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The World Needs More Magic

2013-07-09 · letter vlog · MagicTurtle643 · 3:44 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Pop culture, Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: guest or collab, community lore

Guest host MagicTurtle643, a Nerd Factor winner standing in for John, argues the world needs more make-believe: magical realism, Harry Potter and imagination show what humans do best, making amazing things happen where magic isn't possible.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Guest host MagicTurtle643 introduces himself as a Nerd Factor winner filling in for John on paternity leave; his magical-realism lecture

  • ★★★ MagicTurtle643 introduces himself as one of the two Nerd Factor winners chosen to fill in for John during his paternity leave. — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: He says that like John he uses vlogs to put off his novel, and must give a lecture on magical realism in a week for a grad school requirement, not yet done. (playful) — 00:00:00 · John Green

00:00:29 — The world needs more make-believe; magical realism and Sarah Addison Allen's novels

  • ★★★ MagicTurtle643: He thinks the world needs more magic and the supernatural: not that more people should believe in it, since it's all make-believe, but that more people should make-believe it. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: He admires magical realism: a story works like a realistic novel but the author adds supernatural, law-breaking events at will for intrigue, originality and symbolic resonance. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: He says in Sarah Addison Allen's The Girl Who Chased the Moon an ex-husband leaves black dust on all he touches, a physical symbol of the messes hurtful people leave behind. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Imagination over realism; demand more Harry Potter; he'd rather be a muggle

  • ★ MagicTurtle643: He says in her book The Sugar Queen a girl named Chloe is magically chased around by self-help books trying to solve her problems. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: He isn't saying writers like John should ditch realism, just that you can never have too much imagination; books and movies can do anything because it's pretending. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · John Green
  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: Since we can't decrease world suck with Harry Potter spells, he says all we can do is demand more Harry Potter, which still captivates people. (playful) — 00:01:52 · Harry Potter (book series), world suck
  • ★ MagicTurtle643: Given dark wizards and no electronics, he thinks he would rather be a muggle; love potions can't match his love for his Nintendo 3DS. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:52
  • ★★★ MagicTurtle643: He hopes we never stop obsessing over witches and superheroes, not for false hope but to exercise the power to make them come true through imagination, better than CGI. (hedged) — 00:01:52

00:02:28 — Imagination beats CGI; what Rowling got wrong about non-magic folk; magicians and making amazing things happen without magic

  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: He thinks JK Rowling got one thing wrong: non-magic folk don't hate or deny magic; people love blaming lost keys on ghosts, gnomes or fairies because it's more fun. (hedged) — 00:02:28 · Harry Potter (book series)
  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: He says he is not arguing we should believe in such things, just that it's healthy to fantasize about them. — 00:02:28
  • ★★★ MagicTurtle643: Loving science like any nerdfighter, he says the pleasure of magicians is that they make something amazing happen where magic isn't possible, which is what humans are good at. (hedged) — 00:02:28

00:03:16 — A community that loves stories can decrease world suck; sign-off and channel plug

  • ★★ MagicTurtle643: He says all it takes is a community of people who love reading about things that never happened and singing about magical teenagers to make things a little better: Nerdfighters. — 00:03:16 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★ MagicTurtle643: He invites viewers who want more of him to follow the link in the doobly-doo. — 00:03:16 · doobly-doo

Humor (significant)

  • He says John probably only picked him because he loves gingers. — 00:00:00

    “That's right, kids, sometimes it pays to be soulless.”

  • Citing Sarah Addison Allen's magical-realism novels, he appends the vlogbrothers 'in your pants' suffix to their titles. — 00:00:58

    “The Girl Who Chased the Moon in Your Pants”

  • Praising imagination over CGI, he tries to generate a realistic face with his mind on camera. — 00:02:28

    “I think I need to update my brain software.”

  • Admitting he can't fix the world with a spell, he invents a mock Harry Potter incantation. — 00:03:16

    “I can't just say Decrecio World Succio and make everything better,”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: fantasy · magical realism · MagicTurtle643

Also: People: J. K. Rowling

Projects: Nerd Factor

Works: Harry Potter (book series) · The Girl Who Chased the Moon (“The Girl Who Chased the Moon in Your Pants”) · The Sugar Queen (“The Sugar Queen in Your Pants”)

Terms: doobly-doo · in your pants · world suck (“Decrecio World Succio”)

Concepts: magic (illusion)

Characters: Muggle

Products: Nintendo 3DS

Only in the description or credits: Sarah Addison Allen

Also centred on fantasy: Is Hank Green Batman?

Also centred on MagicTurtle643: NERD FACTOR! (...And Why I Fear for Tumblr)

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