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Gus Is A Bug

2009-11-15 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · announcement promotion

John says most books, even great ones like his childhood favourite Gus Is a Bug, go out of print and are forgotten; he challenges Nerdfighters to find a copy or its author (and punish him if they do) or to illustrate its text, which he reads aloud.

What is said

00:00:00 — Plane/ground opening; flying home from friends' wedding in New Orleans; his favourite childhood book, Gus Is a Bug

  • ★★ John is flying home from his friends' wedding in New Orleans, after sleeping 86 minutes the night before. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John's favourite book as a little kid was Gus Is a Bug, about a caterpillar named Gus; in retrospect it was teaching that the letter U can sound 'uh'. — 00:00:00

00:00:41 — Better than The Very Hungry Caterpillar; most books, even great ones, go out of print and are forgotten

  • ★★ John recalls thinking Gus Is a Bug the greatest accomplishment in literature, judging Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar good but no Gus Is a Bug. (playful) — 00:00:41
  • ★★★ John says people think books bring authorial immortality, but most books, even great ones, eventually go out of print and are entirely forgotten. — 00:00:41

00:01:10 — No copy can be found; challenge to find a copy or the author (with punishment as reward); project to illustrate the text and upload to the Ning

  • ★★★ Despite extensive searching John cannot find a single copy; a teacher reprinted the text online, so he knows it but not the author or the pictures. — 00:01:10
  • ★★★ John challenges Nerdfighters to find him a copy or the author of Gus Is a Bug; if they do, they may punish him however they see fit. — 00:01:10 · Nerdfighteria, Punishment
  • ★★★ Even without a copy, John proposes Nerdfighters remake the book: draw pictures for the text he reads and upload them to the Ning so he can reconstitute his childhood experience. (hedged) — 00:01:40 · Nerdfighteria, Nerdfighter Ning

00:02:09 — John reads Gus Is a Bug aloud; the airport thinks he is crazy; Question Tuesday on Tuesday; sign-off

  • ★★ John reads the full text of Gus Is a Bug aloud as the text to illustrate: Gus has fuzz, runs, naps, tugs, and ends with no fuzz. (playful) — 00:02:09
  • ★★ John asks Nerdfighters to leave questions in the comments and says he will do a Question Tuesday on Tuesday. — 00:02:34 · Nerdfighteria, Question Tuesday

Humor (significant)

  • John opens by repeating the plane/ground routine from Hank's previous video. — 00:00:00 > «See what I did there?»
  • Child John reads Eric Carle's classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar after loving Gus Is a Bug. — 00:00:41 > «this is good, but it's no Gus is a Bug.»
  • John reads the climax of Gus Is a Bug, the caterpillar emerging as a butterfly: 'It is Gus! Gus has no fuzz!' — 00:02:34 > «God, I just love that revelatory moment at the end. No fuzz!»

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