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Question Tuesday: My Social Media Hiatus, My Excellent German, and Books!

2015-10-06 · Q&A · John · 3:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Books & writing, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: recurring series, community lore

In a rapid-fire Question Tuesday John jokes in German and Spanish, recommends Twain and Morrison, explains that social media had become unhealthy for him because of a small persistent stream of hateful attacks, and remembers Henning Mankell.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Question Tuesday intro

00:00:04 — Meeting a boyfriend's German-speaking mother: John's German sentences; Spanish; favourite video game

  • ★ Asked his favourite video game, John answers the original Super Mario Kart. — 00:00:23

00:00:24 — How he is; book recommendations (Twain, Morrison); Auden on classics; specializing in being terrified

  • ★★ Asked how he is, John says he is good but a little annoyed about the overall quality of political discourse in the United States. — 00:00:26 · United States
  • ★★ John recommends Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, which he is re-reading, and Toni Morrison's new novel: not her best book, but still great. — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Asked for unpopular opinions about classic literature, John sides with W. H. Auden: some books are undeservedly forgotten, none undeservedly remembered. (hedged) — 00:00:42

00:00:53 — Social media hiatus: unhealthy place, hateful stuff, easier to write; the new book and a clue in this video

  • ★★★ Asked whether everyone should take a social media hiatus, John doesn't know, but he hasn't missed social media as much as he expected; it had become a really unhealthy place for him. (hedged) — 00:00:56
  • ★★ John says that for about eight years an online community has been generous and kind to him and his work, and criticism mostly thoughtful and respectful. — 00:01:00 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ But a small, persistent amount of vicious, hateful material directed at him has been tremendously hurtful and not good for his mental health. — 00:01:11
  • ★★ John misses things about his old internet life but finds it much easier to write and do other work without all that stuff floating around in his head. — 00:01:21
  • ★★ Asked what his new book is about, John can't say because he doesn't know which parts will end up in a book, but he put a clue in this video, decodable only after reading the story. (playful) — 00:01:32

00:01:42 — Henning Mankell, who died yesterday: admiration and a passage

  • ★★★ John calls Henning Mankell, who died yesterday, a great Swedish crime novelist he admired for his stories and for making a lot of money and giving almost all of it away. — 00:01:42
  • ★★ Henning Mankell (quoted): In a passage John reads, Mankell calls himself at eight, when imagination had the same value as the real world and imagining a mother was survival, his greatest idol. — 00:01:52

00:02:06 — Signature dish (medium plate); Liverpool manager joke; tuatara; preparing to lose the race against Maggie Stiefvater

  • ★ Asked which animal he'd like to see in the wild, John says he is pretty into tuatara lately. — 00:02:35
  • ★★ On his drag race against Maggie Stiefvater on Friday (9 October 2015), John says a professional race car driver friend told him to be prepared to lose, so he guesses he is very prepared. (playful, hedged) — 00:02:39

00:02:50 — Sheep or goat; 'eschatological'; travelling with children; greenest green; where to live for a year; Styles icon; Star Trek: TNG; sign-off

  • ★★ John uses the word 'eschatological' a lot, since no shorter word means the same, and calls his default emotional state eschatological anxiety. (playful, hedged) — 00:03:02

    “my default emotional state is eschatological anxiety”

  • ★ The greenest green John has seen was a forest in Brazil in the rain, everything impossibly green in slightly different shades. — 00:03:15

  • ★★ Asked where he would live for a year anywhere in the world, John says that right now it would be this house. — 00:03:28
  • ★★ John would choose to be stuck in the world of Star Trek: The Next Generation, hanging out with Wesley Crusher, and suspects Hank agrees. (playful) — 00:03:38 · Hank Green

Humor (significant)

  • For meeting a boyfriend's German-speaking mother, John offers the German title of his own novel, then a second useful sentence. — 00:00:13

    “Ihr Sohn ist ein guter Küsser.”

  • Asked whether he would manage Liverpool, John cites taking AFC Wimbledon from League 2 to the Champions League in FIFA 14. — 00:02:21

    “having an inside track on one of the world's best youth players, Henry Green.”

  • John would rather be a sheep, so when people ask where he got his sweater he can answer. — 00:02:53

    “"Oh, I knit it myself, using my own hair."”

  • Asked for his best advice for travelling with children, John answers in three words. — 00:03:12

    “When possible, don't.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Henning Mankell

Also: People: Harry Styles (“Styles icon”) · Henry Green · Maggie Stiefvater · W. H. Auden

Projects: NerdCon: Stories

Works: FIFA 14 · God Help the Child · Life on the Mississippi · Star Trek: The Next Generation · Super Mario Kart · The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · Liverpool FC

Rituals: Question Tuesday

Concepts: tuatara

Places: Brazil · United States

Events: John Green and Maggie Stiefvater's charity race car race

Characters: Wesley Crusher

Only in the description or credits: Mark Twain · Toni Morrison

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