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Books, Movies, and Wonder: Thoughts from a Red Carpet

2016-09-27 · letter vlog · John, Sarah Urist Green, Chris Waters, Ransom Riggs · 3:13 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, guest or collab

John vlogs his day in New York at the premiere of the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children film as a guest of his college friend Ransom Riggs, praises the film, and concludes that people make experiences wonderful, not the other way around.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Flying to New York with Sarah, meeting Chris and Marina, the stained shirt, walking the city, signing books, a Crash Course fan

  • ★★ John says that yesterday he and Sarah flew to New York City and met up with their best friends Chris and Marina. — 00:00:01 · Sarah Urist Green, New York City
  • ★★★ John was in New York for the premiere of the film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. — 00:00:09 · New York City
  • ★ John irrevocably stained his dress shirt at a sushi lunch and had to buy a new one, admitting he hates trying on clothes. (playful) — 00:00:15
  • ★★ John loves walking in New York, where one is both alone and not alone in a way he finds deeply satisfying, even peaceful, and loves catching strangers' conversations. — 00:00:31 · New York City
  • ★ John sneakily signed copies of Looking for Alaska at an outdoor bookstore and ran into a Crash Course fan on the way to the hotel. — 00:00:47 · Looking for Alaska (novel), Crash Course

00:01:05 — Meeting Ransom Riggs: their college friendship and wonder as John's favourite feeling

  • ★★ John has known Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's author, half his life: in college they road-tripped to the Grand Canyon, read James Joyce and wrote comedy sketches. — 00:01:05
  • ★★★ John says his favourite feeling is not joy or excitement but wonder, as on an autumn walk with his kid or in the company of a great book or movie. (hedged) — 00:01:24
  • ★★ John says time with Ransom always brings him wonder because of his particular way of seeing the world, and so do his books, wonderful in the original sense. — 00:01:38

00:01:50 — Changing ties, Sarah, Julie Strauss-Gabel, the red carpet and the screening

  • ★★ John's publisher Julie Strauss-Gabel dropped by before the screening, and Ransom and his wife, the novelist Tahereh Mafi, posed on the red carpet. — 00:01:57 · Julie Strauss-Gabel
  • ★ John says he caught a Magikarp in his seat before the movie. (playful) — 00:02:08

00:02:14 — John's verdict on the Miss Peregrine film

  • ★★★ John calls the film so good: like Edward Scissorhands decades ago, exciting and peculiar, wisely exploring the tension between the past you had, the one you wanted, and the present. — 00:02:14

00:02:31 — Luck, the red carpet, and why people make experiences wonderful; sign-off

  • ★★ John says twenty years ago he'd have thought a dressed-up premiere among movie stars would be cool, and it is; he and Ransom have been astonishingly lucky professionally. — 00:02:35
  • ★★★ John says the really wonderful part was not the stars or red carpet but seeing a great movie with his wife and dear friends, one who has known him since the Grand Canyon. — 00:02:51 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★★ John concludes that people make experiences wonderful, not the other way around. (hedged) — 00:03:05

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (film) · Ransom Riggs · wonder (emotion)

Also: People: Chris Waters · James Joyce · Julie Strauss-Gabel · Marina (friend, mentioned from 2016) · Sarah Urist Green · Tahereh Mafi

Projects: Crash Course

Works: Edward Scissorhands · Looking for Alaska (novel)

Places: Grand Canyon · New York City

Characters: Magikarp

Only in the description or credits: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Also centred on Ransom Riggs: Thoughts from Places: Los Angeles after the Earthquake · Life is Weird. Also beautiful. · Beneath an Abandoned Hospital: Thoughts from Places

Also centred on wonder (emotion): Beneath an Abandoned Hospital: Thoughts from Places · The Universe is Weird: A Song · Our Capacity for Wonder: A Review

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