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Paper Towns Reading

2008-10-14 · story · John · 9:19 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: song or performance, self promotion, community lore, punishment or challenge, heavy topic

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

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

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
  • ★ John tells a Margo figure a romance between them would not work, citing the yeti, the age difference and that she is his fictional creation. (joke) — 00:00:00 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★★ 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

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 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
  • ★★ 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

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

  • ★ 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
  • ★★★ 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
  • ★★ 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 · first in: 2007-09-14, September 14th: Paper Towns, Part 2

  • ★★★ That night Margo reports her investigation at his window: the dead man, Robert Joyner, a 36-year-old lawyer, had killed himself; he was getting a divorce, and maybe all the strings inside him broke. (fiction) — 00:06:23

    “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 · Paper Towns

00:09:08 — End of prologue; part one is called The Strings; sign-off

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Paper Towns

Also: People: Sarah Urist Green

Rituals: Four-minute rule · Punishment

Places: Orlando, Florida

Characters: Dr. Jefferson Jefferson · Jefferson Park · Margo Roth Spiegelman · Mr. Joyner · Quentin Jacobsen

Only in the description or credits: Katrina Vandenberg

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