Big Oxygen

All artwork kindly illustrated by Valeia. She has been ridiculously patient with me and you can find more of her stuff here ►

My stuff ►

Music used ►

Unnecessary bonus trivia ►

This one started in 2021 when I was listening to some top-tier Hungarian-Romani folk music (Csilavtu by Kalyi Jag, if you're curious). It clearly sounded like two people arguing about truth on the bridge of a starship, which seemed as though it might go into a story somewhere. I tried quite hard to buy the rights to the music because no other music would do for the story. Well that didn't go so well and I lost a bunch of sleep and emails over it, but thought the story might work without it anyway. No problem, I'll be done with the whole project in a month tops, I thought. That was over a year ago now. My hair is greyer since, and I never got the rights to the track, and I'm beginning to lose the will to live, but you can't deny two people were getting kinda passive-aggressive on the bridge of a starship. And isn't that really what life is all about?

Thank you for watching, as always. You're ever so kind.

[Fenrir_]

My philosophy is that the janitor doesn't get paid enough for this...

[DayDavid]

This is why I only get my oxygen from locally owned oxygen co-ops.

[RamboCreativity]

*"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."*
My favorite quotes always come from exurb1a

[joedover]

“But now we will all surely suffocate”, said the janitor
“lol”, replied the narrativist, “lmao”

[potatomancer]

This is just a 25 minute long elaborate rant about gaslighting.
I love it.

[_drgn_]

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”

Always a pleasure to hear that quote by P.K. Dick
Great Video, as always

[TheAdvertisement]

I think the coolest part about all of this is how the "The most tempting ideology is the belief that you have none." and "Is that not an ideology in itself?" lines explain everything. The Narrativist does not see any belief. He can write them all and yet cannot believe them.
And yet... he still wanted to experience it. He believed his life could be improved by experiencing it. In the same way "The blind do not see black, they simply do not see" isn't a full truth because the blind can still imagine and visualize structures, the Narrativist does not have no belief, he simply has formed a primitive belief from his experience and orders. Perhaps an objective one, maybe a primitive one, but at the end of the day it is still an ideology.
You cannot truly have no belief.
The mission was doomed from the start.

Edit: I wish to add onto this, something that I'm not sure if I can fully believe and yet with a shuttering breath I must accept... facts are malleable. As the Narrativist said, no amount of facts truly matter to someone if their beliefs can warp it however. Yet here I am, someone who comments far too often, and argues far too often to. I'm a believer of science, I constantly cite sources and try to convince everyone from the mildly deterred to the insane zealots to accept the truth and stop hating each other blindly, often in defense of equality or climate change or anything that we know accepting would only make things better. And yet, in my belief in science not an ideology in itself? I can tell myself I'm correct the entire time but the only thing that affirms that over anyone else are the writings of other people. I _know_ it's true in my mind and yet others don't, and if others don't, does that make it true? Of course it does, we'd die without oxygen. But what if we didn't?
The point of this addendum is not that I now accept that I'm a believer in religion just like anyone else. No, that's ridiculous, facts still exist. Reality still exists. But the point is to remove myself from my scientific pedestal. To realize that no amount of science can convince someone who's not open to being convinced. That in a sense, from the believer's point of view, a belief can warp any reality. It doesn't matter if I'm right, if I'm seen as wrong by some people, I will forever be wrong in the view of those people, no matter how many facts I recite.
It's truly a chilling philosophy, but in itself, it's a reality. Will that stop me from trying to spread the truth? Of course not. But in the end I'm trying to work for a better tomorrow same as anyone else, it's just that better tomorrow is different for everyone, and even the desire for a better tomorrow in itself is a belief. It's just... something to keep in mind.

[josefsmakal]

The artwork is beautiful, and the story is a great combination of insanity and humor

[indeed_iditor]

The naritivist is the best antagonist of any fiction I've ever seen....also the music perfect.

[Chrome]

Bro this could have easyly been a movie. Props for great content as usual.

[agmass]

"I strongly considered spacing myself"
"Fighting with dictionaries"
This is the best comedy i've ever seen.

[shingi_]

an old friend of mine used to watch exurb1a's videos with me; we would discuss them together and try and understand while having a laugh at the dry and bitter humor packed into the layers of thought and trippy stories crammed into our monitors.

a few weeks ago she took her own life, and as i was finishing this video i realized i no longer had anyone to talk to about this video. i feel she would've loved it, especially the oxygen alarm part, that kind of humor always made her laugh.

miss you lots Lu! save me a spot over there :)

[sepalmq]

its always terrifying to click on a new exurb1a video, you never know if you will get fun, dread, or both :D

[blitzwingerwright]

Why does Exurb1a constantly edge us with content only to give us an existential crisis every time?
And we fall for it.
WHY DO WE FALL FOR IT?

[XraptorNZ]

This is the single best story of philosophy I have heard ever…
This needs to be a movie with an infinite budget for gods sake. This stuff is gold.

[blobloblob]

I feel like this guy watches a sci fi movie or two, plays some games, then takes a shit ton of acid and proceeds to write a script

[RevenantMain]

If big oxygen doesn't have my back, I know helium will keep me high

[SussySpeedrunner]

We need some more recognition for small oxygen

[alexbaker]

I think a weed sponsorship on this channel would be scarily lucrative for both parties

[OffWorld]

the tenant/tenet part had me in in tears of laughter.