That Thing Neil Gaiman Does Where He Responds to Emails in Blog Posts
...is a very good idea. Unpleasantly, it just isn't possible to respond to emails right now. But I will respond to some things here! These emails are from yesterday.
"Is there any way I can interview you about how your religious beliefs have affected your work?"
Alas, there is not, but I will say this: All writers' work is inevitably shaped by their values. I don't think I'm any different. But anyone who is looking for some message in my books that being religious is better than not being religious is barking up the wrong tree. I happen to be religious, mostly for the reasons David Foster Wallace outlined in this speech. But I don't think the full experience of humanness is open to me and closed to others because I happen to be religious.
"I wrote a story for my english class and I was hoping you could possibly read/edit my paper."
Alas (again with the alases!), I cannot read unpublished stories or manuscripts, partly because my tbr pile is already too long and partly because my publisher strongly discourages it for legal reasons.
"How can I get an autographed copy of your books?"
The probably-easiest way is to happen across one of the many independent bookstores where I have signed stock, or else to live in Indianapolis, where I have secretly signed every copy of my books I happen to come across in bookstores. I don't at the moment have a way of SASE-ing books, because I am extremely disorganized and scared of the post office. (CRAP. That reminds me I have to go to the post office. CRAP.)
"I thought you might find this funny."
And indeed, I do. Also strangely moving. The way xkcd imagines romantic love makes me happy.
posted by John Green @ Tuesday, January 27, 2009
26 Comments
26 Comments:
you just reminded me that I also have to go to the massive-queue-having-post office. Greeeat.
- Rosi
(captcha was "uncest", incest gone horrifically wrong... or more wrong than incest arguably already is. perhaps involving failing bodily functions? je ne sais pas.)
The fact that you sign your books in bookstores is AWESOME!
This comment has been removed by the author.
Randall Munroe (creator of xkcd) is a friend of my ex's. A lot of the relationship-related content is based on the relationship he had with his (now) ex.
Sometimes this make the comic more funny...other times sad.
But even when it's sad, I laugh.
Happy Tuesday!
-Monica
Sorry about the double comment. It told me there was an error and hadn't posted, so I wrote it again... then I saw that both HAD made it, so I deleted one, and now you're getting three. Or two. kthxbai
The post office is super scary.
Do you seriously sign your books in Indianapolis book stores? AHHHH!!! I must find one!!!!
(A hint on where to look might be kinda nice)
This video of my friend's baby reminded me of one of your recent adventures...
http://vimeo.com/2501492
the fact that you randomly sign your books in bookstores makes me immensly happy. keep being awesome. :D
The signing books in bookstores made me laugh out loud. I wonder if I could make someone's day if I pretended to sign the author's name in a book before they buy it... or if that would just anger booksellers...
@Melissa: I'm pretty sure that's illegal.
@John: I like this answering e-mails via blog thing, very awesome.
-Julian
Oh, XKCD. How I love thee... and your fear of raptors.
This is my first comment on a blog other then my mommy friends. I feel somehow liberated writing a real author but really more then a little silly. I am the cliché soccer, horse lessons, gymnastics, piano, trombone, marching band, art lessons, no time to breathe mom but spends her nights trying to sink some knowledge into this poor brain that I fear has turned to mush. (I really like run on sentences.)
In addition I have to tell you that I love your books. Not only have I enjoyed them thoroughly but you have given me faith that there are some YA books for my soon to be a young adult daughter that won’t strip her of her mind bits at a time.
And I have a question, or rather questions. I know this may be strange. How did you find the speech given by David Foster Wallace? And for that matter all of your other random bits of knowledge? Do you spend countless hours scouring the internet for the good stuff or is it all from book research, combination of both? Do you own an “awesome” radar gun you can give out on loan?
--thank you for hours of enjoyment--
Lori
I agree. Yay John!
Btw, Just for fun I'd search John Green was arrested for again.... =]
No reason.
My sister loves David Foster Wallace's work. His life is really a sad story.
Yes, I use my sister for editing and story idea-editing and stuff. She just graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in creative writing.
Ugh, the post office is creepy.
I LOVE xkcd!
ha. Now I'm going to have "boom de yada boom de yada boom boom boom boom de yada"stuck in my head for the rest of the night.
David Foster Wallace speech: good stuff. Thanks for sharing it.
John, I just took the time to read that speech, and I'm so glad I did. Excellent. Really excellent. Thanks for sharing.
