No, “The Void” is not about existential dread, heartbreak, or any of that sort. The feeling of “The Void” is one of melancholy. It’s a feeling of having something missing inside you like a……Well, like a void. This happens after finishing a particular piece of art.
Have you ever finished a Series, Game, or Book only to walk around with an empty feeling inside you? That my friend is “The Void”.
The feeling is a strange sensation for it can only really occur if you liked something. It’s a combination of satisfaction over the art itself, sadness that it is over, and emptiness since you don’t have anything else to replace it.
Every Time you get the feeling it becomes that much harder to achieve again. That is why I always sit in the feeling for as long as I can. The normal instinct would be to find something to replace it with as fast as possible. This is a mistake, since the thing you replace it with dosent stand a chance. You are better of wating till the feeling has passed or weakend.
In the times we live in where everything is being consumed so fast it is hard to achieve “The Void”.
I was first introduced to the concept via the ancient anime podcast PodTaku (episode 15). Where the hosts talked about exactly that feeling. The episode made a big impact on me since I knew the feeling they were talking about, yet it is so hard to articulate what the feeling is. One of the hosts of the podcast name Holden said it like this:
“It is like a void inside of you that can only be filled with that show” I am paraphrasing here.
When does it happen?
In my opinion, I think you need to dedicate a large amount of time to it. Maybe some people can get the feeling from a film or an Album, yet I find that in my life I usually get it from longer form of Art.
When you consume a long story with a humble beginning that spans years and where the characters go on an adventure. Where they grow and experience so much. I think that is where the feeling is most likely to come out.
I imagine people who have read the wheel of Time or watched all of Naruto would feel “The Void”.
Once you dedicate that much time to a cast of characters “The Void” is going to be unavoidable.
I remember the feeling of “The Void” on several occasions mostly in anime and gaming.
AC Odyssey, FMA Brotherhood, Legend of Korra, and Cowboy Bebop are some examples of me getting the feeling.
I am sure it varies from person to person and that is what’s so great about it. It shows that diffrent things speak to diffrent people.
So, if you have finished something and instead of being happy, you feel sad and empty fear not! That feeling is normal. It is something we all experience, at some point or another, or at least I hope people do. Even Though the feeling is bittersweet, “The Void” springs out from a feeling of deep love and appreciation. Don’t ignore it. Try to sit in it, for you have no idea if that feeling is ever coming back.