, about existence....... i wish i could understand it, i wish i could imagine it, i wish i could see it... The only moments in life that i feel more alive and connected to existence is when I lay on the grass and look up, and imagine myself being the frontier that divides earth's ground from space. How many wonders have happened out there, how many are happening right now, and how many will happen after we are not longer a part of life....? whenever i look up, i get to feel every sensation my body and mind are capable of feeling. The universe, oh the majestic universe grand me the honor to fully see you and experience you once my time here on tiny earth has passed....

[@jakeself1911]

As a stargazer and dark sky advocate, I felt like I really identified with the beginning of this video. The sky over the city that I live in still gets dark enough at night to allow for viewing of constellations and a handful of other stars. When I look up at night, I feel good because the view is still pretty nice and isn't as bad as New York or Las Vegas, but when I lower my gaze, my heart sinks at the sight of poorly-shielded, excessively-bright lights that hide the Milky Way and a multitude of stars with sky glow and glare. The feeling is worse whenever I go out to local dark sky sites (nearly 2 hours away), see the night sky close to its full glory, then reluctantly go back under the veil of light pollution generated by bad lighting. The worst part is that most people don't seem to notice or care that our night sky is slowly being erased as more and more poor choices are made about lighting.

[@Zozo-sc1ps]

Browsing for background noise to listen to while I clean. I see this title and burst into tears. So much of my time as a child spent dwelling on this feeling.

[@joegrywinski4644]

these videos speak to me so clearly. it's like you pulled the thoughts straight out of my mind and explained them to me in ways I never could. Please, never stop making these videos!

[@collinmsullivan]

I have enjoyed several of your videos, but this one is by far my favorite. I have experienced this very feeling for as long as I can remember. You capture the awe, the wonder, and the sorrow beautifully. Thank you for giving this a word.

[@DannieKamete]

Wow! It is indeed, a most tantalizing realization. I feel like this all the time, and have done so for most of my life. The feeling that, across the vastness of space, across the vastness of time, is a home where I truly belong, a place where I would never ever want to leave, a place that's perfect for me. It is a perpetual state of a strange indescribable homesickness. Astrophe. Now I have a name for it

[@TheSteAshh]

I have felt this my entire life and never had the word for it.. thank you :)

[@DetachedJoy]

It will be five years (soon) when this video was released. I first discovered it by random coincidence only a couple of years ago. I keep coming back to listen, to garner new meaning and understanding. It is a masterpiece, and my favourite word you made up. Thank you, John.

[@nz5bgpn7]

I am so captivated by your videos, I have watched them all multiple times. When I first found these videos a few months ago I fell in love immediately. You must have a lovely view on the world

[@vanjabulajic1573]

I keep coming back to this one.

[@FiveFire555]

New video! I love these so much. Keep it up, man.

[@dibodark]

The value of the visual effects displayed on this video in correlation to the astounding content delivered with respectable assiduity just blows my mind realizing that something like this could actually be on youtube... My favourite channel by far.

[@SuperUndeadReaper]

I think one video a week is too long to wait for this great channel. I seriously love this channel so much, it makes me realize so much about how we see things that we can't describe about it, but you just make it seem so perfect. I love sharing your videos and quotes to people and see how dumbstruck they look. You're brilliant

[@hithereroger]

These videos are so poetic and beautiful. Thank you for creating this space.

[@FangsofYima]

I want to leave

[@mariafoteini]

me too

[@bernardodittz3582]

me too

[@SapienSafari]

Let's go

[@SimplyxturtleRblx]

There is one way to leave, Do You Trust Me?

[@senterfld2287]

@@SimplyxturtleRblx IM NOT FALLING FOR THE MUSIC SHEET OR THE PAINTING

[@thehorizontries4759]

Probably my favorite one yet. I really connected with this one more than any others. Great work!

