BEDA 5
Q. I know you were an Obama fan during the campaigns, but has your opinion of him changed based on the decisions he's made since he's been in office?
A. For the record, I wasn't an Obama fan; I was an Obama supporter. I agreed with some of his positions and disagreed with others. I still do.
That said, Obama has significantly exceeded my expectations. I think he's been aggressive about the financial crisis without responding recklessly, whereas Bush and Paulson managed to be both casual and reckless. His success at the G-20 (aside from the Afghanistan troops thing, which was never going to happen) speaks volumes about the restored centrality of America in international policy, and I like that when talking to the American people, he acknowledges complexity and ambiguity.
I mean, look. It's really early. I thought George W. Bush did a reasonably good job for his first 12 months, and that didn't work out very well (in my opinion, at least). So I'm not going to make any far-reaching judgments. But I've been pleased so far. You?
Q. If not fame, what *do* you recommend to fill up the empty spaces inside?
A. Well, the reason people think fame will fill up the empty spaces inside them is because we want to be acknowledged and loved and cared for. Like, say that someone breaks your heart. The pain of that heartbreak is so real and so profound and so deeply felt, and you want other people to acknowledge it. And it feels like if millions of people cared enough about you to read about your heartbreak in US Weekly, then you could bear it. The holes inside would be filled by the thoughts and attention of strangers.
But in fact this does not work. It's a snake oil cure. The only thing, in my experience at least, that fills up the empty spaces is caring for other people and allowing them to care for us.
Q. What do you think about Daylight Savings Time?
A. I suppose I am in favor of it for environmental reasons, but I sure hate it every Spring when that hour disappears.
Q. do you feel the medium of novels is inherently better than the medium of film?
A. Yes, I do. But I'm clearly biased. Also, films reach many more people, and can be wonderfully entertaining and moving and transformative and everything, and I don't want to diminish their importance.
Q. What ever happened to news Sunday?
A.
Q. Why are boys so stupid?
A. Well, in our defense, girls can be really stupid, too. (But yeah. I'm sorry.)
Q. Would you ever let your kids choose their own names like Alaska's parents did for her?
A. No, I like that parents pick names and then kids learn to inhabit them. I actually think it was a bit neglectful of Alaska's parents to allow her to choose her own name.
Q. Why is the website called sparks fly up?
A. The domain name is taken from a line in the Bible, from the Book of Job: "Man is born to trouble like the sparks fly upward."
Remember to leave your questions in comments!
posted by John Green @ Sunday, April 05, 2009
71 Comments
71 Comments:
Did you know that section one of Cassandra Clare's new book is called Sparks Fly Upward? Is this a shout out or is it just random?
After all the serious peep-eating you have done (and will do), do you ever see yourself actually enjoying one ever again?
I love this QJEDA (Question John Every Day (in) April) business.
Do you currently have plans for any new books, and can you tell us about them?
And, what is a good way to defeat Tiny Chicken Disease? I think I've come down with it.
What advice do you have for authors trying to get published?
What are some of your favorite words?
Do you think you have more teen reader followers of English teacher followers?
What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
Could you recommend a poet who is sad but leaves you with a sense of hope in the end?
Do you like or dislike Romeo and Juliet?
A Canadian of my acquaintance would like to know.
Are you ever going to eat those Peeps? If so, when?
Captcha Dictionary:
riono- Pronounced rye-oh-no. A word used to describe a rhino that is charging straight at you. A large amount of emphasis is often put on the last two syllables.
Example: Look at that ri..ONO!
I am reading Lolita for my English class, and I had to write a paper on it. I wrote my paper on how Humbert views Lolita is just a nymphet rather than an actual person. In it I made a reference to paper town; was this a bad idea or a good idea?
--brittany
as* not is
You always talk about ninjas and pirates...what about leprechauns?
I admire your BEDA strength, while I the extremely busy Nerdfighter/MJ minion must strive to complete BEWA(Blog Every Week April), which I already messed up.
Question: What is your favorite movie:book:song and....peep color?
Question:In the categories above, which of each affected your life as an author the most?
Dear, dear John: The people in the airport may think you're crazy, but the people out in Nerdfighteria think you're made of awesome. I'm so glad that the Evil Baby Orphanage is back in play. And I think that kidnapping "the Fatherly Leader" is a good solution to the wackness that is Elvis. Um, make that "Kim Jong-Il."
