View allAll Photos Tagged existentialism
The night before I drew this, I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I woke up late/early in the night/morning, and this was all I could think of.
There is a kind of exposure that does not wait for confession. It does not require a declaration, an explanation, or a chosen unveiling. It arrives prior to language, in the instant when another person apprehends something in us before we have arranged it into words. This image turns toward that unnerving and deeply human threshold. The café is quiet, warm, and outwardly ordinary. Nothing in the setting suggests confrontation. No accusation is being made. No scene is unfolding. And yet the moment is charged, because one person has already arrived in awareness before the other has regained control of how he will appear. The man is paused at the edge of speech. The woman’s gaze is steady, not aggressive, not invasive, simply present. That difference in readiness is the whole drama. He is still becoming visible to himself in the very instant that he has already become visible to another.
That structure belongs profoundly to the lived-world of Confessions to the Empty Chair. The book understands that selfhood is never purely private. However interior a person may be, he does not exist outside the field of recognition. He becomes aware of himself not only through solitary reflection, but through encounters in which his inward life is unexpectedly mirrored, disclosed, or interrupted by another consciousness. Some of the most decisive moments in a life are not moments of self-expression, but moments of involuntary manifestation. One intends to speak, explain, charm, conceal, or manage an impression, only to discover that something more fundamental has already appeared. Before the sentence is spoken, the face, posture, hesitation, atmosphere, and vulnerability have already begun to say what words cannot fully control.
Phenomenologically, this is one of the deepest truths of interpersonal life: we do not first exist as sealed interiors who later choose whether to communicate. We are embodied beings whose presence is always already expressive. The body speaks before speech. The gaze receives before the intellect organizes. The room between two people becomes meaningful before either party successfully narrates it. That is why the image matters in its restraint. Nothing overt is happening. The significance lies precisely in the fact that recognition has occurred without spectacle. The woman does not pry. She sees. And being seen, in this sense, is not the same as being examined. It is the unsettling experience of realizing that one’s inward state is not as hidden as one imagined.
The world of the book repeatedly returns to such moments because they destabilize the fantasy of total self-authorship. A person may believe he controls the terms of his own appearance, that he can decide when he will reveal, what he will reveal, and how he will be known. But real encounters often disrupt that confidence. Confessions to the Empty Chair shows again and again that the self is encountered under conditions not of its own making. This is not always violent. Often it is quiet. A glance, a pause, a shift in timing, the calm steadiness of another’s attention—these can expose more than direct interrogation. They can reveal that identity is not merely projected outward from within. It is also received, interpreted, and answered in the relational field.
Psychologically, this image addresses the fragile interval between self-possession and self-consciousness. Before being seen, the self inhabits itself directly. It acts from within its own momentum. But once it becomes aware of another’s perception, a second layer enters. One begins not only to be, but to experience oneself as being perceived. That altered condition can sharpen, disturb, embarrass, humble, or awaken. It can create defensive performance. It can also produce truth. A person sometimes does not know the shape of his own vulnerability until another person’s attention calls it forth. What he thought was hidden was not fully hidden. What he thought required explanation had already taken form in the visible world.
This is also theological in its implications. To be seen before speaking is, in a human register, a faint analogue of a more ultimate exposure: the recognition that the self does not originate in secrecy. One can hide from others imperfectly, from oneself selectively, but never from reality altogether. The deeper spiritual life begins not when one invents self-knowledge, but when one consents to being known. Confessions to the Empty Chair treats this reality with seriousness. The soul is not autonomous in the way it wishes to be. It stands before forms of recognition that precede its excuses. It is visible before it is articulate. It is addressed before it is prepared. This is why the image is warm rather than harsh. The gaze here is not punitive. It is revelatory. And revelation, even when gentle, can still feel like judgment to a self accustomed to control.
The café setting intensifies the insight by placing the moment in a public but intimate environment. Such places are transitional social worlds. They are neither fully anonymous nor fully private. One can imagine managing one’s persona there. One can imagine conversation proceeding on chosen terms. Yet this image captures the rupture of that expectation. The room remains soft. The lights remain warm. Cups, tables, and ordinary surroundings continue their quiet function. But something more serious has occurred within the ordinariness: the man has been met before he has spoken himself into the scene. He has become vulnerable in advance of intention.
That is why the title matters so much. “I Was Seen Before I Spoke” does not simply mean that someone noticed him first. It means that recognition outran self-presentation. It means that visibility preceded control. It means that language, often treated as the instrument by which we govern how we are known, arrived too late to secure the terms. In the world of the book, this is one of the most destabilizing and potentially redemptive human experiences. It threatens pride because it weakens the illusion of mastery. It offers grace because it suggests that one need not construct oneself from nothing in order to be encountered truthfully.
In the end, this image names a reality central to human existence: the self does not come fully into view only by speaking. Often it comes into view because another consciousness receives it before it has finished arranging its defense. Exposure begins there, in the fragile instant when the soul realizes that its deepest disclosures may not begin in what it says, but in the fact that it has already, unmistakably, appeared.
