Skip to content

GEEKING OUT Over Dying Declarations

2010-10-08 · John · watch on YouTube · History & curiosities · curiosity idea

John geeks out over the newly arrived reference book 'Last Words of Notable People', sharing his (and Looking for Alaska's) obsession with famous last words by reading a selection from the F's.

What is said

00:00:00 — Planned topic (a Nerdfighter gathering in Chicago before the Beckoning of Lovely; social anxiety at meetups) displaced by a book of last words arriving in the mail

  • ★★ John says today's video was going to be about a Nerdfighter gathering on Sunday at 5 p.m. in Chicago before the Beckoning of Lovely, with more info on screen. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria, Chicago
  • ★★ John says socially anxious people who spend their time writing and talking to a camera in a basement can be uncomfortable with hugging and pictures; he's shy in real life. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ A gigantic dictionary of famous people's last words, Last Words of Notable People, arrives in John's mail and he is overjoyed. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:26 — Looking for Alaska's last-words obsession; John is mentioned in the book; last words of Fairbanks and Faulkner, Faulkner's resignation letter, Franklin, John Field

  • ★★ John says the book runs to 671 pages and contains more than 3,000 people's last words. — 00:00:26
  • ★★★ John says the narrator of his first book, Looking for Alaska, is obsessed with famous people's last words, an obsession John shares. — 00:00:26 · Looking for Alaska
  • ★★ John reads the book's Rabelais entry, which says Rabelais' last words became more widely discussed after their use in his Printz Award-winning Looking for Alaska. (playful) — 00:00:26 · Looking for Alaska
  • ★★ John reads last words from the book's F's: Douglas Fairbanks ('I've never felt better'), Ben Franklin, composer John Field, Richard Feynman ('this dying is boring'), Marshall Field II, Robert Frost. — 00:00:55
  • ★★ John says William Faulkner, a novelist he grew up admiring, had boring last words: 'yes, Jim, I will', to his brother-in-law about a hospital pickup. — 00:00:55
  • ★★ John says Faulkner wrote 'the best resignation letter ever' when he resigned from the US Postal Service in 1924, and reads the letter. — 00:01:25

00:01:54 — More F's (Fillmore with a correction, Feynman, Marshall Field II, Frost); staying up till 3 a.m. reading; Archimedes

  • ★★ John corrects Looking for Alaska: he quoted Millard Fillmore's last words as 'the nourishment is palatable', but they were 'the nourishment is palpable'. — 00:01:54 · Looking for Alaska > «the nourishment is palatable, where in fact the nourishment is palpable»
  • ★★ John calls Last Words of Notable People a remarkable collection: the F's are only a selection, with 25 other letters represented. — 00:01:54
  • ★★ John stayed up until 3 a.m. reading the book, which he jokes gripped him more than the Hunger Games trilogy, while Sarah kept asking him to turn off the light. (playful) — 00:01:54 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★ John reads that Archimedes' last words were 'wait until I've finished my problem' and, skipping ahead, that Goethe's were 'more light'. — 00:01:54

00:02:40 — Question to Nerdfighters about meeting the brothers in real life; Goethe's last words; sign-off

  • ★★★ John asks Nerdfighters who have met him or Hank in real life for an honest appraisal: were they disappointed, put off by the brothers' weirdness, or did they have fun? — 00:02:40 · Nerdfighteria

Humor (significant)

  • Geeking out over the book of last words, John adds that he himself turns up in it. — 00:00:26 > «In fact, I don't want to brag, but I'm mentioned in this book.»
  • John reads Marshall Field II asking his doctor about his chances of recovery, then supplies the answer. — 00:01:54 > «I mean, in retrospect. Zero.»
  • Reading in bed past 3 a.m. while Sarah keeps asking him to turn off the light, John answers her with trivia. — 00:01:54 > «Sarah, did you know the last words of Archimedes were, wait until I've finished my problem.»
  • After Sarah's 'turn off the light' and his promise to read on to the G's, John reports Goethe's last words. — 00:02:40 > «He said, more light.»

Threads in this video

BR2_d622d9b952