[@noahmccollum-gahley4633]

Fantastic work, as usual. This one had a more existential feel than your other ones. Although your other videos do a fantastic job at capturing intangible, often somber, emotions that are integral to the human experience, I've always looked at the vast emptiness of space as a reminder of just how alone each of us are in an utterly indifferent universe: as something that reveals this thinly veiled fact that we often ignore with our day-to-day. So this one had a particularly strong resonance with me.

[@Madchieften]

Can you do a video of the French word L’appel du vide? There is no English word for it but it is translated as "Call of the Void." Here is the urban dictionary definition of it. "It is that tiny voice that tells you to jerk the steering wheel just to the right and take a flying leap off the ledge...that inclination to walk right into the ocean and never return...the call of the Siren song."

[@MrRockolate]

FreeDiver Sometimes when I'm standing near a ledge, I just think "what if I jumped"? NO, I'm not suicidal, it's just that sometimes I wonder what it would feel like to actually do it. Am I crazy for thinking that?

[@Madchieften]

***** I think most people have the same thoughts, then again maybe we are both just crazy.

[@saucenflow]

***** He brought you here to eh .

[@lars0me]

***** I don't know if it was Vsauce, but i remember a video about it. Basically it's your brain suddenly realizing there is a choice, realizing the magnitude and impact such a choice would have, getting a little hung up on that importance and therefore prioritizing the consideration, seriously evaluating the possible decisions in every detail and finally choosing to live on, wondering what all that was about and questioning why it took so long.

[@anoukfauveaulefers6803]

***** you are not crazy, we all have these same thoughts, what if I open the car door in the highway ? I could jump under this train right now ... I think it is what Kant called the fear of freedom. We realize we could possibly do absolutely anything and are afraid of our own free will.

[@judas30]

So glad to see my greek subtitles are published to this wonderful video. Thanks Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. We are waiting more great videos!!

[@obscuresorrows]

Thanks for translating! Greek is just about my favorite language. Anyway sorry about the delay, I didn’t even know there was a page to approve translations. There were more than a hundred in there by the time I got to it.

[@SroArcher]

I hope all is well! I love your videos!

[@jamesdiaz1587]

I could not handle this channel it made me cry

[@SaffatBokul]

I hope this channel gets one million subs soon !

[@logicalfallacy234]

I fell in love with this video 3 years ago, but haven't watched it since. Revisiting it today, I realized that this word is the perfect summation of the feeling of like, "dreams deferred", or "dreams unfulfilled" , if that makes sense. Of struggling to make your dreams (whatever they may be) come true, and then one day, giving up on them, and " moving back home for good." But yeah, I forgot how cool this channel is.

[@SteveFrenchWoodNStuff]

Beautifully written and expertly narrated.

[@klearn199]

Here is my word of an obscure sorrow: Doos (Acronym for Dictionary of Obsure Sorrows) - the desire of watching more and more The Dictionary of Obsure Sorrows video Thank you John, you are doing a great job and I really think, that you are bearing a lot of better people!

[@kosukemiura1226]

I have this feeling every so often, like everything is familiar, yet new. I can't explain it. It kind of feels like a dream, nothing feels right, until you wake up.

[@sidhc]

Man not even Voyager goes this deep. Great video! Subscribed.

[@thetallguywithcards]

I love these videos so much! Please keep uploading

[@britneyminiatur]

this is a feeling I get a lot. thank you for making this video!

[@UnbeatableDonut]

in my opinion, this is the best one yet. Great job!

[@gigabarney663]

all these are so beautiful. i love them all. keep them coming

[@mishaaskar]

this channel is amazing its a new and refreshing idea and I love it

[@xamyool]

Thank you, so much. I now have a word for where my mind lives most of time.

[@F8Lwrld]

this is exactly what i feel, EXACTLY. i cant say anything, i dont have the words...

[@GabrielJCasaus]

Wow this was moving especially because I always look at the ground but do take a few moments occasionally to look up and wonder "What else is out there?" Very great video.

