John Green's tumblr

May 11

Anonymous asked: Recently I just finished reading The Great Gatsby, and I have heard that there are numerous symbols throughout the book. I was wondering if you could make a you could make a YouTube video analyzing the book if you had the time.

I’ll make a couple! Here’s one. Here’s another.

baptised-in-vodka:

Ok like I’ve never read The Fault In Our Stars but I see it every where on this site and I want to.

Is it any good??

It’s okay.

My doctoral cape. Thanks to everyone at Butler University for a lovely day!

My doctoral cape. Thanks to everyone at Butler University for a lovely day!

1. Shailene Woodley is a brilliant actress and Golden Globe nominee. I cannot think of any 18-year-old actress who has received the kind of critical acclaim that she has (she also won an Independent Spirit Award). She auditioned for The Fault in Our Stars not because she needs the part (I mean, she’s in the new Spider Man movie, for God’s sakes) but because she loves the book. Her depth of understanding were immediately obvious in the audition and for me there could be no one else to play Hazel. (There were a bunch of really good auditions, but Shailene just understood Hazel as I imagined her.) I am not particularly concerned with physical looks; Hollywood can fix that stuff. (Remember when Nicole Kidman became Virginia Woolf?) I’m concerned with whether she can embody the voice and experience and life of Hazel. She can. 2. Ansel Elgort is also a huge fan of TFiOS (it is, in fact, his favorite book). He was a high school basketball player who also happens to be a very intellectual guy. Most importantly, when he auditioned, he became Augustus. Watching him audition with Shailene, he was just Gus and she was just Hazel. He understood Gus, and clearly had a very deep and thoughtful relationship with the book. Honestly, I’m a bit confused as to how you can dislike an actor whose work you have definitionally never seen, since his first movie isn’t out yet. 3. Novelists do not cast movies, so these were not my decisions (although I did have a lot of input). But I’m defending them because I think they’re both perfect for their parts (and I’d tell you if I felt otherwise). 4. There seems to be some concern that Ansel and Shailene are playing siblings in a different movie. I guess I can understand that, but they’re actors. They can play different roles. They’ll look different and act different and be different. I mean, no one watched Silver Linings Playbook and thought, “When did Katniss move to the suburbs of Philadelphia?” If the movie works, you’ll sit down in the theater and you won’t say, “Oh look it’s Shailene Woodley,” or, “Oh, look, it’s Tris from Divergent.” You’ll say, “Holy wow Hazel Grace.”

1. Shailene Woodley is a brilliant actress and Golden Globe nominee. I cannot think of any 18-year-old actress who has received the kind of critical acclaim that she has (she also won an Independent Spirit Award).

She auditioned for The Fault in Our Stars not because she needs the part (I mean, she’s in the new Spider Man movie, for God’s sakes) but because she loves the book. Her depth of understanding were immediately obvious in the audition and for me there could be no one else to play Hazel. (There were a bunch of really good auditions, but Shailene just understood Hazel as I imagined her.)

I am not particularly concerned with physical looks; Hollywood can fix that stuff. (Remember when Nicole Kidman became Virginia Woolf?) I’m concerned with whether she can embody the voice and experience and life of Hazel. She can.

2. Ansel Elgort is also a huge fan of TFiOS (it is, in fact, his favorite book). He was a high school basketball player who also happens to be a very intellectual guy. Most importantly, when he auditioned, he became Augustus. Watching him audition with Shailene, he was just Gus and she was just Hazel. He understood Gus, and clearly had a very deep and thoughtful relationship with the book. Honestly, I’m a bit confused as to how you can dislike an actor whose work you have definitionally never seen, since his first movie isn’t out yet.

3. Novelists do not cast movies, so these were not my decisions (although I did have a lot of input). But I’m defending them because I think they’re both perfect for their parts (and I’d tell you if I felt otherwise).

4. There seems to be some concern that Ansel and Shailene are playing siblings in a different movie. I guess I can understand that, but they’re actors. They can play different roles. They’ll look different and act different and be different. I mean, no one watched Silver Linings Playbook and thought, “When did Katniss move to the suburbs of Philadelphia?”

If the movie works, you’ll sit down in the theater and you won’t say, “Oh look it’s Shailene Woodley,” or, “Oh, look, it’s Tris from Divergent.” You’ll say, “Holy wow Hazel Grace.”

May 10

hermionejg: Oh shit son. I just had a moment. it’s Augustus and Hazel. Watching them read together was just…just so wonderful. One of the strangest and most rewarding moments of my professional life.

hermionejg:

Oh shit son.

I just had a moment.

it’s Augustus and Hazel.

