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Paper Towns Reading

2008-10-15 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · comedy performance

Two days before its release, John reads the revised prologue of his novel Paper Towns, in which nine-year-old Quentin and Margo find a dead man in their Orlando subdivision park; he first waives Hank's punishment for a late video.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; nerdfighters voted against punishing Hank for his late video; John decides no punishment

  • ★★ John reports that nerdfighters voted on whether Hank should be punished for his slightly late video, and the consensus seems to be no. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria, Punishment
  • ★★ John playfully insists the punishment decision is his, not the nerdfighters', then agrees with them: Hank is a good brother and should not be punished. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Punishment

00:00:22 — Gag: John tells a Margo figure it will not work between them (the yeti, the age difference, she is fictional)

00:00:38 — Plan: read from Paper Towns (out Thursday) over the next videos, starting with the revised prologue; montage to beat four minutes; epigraph from a poem by nerdfighter Katrina Vandenberg

  • ★★★ John tells Hank he will read from his new book Paper Towns, which comes out on Thursday, over his next couple of videos. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · Paper Towns
  • ★★ John starts with the prologue, which he read several months earlier in a very different form, offering it as a possible insight into revision. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · Paper Towns
  • ★ John says the video will go over four minutes but he will get around the rule with a montage. (playful) — 00:00:56 · Four-minute rule
  • ★★ Paper Towns opens with two epigraphs, one from a poem written by a nerdfighter, Katrina Vandenberg. — 00:00:56 · Paper Towns, Nerdfighteria

00:01:08 — Reading of the Paper Towns prologue: everyone gets a miracle, Jefferson Park, Dr. Jefferson Jefferson, the dead man in the park, Margo at the window

  • ★★ In the reading, the narrator says everyone gets one unlikely miracle, and his was growing up next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. (fiction) — 00:00:56 · Paper Towns, Margo Roth Spiegelman
  • ★ The narrator describes Jefferson Park, an Orlando subdivision on a former Navy base, named for Dr. Jefferson Jefferson, an orange juice salesman who renamed himself "Doctor". (fiction) — 00:01:48 · Orlando, Florida
  • ★★★ At nine, Quentin and Margo find a dead man in the park; Margo steps closer and asks what happened while Quentin wants to go home, then they bike home. (fiction) — 00:03:52 · Margo Roth Spiegelman
  • ★★ The narrator says he never worried much about finding the body: he did not know the man, and people he doesn't know die all the time. (fiction) — 00:05:32
  • ★★★ That night Margo reports her investigation at his window: the dead man, Mr. Joyner, was getting a divorce and killed himself; maybe all the strings inside him broke. (fiction) — 00:06:23 · Margo Roth Spiegelman > «Maybe all the strings inside him broke»
  • ★★ The prologue ends with the narrator thinking Margo loved mysteries so much that she became one; part one is called The Strings. (fiction) — 00:08:59 · Margo Roth Spiegelman, Paper Towns

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