Did any of your books originally have different titles? And / Or how do you decide on the titles?
At the very beginning of Paper Towns, you say that "everyone gets a miracle." What was your miracle or what would you choose to be your miracle.
I found it interesting that a few entries back you listed The Virgin Suicides as one of your top five YA novels. It never occurred to me to think of it as YA, but I suppose it makes sense. The whole idea of classifying books based somehow on age fascinates me and confuses me. What makes something YA? It doesn't necessarily seem to be the age of the characters or the subject of the novel. One thing I've been thinking about: As far as I can tell, you write your books for a "young adult" audience -- I don't get the impression Eugenides does. But just because someone writes a book with an intended age group in mind doesn't mean only that age group will read it... I don't really have coherent thoughts on this, but it's something that always fascinates me. Why was The Book Thief published for adults in Australia but marketed as YA in the US? Why is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime a children's book in the UK but shelved with general literature in the US? It's fascinating for me to look at where "YA" gets shelved in my university's library system. Katherines and Alaska are in the juvenile collection of the Education Library; Paper Towns is in one of the main libraries, stacked with more general American literature. Octavian Nothing is there with Paper Towns; The Book Thief is part of the Juvenile Collection. I don't understand how they make these decisions.
Anyway, I do have a question, I guess. Do you have any novels to recommend that deal with a college experience? One of the things that stood out to me about Paper Towns was how accurately it captured my high school experience, especially those last few weeks of senior year. I'd only been at college for a few months, and would have loved to have found a novel that captured what I was feeling at that time in my life. I thought about it and realized off the top of my head it was hard for me to come up with that many novels that even took place in college. I could think of Megan McCafferty's Charmed Thirds, and a search of the library's database brought up some titles (amazing titles: The Answer Is Always Yes In My Pants, The Cheese Monkeys In My Pants)... I enjoyed Charmed Thirds, but I haven't really found any other books. Are there really not that many novels-set-in-college out there, or am I just oblivious? It just kind of amazes me that college is this huge obsession in American culture (idealized by high school kids who haven't been yet and almost everyone who's already gone to college, it seems like) and there doesn't seem to be an equivalent representation in books. Or is it just that there's not necessarily a universal college experience the way there is with high school? I don't think I buy that, actually. A lot of the undergraduate experience seems incredibly universal to me. Speaking of which, I should probably go back to my paper. Which is due in... eleven odd hours? Crap.
So, John, what do you think of the Children's Book Festival in Hattiesburg? Inquiring minds want you to give us a shout-out.
I asked this question last time, but I suppose I'll ask it again:
If an adult character in a work of fiction were to supernaturally be brought to their own past as a child, would they be a pedophile for engaging in relationships with people of their (supernatural) biological age?
Have you ever been addicted to brain crack?
If you have a grilled cheese sandwich without cheese then what do you have?
what is your favorite pokemon from the orignal Red and Blue versions?
Why is a round pizza put in a square box?
What are your thoughts on fan fiction in general? It that opinion different when you think about fan fiction of your novels?
All the discussion about Evil Baby Orphanage seems to be about who would be rehabilitated there, but who would run the EBO?
What is your favorite Dorothy Parker poem?
Would you be more prone to developing a God complex or a fraud complex?
I recently read Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. Her Essay "Words on a Flyleaf" inspired this series of questions, which I have been asking everyone lately.
What is the best inscription you have ever received in a book?
What is the best inscription you have ever given, both personally, and as an author?
Do you think its wise for teens to consider careers as writers, even though in the modern world less books are being published everyday?
That probably could have been phrased better. Sorry, its late, and I've been doing homework all day. If you use this question in your blog, go ahead and rephrase it.
DFTBA
Tenley Nadine
What do you think would be the ideal location for the Evil Baby Orphanage? My vote is somewhere with penguins. Everybody loves penguins, even evil babies.
Would you ever consider writing a novel completely in stream of consciousness style like Faulkner or Joyce?
Do you believe the novels that win the Printz and the novels that win the Young People's National Book Award are different? From the lists of previous winners it seems as if the books that win the former are are acessiable to teens and the ones that win the latter are more accessiable to adults. Accessiable in the regard of plot and not literary technique and/or style.
John, we know you like the book of Job, or at least some of the phrasing in it, but is there any other Biblical story or book that has made a severe impact on you?
Also, and I've been curious about this one for a bit-
Charles Bukowski- Literary genius, or major douchebag?