Watching them read together was just…just so wonderful. One of the strangest and most rewarding moments of my professional life.

(Source: madeupstoriesmatter, via joshboonemovies)

shailenewoodleysource: “I really respond to human scripts, scripts that are raw and real and risky. I love playing scary characters - not horror film scary, but vulnerable scary.” Now that Shailene Woodley and I are basically best friends (which is to say that we are occasional pen pals) I can tell you that I feel TOTALLY 100% CONFIDENT that she is going to be the perfect Hazel. She’s amazing.

shailenewoodleysource:

“I really respond to human scripts, scripts that are raw and real and risky. I love playing scary characters - not horror film scary, but vulnerable scary.”

Now that Shailene Woodley and I are basically best friends (which is to say that we are occasional pen pals) I can tell you that I feel TOTALLY 100% CONFIDENT that she is going to be the perfect Hazel. She’s amazing.

May 09

danicashmanica: Wow. I’ll say it; this sucker turned out great. The question, however: Any idea who the eff this is, Crash Course fans? First correct answer gets cake. (The cake is a lie.)

danicashmanica:

Wow. I’ll say it; this sucker turned out great. The question, however: Any idea who the eff this is, Crash Course fans?

First correct answer gets cake.

(The cake is a lie.)

May 08

Hey, bro, cool story. DFTBA sells a bunch of shirts, and we market to ugly people and nerdy people and small people and big people and pretty people and we’re doing okay and plus we don’t need physical stores with LITERALLY THE WORST MUSIC EVER CREATED BY HUMANS PLAYING AT EAR-BLEEDING VOLUME SO THAT ALL OF YOUR PURPORTEDLY COOL AND BEAUTIFUL EMPLOYEES ARE MADE DEAF BY THEIR WORKING CONDITIONS. So that’s another way of doing it. Also I hate your jeans.

Hey, bro, cool story.

DFTBA sells a bunch of shirts, and we market to ugly people and nerdy people and small people and big people and pretty people and we’re doing okay and plus we don’t need physical stores with LITERALLY THE WORST MUSIC EVER CREATED BY HUMANS PLAYING AT EAR-BLEEDING VOLUME SO THAT ALL OF YOUR PURPORTEDLY COOL AND BEAUTIFUL EMPLOYEES ARE MADE DEAF BY THEIR WORKING CONDITIONS.

So that’s another way of doing it.

Also I hate your jeans.

(via eddplant)

[video]

May 07

John Green's tumblr: Q: I just read an article on Buzzfeed... -

kenyatta:

fishingboatproceeds:

Q: I just read an article on Buzzfeed; in it, Shira Lazar suggests that Vlogbrothers could logically become a paid subscription channel because of the devotion of Nerdfighters. What are your thoughts on this?

asked by bramtic

(Rebloggable by request.)

A. That’s nice of Shira to say, but why would we do that?

Let’s say that you’re a nerdfighter and you’re living in poverty. (Lots of nerdfighters are.) Why would I exclude you from the community just because you don’t have access to the same resources as someone who is wealthy? That would go against the inclusionism that’s the core of nerdfighteria.

(I’m not just saying this in a feel-good, altruistic way: It would also be a terrible business decision, because at some point in the future you will probably not be poor, and you will be able to support our work by contributing directly or buying a poster or a book or an album or whatever. But you will never know that you like the stuff I make if you were denied the opportunity to watch it in the first place.) 

What makes a lot more sense to me is going to the community and saying: Hey, some of you can pay for this and some of you can’t. That’s cool. If you can pay for it, please do, and in exchange we’ll be able to turn off ads for everyone, which is nice, because ads are gross and annoying and I hate them. If you can’t pay, that’s okay, too.

YouTube’s apparent forthcoming paid subscription model isn’t built like that at all: It’s built to be exclusive and paywalled, which I don’t think works for creators who want to build the awesomest possible audience.

I love Shira but I think she’s missing the distinction between an audience and a fan community.

An audience leans back, consumes content, and pays for things like subscriptions which gives them special access to things. They’re done with the show is done. It’s over when the season is over.

A fan community has a deep emotional connection to not just the creators but to each other and will find ways to support one another within (and sometimes beyond) their means. Their attention to the thing may vary but their identity never does. (Fans don’t stop being fans just because you’re in the off season.)

One isn’t necessarily better or more appropriate than the other. Some creators/story universes are able to support both. It’s important to understand the difference between them, though.

Yeah what Kenyatta said.

Q: I just read an article on Buzzfeed; in it, Shira Lazar suggests that Vlogbrothers could logically become a paid subscription channel because of the devotion of Nerdfighters. What are your thoughts on this?
asked by bramtic

(Rebloggable by request.)