So yeah this comment's laaaaate.
Anyway, that's so awesome you sign all your books! Next time I'm down in Indy(which will probably be this weekend) I'll definitely have to check for one of your books!
Sorry, but that speech didn't do anything for me. He pretty much gave the most depressing commencement speech ever, about searching for meaning (and failing, it seemed to me) in the tedium of daily life, then proceeded to kill himself. Okay, it was a few years later, but still, I'm not sure Wallace is the guy we should be taking advice from on this subject.
I find it odd that you would find his words so inspirational; you're always so upbeat, dude. You never forget to be awesome.
Evincar,
Curious-what part of the speech did you find depressing? Not sure if this is the place for a discussion, but do you feel that DFW should be defined by his suicide?
Of course I don't think he should be defined by his suicide. But you have to admit that someone suffering from chronic depression might have an outlook on life that is rather skewed towards the negative. That's certainly the way his speech seemed to me. Nothing in there resonates with me in any way. And I'm a liberal arts graduate.
i TOLD neil the blog posting thing was a good idea!
glad he was able to give you a way to answer questions.
since i am a decoted nerdfighter, you can be sure i'm absolutely dying to know when the Paper Towns movie is coming out.
any word yet?
p.s. when i typed decoted, it was meant to be devoted. i happen to be a nerdfighter who fails at typing and has a half dead laptop from 2001 with screwed up keys. lol
Evincar,
I guess I have to respectfully disagree with you in a public comment that I am fairly certain is completely inappropriate….sorry to everyone else. It’s nothing personal against you. It's about me-Evincar. I’m on a mission.I want to change your mind and maybe I can't but at least let me try.
I am not a college graduate. Actually for the last 12 years all I’ve done is take care of kids. Mostly children who aren’t talking in full sentences meaning I am unsure if I can still make coherent sentences. I’m used to philosophizing with 2 year olds about why they should not take the eggs out of the refrigerator and use them as bombs on the kitchen or why we should not dump an entire bottle of nail polish on the new carpet, and then figuring out how to get a dozen eggs off of our kitchen ceiling and the nail polish out of the carpet (btw-hairspray and Windex can get just about anything out of carpet in case you were wondering).
So back to DFW. I suppose I should also admit I did not know who Mr. Wallace was before I came to John Green’s website and ever so randomly, almost by accident, clicked on the link. I’d heard his name but I’m not at the place in my life where I can take on something like Infinite Jest. So I didn’t know, my mind was an open sieve. And I was filled. Imagine how I felt when I googled his name and found out he was dead and how he died. I will admit that moment of discovering DFW was sad.
I loved that it wasn’t your typical graduation speech, no fluffy BS-I found what he said extremely real. There was a lot about how we see other people-try to see behind or above the obvious. And the tedium of life. Boy is my life tedious, and as a former foster mom for several years I’ve seen a lot of ugly. For sanity sake I have to try and do what DFW described only sometimes I can’t.
Not my favorite part but it’s a really great quote to sum it up: “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.” That kind of stuff is not depressing.
This speech had me sitting at the computer crying into my herbal tea. Not sad weepy depressing tears but like “wow, this is what I needed to read today to feel good about changing that poopy diaper” tears. I loved his view of choice. The part about worship and atheism are extremely powerful and in my opinion true and in no way can I find any of it depressing.
Finally why I care so much and am making an idiot of myself on John Green’s website when all I really did was read Paper Towns and love it so much I wanted to come and tell him… Anyway I always take suicide comments personally. My brother spent most of his short life battling depression-a very real chemical battle akin to other diseases. He was so much more then that one final horrific act, but that is how he is remembered by almost everyone he knew. As I believe Mr. Wallace was much more complex then depression or how he left the world.
DFW's speech reminded me of the following part in A STUDY IN SCARLET when Sherlock Holmes says:
"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it."
You can go to www.indiebound.org to quickly find an independent bookstore near you and see if they have some signed books. Most indie stores are happy to ship to you, as well.
And thank you John for supporting independents!
Dear footstepsonmyheart,
You did not make a fool of yourself, I assure you. However, I don't think we'll come to an agreement about Wallace's speech and its relevancy.
I noticed you wrote "I’m not at the place in my life where I can take on something like Infinite Jest." I should hope that someone could read a great novel regardless of the state of their daily lives. Not necessarily Wallace; there is no lack of good books out there. I hope you find a way to allow yourself this pleasure every once in a while.
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