I mean, clearly, he's a douchebag, but do you think that's all there is to his poetry?
Where do Babies come from?
Hi John! I am a freshman at a Butler University in Indianapolis and am in a English class that is based on films and the history of cinema. I am loosely basing my final project for this class on the idea of imagining others complexly, which you depicted in Paper Towns. (I am taking the film Crash and examining how it uses multiple perspectives to break stereotypes and show complexities)
So I was wondering, may I quote you in my project? And if that is okay with you, would you mind writing a short something on your opinions of the importance if imagining others complexly?
Thanks!
-Hannah
Do you read postsecret?
If something has the potential to be both amazingly wonderful and possibly destructive (not like drug use and that ilk), would you take the chance?
Are there any specific nerdfighter/nerdfighteria related things that have touched your heart/made you realize the kind of following you and Hank have amassed?
~Wynn
Although my name is eccentric, I think it really defines who I am today. I am the only Bobina I know, so I only knew how to be me growing up. If I ever meet another person with my name, I might be a little disappointed.
Alingopl: A tool one uses to clean a swimming pool. Derived from the undefinable speech of snobby, exaggeratedly deep voiced club owners.
Example: Pool boy: What should I clean the pool with, sir?
Owner: Don't be daft boy, use a alingopl. *sips martini*
QUESTION: What is the opposite of a happy dance?
Tell us about a dream you had recently :)
Have you read Mortimer J. Adler's book "How to Read a Book"? Do you agree with his idea that most people do not actually know how to read, and that reading is a skill that takes years and years of practice and experience to master?
What was the profound disagreement you and Hank had over the nature of time travel paradoxes? For example, was it over whether we can actually change the past (and thus the future), or was it about something else?
How do you balance trying to make/ at least wanting people like Kim Jong Il to have never been born and imagining everyone with complexity. I never know when you draw the line between condemning actions and condemning people.
as always super funny vlog.
Q: Chuck Norris one liners. Really funny or really annoying?
I asked vloglovers on youtube this question and I was just wondering what your answer to it would be - what is your definition of love? :]
I think it's awesome how people can define it so differently, it makes me wonder whether it's just one of those things that are bigger than words and can't really be defined, or if maybe when we say we love someone we're not all feeling the same thing. =/
I've tried explaining split infinitives to my friend, but he doesn't understand. Is there any way you could explain it that would make it easier?
what is your favourite paradox?
Why DID the chicken cross the road?
Dear John,
BEFORE MY QUESTION(s) I simply cannot leave a comment without mentioning how completely amazing I think you are and how much I love you, especially for treating teenagers and their emotions with such dignity. I am a freshman in college and I just read your books earlier this year. I wish I had read them in high school! I think I would have felt a lot better about myself if I had known that you and your books and nerdfighters existed.
OKAY so I don't want to make this too long, so on to the questions!
1) What books, in your opinion, are essential reads in life? Books that, if everyone would just read them, we'd probably be collectively better as a human race?
2) Did you come up with the concept of the bufriedo?? Have you eaten them?? DO YOU KNOW HOW DELICIOUS THEY ARE???? (My boyfriend and I made them last month. Oh, the taste of utter perfection-- even if we did forget to buy cheese!)
That's all! Thanks for reading, and thanks for writing and saying some of the greatest things my little brains have ever encountered.
This might sound stupid, but I have to admit I don't get the knock knock joke Alaska made. Did anyone ever admit that to you?
If you could put wings on any animal, what would you choose?
Do you choose a central theme for your books or do you write and realize that a subconscious theme has come up again and again and you just roll with it?
Do you ever get writer's block (or rather moment where nothing creative is coming to mind)? And if you do, what do you do to get out of it?
Thanks
My question is somewhat related to the several definitional, navel-gazing* questions about the YA genre you've already received.
Are there any recent novels that you think would appeal strongly to teen readers, but were — for whatever reason — not published and marketed as YA books?
(I'd nominate — off the top of my head — Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie and Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz)
*Let's just assume that literary genres have belly buttons.
Are you coming to Australia anytime soon?
were you in band in high school? If not how did you know all the rules?
Bc I'm in band and it's very true in Paper Towns that if you skip school you still go to band practice.... extreme nerds yeah.... And everyone DOES hang out at the band room, including the kids not in band... Just wondering how you knew all that :)
I have two questions. The first is: Giraffe. True or false?