[@secretsunflower3090]

I just found this channel when I was on google searching for words for specific feelings and thoughts.. and now I'm here. I've watched most of these videos and I feel just... Weird. My mind is travelling, I can feel everything in my brain, but I can't describe. It's like i jusf woke up at 18. Or i'm just crazy.. I wish someone could relate

[@catalinas777]

Just imagining the infinite space and possibiliy of the universe overwhelms me and at the same time pushes me to grow and work harder in hope that maybe some day we will be able to reach 1% of that space and know 1% of what there is out there. John does such a tremendeous job at expressing thoughts and feelings that most of us may actually never tought of before. So that's brilliant enough for me :) Thank you

[@zandor16]

I commend you sir for this channel. It truly is awesome.

[@gfyourself]

so amazing. dark or not, everything you say is beautiful.

[@iseslc]

beautiful concept... thank you so much for the hard work you put into this channel!

[@TheChessmastersa]

I really appreciate this series

[@KarnBlueEarring]

Hello John. I'm a big fan of your videos. This is my most favorite of yours, because I can relate to this feeling so well. Space always fascinated me, from early childhood even. To contribute something, I have translated it to german. I used the same time stamps as the original transcript and cut the sentences accordingly. Of course I translated in a more sense way, instead of word for word, so the correlation from one to the other words fits to german. 0:03 Es ist schwer nicht auf den Boden zu schauen, während du läufst. 0:06 Deine Sicht zu mindern 0:09 und die Welt sich drehen zu lassen 0:11 und zu versuchen am Boden zu bleiben, wo auch immer du bist. 0:18 Aber häufig wirst du daran erinnert, nach oben zu schauen und die Möglichkeiten zu erträumen. 0:24 Zu träumen was da draußen sein mag. 0:28 Es dauert nicht lange und wirst du dich wieder gebunden fühlen. 0:32 Gebunden im Sinne an deiner Heimat gefesselt zu sein. 0:34 Festzusitzen, auf dem Planeten Erde. 0:39 Astrophe. 0:42 Je öfter du in den Himmel schaust, desto häufiger wirst du an die Erde erinnert, 0:45 daran, über deine Möglichkeiten nachzudenken. 0:49 Es ist möglich dass es andere Namen für unseren Planeten gibt, 0:52 die wir niemals kennen werden. 0:54 Dass es Sternzeichen gibt die unsere Sonne enthalten, 0:58 aus einem Winkel, welchen wir niemals sehen werden. 1:02 Dass es viele andere Zivilisationen gibt, versteckt hinter dem Schleier der Zeit, 1:06 zu weit weg als dass ihr Licht uns jemals erreichen könnte. 1:13 Wir träumen von anderen Welten und benennen sie nach unseren alten ausgedienten Göttern. 1:18 Und sie wirken ebenso fern, 1:22 zu fern um mit dem bloßen Auge gesehen zu werden. 1:25 Bloß gezeichnet durch künstlerische Darstellungen, 1:26 oder als Pixel verteilt auf einem Bildschirm, 1:29 mit gezerrten Farben um sie anschaulich zu machen. 1:34 Sogar unser eigenes Sonnensystem ist unglaublich riesig. 1:36 Wir sind so gewohnt daran die Planeten nebeneinander anzuschauen, 1:40 denn würden wir sie nach Maßstab zeichnen, würden sie so weit voneinander entfernt sein, 1:44 sie würden nicht auf die selbe Seite passen. 1:47 Und sogar unser eigener Mond, der so nah unserer Erde zu sein scheint, 1:50 ist dennoch so weit entfernt, dass alle anderen Planeten in dem leeren Raum dazwischen passen könnten. 1:56 Es ist möglich dass unsere Raumanzüge nie wieder profilierte Stiefel brauchen werden. 2:01 Dass wir eines Tages zu ermüdet sind, um zu wandern und uns entscheiden nach Hause zurückkehren. 2:06 Und wir werden uns daran gewöhnen unsere Füße zu beobachten während wir laufen, 2:10 gelegentlich anhalten, um eine kleine Sonde in die Unendlichkeit zu schießen, 2:13 wie eine Flaschenpost. 2:16 Vielleicht sollte es egal sein, ob diese jemals von jemanden gefunden wird. 2:18 Wenn niemand da ist, um zu wissen dass wir einst auf der Erde gelebt haben. 2:22 Vielleicht sollte es so sein, wie einen Stein auf der Oberfläche eines Sees springen zu lassen. 2:26 Es ist egal wo dieser untergeht. 2:28 Es zählt nur dass wir hier an der Küste stehen. 2:31 Nur versuchen Spaß zu haben und Zeit zu vertreiben 2:34 und zu beobachten wie weit der Stein springt. 3:07 ARMSTRONG: Die grundlegende Schwierigkeit die wir beobachtet haben, war diese, 3:11 dass wir einfach zu wenig Zeit hatten, 3:13 um die unzähligen Dinge zu vollbringen, die wir gerne vollbracht hätten.

