It is and it isn't
Here's a very brief excerpt from my new book, An Abundance of Katherines (which comes out in just 10 days--jeez, that snuck up on me):
"Five years is a long time," Lindsey said.
"It is and it isn't, baby. It is and it isn't."
That dialogue in a completely different context (which I can't tell you or it will spoil the whole novel), but I was thinking about that this morning. For me, five years has been a long time, and also it hasn't. I startd writing Looking for Alaska in earnest about a week after September 11th, when I was lonely and newly single and about as unhappy as I've ever been. Since then, a lot of personal things have changed--the book has come out, I met Sarah, got married, moved to New York, started writing full-time. But at least in my head, I'm the same basic person I was five years ago. I was 24 then. I suppose I'm a different person from my 24-year-old self, but not THAT different.
Five years, on the other hand, is a very long time if you're 15. If you're 15, 9/11 happened to a pre-pubescent kid version of you, not the current teen version of you. I wonder what it's like, to have a new self between you and this event that defined everything that has come since both politically and socially. I wonder if it allows you to grow up with the country (as R.P. Warren put it). Or maybe you grow up faster than the country; maybe youth allows you to go on growing up while the country stays scared.
It's a really beautiful day here in New York. A brilliant blue sky, clear as I've ever seen it. Hope it's nice where you are, too.
posted by John Green @ Monday, September 11, 2006
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Weird; I actually wrote a journal entry in English about this today.
When you're in 6th grade (now I'm 16), earth crashing events (as far as they go literally groundbreaking-ly for one state) like Sept. 11 only go so far. For me, it all started with some poem I happened to write in class. I can't even remember it, but it was enough to be a quick ticket into the couselor's office; it turned on some waterworks. Boys in the back of the class silently sympathized but snickered with their friends after the first chuckle, and girls nearby were cooing aws, hugging me before I was escorted into the office. The principle and eventually the school couselor asked me questions like, "How did this make you feel?", "How do you feel now?". Now and then they'd make comments like, "You're a brave girl."
I didn't understand why they had to take me away after I was crying; I didn't think it was that big of a deal. That night I turned on the tube to the news and saw an vista into their mind: There were b-rolls being shown on the news report of support groups being formed in high schools. Crying teenagers are venting their feelings to me on screen.
"Oh," I thought, "They think I'm like that."
After effects: Anyone who was Pakistan, from Afghanistan, anyone whose culture ended with "stan" was a terrorist. One Pakistan resturant here in SLC was burnt down. If you wore a burka, you were a terrorist. (It became almost as ridiculous as "If you wear red nail polish, you're a terrorist.") Shows were being put back on TV about white chicks and Muslim girls switching places to understand eachother's culture and break barriers. That didn't stop the so-called "red neck" from buring down that resturant, though, did it?
Regardless, your every day patriot was born again with neighbors from every corner masting American flags in front of their houses half because of national tragic concern and half because it was a national fad. Leave it to our Capitalist coutry to reek some form of profit even during a national tragedy. (And do you honestly think all proceeds went to the Twin Towers? GM won't even help with Global Warming, so what if two towers came down?) Evetually the emotion-fad died down with the flags coming down one by one. That didn't stop the telly from airing that commercial with the before and after Sept. 11 of the San Fran houses and the masted flags.
Today, Sept. 11 has everyone on a liberal/conservative-to-the-extreme edge. Bush has haters and lovers. Think John Lennon and Yoko Ono's replacement of "bed in breakfast" (Shouldn't it be "breakfast in bed"? I certainly wouldn't want a bed in my breakfast.) with "bed in protest" and the effect that had; that basically happened a week ago in Utah. Or, well, the protest was fun at least, mind, that didn't stop my friends and I from trying to keep ourselves unbiased and going to the remnants of the Pro-Bush Rally. Nor did it stop us with debating with people, either. :)
Going back to Sept 11th 5 years ago, and taking into considerations how 5 years is a lot when your a teen, to be painfully honest it's not that earth shattering. People around you are mad at eachother, flags are back in style and you're shunned if you're and adult and not in the trend. But overall... it's like growing your pubic hair, freaking out for a second, and moving on. You take the consideration into mind of the changes it'd done to you, perhaps when you're older... but not for very long, and probably won't even if it's a journal prompt on the board. Sept. 11 changes individuals when you're a pre-teen at least; a passing phase, and you could take even less mind if it jolts the world. 5 years ago... it was only 6th grade, afterall.
--
So I was reading Teen Vogue and I came across your little ad about this Katherin book. It was quite humorous and I had to check you out; your book must be oozing laughs with responses like this to questions:
Q: I'm going to be 16 soon, and I've never had a boyfriend. Am I doing something wrong? - Samantha R.
A: Yes, you're doing something wrong. Specifically, you are failing to date nerds. Nerds are available; they are often quite cute; they make excellent boyfriends; and they can help with homework. Nerdy boys are America's greatest underutilized natural romance resource.
HA HA HA.
Anyways, I'm also a fan of the semi-colon, and you used it a lot within that paragraph, so you're automatically my favorite until I find some new random being to plea idolatry to. Sorry man. (So the life of a teenager).
Well, at least you know I may check your book out now.
I was 13 on 9/11, and on that particular day I had forgotten to do my math homework. I heard that we the towers were hit, but was more concerned about how my excellent excuse of "I forgot" was gonna play out. It wasn't till I got home and had to do my paper route and every customer I had had locked doors did I realize that something huge had happened, something that you define as "before" and "after".
On a related note, I was at 1622 Julian today.
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