here is something unexpected!

[schmerica]

On the bus ride home from work today I was thinking about a YA novel I read the other day and wanted to talk to someone about it. THEN I REMEMBERED I HAD A BEST FRIEND GETTING HER MASTER'S DEGREE IN KID'S LIT. What a coincidence!

ME: Have you read Paper Towns [by John Green] yet? I have thoughts I don't know what to do with.

FOX: Yes! I just finished yesterday!

ME: I finished Thursday night! *high five* Anyway, it is driving me crazy because there is so much I love about it -- but the central conceit drives me insane

ME: Like I realize the point is Green is PROBLEMITIZING the whole geek boy and his fetish for the mysterious/perfect/unattainable girl?

AMY: I was annoyed at the othering of female characters but I loved Lacey and Radar.

ME: but it's still geek boy and dream girl when you come down to it, you know? And I hate that with a passion. What is wrong with girls who aren't unique pefect mysterious snowflakes? Why is her existence still about Q?

AMY: IAWTC. I wish we saw more of the female friends he supposedly had.

ME: Basically, I loved the 11 Things with Margo, the entire road trip, and most of the Radar or Ben interactions.

AMY: "This is what hope tastes like!"

ME: I love it when we come to the same conclusion completely indepedently.

AMY: Me tooooo! &you;

So, yeah, 1) My Amy is the BEST Amy and you should all be jealous; b) John Green is a really good writer and the book is really good but I can't love it wholeheartedly because no matter how much you try to make the book about getting over being that creepy dude, you still have the creepiness as the weird nougaty center and it weirds me out. :/ Write me the Ben-and-Lacey or Radar-and-Angela story instead!

Comments

[shoemaster.livejournal.com]

You have to check out his video blog with his brother if you haven't already (vlogbrothers on youtube). I have such a crush on him.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I watched like the first four or five months of the Brotherhood 2.0 when they were doing it in 2008, and it was totally awesome! Also I have enjoyed his blog in the past. He seems excellent all around.

[speshope.livejournal.com]

I love John Green. I really need to get around to reading Paper Towns. And returning An Abundance of Katherines to the friend who loaned it to me. I'm so bad at returning books. /o\

As you know.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I figure with romance novels it sort of just counts as trading books instead of borrowing, you know? It ends up the same in the end!

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

MINE.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

ALWAYS.

[fairy-tale-echo.livejournal.com]

Hello! Peaking in from Foxlet's journal to mention two things:

1. John Green addressed this, the "panic pixie dreamgirl" aspect of Paper Towns on his blog in a fabulous essay: On the Destruction of Manic Pixie Dreamgirls (http://www.sparksflyup.com/2008/10/on-destruction-of-manic-pixie-dream.php).
2. I think that this has never bothered me as much as when I read his novella/short story in Let it Snow where he has all the hallmarks of the MPDG but none of the room to flesh out either the character or the narrative and both suffer terribly from it.

Oh, and, also, I would TOTES read the Radar and Angela story. And I hope we don't lose John Green to Hollywood (now that he is writing the screenplay for Paper Towns) like we did Rob "90210" Thomas.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

That is a really interesting link, thank you! It's really obvious from the book, I think, that Green *was* trying to pull all of the issues into question, and I trust him as an author? But I'm still left with that gut-level squick somehow.