John Green. Green is an award-winning writer and co-founded the popular vlogbrothers channel on Youtube with his brother, Hank. His novels "Looking for Alaska" and "An Abundance of Katherins" were both finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Green's most recent novel, "The Fault in Our Stars," is being adapted intoa film that will be in theaters this summer. He is the recipient of the 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Innovators Award.
His conversation (I am trying to be as accurate as possible, but obviously that isn't possible. Apologies for any massive errors.)
Books haven't responded to the Internet as he would have thought. Books are a very incredibly good technology. Books have lasted centuries, unlike the CD which is going away after only a few years.
When writing a book or reading a book, you live within someone else. You cannot be yourself for awhile. You live inside another character. You are completely outside yourself.
He discussed Catcher in the Rye. Young people now can't identify with Holden. They believe that he is just some rich kid. He argues that it does apply because just like Holden, today's kids are self-absorbed. Many of the novels he read when he was young and thought were totally cool, he re-read them as an adult and sees them as tragedies.
A book is a massive network. He sees it as a book, not as real life. He sees his books as a context of other great books. He writes his characters by thinking: what would these characters read? He writes a first draft and then deletes 80% of it. He can write a bunch of words in a day, but not very good ones. Being labeled in the Young Adult genre can be a straightjacket, but it can also be liberating.
He hopes he is writing for young adults, not down to them. Credits his readers with intelligence.
When he was in high school, he read romance books. He feels he would be called a romance writer if he wasn't a guy. As a teenager, he was obssessed with romance: books and persona life. He dated a lot, very briefly. He was very chaste in his relationships.
As a teenager, you need a family outside of your family.
"Looking for Alaska" was semi-autobiographical, but should be seen as fiction. It was perhaps hurtful as it was built around what happened to him in high school. It was; however, a helpful transition for his writing to write a book influenced by his life.
As for the movie: The Fault in Our Stars. Those involved in the movie cared a lot about the movie. Probably because they're scared of the readers. The actors cared about the characters. It is their movie, not his movie. His one concern: visuals in movies are so powerful that they can over-whelm, change the reading experience.
Internet: We're not good at nuance on the Internet. We're not good at respectfully listening to those who disagree with us. Struggling with this. Can we assume the most generous of another. Can we have constructive conversations?
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