The Real Reason Ivan Karamazov Couldn’t Accept God – Dostoevsky’s Darkest Argument
Ivan Karamazov on God, Justice & the Meaning of Life, Dostoevsky’s Philosophy
#ivankaramazov #meaningoflife #dostoevskyexplained
Was Ivan Karamazov right to reject the world for the sake of a child’s tear? This video explores Ivan’s views on suffering, freedom, justice, and the existence of God in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.
We also discuss the famous phrase “all is permitted” and why it leads to both personal and social collapse.
If you’re into literature, deep questions, or existential thinking, this is for you.
✅ Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro with Ivan Karamazov in Person (AI)
00:27 – The Brothers Karamazov
01:18 – Complicated Relationship with God
02:09 – Children’s Suffering
04:01 – The Grand Inquisitor
05:34 – All is lawful
07:31 – Ivan Karamazov Versus Dostoevsky
The video has information on The Real Reason Ivan Karamazov Couldn’t Accept God – Dostoevsky’s Darkest Argument. But it also tries to cover the following topics:
Ivan Karamazov Explained
All Is Permitted Meaning
Dostoevsky Philosophy Explained
✅ Stay Connected To Me.
🔔 Join Sergey Shcherbakov for more content that uncovers truths and explores the world from new angles!: www.youtube.com/@shcherbakov.sergey?sub_confirmation=1
✅ For Business Inquiries: shcherbakov.meaning@gmail.com
=============================
✅ Other Videos You Might Be Interested In Watching:
👉 11 favorite songs of Kim Jong Un
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjsd5dbpPgM
👉 Even mom can’t be trusted: cognitive dissonance during the war
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8gYkyFj1l4
👉 20 Books about PROPAGANDA Summarized in 12 Minutes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AEp_9Y5kT4
👉 How war affects the meaning of life (survey in Ukraine)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QwLZODqRNY
👉 How truth becomes propaganda. Mind-blowing power of INTERPRETATIONS
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U2VLG7Jg8U
=================================
#ivankaramazov #allispermitted #dostoevskyexplained #thebrotherskaramazov #godandjustice #philosophyanalysis
The Real Reason Ivan Karamazov Couldn’t Accept God – Dostoevsky’s Darkest Argument
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jtb1LLQIqA
via Shcherbakov
www.youtube.com/channel/UCfcFBdM7uayu4U5H1PBr5UA
September 26, 2025 at 06:45AM
via Shcherbakov ift.tt/e2wkJZ9
I realise that I resemble an existentialist wanker in this upload. Here I go merrily contemplating death, meaningless, and utter nothingness.
"Huis Clos" Play Rehearsal In Progress. Follow us www.mesmeriseme.co.uk/what-is-hell, twitter.com/#!/HuisClos_2011, www.facebook.com/pages/Huis-Clos-MesmeriseMe-2011/1212970...
Self-portrait/devART id
The blur on the red part of the scarf was unintentional, but I like the way it came out.
Edits: colours, slight sharpening on the jacket, noise reduction on the background.
This photo can also be found here...
This image is not to be used without my permission.
Comics Exhibition: "From TELEOS to the Beyond”
Dithers Humor with the Existential and the Mundane
SILVER SPRING, MD— DWIGHTMESS Cartooning & Comic Arts, a new gallery devoted to experimental and cutting-edge independent comics and illustration, is proud to announce its next exhibition, From Telos to the Beyond, a conceptual group show exploring material spirituality and existentialism through comics, featuring the original comics art of Sam Sharpe, Everett Bass, Bob Kubbers and Peach S. Goodrich.
Combining the uncanny and the profane, the arcane and the contemporary, From Telos to Beyond represents a cartoonists' inclination for testing out possible habitable cosmic systems through the particularized and unshared realities of their art. Humanity's inclination to obsessively name its purpose through art is a feature of popular Western cosmogony, and is put into illuminatingly weird action by these artists through the language of sequential storytelling.
Sam Sharpe and Peach S. Goodrich are collaborators on Viewotron, an anthology of recurring stories that match comedic riffs with philosophical narrative rhymes that could only happen in comics. Populated with talking animal college students, goal-less explorers, space monsters, debunked deities, and unexamined consciences, the publication's weird humor reminds us that no one is safe from the stresses in our lives that can embolden one to self-sabotage.
Combined with Sharpe and Goodrich, the perfect draftsmanship and storytelling of comics artist Bob Lubbers (1922-2017) reveals a mastery of and seamless relationship to the comics medium that would seem, to contemporary eyes, eerie to maintain and distinctive in its compositions. His bold creativity, on display in comic strips such as 'Lil Abner, Tarzan, The Saint, and Secret Agent X9 should have afforded him more recognition. According to comics journalist Paul Gravett, Lubbers is 'not the celebrated cartoonist he should be.' Additionally, in these strange & obscure, possibly unpublished comic strips titled Buck Danes, Everett Bass, an artist surmised to have worked in the 1940's, engages a singular, running commentary about making ends meet through its characters that mirrors the political realism of Harold Gray's renowned and long-running comic strip, Little Orphan Annie. That the comic may well represent a failed attempt to capitalize on Gray's success by featuring familiar working-class themes and a relatable drawing style, it ultimately still succeeds at replicating Gray's comic universe, but for purposes too fascinatingly odd to be understood.
