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This Video is about Red Eyed Tree Frogs?

2018-04-24 · letter vlog · John, Henry Green · 3:29 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, guest or collab

Inspired by the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and his belief that beauty is mostly a matter of attention, John looks closely at the red-eyed tree frog, at Henry's suggestion: its flashing red eyes may teach predators to look for the wrong thing, as people chasing the novel, loud and bright miss subtler insight; if you only look for red eyes, you miss the frog.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — John asks Henry what tomorrow's video should be about; Henry suggests red-eyed tree frogs

00:00:03 — Harry Potter and the Sacred Text; beauty is mostly a matter of attention

  • ★★★ John has been listening a lot to Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, in which two scholars of religion read Harry Potter as a sacred text; it is just brilliant, whatever you think of religion or Harry Potter. — 00:00:04 · Harry Potter (book series)
  • ★ It does help to be interested in Harry Potter. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:16 · Harry Potter (book series)
  • ★★ John always thought the Harry Potter books lend themselves to critical reading, but until this podcast he had no idea how deep they could be. — 00:00:19 · Harry Potter (book series)

  • ★★★ John really believes, as he wrote in Turtles All the Way Down, that beauty is mostly a matter of attention: what you love matters, but how you love it matters much more. — 00:00:26 · Turtles All the Way Down

    “beauty is mostly a matter of attention”

  • ★★★ The podcast reminded John that sustained, careful attention to almost anything can be tremendously rewarding, so he tries it with the red-eyed tree frog. — 00:00:37

00:00:45 — The red-eyed tree frog: range, diet, eating with its eyes, camouflage and flashing red eyes

  • ★★ The red-eyed tree frog is a tree-dwelling, 2-inch-long frog with about a five-year lifespan, native to Central America and southern Mexico. — 00:00:45
  • ★★ Red-eyed tree frogs eat mostly insects and are eaten by many animals, including snakes, owls, bats and sometimes alligators. — 00:00:54
  • ★★ The frogs close their eyes when eating, because retracting their eyes helps push food down their throats. — 00:01:05
  • ★★★ That frogs use their eyes to eat shows how cobbled together life is: we all muddle through within our physiology, whether blinding ourselves to digest or using exposure therapy to retrain an overactive fight-or-flight response. (hedged) — 00:01:12
  • ★★ The frog's scientific name comes from Greek words meaning beautiful tree nymph. — 00:01:36
  • ★★ Experts disagree about the point of the frogs' coloration, but by day they mostly sit on leaves with eyes closed and blue-striped legs tucked under them, close to perfect camouflage. — 00:01:42
  • ★★ Sensing a predator, the frogs flash open their red eyes and stare at it before trying to jump away. — 00:02:00
  • ★★★ The flash may be meant to startle predators, but the red eyes might also teach a predator to look next time for red eyes and blue stripes rather than a well-camouflaged green lump. (hedged) — 00:02:05

00:02:29 — What stands out makes it hard to find: novelty, epiphanies and looking closely

  • ★★★ What makes the red-eyed tree frog stand out is also what makes it hard to find, and that resonates with much of human life. — 00:02:29
  • ★★★ John is attracted to novel and surprising information, though it is often not the most useful or accurate. — 00:02:38 · sensationalism
  • ★★★ Seeking inspiration, John expects thunderclaps or epiphanies, but the insight or comfort he needs is usually subtler and comes from looking closely and quietly. — 00:02:48
  • ★★★ Like any predator, John listens to what is loud and looks at what is bright, which makes him easy to distract or mislead. — 00:03:01

  • ★★★ In short, if you only look for red eyes, you will usually miss the red-eyed tree frog. — 00:03:08

    “if you're only looking for red eyes, you'll usually miss the red-eyed tree frog”

00:03:14 — Sign-off; P.S. on The Anthropocene Reviewed and Harry Potter and the Sacred Text

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text · red-eyed tree frog

Also: People: Henry Green

Projects: The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Works: Harry Potter (book series) · Turtles All the Way Down

Concepts: camouflage · close reading · exposure therapy · fight-or-flight response · sensationalism

Places: Central America · Mexico

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