[@hughmungus4118]

Watching these videos gave me a better understanding of myself

[@dallasrevolt]

Even though you give words to define our feelings, it's still hard to undestand them completly. The emptiness, the frustration, still remains. I guess some things just go beyond human comprehention (sigh). Regardless, I LOVE your videos, they are really deep and inspiring. Keep it up John :)

[@symersion]

Seriously! Thank you for your deep and soul shaking videos! Please keep them coming because each one of the is a piece of art! Also ... Did anyone have the same sensation , that you are in a certain place and enviorment , and you still have the sensation from an entirely diffrent situation. I mean it like , I am at my workplace , in a busy place and I have the feeling of being in a forest while raining , and feeling the chilling and calming breeze , and the smell of the pine trees , or having the sensation of being in a desolate wasteland while just walking on the streets. Have any of you felt the same , and if yes can there be a piece of art made from it ?

[@mrcraziekyle]

Thanks for these videos! They are simply astounding :)

[@SuperCutiepie1012]

I love your voice and this channel makes me feel more closer in than I ever do, makes me wana love life differently

[@professorbaxtercarelessdre1075]

the analogy at the end was very well put

[@childsy4]

this is so me. gonna write a song on this. thanks for the great vid!

[@MatthewSanthos]

Man, these are so well written.

[@zeath_zolaries3508]

I get this feeling so many times!! I want to know whats beyond...beyond everything humanity knows ...explore and see the unseen

[@HellFire178]

I love what you guys are doing!!

[@tenthdoctor2125]

