It’s thrilling — and not just because of how raw and bruising Thorn’s monologue is, or how well written it is. It’s also thrilling because this is a YouTube video where aesthetic form is inseparable from content.

Late in “Men. Abuse. Trauma,” Thorn suggests that one project worth undertaking, should you have a platform like his to do it, is to increase the number of emotional colors that men feel free to paint with, so they’re not forced to work with such a limited palette. By making a video like this one, he says, other men might be able to recognize themselves in his story and find sustenance and help with the process of navigating their own emotions.

Even more remarkable is that Thorn memorized the entire, 30-minute monologue, rather than read off cue cards. And it only took him two takes to nail it for the video.

via Vox

Bibliography: Jean Paul Satre No Exit, Descartes Meditations, Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit, Fanon Black Skin, White Masks, Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk, Widdows Perfect Me, Critchley Infinitely Demanding