John Green

Early Life John Green was born in Indianapolis, IN on August 24, 1977 to Mike and Sydney Green. Shortly after his birth, hisfamily moved to Michigan, then later to Birmingham, Alabama, where his younger brother, William Henry Green II, was born on May 5, 1980. His family finally settled in Orlando, Florida.

John attended Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando and graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and Religious studies. After his graduation, he worked as a student chaplain at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, for a few months. He enrolled at the University of Chicago Divinity School, but he never attended it. He wanted to become a priest, but his experiences at the hospital where he worked and witnessed children suffering from life-threatening diseases inspired him to become an author, and later he wrote the book ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ based on these experiences.

Career

After graduating, he worked several jobs in Chicago. He was a publishing assistant for Booklist, while also writing for NPRs All Things Considered, and also critiqued books for the New York Times Book Review. Outside of work, he began writing ‘Looking for Alaska,’ which would be his first published book by 2005. By 2012, it had reached the New York Time’s Best Seller for Young Adults in paper back.

John has published many other New York Times best-selling novels. Some of the titles include: An Abundance of Katherines (2006), Paper Towns (2008), The Fault in Our Stars, and Turtles All the Way Down. Several of these novels were created into films, the most recent being The Fault in Our Stars (2014).

Not only is John Green a successful author, he is also a well-known vlogger thanks to his YouTube channels Vlogbrotersand Crash Course. John and his brother, Hank, originally created Vlogbrothers (which still uploads 2 videos a week and has more than 711 million views to-date) but eventually branched out and created Crash Course in 2011. Vlogbrothers and Crash Course have a combined 1.5 billion views on YouTube, with 12.3 million subscribed viewers! To better understand Vlogbrothers and their popularity:

In 2007, Green and his brother, Hank, ceased textual communication and began to talk primarily through video blogs posted to YouTube. The videos spawned a community of people called “nerdfighters,” who fight for intellectualism and to decrease the overall worldwide level of suck. (Decreasing suck takes many forms: Nerdfighters have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight poverty in the developing world; they also planted thousands of trees around the world in May 2010 to celebrate Hank’s 30th birthday.) Although they have long since resumed textual communication, John and Hank continue to upload three videos a week to their YouTube channel, vlogbrothers. Their videos have been viewed more than 75 million times, and their channel is one of the most popular in the history of online video. Green is also an active (if reluctant) Twitter user, with more than 1.1 million followers.

Themes

John has written many books, and each makes an effort to target several issues within its pages. Below are the most discussed themes of his more known books and Vlogs. Additional pages can be found in the bibliography.

Looking for Alaska

-Friendships and finding ones true-self: Mile’s going away party is only attended by two acquaintances, so when he arrives to his new school, he learns to be himself and meet others who are ok with him as he is.

- Adolescent Depression: With the death of a friend, Pudge and the reader is left with feelings of concern, since it is unclear if she died by accident or by suicide. Depression is a theme that is focused on extensively yet thoroughly.

- Religion: Although no religion is mentioned, there is a reference to a teachers’ religion class. In this class, they ponder on questions of life and death. (John’s experience with religion/priesthood is present, in parts, in most of his works).

The Labyrinth: Referencing Simon Bolivar’s last words, “Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth?” Each character identifies what their labyrinth is and how they must navigate through it. Life choices and their consequences are present as the novel advances.

An Abundance of Katherines:

The Purpose of Life and existence: Colin has an existential crisis, saying, "I feel like I've only ever been two things.... I'm a child prodigy, and I'm dumped by Katherines. But now I'm [neither]" (Ch. 15)

Love and Romance: Colin realizes that in all of his failed relationships there is one common denominator- him. Eventually, he sees others as “complex” as opposed to “dumpees and dumpers.”

Value in knowledge: Colin's journey through the novel involves relocating his priorities, lowering knowledge and raising up his view of others and their inherent value outside of his knowledge of them.

Crash Course: This YouTube channel is composed of many sub-channels:

- World History  (9.2 mil subscibers): Agricultural Revolution, Mesopotamia, Buddha and Ashoka

-History of Science: Pre-Socratics, Medieval Islamicate World, Crusades

Style John knew early in his life that he wanted to be a writer, and eventually left the idea of becoming a priest completely. As he began writing, he focused on issues he had either faced himself or came across at some point in his life. John continued that approach, and to sum up how he uses his own experiences, he uploaded an episode on his vlog, titled Perspective. This episode describes his tough encounter with depression, heartbreak, and hopelessness. To quote a few comments posted: “It’s hard for me to describe how much I appreciate this video” and “Seriously, every time I watch this I'm on the verge of tears. I love this video a lot, and it always motivates me when I feel at my worst. Thanks, John. ”

As in most of his works, mental health and physical health is a major topic. One of his most famous works, The Fault in Our Stars (2012), deals with adolescents with life-threating illnesses and how to deal with these obstacles- targeting Young Adult readers.

There is a switch in his style when it comes to his Crash Course videos- he goes all out geek! He focuses on content and tries to explain main concepts and themes of historic events in each episode. I have shown these to my high school US History students and, although they complain about the cheesy jokes, they do take notes on them and ask for additional videos for their studying purposes. Each episode includes several segments, among them are: “Open Letter to…”, Primary Document Analysis, and The Thought Bubble.

