I am a Bleak Heroism of Words
I am a Geppetto,
Seeking to fashion life from numbered pages
And an empty inkpot.
Of inspiration I design people,
Detailing each eye, each finger, each heartbeat.
Presenting each with a cause,
And mingling each with the other,
I gift them with shreds of hope.
And grant them leave to strive and grow,
Weaving their lives,
Across the empty page.
Finished, and contented with the good work,
One cannot help but wish for a Blue Fairy.
O! To see these truly live and bring their
Hope to the brokenhearted!
That would be creativity, indeed.
But all books draw to an end,
And are closed.
And only the reader carries his candle
To the darkness.
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An idea for the void
So, I was thinking, right? I do that from time to time. It’s not always advisable, but it happens.
Anyway, I was thinking about Youtube, and how I watch a lot of it. I probably watch more Youtube than anything else, to be honest. I watch lots of stuff on there, but my favorite thing to watch is usually terrarium builds, followed closely by aquarium/fishkeeping stuff, and after that, I think it’s probably herp stuff—like reptiles, amphibians, that kinda thing.
I watch a ton of this stuff. It started off when I was working night shifts at a shitty hotel a few years ago. It was one of those weird jobs where you’d spend maybe 80% of your time doing jack shit, but then the other 20% of your time was like, blind fucking panic because some idiot was trying to sneak a mastiff to their room through the emergency exit, or because Afro Man is in your hotel, and that’s not really a bad thing, but meeting Afro Man was the absolute last thing you expected. Anyway, it was a shitty hotel with lots of crazy moments, and it turns out that terrarium builds were like my own personal Bob Ross. They just chilled me out immediately. I fell in love.
Then I started actually making the things, and let me tell you, I’m not very good at it, but I love it.
Wait, okay, so back to how I watch a bunch of this on Youtube. I mean it, I watch a lot of it. Enough that it’s really easy to notice some patterns. So, with fish and reptile youtubers, it feels like there’s a measure of community there, right? These folks will reference each other, bump into each other at conventions, drop in to do a project together. It’s not every video or every creator or anything, but you see it.
Terrarium youtube? Not so much. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of location making it difficult or something else, but other than really rare occasions, each channel sort of exists by itself, in it’s own little walled garden, its own, dare I say, sealed glass container, keeping it isolated from the others like it. Now, each creator is different; they’ve all got their own styles and personalities, their own techniques... but at the end of the day, they’re all doing the same (super rad) thing (that I absolutely love). There’s a lot of shared technique that goes into making this a whole genre of thing, even if they’re all mostly concerned about their own corner of the hobby.
Second... A lot of these videos kind of act like you’ve never seen another one like it. On some level, they’re almost all tutorials. Each one will give you a bit of information about selecting your container, about making your false bottom or drainage layer, about making your own substrate from from a similar blend to what most other terrarium makers use, about choosing your plants and moss, about lighting and watering (or not watering).
That’s great if you’re just dipping your toes into the art form, but if you’re a stressed out, ADHD-addled night owl desperately trying to wring dopamine from videos of jars being stuffed full of dirt and leaves, it’s a little weird to be told how to do this for the first time four or five times in a row.
It’s just kinda weird to me how each channel almost pretends that they’re the only one you watch, and each video pretends it’s the first one you’ve seen.
And so I wondered, like... what if that wasn’t the case?
What if you dispensed with the tutorial? Maybe not entirely; you could leave it in the description, you could put text on screen for people to follow if it is their first time or if they want to compare notes between your video and someone else’s.
It makes sense to me. Videos where people talk into the camera while they’re getting ready for the day or eating huge amounts of food are totally a thing, aren’t they?
I don’t see why you couldn’t do that with a terrarium, other than maybe it would be kind of niche within a niche, but that could be fun. Heck, why not go further? My first idea was to just talk about whatever the playlist was going while the terrarium was being built... That’d be fun, sure, but it’d be a little awkward with copyright and all.
Okay, so don’t do that. Or at least don’t stop there. Just... get weird with it.
“Today, we’re building a terrarium and talking about what an asshole Axl Rose is.”
“Today, we’re building a terrarium and talking about house cats.”
“Today, we’re making a terrarium using only fittonia species and discussing Rancid’s 1995 punk rock opus ‘...And Out Come The Wolves’ (don’t @ me)”
“Today, we’re planting a five gallon aquarium for orange neocaridina shrimp and reflecting on grief and how to process all the things that remain unsaid when those we love leave us behind (and also random facts about goats because that other stuff is really sad).”
“Today, we’re making a waterfall paludarium and discussing Albert Camus, absurdism, and why one must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
And like, you don’t have to completely forego discussing what’s happening on screen. You could have fun with that, too. You could, I dunno, acknowledge the existence of everyone else who is also doing this hobby you love, right?
"So, we know how this goes. This isn't either of our first rodeo. I've got the ingredients for my soil on the screen, but let's be honest, you're already just going to use the recipe from SerpaDesign or Worcester Terrariums.
Anyway, the craziest thing about about Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland is probably...”
Yeah, I dunno. I don’t have much beyond this What If?, really. I think this sounds fun, and I want to watch it, so someone should do it.
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