I must admit, I have been on a marathon of your sweepingly thought-provoking videos, and this is the first of the many that has felt--as you put it--grounded. In a negative sense, I mean. At least the end of it. Maybe I'm overly critical because of my trajectory towards cosmological things, but I have always considered one of the attributes of a 'grounded' and 'less aware' world view, a feeling of apathy or hostility towards the vast reaches of space. (I understand, of course, that you're articulating a fear deeply held by all of us, but this is more responding to your comment) I'll readily admit that it is empty idealism to believe that common imaginings of 'reaching the stars' are attainable in the near future. And, of course, these are episodic glimpses of sorrow, so I can't reasonably expect you to praise or make light of something so dark and deeply (and unsatisfyingly) mysterious as space, and our nervous relationship to it. At least the mystery of life is impossible to answer, so one can safely postulate or paint it in individual and distinct hues, but the mystery of space could seem frustratingly tantalizing and therefore difficult to encompass or categorize. Approaching the greatest of mysteries is never without an element of risk -- of thinking so far, perhaps, that you can never wholly come back. It is easier, then, to damn the distances, or find them disappointing. But I ask you genuinely-- we're definitely small potatoes, but is there not a kind of wonder in that? A kind of parallelism to the smallness that someone feels standing in the pulsing heart of a city, on the precipice or the midst of our species as a whole, or the indifferent vastness of the wilderness? Are we not simply a microcosm of it all, and the flickering images of humanity that you are so fond of, merely the faces of the cosmos? The wayfarers in their orbits? And if so, why should we sail home when we have scarcely left the shore? Why should this seemingly cosmic solitude be more damnable than that poetic isolation which we might feel in our own communities and societies? Alright, what of a universe where those small potatoes grow closer, everything is breathtakingly close, where the planets are not so far, far away as they are, where the moon is our closer companion (I recommend 'The Cosmicomics' by Italo Calvino, I think you would like him -- marvelously thought provoking as well), where all the stars are a year's journey away? There, perhaps, is less wonder in that. There would no longer be an open 'abyss' to escape to, in our framework of the universe. After a short time, if such a close or finite world could be, we would be in a more profound sense 'grounded.' The fact is, distances or no, we are not separate from those cosmic wayfarers or distant specks of light. We are the universe. We are anonymous but deeply linked, by forces perhaps stronger than quantifiable; the celestial. And yet simultaneously, *We* are the stone that is skipping out into the universe. There is no placid pool, nor eventual fall, never to rise again. At least not while humans live and have eyes to see that there is something bigger than everything they have ever known. In other, less rambling words: I see it not as escapism, but inevitability, and one forged from the very distances so many hold in contempt. A challenge prompts an attempt. A treacherously deep mystery prompts an answer. A distance prompts a journey. The one reliable and innate aspect of humans is our emergent ability to explore-- no, more than that, the *need* to explore. Of course, we would not be human if we perceived the universe the same way, but the only 'astronomical' *sorrow* I see is that we do not have the lifespan to longer contemplate the cosmos, or these distances. Perhaps the only sorrow is that we are made for other places, and we are, in fact, forever unmoored in the expanse beyond, a part of it and always racing towards it. If we are grounded, it is in places without ground, nor direction. Hence our deep disorientation and desire for more. If it makes you angry, then maybe your atoms are formed from younger and more fiercely burning stars. (Thank you, stranger, for your videos, I know this is an older one.)

[@LikeTheGoodStyle]

This channel is so unique and amazing!

[@LeighVuillermin9]

i cant even begin to imagine what someone as talented as you could do with the seth material.

[@ultimatesubzero1]

These videos are incredible

[@katgillespie9523]

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows Thank you for making so many incredible videos. As a writer and poet, your words mean so much to me and have touched me on a deep level. They often make me weep - especially Sonder. It is a feeling I've felt but never been able to express in words. Your definitions and videos are so powerful and make me feel connected to others who see the world the way I do. I often feel alone in my "big picture" and philosophical perspective and it is incredible to see someone else explain them so eloquently. I cannot express enough how much your work means to me! P.S. - I would be so excited if you collected all your definitions and published them in a book some day! If you ever are looking for someone to hire to help with your work, please pick me!! P.P.S. - One random question: have you been tested for MBTI? Thank you again!

[@Miryr]

When I first played the Mass Effect trilogy, I just got fascinated by the whole experience that I read the books, and kept imagining about the different societies. I imagined what it would be like to live in that universe, where even the stories of ancient myths look pale in comparison. Man, do I wish I'd have the universe of infinite possibilities before me... So many stories to hear, so many places to see which no human has ever seen before.

[@AssassinsCreed543]

gave me chills....

[@TheNihilistant]