Comics Exhibition: "From TELEOS to the Beyond”
Dithers Humor with the Existential and the Mundane
SILVER SPRING, MD— DWIGHTMESS Cartooning & Comic Arts, a new gallery devoted to experimental and cutting-edge independent comics and illustration, is proud to announce its next exhibition, From Telos to the Beyond, a conceptual group show exploring material spirituality and existentialism through comics, featuring the original comics art of Sam Sharpe, Everett Bass, Bob Kubbers and Peach S. Goodrich.
Combining the uncanny and the profane, the arcane and the contemporary, From Telos to Beyond represents a cartoonists' inclination for testing out possible habitable cosmic systems through the particularized and unshared realities of their art. Humanity's inclination to obsessively name its purpose through art is a feature of popular Western cosmogony, and is put into illuminatingly weird action by these artists through the language of sequential storytelling.
Sam Sharpe and Peach S. Goodrich are collaborators on Viewotron, an anthology of recurring stories that match comedic riffs with philosophical narrative rhymes that could only happen in comics. Populated with talking animal college students, goal-less explorers, space monsters, debunked deities, and unexamined consciences, the publication's weird humor reminds us that no one is safe from the stresses in our lives that can embolden one to self-sabotage.
Combined with Sharpe and Goodrich, the perfect draftsmanship and storytelling of comics artist Bob Lubbers (1922-2017) reveals a mastery of and seamless relationship to the comics medium that would seem, to contemporary eyes, eerie to maintain and distinctive in its compositions. His bold creativity, on display in comic strips such as 'Lil Abner, Tarzan, The Saint, and Secret Agent X9 should have afforded him more recognition. According to comics journalist Paul Gravett, Lubbers is 'not the celebrated cartoonist he should be.' Additionally, in these strange & obscure, possibly unpublished comic strips titled Buck Danes, Everett Bass, an artist surmised to have worked in the 1940's, engages a singular, running commentary about making ends meet through its characters that mirrors the political realism of Harold Gray's renowned and long-running comic strip, Little Orphan Annie. That the comic may well represent a failed attempt to capitalize on Gray's success by featuring familiar working-class themes and a relatable drawing style, it ultimately still succeeds at replicating Gray's comic universe, but for purposes too fascinatingly odd to be understood.
Comics Exhibition: "From TELEOS to the Beyond”
Dithers Humor with the Existential and the Mundane
SILVER SPRING, MD— DWIGHTMESS Cartooning & Comic Arts, a new gallery devoted to experimental and cutting-edge independent comics and illustration, is proud to announce its next exhibition, From Telos to the Beyond, a conceptual group show exploring material spirituality and existentialism through comics, featuring the original comics art of Sam Sharpe, Everett Bass, Bob Kubbers and Peach S. Goodrich.
Combining the uncanny and the profane, the arcane and the contemporary, From Telos to Beyond represents a cartoonists' inclination for testing out possible habitable cosmic systems through the particularized and unshared realities of their art. Humanity's inclination to obsessively name its purpose through art is a feature of popular Western cosmogony, and is put into illuminatingly weird action by these artists through the language of sequential storytelling.
Sam Sharpe and Peach S. Goodrich are collaborators on Viewotron, an anthology of recurring stories that match comedic riffs with philosophical narrative rhymes that could only happen in comics. Populated with talking animal college students, goal-less explorers, space monsters, debunked deities, and unexamined consciences, the publication's weird humor reminds us that no one is safe from the stresses in our lives that can embolden one to self-sabotage.
Combined with Sharpe and Goodrich, the perfect draftsmanship and storytelling of comics artist Bob Lubbers (1922-2017) reveals a mastery of and seamless relationship to the comics medium that would seem, to contemporary eyes, eerie to maintain and distinctive in its compositions. His bold creativity, on display in comic strips such as 'Lil Abner, Tarzan, The Saint, and Secret Agent X9 should have afforded him more recognition. According to comics journalist Paul Gravett, Lubbers is 'not the celebrated cartoonist he should be.' Additionally, in these strange & obscure, possibly unpublished comic strips titled Buck Danes, Everett Bass, an artist surmised to have worked in the 1940's, engages a singular, running commentary about making ends meet through its characters that mirrors the political realism of Harold Gray's renowned and long-running comic strip, Little Orphan Annie. That the comic may well represent a failed attempt to capitalize on Gray's success by featuring familiar working-class themes and a relatable drawing style, it ultimately still succeeds at replicating Gray's comic universe, but for purposes too fascinatingly odd to be understood.