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Alaska for Looking

2020-11-03 · letter vlog · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Sports) · mode: Personal essay · tags: civic or action cta

On Election Day 2020, after noting AFC Wimbledon's return to Plough Lane and asking Americans to vote, John reads Alaska for Looking, a gift that rearranges Looking for Alaska alphabetically, and reflects that an alphabetized book reveals its preoccupations but not its narrative, much as stories survive in memory as feelings rather than plots.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — AFC Wimbledon's first game back home at Plough Lane; vote at vote.org

  • ★★ John says AFC Wimbledon, 31 years after their stadium was taken away, play their first game back home today at the new Plough Lane, a stadium built and owned by the fans. — 00:00:00 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ On election day John asks those eligible to vote in the United States to do so, and points to vote.org to find their polling place. — 00:00:00 · United States presidential election, United States

00:00:29 — The March gift of Alaska for Looking; not rereading his own published work

  • ★★★ After a March live show fundraiser, his last experience of the old normal, someone whose name John doesn't remember gave him Alaska for Looking: Looking for Alaska's whole text in alphabetical order. — 00:00:29 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★ It begins with all the numbers in the book, then many A's: apparently John loves an indefinite article. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Just before the world he knew turned strange and uncanny, John was handed a novel he thought he knew, turned into a strange, dizzying, uncanny version of itself. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John last read Looking for Alaska in 2004, at 26; he doesn't enjoy rereading published work, since he can't change anything and there are other books to read. — 00:00:58 · Looking for Alaska (novel)

00:01:27 — Reading the alphabetized book: found lines, symmetry obsessions, preoccupations not narrative, how stories survive in memory

  • ★★ Sixteen years on, John doesn't feel qualified to comment on Looking for Alaska, but finds Alaska for Looking fascinating. — 00:01:27 · Looking for Alaska (novel)

  • ★★ The end of the H's reads 'Hygienic Hyperventilating Hypothetical Hysteria', which John calls a fine title for his autobiography and his response to 2020: a line he did write, just not in that order. (playful) — 00:01:27

    “Hygienic Hyperventilating Hypothetical Hysteria”

  • ★★ Reading a book alphabetized yields wonderful combinations: again into against, wrong into wrote, lonely into long; a story of huddled hugs and smirking smoke. — 00:01:56

  • ★★ Writing Alaska, John was obsessed with symmetry: the first part of the book had to have exactly as many days as the second. — 00:01:56 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★ To serve that symmetry he made 'remembered' appear exactly one more time than 'forgotten'. — 00:02:26 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ Sixteen years later John is glad to be less beholden to symmetrical obsession. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Reading a book alphabetically shows its preoccupations but not its narrative: John can't tell who anyone is, but sees it is about school, before and after, and labyrinths. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ That is how stories survive in John's head: he doesn't remember most books' plots, only how they made him feel and why they mattered. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ An alphabetized book doesn't tell the whole story, but it did tell John one: about me and you and time. — 00:02:55

00:03:24 — The alphabetized ending (Zen, Zero, Zoo); sign-off and the clue

  • ★★ The alphabetized book ends 'Zen. Zero. Zipped. Zoo' (four times): strangely lovely and wrenching for readers, and not a bad goodbye to that story. — 00:03:24 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ Like all his recent videos, this one contains a clue leading to a secret livestream, repeated four times near the end. — 00:03:24

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Alaska for Looking · Looking for Alaska (novel)

Also: AFC Wimbledon · alphabetical order · Plough Lane · United States · United States presidential election · Vote.org

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