Thanks for this. It resonates with my own feelings and experience in a very deep way. Immediately after watching your video, I went and re-read Walter M. Miller's "The Big Hunger", possibly the most heart-breaking SF short story ever written. I recommend everyone who ever felt astrophe to read it too - I'll quote a passage below. _______________ The laughter on the lawn subsided. The eldest child, a gawky and freckled girl of eight years, came trudging up the steps to sit against the post and stare at him quietly in the gloom. He felt a question lurking in her silence. He nudged her ribs affectionately with his toe. “What weighty matter worries you, Nari?” he asked pleasantly. “Why is star-craze, Gramp?” He rocked thoughtfully for a moment. “Why are there men to feel it?” he countered. The child was silent. “I know only what the priests say, Nari;” he told her gently. “They say that man once owned a paradise planet, and that he ran away in search of a better one. They say he made the Lord Bion angry. And the lord hid the paradise, and condemned Man to forever wander, touched his heart with eternal hunger for the place he lost.” “Will people find it again, Gramp?” “Never-so the priests say. The hunger is on him, Nari.” “It’s not fair!” said the little girl. “What isn’t, my child?” “Star-craze. Last night I saw a lady crying. She was just standing there crying at the sky.” “Where?” “On the street. Waiting for a motor bus.” “How old was she?” Nari scraped her heels and muttered doubtfully. “It was kind of dark.” Gramp chuckled reassuringly. “I bet she wasn’t over fourteen. I bet she was still a kid. Star-craze comes to little girls about the time they start being interested in little boys. Works the other way, too. But you grow out of it, Nari. By the time you’re twenty, it won’t make you miserable any more. It gives you a goal. Gives everyone a goal. Something to work for. Something to long for and fight for. The stars-you’ll want to give them to your grandchildren.” “Won’t I get to go?” “Not ever, Nari.”

[@paddyodonnell9119]

Love this channel, keep it up :)

[@nellePoint]

exactly what i needed. Thank you.

[@TheHawk-dy4cl]

fucking LOVE this channel, it's like all the thoughts in my mind that I can't express to other people are put ever so eloquently here

[@IamSuyash]

This is brilliantly poetic....

[@nekerley]

These are so relatable.

[@mkk911]

Your words speak to my heart. So, I cry. A lot. That's the only way I can express what I feel upon hearing them. They touch me so deep inside. Yes, even though your essays are short, but they stay stuck in my mind for a long period of time. Here's an irrelative question, but I'm asking it because one of your uploads reminded me of it. Have you read anything by Haruki Murakami? If not, then I strongly recommend. I, somehow, feel that there's a connection. And another thing. I want this music. From where can I buy it. Can you please provide me with a link if possible. Overall, this has become one of my absolute favourite channels.

[@tru0067]

Actual shivers went through my body

[@KahokoHinoEEVEE]

This video hurts. I love it, and it's painfully true, and it hurts.

[@42xp99]

In all honesty, I've recently encountered a great challenge in life where it all seemed pointless to me. Life didn't work like an epic poem or a fantasy novel. I would never get to stand out and be a unique hero as we see in fantasy novels. The only definite outcome to life is death. Today, though, skimming through your works on your channel, I saw that life is only indefinite when you don't put effort into your existance. We may just be a grain of sand in the Shara, but the only story that can truly satisfy us is the one we survive. Thank you, truly, for bringing your light in this sombre time of my life. May your works inspire many others to come..

[@andrew23sch]

i love these

[@SergheyKatastrofenko]

I do feel like this sometimes. Just thinking that it took New Horizons 9 years to reach the edge of our solar system (at a speed that, while is not the greatest, is still inconceivable for us; I don't know what an object moving at 200.000 km/h looks like)... is overwhelming. And the implications of this are even bigger. The distance it traveled is just a tiny fraction of the distance to the closest star to our solar system. And there are hundreds of millions of stars even further than you can imagine, all that in just a galaxy. Our own Milky Way. A galaxy among other billions of galaxies (even the concept of a billion is strange, because I can't visualize a billion of... anithing), separated by vast emptiness. We might not be stuck on Earth, but we sure are in a very limited little corner of our own "universe" and might as well never know what really lies beyond those limits. We can suppose. Or, at best, calculate. But never touch it. I think the good side of the immensity of space is that it creates a great probability that life exists in other places too. And I'm ok with that. I know I'll never see any of it, never meet them, since they're unreachable. The unknown can be either frightening or exciting. Or both. But I have to be at peace with the fact that the laws of physics put these desires to know the unknown to the list of nondoables. It's still a frustrating thought, though, but honestly, to me, not as frustrating as Onism, which is quite similar to this one (I mean the idea of wondering what more is out there), but more realistic, I think. Astrophe just makes me feel small and... claustrophobic, whenever I think of all this stuff.

