5/24/2014
Today’s project has been to (finally) read John Green’s ‘The Fault in Our Stars.’
Yes, I know I’m a bit late.
Yes, I know this post will most likely be lost in the flood of blog posts all scrambling to get their voices heard in the pre-release hype surrounding the TFiOS movie.
And yes, I know I’ll probably be repeating things that have been said and said again by readers around the globe.
BUT . . . that doesn’t stop me from speaking my mind because I know at least a handful of people out there will appreciate my words for one reason or another, and just maybe this will find someone who hasn’t read the book, and someone somewhere (or perhaps a million different people, all over the world) have said something to the effect of “It is worthwhile to say what you need to say, even if it only benefits you.”
Please forgive that monumental run-on sentence.
To begin with, let me admit that at the moment I am only on page 125 of 313 – and yet, if the book were to somehow end in the middle of a sentence on the next page, I would still be in love with it.
I’m not one to fangirl, I’m not one to become obsessed with fictional characters (well, maybe just a teensy bit), and I’m not one to become surgically attached to mediocre literature. I read the Twilight books, decided they weren’t worth the hype, and couldn’t take the movies seriously. I nearly jumped out of my skin waiting for the final books of the Harry Potter series, but after my “I’m twelve, I could still get my letter from Hogwarts” stage, I moved on. I think John Green is an awesome person and his life teaches many valuable lessons and provides numerous sources of inspiration and encouragement. I would love to sit down with him and pick his brain for a few hours, if he ever had a few minutes of free time. But if I saw him on the street, I’d probably just smile, wave and say “Hi” as I walked past. I wouldn’t scream, I wouldn’t hyperventilate, I wouldn’t ask for an autograph.
That being said: It has been years since I encountered a book I didn’t want to close, even for a minute. Maybe I wouldn’t be so fanatical about this book if it weren’t the first book I’ve read for the sake of enjoyment in . . . a year? Two years? but I would still be in love with this book. The last time I read a book without wanting to put it down was when I read the Hunger Games trilogy (Mockingjay? SUCH a let-down! First and only time I ever yelled involuntarily at an inanimate object), and this book has me even more captivated.
I think Shailene Woodley was on to something when she called John Green the “Teen Whisperer.” In some ways, I feel utterly disappointed in myself because the characters in ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ seem more human and animate than I am on a daily basis. Their personalities are more defined than my chameleon personifications of myself could ever be. But so many of the thought processes, emotions, and awkward baby steps into a relationship are replicas of my own experiences. The early interactions between Augustus and Hazel are a lot like the interactions between my boyfriend and me. I remember my own moment of “Flirting was new to me, but I liked it.” I remember talking on Facebook late into the night – or rather, early into the morning – and floating into that “invisible and tenuous third space” where it was just us and all of the bad things in the world could be forgotten or turned into a joke. I remember sitting on the couch with space between us until my mom gave us the “awh, they’re so cute” meets “all-knowing mom” smile and gave us permission to scoot in closer. And there are quite a few similarities between Augustus and my boyfriend – not so much the cockiness, or metaphorical resonances of his actions, but the way he wholeheartedly swooped in to care for me, even though my mom was dying and he’d just lost his and neither of us knew what was going to happen or how rocky things might be for us.
And I see how Green’s encounters with Esther gave life to Hazel. The way he wrote Hazel and the flavor she lends to his writing sound so very similar to Esther’s voice that in a couple places it’s almost as if SHE wrote the book instead of Green.
8/31/2014
I finished ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ a few days after I wrote that draft.
I loved the whole experience, save the unwanted spider visit which nearly gave me a heart attack at around 2 a.m. just as I was reading the last two chapters of the book. (The rude arachnid received a lethal blow from my sneaker in return for its insolence)
The movie version of TFioS was superb. I was disappointed, as always, by some of the things left out of the script or modified from the book version, but it was the best new release I’ve seen in several years. I’m sorry to use a tired phrase, but it was refreshing to see something so well-made on every level, which kept the original meaning and depth of such a wonderful story.
~ The End
~LaughingNymph~ 