A. That’s nice of Shira to say, but why would we do that?

Let’s say that you’re a nerdfighter and you’re living in poverty. (Lots of nerdfighters are.) Why would I exclude you from the community just because you don’t have access to the same resources as someone who is wealthy? That would go against the inclusionism that’s the core of nerdfighteria.

(I’m not just saying this in a feel-good, altruistic way: It would also be a terrible business decision, because at some point in the future you will probably not be poor, and you will be able to support our work by contributing directly or buying a poster or a book or an album or whatever. But you will never know that you like the stuff I make if you were denied the opportunity to watch it in the first place.) 

What makes a lot more sense to me is going to the community and saying: Hey, some of you can pay for this and some of you can’t. That’s cool. If you can pay for it, please do, and in exchange we’ll be able to turn off ads for everyone, which is nice, because ads are gross and annoying and I hate them. If you can’t pay, that’s okay, too.

YouTube’s apparent forthcoming paid subscription model isn’t built like that at all: It’s built to be exclusive and paywalled, which I don’t think works for creators who want to build the awesomest possible audience.

Anonymous asked: What does DFTBA stand for?

Here, let me google that for you.

Absolument Moderne: Why I like this cover -

absolumentmoderne:

image

Hi folks,

I thought I’d take a minute to let you know why I think the cover design for John’s new book The Fault in our Stars is brilliant. I am almost as dismayed by the negative responses to the cover as I was impressed by the amazingly wonderful designs submitted by many of you earlier…

In light of the coverflipping discussion on tumblr:

It’s worth remembering that when I announced the cover for The Fault in Our Stars, everyone hated it. 

“The design is too minimalistic and everyone does judge a book by its cover.”

“This just feels so bland and unimaginative.”

“No one likes the cover John.”

“After all the nerdfighteria designed covers on Fishingboatproceeds, this cover is hideous, so bleeh, so uninspired, I am going to paste a high quality print of one of the best fan created covers on my preordered copy. 3rd graders have done better covers in art class. In fact I ask an elementary art teacher friend of mine to get her best students on this project. TFIOS deserved a better dust jacket.”

These are comments from my announcement of the cover, which was met with such widespread disgust that I enlisted my lovely wife to defend the cover on her tumblr in hopes of quieting the storm. There are literally thousands of negative comments about the cover in the comments for that video. In six and a half years, no other vlogbrothers video has ever received such negative feedback.

May 06

hermionejg: I #coverflipped one of my favourite YA books: Heist Society by Ally Carter. Feat a cheeky bit of Kandinsky (appropriate). This is great. Inspired by Maureen Johnson, designers all over the Internet are imagining what the covers of novels written by women might look like had they been written by men and vice versa. This cover flipping is a great reminder of the deep-rooted sexism in the publishing industry. I would add that male authors rarely get awesome Kandinsky-ish, abstract covers either. (And when they do, the books rarely sell well.) It was a huge struggle, for instance, to get enough support for the minimalist, abstract cover The Fault in Our Stars ended up getting, because so much market research and anecdotal evidence indicates that such covers fail to attract readers. I believed in “treating the novel as if it were a genuinely good novel,” as I said over and over, but ultimately it happened not because of me but because 1. Rodrigo Corral is a very famous cover designer, 2. my publisher Julie Strauss-Gabel would not accept anything else, and 3. the head of sales, Felicia Frazier, had faith in Julie’s vision for the book. That’s a fortunate and rare combination. Other cool cover flips can be found here.

hermionejg:

I #coverflipped one of my favourite YA books: Heist Society by Ally Carter. Feat a cheeky bit of Kandinsky (appropriate).

This is great. Inspired by Maureen Johnson, designers all over the Internet are imagining what the covers of novels written by women might look like had they been written by men and vice versa.

This cover flipping is a great reminder of the deep-rooted sexism in the publishing industry.

I would add that male authors rarely get awesome Kandinsky-ish, abstract covers either. (And when they do, the books rarely sell well.) It was a huge struggle, for instance, to get enough support for the minimalist, abstract cover The Fault in Our Stars ended up getting, because so much market research and anecdotal evidence indicates that such covers fail to attract readers. I believed in “treating the novel as if it were a genuinely good novel,” as I said over and over, but ultimately it happened not because of me but because 1. Rodrigo Corral is a very famous cover designer, 2. my publisher Julie Strauss-Gabel would not accept anything else, and 3. the head of sales, Felicia Frazier, had faith in Julie’s vision for the book. That’s a fortunate and rare combination.

Other cool cover flips can be found here.