[@blackmaria1382]

Increíble hermoso, just beautiful

[@cheeseburgermovies]

Could you do a video on that feeling of floating contentedness of how things are going around you? Or the feeling of looking out at falling snow in a winter's night?

[@GuiiBrazil]

Uow... this is gold!

[@Josse702]

That was really good 😊👍

[@ericpa06]

Hi John, here's the subtitle for this week video. Oh, just one question: Could you tell me the name of the background music from your video " Avenoir: The Desire To See Memories In Advance" and from "Kenopsia: The Eeriness of Places Left Behind"? Thank you. 1 00:00:04,072 --> 00:00:06,203 É difícil não olhar para o chão enquanto caminhamos. 2 00:00:07,811 --> 00:00:11,271 Se conformar com as limitações de sua circunstância, e manter o mundo girando. 3 00:00:12,153 --> 00:00:15,744 E tentar ficar sobre os alicerces de seja lá onde você está. 4 00:00:18,147 --> 00:00:20,626 Mas inevitavelmente você sempre acaba se lembrando de olhar para cima, 5 00:00:21,001 --> 00:00:23,200 e imaginar as possibilidades, 6 00:00:23,931 --> 00:00:25,595 sonhando com o que está lá fora. 7 00:00:27,754 --> 00:00:31,148 Antes de poder fazer qualquer coisa, você se vê preso aos alicerces de novo, 8 00:00:31,183 --> 00:00:33,958 no sentido de estar preso aos limites de casa, 9 00:00:34,103 --> 00:00:35,959 preso no planeta Terra. 10 00:00:37,559 --> 00:00:41,500 Astrophe: O Sentir de Que Você Está Preso Na Terra 11 00:00:42,204 --> 00:00:45,544 O quanto mais você olha para o céu, mais você se vê na Terra. 12 00:00:45,579 --> 00:00:47,952 Confrontando certas possibilidades. 13 00:00:48,500 --> 00:00:52,215 É possível que haja outros nomes para nosso planeta 14 00:00:52,250 --> 00:00:54,055 que nós jamais saberemos. 15 00:00:55,255 --> 00:00:57,968 Que haja constelações em que nosso sol se encaixa 16 00:00:58,003 --> 00:01:00,367 de um angulo que jamais seremos capazes de ver. 17 00:01:02,269 --> 00:01:06,288 Que haja muitas outras civilizações escondidas atrás do véu do tempo, 18 00:01:06,323 --> 00:01:09,336 longe demais para suas luzes nos atingirem algum dia. 19 00:01:13,479 --> 00:01:15,632 Nós sonhamos com outros mundos, 20 00:01:15,667 --> 00:01:17,982 e os nomeamos em homenagem aos nossos antigos descartados deuses. 21 00:01:19,190 --> 00:01:21,503 E eles parecem quase tão distantes quanto. 22 00:01:21,790 --> 00:01:24,038 Longe demais para serem vistos ao olho nu, 23 00:01:24,358 --> 00:01:27,166 só apenas em computações gráficas de artistas, 24 00:01:27,501 --> 00:01:29,630 ou em um pixel espalhado num monitor, 25 00:01:30,126 --> 00:01:32,429 com as cores ajustadas para dar um toque. 26 00:01:32,847 --> 00:01:36,150 Mesmo nossa vizinhança é incrivelmente vasta, 27 00:01:37,647 --> 00:01:40,311 estamos tão acostumados a mostrar os planetas agrupados juntos, 28 00:01:40,346 --> 00:01:42,078 porque se nós ajustássemos a escala 29 00:01:42,113 --> 00:01:45,023 eles estariam tão longe um do outro que nem caberiam na mesma pagina. 30 00:01:46,266 --> 00:01:50,214 E mesmo nossa própria lua, que aparenta estar tão perto da Terra, 31 00:01:50,758 --> 00:01:53,354 mas ainda sim tão longe que todos os planetas 32 00:01:53,531 --> 00:01:56,169 poderiam caber entre o espaço. 33 00:01:56,369 --> 00:01:58,743 É possível que nossos trajes espaciais não precisem 34 00:01:58,843 --> 00:02:01,250 de botas recauchutadas nunca mais. 35 00:02:01,450 --> 00:02:04,189 Mas algum dia, em breve, nós nos cansaremos de imaginar 36 00:02:04,462 --> 00:02:05,725 e iremos embora de casa de vez. 37 00:02:05,917 --> 00:02:09,335 E ficaremos acostumados a olhar nossos pés enquanto caminhamos, 38 00:02:09,526 --> 00:02:13,135 ocasionalmente parando para lançar uma única sonda no abismo, 39 00:02:13,135 --> 00:02:15,365 como uma mensagem numa garrafa. 40 00:02:16,477 --> 00:02:18,790 Talvez não devesse importar se ninguém nunca encontrá-las, 41 00:02:18,825 --> 00:02:21,751 se ninguém estiver lá para saber que um dia nós vivemos aqui na Terra. 42 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,798 Talvez devesse ser como uma pedra arremessada sobre a superfície de um lago, 43 00:02:26,078 --> 00:02:27,838 não importa onde acabou, 44 00:02:28,134 --> 00:02:30,798 só importa que nós estamos aqui na costa. 45 00:02:31,070 --> 00:02:33,854 Apenas tentando nos divertir e e passar o tempo... 46 00:02:35,134 --> 00:02:36,725 e ver até aonde vai. 47 00:03:07,255 --> 00:03:10,967 A dificuldade primordial que notamos foi que 48 00:03:11,002 --> 00:03:13,663 simplesmente havia muito pouco tempo para fazermos 49 00:03:13,698 --> 00:03:16,327 as milhares de coisas que gostaríamos de ter feito.