The second is one I asked Hank at a Nerdfighter gathering in Ann Arbor, but that was when you were splitting the difference between upstairs and down, so I'd like to hear your answer as well. Do you go back and watch old Brotherhood videos, or is that weird for you?
So many comments already! Well John, I'm almost finished watching all of Ze Frank's "the show"videos, a quest I set out to do about a two weeks ago. I've been sick, so much of this weekend was passed watching "the Show". You've stated in the past that you were active in online things such as lonelygirl, and now thisisnottom.
My question is, were you ever involved in anything to do with the show, like the ORG or the league of awesome? You and Hank have said you ripped of Ze, but I wanted to know how in on it you were while it was going on.
and Thanks for turning me on to it, even though I'm like 3 years late. It was Hilarious!
You say that you think Alaska's parents' decision to let her name herself is neglectful. What else do you think of your books' characters?
First, I think Obama is doing a decent job so far. I think he has good potential.
Second, Obama got little, maybe nothing that he wanted at the G20. The only thing the g20 did that Obama wanted was to give money to world monetary fund. They were going to do this anyway.
Third, Obama clearly isnt being judged nearly as harshly as bush. Of course this may change as time goes by. I just wish that people be honest about it.
Did you meet the Yeti through your encounters with Bigfoot?
If you could do one thing that would in your opinion change the world, what would it be?
Do you think you could justify ever taking your life like Alaska did, and if so, would you want your mystery to be unravelled? (Are you happy to let dead men lie?
Considering everything, what do you think is the purpose of living and the human race?
Ansisti: the plural of ansisting, where you insist upon an answer.
e.g. Those nerdfighters are great at ansisti; they get answers out of John and Hank every time!
I care for other people and I allow them to care for me. And I'm pretty sure I am in good shape in that regard. And, I am not famous. But I still feel empty inside. What is wrong with me?
If you could be any book character, who would you be?
Will we ever know how exactly Alaska died?
Dear Mr. Green,
My name is Elizabeth and I am a high school student. As a graduation present someone is making me a quilt and I wanted to put pieces of cloth onto the quilt that has the signatures of some of my favorite authors. I was wondering if you would be willing to sign a square in my quilt. I would appreciate it so much. If you'd be interested I'll send you the cloth in the mail. I don't have a mailing address, so you'd have to send that too. Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much I enjoy your novels. I think you're an amazingly smart author who writes for an intelligent reader. You're both entertaining and brilliant. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Stranahan
I actually sent this as an e-mail to you as well, but I wasn't sure which you'd see first, so I thought I would put it here as well. Thanks again!
Have you heard the song "Blood Bank" by Bon Iver? It sounds like your section from LET IT SNOW and not just because there are the lyrics "and the snow started falling."
-alissa
Have you heard the rumors/announcements that YouTube is going to be redesigned to be more like Hulu--that is, less focus on the video-making community and more focus on videos from corporations and more "professional" content? What are your feelings about this?
I smoke because smoking is cool and you know it! Jk. I think it's pretty important skill to be able to do something you want to do without trying to justify it to everyone else. Smoking is a great example of something where a lot of the world thinks it's dumb or "self destructive," as you said, and trying to convince them that it's something different is never gonna work, so I might as well not even go there.
Why is it that I'm the only person in my grade who enjoys the books we read in English class?
Do you think this new-media sort of world is eventually going to replace printed novels entirely?
With the publishing industry in bad shape, the time and money and resources it takes to print and bind books, and all of the new and diverse ways of dispersing information to the world, I'm worried that books as we picture them will become obsolete.
Though we have been producing books for a significant portion of the existence of humans, do you think that technology will go in such a direction that in 100 years, printed books be antiquated?
I like my words written on paper!
Why is Job your favourite book of the Bible, other than the fact that it has the "sparks fly upward" quote?
I don't want to be published, I want to help others get published.
What can you tell us about the publishing industry and the jobs available in it?
(I've been thinking editor or agent.)
"...caring for other people and allowing them to care for us..."
To expound on what I think you're saying: first caring for other people and then allowing those people to care for you in return. This is how we make (and keep) friends, which is what fills the holes (and gives us a place to to lean when the holes get too big.)
My wife had a lot of holes when she was working her first big soul-sucking job. Then she joined BBBS and started mentoring a 12 year old girl who just need someone outside her life to give a little perspective. That girl turns 18 this fall and she's become a great friend in return.
That's how the holes are filled...I think.
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