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Reading Chapter One of The Fault in Our Stars

2011-10-28 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · comedy performance

Lower-confidence wave

2011 videos did not pass the QA gate (17 %); their analysis is shown but less reliable.

John, in lieu of a regular video and with Hank's permission, reads aloud Chapter 1 of his forthcoming novel The Fault in Our Stars, in which Hazel meets Augustus at a cancer support group, then plugs signed pre-orders and reports signing progress.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; a live-show video instead of a real one, with Hank's permission; earlier deleted attempt; ask to live viewers; dedication to a private person

  • ★★ John tells Nerdfighters not to punish him: Hank permitted this longer-than-four-minutes, unedited video, which saves him time for signing books. (playful) — 00:00:14 · Nerdfighteria, Hank Green, Punishment, Four-minute rule
  • ★★★ Instead of a real video, John reads the first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars as a live-show video, something he has long wanted to do. — 00:00:26 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★ John says he tried this reading a few months ago but deleted that live show because he wanted to change things; this one stays. — 00:00:33 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★ John asks live viewers to tell newcomers they have not missed it, since the reading is recorded and can be replayed. — 00:00:54
  • ★★ John says The Fault in Our Stars is dedicated to his friend a private person. — 00:01:12 · The Fault in Our Stars

00:01:19 — Reading the epigraph (Peter Van Houten, An Imperial Affliction) and the author's note on fiction

  • ★★ In the author's note John says the book is fiction and that hunting for facts inside a story attacks the idea that made-up stories can matter, 'sort of' our species' foundational assumption. (hedged) — 00:02:16 · The Fault in Our Stars

00:02:35 — Reading Chapter 1: Hazel's 'depression', depression as a side effect of dying, the support group and Patrick

  • ★★ In the novel, Hazel says depression is not a side effect of cancer but of dying, as is cancer and almost everything else. (fiction) — 00:03:10 > «Depression is a side effect of dying.»
  • ★★ Hazel describes the weekly church-basement support group: leader Patrick retells his survival story, and members compete to outlast one another. (fiction) — 00:03:52

00:06:07 — Reading Chapter 1 continued: Isaac, meeting Augustus Waters, fear of oblivion and Hazel's speech, 'literally' in the heart of Jesus, the unlit cigarette metaphor

  • ★★ At group, Hazel meets Augustus Waters, 17, who had osteosarcoma, came at his friend Isaac's request, and says he fears oblivion. (fiction) — 00:13:59
  • ★★★ Hazel answers that a time will come when everyone is dead and all human work forgotten; if that worries you, ignore it, as everyone else does. (fiction) — 00:15:55
  • ★★ Augustus tells Hazel she is beautiful, likens her to V for Vendetta-era Natalie Portman and invites her to watch the film at his house. (fiction) — 00:20:54 · Hazel Grace Lancaster
  • ★★ Augustus explains his unlit cigarette as a metaphor: holding the killing thing between your teeth without giving it the power to kill; Hazel then goes to the movie with him. (fiction) — 00:26:29 · Hazel Grace Lancaster > «They don't kill you unless you light them»

00:27:13 — What the book is about; pre-order links for signed copies; signing progress on the TFIOS-ometer; thanks

  • ★★★ John says the book is the story of Hazel and Augustus trying to come to terms with Hazel's opening soliloquy that everything will end in oblivion, and of their life together. — 00:27:15 · The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel Grace Lancaster
  • ★★ John points to doobly-doo links to pre-order a signed copy; all copies will be signed, nobody should feel obligated, and he prefers they reach Nerdfighter homes. — 00:27:40 · The Fault in Our Stars, doobly-doo, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Showing the TFIOS-ometer, John says he is very nearly up to 135,000 signatures, with roughly 15,000 to 20,000 to go; he has not counted recently. (hedged) — 00:27:42 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ John thanks viewers for making it possible to sign all these books, after three months of TV, audiobooks and signing; it has been fun and he is grateful. — 00:28:13 · Nerdfighteria

00:28:32 — No punishment (cleared with Hank); Maureen Johnson's dirty texts; Target joke; inside jokes ('watch out for bears', French the llama); sign-off

  • ★★ John says Maureen Johnson sends him an unrepeatably filthy text-message joke every time he does a live show. (playful) — 00:28:58 · Maureen Johnson
  • ★★ John closes with an inside joke he says viewers will get, 'French the llama', running straight into thanks for making his career possible by watching into the 36th minute. (playful) — 00:30:01 · French the llama, Nerdfighteria

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