[@obscuresorrows]

***** Obrigado as always, Eric. Avenoir is "Free Bird" by Klooz, and Kenopsia is "Golden Memories" by Simon Arthur Rhodes. If you're ever in doubt, I always add music credits at the very end of each video.

[@ericpa06]

Oh, thank you, and thanks for the tip. I had not seen that you added song's name at the end.

[@ericpa06]

The The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is simply an amazing vlog, and I think the world need to watch it, so that's why I translate it. And I think someone knows that their videos are really great when people all over the world start to translate them. I mean, many videos of this vlog are translated in 3, 4, 5 or even more, languages. I mean, there are video translate in languages like arabic and dutch, and polish. This mean something! Because you find very few videos in KZbin with such a strong community of fans, and people that enjoy you are doing.

[@rachellowe8881]

these videos are beautiful

[@joshuaalivio3835]

not to sound so dumbfounded..but mostly of your videos...really struck me...and thank you...that now i feel that i am not alone....but what do you call something that you are aware that you fear that you are a part of what you fear

[@goodbye3771]

the amount of times i've felt this ever since i was little is beyond me

[@myturnkeypro]

No wonder so many people have found me hard to understand... so much of what I've felt has been things I had no words to describe it with

[@walter081095]

suggestion: the feeling you get when you have/want/need to choose between two things that are impossible, but you have to make up your mind to fight for one of those impossible things since you can't have both at the same time nor fight for both.

[@christiankloos1384]

Nice job!

[@KeeganIdler]

Such a good one

[@AlanmanAaron]

These feel crazy deep

[@rezhyn1088]

Beautiful...

[@tresila]

Can you do a video on the feeling of the strong desire to know everything? I get this a lot when I am reading the entry of black hole and end up in sugar gliders 4 hours later.

[@DrKillFeeDZ]

I experience this feeling more often than I care to admit.

[@conklegutierrez]

that trick where the "stars" turn out to just be lights on the Earth was so freakin cool. Hurt like hell.

[@IAmMyOwnApprentice]

The constellation line is especially good.

[@mishukzoo]

This reminded me of a saying: I was born too late to explore the Earth and too early to explore the universe. It is such a frustrating tought and most people just walk through life not really looking up, not really thinking about the universe out there.