It is evident that John loves history and tries to make every episode as helpful as possible, providing facts, timelines, and analysis of people, places, ideas.

Bibliography

Looking for Alaska (2005)

- Winner, 2006 Michael L. Printz Award

- Finalist, 2005 Los Angeles Times Book Prize

- 2006 Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults

- 2006 Teens’ Top 10 Award

- 2006 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

- A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

- A Booklist Editor’s Choice Pick

- Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection

- Borders Original Voices Selection

An Abundance of Katherines (2006)

- Winner, 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor

- Finalist, 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize

- A Booklist Editors’ Choice title

- A Kirkus Best Book of the Year

- A Horn Book Fanfare List title

- An ALA BBYA title

Co-authoredLet it Snow: Three Holiday Romances (2008)

- November 2009 #10 of the New York Times Best Seller

Paper Towns (2008)

- Winner, The Edgar Allan Poe Award

- Corine Literature Prize

- An ALA BBYA title

- A Booklist Editor’s Choice title

- An SLJ Best Book of the Year

- A VOYA Editor’s Choice title

- An Amazon Top Ten Books for Teens title

- A Chicago Public Library’s Best Books title

- An NYPL Book for the Teen Age

Co-authoredWill Grayson, Will Grayson (2010)

- A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

- An ALA Stonewall Honor Book

The Fault in Our Stars (2012) - TIME Magazine’s #1 Fiction Book of 2012

- #1 New York Times bestseller

- #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller

- #1 Indie bestseller

- #1 USA Today Bestseller

- #1 International Bestseller

- Children’s Choice Book Award (Teen book of the Year)

- TODAY Book Club Pick

- Editors Choice, New York Times Book Review

- Starred reviews from Booklist, SLJ, Publisher’s Weekly, Horn Book, and Kirkus

- CBC Awards, Teen Book of the Year 2013

- Book of the Year, Nickelodeon MPN Awards, Brazil

- Winner, Dioraphte Jongerenliteratuur Prijs, 2013

Turtles All the Way Down (2017) - #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller

- #1 WALL STREET JOURNAL Bestseller

- #1 International Bestseller

- #1 Indie Bestseller

- A NEW YORK TIMES Notable Book

- An NPR Best Book of the Year

- A TIME Best Book of the Year

- A SOUTHERN LIVING Best Book of the Year

- A BOOKLIST Editors' Choice selection - A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Best Book of the Year

- A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL Best Book of the Year

- A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY Best Book of the Year

- #1 Indie Next Pick

- An Amazon Best Book of the Year

- A Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year

John’s books have been translated to 55 languages and over 24 million copies have been sold world-wide. John is also active on social media with many independent projects that have attracted millions of viewers. His Twitter account has over 5.4 million followers.

John has also written many short stories and novels, among them are:

- “The Approximate Cost of Loving Caroline”, Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Artwork by Scott Hunt (2006)

- “The Great American Morp”, 21 Proms, eds. (2007)

- “Freak the Geek”, Geekastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (2009)

- Zombicorns, an online Creative Commons licensed zombie novella (2010)

- “Reasons”, What You Wish For (2011)

- Double on Call and Other Short Stories (2012)

- The War for Banks Island, a sequel to Zombiecorns (2012)

​​​​​​​Criticism

Green was the executive producer of Paper Towns, his first novel. Although his novels have all received positive reviews, his fans criticized the film because it was not genuine to the novel. This made him question whether he should create a film of future books. In addition, John had to apologize for using the word “retarded” in Paper Towns.

The biggest case against John Green is presented by Uzerfriendly.com:

Most of [his] criticism has come from social media users who claim that Green has proven himself to be misogynistic, racist, and generally undeserving of his success due to his position of privilege as a white, straight, cisgendered male.

Race: most of his novels are not as diverse as they could be. The few diverse characters are supporting characters, not main characters. Calling him, ultimately, a racist.

Gender: Green’s characters such as Margo in “Paper Towns” and Alaska in “Looking For Alaska” are prime examples of this idea that Green is a misogynist, his use of the manic pixie dream girl trope: “that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures,” as defined by A.V. Club.

Writing style: John has a lot of profound and interesting ideas about relationships, suffering, our place in the universe, etc., and those ideas always come through in his work but often at the cost of the richness and depth story itself. Plot lines are often random and not entirely well put together, characters are sometimes flat and unrealistic, and theme seems a bit forced and unfocused.

There are those fans that make the argument that he is a great writer and that he has chosen to wrote his novels based off personal experiences, not imagination. He cannot, and should not, be blamed for “living the life he has lived.” In an era where a writer could be targeted as “insensitive” or “crude”, John just speaks his mind to the Young Adult readers that need a way to cope.

Sources

http://www.johngreenbooks.com/bio

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/10955/john-green

https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/john-green-31809.php

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1981261/bio

http://uzerfriendly.com/the-problem-with-john-green/

https://www.gradesaver.com/looking-for-alaska/study-guide/adolescent-depression

https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/john-green