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Reading the First Chapter of A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

2019-12-20 · story · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: self promotion, song or performance

Hank reveals that A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor has a cover by Kaitlin Kall and reads its first chapter, in which the narrator sorts lies into three kinds and confesses the one the narrator has been telling: that everything is going to be okay; he then gives the July 7, 2020 release date, asks for pre-orders and invites viewers to the January tour.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — The new book has a cover; a mock-up with chapter one taped inside

00:00:35 — Hank reads chapter one: three kinds of lie and the lie that everything will be okay

  • ★★ The chapter opens with the narrator announcing a decision to stop lying to the reader. (fiction) — 00:00:35
  • ★★ The narrator says there are only three kinds of lie: the kind you don't want to get caught telling, the kind you don't care if you get caught telling, and the kind you can't get caught telling. (fiction) — 00:00:40
  • ★★ The second kind is about the lying, not the outcome: repeated, changed and abandoned, it is a tool for weakening reality and so strengthening yourself. (fiction) — 00:01:04
  • ★★ The third kind happens when only you know the truth; the narrator has been telling it for years, and it has felt like a kindness. (fiction) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Everyone's picture of reality is incomplete (scientists don't know where most matter is; the narrator doesn't know life in Yemen), but revealing something that would change everyone's story and worsen lives can seem like too much power. (fiction) — 00:01:42
  • ★★ Nothing special suits the narrator to make that decision for a whole planet; the only reason is ugly, vulgar luck. (fiction) — 00:02:13
  • ★★ Wary of the narrator's own habit of exercising too much power, the narrator will let others tell the story from several perspectives, to share the responsibility. (fiction) — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ The narrator reveals the lie: doing everything possible to make the reader believe everything is going to be okay. (fiction) — 00:03:13

00:03:27 — Release date, pre-orders, and the January tour in St. Petersburg, Raleigh and Atlanta

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Also: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing · Atlanta · Dear Hank and John · lie · Raleigh, North Carolina · St. Petersburg, Florida · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast) · Yemen

Only in the description or credits: Kaitlin Kall

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