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Wrong but Right: Thoughts from Places Amsterdam

2012-03-27 · John · watch on YouTube · Books & writing · reflection essay

John recounts a jet-lagged day in Amsterdam promoting the Dutch edition of The Fault in Our Stars, visiting the novel's settings, and reflects that Hazel is wrong about infinity but right, the way we make meaning from fact and fiction.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; waking jet-lagged in Amsterdam; the apartment where he finished TFIOS; Spui bookstores; Begijnhof and errands

  • ★★ John woke on Saturday in Amsterdam extravagantly jet-lagged, then walked with a child of the brothers's old babysitter to the apartment where he lived while finishing The Fault in Our Stars. — 00:00:00 · Amsterdam, The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★ John marvels that Amsterdam's Spui contains more English-language bookstores than his entire hometown of one million people. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Indianapolis
  • ★ With two free hours, John raced through the Begijnhof, paid to pee, ate Flemish fries and herring, signed books, nearly got hit by a tram and a cyclist, and bought season two of Sherlock. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:43 — Walk to the Vondelpark and the novel's settings: Hotel de Filosoof, Hazel's tree, Van Houten's house, Anne Frank House, the canal bench, the beer-throwing bar

  • ★★ John walks toward the Vondelpark to relive Gus and Hazel's wish, showing the novel's places: the Hotel de Filosoof, the tree Hazel looks at, Peter Van Houten's house, the Anne Frank House and the canal-side bench. — 00:00:43 · Hazel Grace Lancaster, The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ John shows the bar where a man threw a glass of beer at him, glass and all, when Ajax won their 30th league championship, though both supported the same team. (playful) — 00:00:43

00:01:13 — Interviews; the Dutch edition; canal boat; the Central Library where he wrote much of TFIOS; a presentation on the mathematics in TFIOS

  • ★★★ John says the trip supported the publication of the Dutch edition of The Fault in Our Stars; he gave a series of interviews in the hotel library. — 00:01:13 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ On the trip John visited the Central Library of Amsterdam, where he wrote much of The Fault in Our Stars. — 00:01:13 · The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ At a theater John heard a presentation on the mathematics in The Fault in Our Stars, covering Venn diagrams and Hazel's incorrect assumption that there are more whole numbers between 0 and 2 than between 0 and 1. — 00:01:13 · The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel Grace Lancaster

00:02:01 — Song and artwork gifts; the restaurant that inspired Gus and Hazel's; Hazel wrong but right about infinities; loving and missing made-up people; sign-off

  • ★ John visits a restaurant (name unclear, heard 'Blossom') that inspired the restaurant Gus and Hazel visit, then gets lost walking around the city. — 00:02:01 · Hazel Grace Lancaster
  • ★★★ John says Hazel is wrong about infinite cardinality, but right that some infinities are larger than others. — 00:02:01 · Hazel Grace Lancaster
  • ★★★ John says he wanted Hazel to be wrong but right, because that is how we muddle through as observers of the universe, forging meaning from fact and fiction alike. — 00:02:01 · Hazel Grace Lancaster
  • ★★★ Recalling the months he lived in Amsterdam, much of the time sick and crippled with anxiety, John now thinks only of how much one can love and miss made-up people. — 00:02:01 · Amsterdam

Humor (significant)

  • John wakes extravagantly jet-lagged in Amsterdam around 9:30. — 00:00:00 > «What's six feet tall and should have woken up an hour ago? This guy.»
  • John says a man threw a glass of beer at him when Ajax won the league, then corrects himself. — 00:01:13 > «I mean, he threw both the beer and the glass at me.»
  • John mimics his halting answers in the interviews in the hotel library. — 00:01:13 > «God, I hope I sound less dumb when they translate that to Dutch.»

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