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Life is Weird. Also beautiful.

2012-02-21 · John · watch on YouTube · Personal life · reflection essay

John tells how a college Ulysses class with Mary Fran, Bruce and Randy (Ransom Riggs) led through unexpected careers to Miss Peregrine and TFIOS being #1 and #2 on the bestseller list, and argues that life is really about relationships and communities, not careers.

What is said

00:00:00 — Kenyon College; friends Bruce and Mary Fran; the independent study on Ulysses with sophomore Randy; the final papers

  • ★★ John says he went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, an undistinguished student who surrounded himself with smart people like Bruce (later a disastrous summer together in Moose Pass, Alaska) and Mary Fran. — 00:00:02
  • ★★ John says Mary Fran and Bruce asked him to join their independent study reading James Joyce's Ulysses, joined by sophomore Randy; a class on one book turned out to be very hard. — 00:00:19
  • ★★ John says he spent more time on that final paper than anything else in college; he wrote on nationalism, Mary Fran on Molly Bloom, Bruce on the potato in Bloom's pocket, Randy on religious deconstructionism. — 00:00:39

00:00:56 — Feeling academically grown up; adulthood turns out to be standing in line and being on hold

  • ★★ John says the four became very close, and it was the first time he felt academically grown up, back when he thought adulthood would be interesting conversations about great books. — 00:00:56

00:01:11 — After college: minister plans, Mental Floss (hiring Randy), Bruce at The World, Mary Fran from law to librarianship; Randy's YouTube documentaries

  • ★★ John says he graduated thinking he would become an Episcopal minister, while Mary Fran went to law school, Randy to film school and Bruce to become a musician. — 00:01:11
  • ★★ After deciding against divinity school John took writing jobs including Mental Floss, where he hired Randy as a freelance writer because he explained things simply, though Randy still wanted to make movies. — 00:01:18
  • ★★ John says he left Mental Floss for young adult novels, Bruce now reports for the NPR show The World, and Mary Fran, after becoming a lawyer, heroically left the law for librarianship. — 00:01:30
  • ★★ John says he and Randy stayed friends, and Randy began uploading weird little documentaries to YouTube, which became extremely popular because they are amazing. — 00:01:39 · YouTube

00:01:48 — Randy becomes Ransom Riggs: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, John lowering his expectations, instant bestseller; with TFIOS #1 and #2 on the NYT list

  • ★★★ John says Randy, now going by his real name Ransom Riggs, wrote a novel based on thousands of found photographs he collected, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which John found weird, wonderful and unlike anything he had read. — 00:01:48
  • ★★ John says he kept lowering Ransom's expectations: of John's four novels a couple made the New York Times bestseller list, but two sold fewer than a hundred copies in their first weeks. — 00:02:04 · The New York Times
  • ★ John says he has seen great books get lost in crowded bookstores again and again, and kept telling Ransom it's a marathon, not a sprint. — 00:02:16
  • ★★★ John says Miss Peregrine was an instant bestseller; a few months later The Fault in Our Stars came out, and next week their books will be #1 and #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. — 00:02:25 · The Fault in Our Stars, The New York Times

00:02:33 — Professional lives are not what life is about; life is about relationships and communities: road trips to the Grand Canyon, LA twelve years later; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says professional lives, with turns you can never imagine (lawyer to librarian, minister to vlogger), are important but not what life is about: human life is really about relationships and communities. — 00:02:35
  • ★★ John says his friendship with Randy means road trips to the Grand Canyon with their friend Kathy, through Ohio snow and endless Texas, and, twelve years later, walking around Los Angeles together still taking pictures. — 00:02:42 · Los Angeles

Humor (significant)

  • John introduces Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. — 00:00:04 > «Kenyon is like Hogwarts, except with fewer Death Eaters and more corn.»
  • John lists the smart people he surrounded himself with at college. — 00:00:16 > «And Mary Fran, who would later get married inside an elephant.»
  • Randy is missing from the class photo because he was taking it. — 00:00:29 > «who was taking this picture so needs to be photoshopped in—perfect—»
  • John once thought adulthood would be a series of interesting conversations about great books. — 00:01:05 > «It turns out that adulthood primarily consists of standing in line and being on hold, but yeah.»

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