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Mid-Morning Existential Crisis: The Format Returns

2023-02-07 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health (also: History & curiosities, Science & nature, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, fundraising ask, civic or action cta, recurring series, community lore, self correction

In a loose Format video, John reflects on an 1833 book claiming authors were prone to tuberculosis, arguing that 19th-century TB, like some mental illnesses today, was both stigmatized and romanticized though affliction confers no genius; he plugs the Project for Awesome and its matching fund, then muses on breath words, unknown matter and noise.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The Format returns: the 1833 'Infirmities of Genius', TB stigmatized and romanticized, OCD and Sherlock Holmes, TB's death toll

  • ★★ Opening off-script, John says the video is like a parts video with some Project for Awesome material, and that he is going to use The Format. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John recently came across an 1833 book, The Infirmities of Genius, which says authors have a personality that makes them unusually susceptible to tuberculosis. — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis
  • ★ John says he took the book's charges personally and can only answer them with his trademark peevishness and irascibility. (playful) — 00:00:33
  • ★★★ John says 19th-century tuberculosis, like some mental health conditions today, was both heavily stigmatized and heavily romanticized, and these are not opposites. — 00:00:33 · tuberculosis, mental disorder
  • ★★ John says sufferers were told they were separate from the social order and less than fully human, yet also that they might be geniuses whose affliction was their superpower. — 00:00:33 · tuberculosis, the social order
  • ★★★ John says OCD does not make you a brilliant detective like Sherlock Holmes, and tuberculosis does not make you a great writer. — 00:01:03 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says authors were very susceptible to TB not because of their passions but because, at the time, TB caused about a third of all deaths in England. — 00:01:03 · tuberculosis, England

00:01:32 — Cold outdoors and Barbara Duden on pain; P4A starts next Friday, make a video, beneficiaries

  • ★★ Filming outside in the cold, John finds it weird that viewers can see his body but cannot feel what is happening inside it, such as the cold he feels. — 00:01:32
  • ★★ Barbara Duden (quoted): John recalls Barbara Duden writing that pain is inside the body, so it leaves no trace for the historian. — 00:01:32
  • ★★★ John says the Project for Awesome starts next Friday (10 February 2023), which is very soon. — 00:01:32 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John asks viewers to make a Project for Awesome video making the case that a charity they care about should get part of the money raised; it could win that charity tens of thousands of dollars. — 00:01:32 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says the first half of the P4A raises money for Partners In Health and Save the Children, the second half for charities chosen by viewers. — 00:01:32 · Project for Awesome, Partners In Health, Save the Children · also in: COUNTDOWN TO THE PROJECT FOR AWESOME

00:02:20 — Matching fund over $300,000 and how to join; words for soul derive from breath

  • ★★★ John says a group of nerdfighters has raised over $300,000 for a matching fund so that everyone who donates during the P4A gets their donation matched. — 00:02:20 · Nerdfighteria, Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John asks those able to donate $500 or more to join the matching fund via the link in the description. — 00:02:20 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says, as if it were news, that he has been reading a lot about tuberculosis recently. (playful) — 00:02:20 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says he learned that the Inuit, Chinese, Arabic and English words for soul or spirit all derive on some level from the word for breath. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ John notes that inspiration literally means to breathe in, while to be expired is to be unable to take in air. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ John finds humanity's relationship with air strange, especially since for a long time we didn't know air was made of stuff. — 00:02:20

00:03:07 — Air made of stuff, and not knowing why there is matter

  • ★★ John says we know the exact speed of light and what the universe was doing two minutes after the Big Bang, but not why there is matter. — 00:03:07

00:03:31 — The humming light fixture and the relief when noise stops; sign-off

  • ★★ John calls not knowing why there is matter a metaphorically resonant situation to be in. — 00:03:31
  • ★★ Tracking a humming light fixture and turning it off brings John huge relief; you don't know how loud a noise is until it stops, another metaphorically resonant situation. — 00:03:31

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a comment, John corrects himself: he said Barbara Dudek instead of Barbara Duden, which is why he should have scripted the video. — creator comment
  • ★★ In a comment, John jokes that he has to keep doing this ridiculousness for another 11.75 months. (playful) — creator comment
  • ★★ In comments, John says he really likes making videos in The Format and it is the most fun he has had in years. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Project for Awesome · The Infirmities of Genius · tuberculosis

Also: People: Barbara Duden

Organizations: Partners In Health · Save the Children

Concepts: baryon asymmetry · Big Bang · mental disorder · obsessive-compulsive disorder · pain · social stigma · soul · speed of light

Places: England

Characters: Sherlock Holmes (fictional detective)

Only in the description or credits: existential crisis

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