38 - ] American Literature
John Green
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John
moved back to Indianapolis in 2007, and published three novels over the next
three years: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances (2008, with Maureen Johnson
and Lauren Myracle), his third solo novel, Paper Towns (2008), and Will
Grayson, Will Grayson (2010, with David Levithan). From 2010 to 2013, John and
Hank launched several online video projects, including VidCon, an annual
conference for the online video community, and Crash Course (2011–present), a
wide-ranging educational channel. Green's 2012 novel, The Fault in Our Stars,
proved to be a massive success. The book created a passionate fan base of readers
and debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list for children's
chapter books, remaining in the top ten for over two years. The 2014 film
adaptation was also a commercial and critical success, leading to several other
film and television adaptations of his work. That same year, Green was included
in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Green's
subsequent projects, his novel Turtles All the Way Down (2017) and The
Anthropocene Reviewed (2018–2021), dealt more directly with his struggles with
anxiety and obsessive–compulsive disorder. The Anthropocene Reviewed began as a
podcast in January 2018, with Green reviewing different facets of the
Anthropocene on a five-star scale. The podcast was later adapted into The
Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (2021), his first
nonfiction book. John has also collaborated with his wife, art curator Sarah
Urist Green, on the video series The Art Assignment (2017–2020) and Ours
Poetica (2019–present). Since the mid-2010s, John Green has been a prominent
supporter, fundraiser, and later trustee for Partners In Health and their goal
of reducing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone.
Career
Early
career and novels (2001–2006)
Booklist
magazine and Looking for Alaska
In
2001, Green was hired as an editorial assistant at the book review journal
Booklist, later becoming a production editor. While there, he reviewed hundreds
of books, particularly literary fiction and books about Islam or conjoined twins.
He also wrote radio essays for NPR's All Things Considered and Chicago's public
radio station WBEZ. He wrote essays for WBEZ after beginning an email
correspondence with Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who became a close friend and mentor.
While
working at Booklist, Green met author Ilene Cooper, whose example persuaded him
he could write a novel, saying, "I saw that real people like Ilene wrote
books; they weren't written in ivory towers." Cooper invited Green to
lunch to discuss his future. She set a deadline for Green to present her with a
draft of his first book, which Green failed to present to her twice over. Near
the end of 2001, Green suffered from a mental health crisis so severe he could
not eat, and instead drank only two-liter bottles of Sprite. He lived with his
parents for a brief time while seeing a psychiatrist and going on medication.
When he returned to Chicago, he began writing Looking for Alaska. Green wrote
the novel divided into "before" and "after" the character
Alaska's death, with chapters denoted through the number of days before or
after the death. The structure was partially inspired by Green's reaction to
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 months prior, and its status as a
dividing line in history and in people's lives.
Green
presented the first draft to Cooper, who served as a mentor through the
following two versions. Cooper sent the third draft to Dutton Children's Books
in early 2003, who awarded Green with a publishing contract and a small
four-figure book deal. Looking for Alaska was assigned to editor Julie
Strauss-Gabel, which began their collaboration that has persisted through all
of Green's books. In a 2015 interview with The New York Times, Green reflected,
"In a publishing world that maybe doesn't have as many long-term
relationships as it used to, she invested a lot of time in me before I ever
earned a profit. I've never written a book without Julie. I wouldn't know how
to do it."
Looking
for Alaska was published in March 2005. The novel is a coming-of-age school
story and teen romance about a boarding school student who gets bullied,
partially inspired by Green's experiences at Indian Springs, Alabama,
fictionalized as Culver Creek Preparatory High School. The novel was
well-received critically, but saw only modest sales at first. The novel was
awarded the annual Michael L. Printz Award by the American Library Association
(ALA), recognizing the year's "best book written for teens, based entirely
on its literary merit." Receiving the award caused book sales to rapidly
rise, with Green describing his reaction upon hearing he had won the award as,
"probably the purest moment of joy I've experienced. Even when my children
were born it wasn't as raw and surprising." It also appeared on the ALA's
annual "Top 10 Best Books for Young Adults" and appeared on the New
York Times Best Seller list seven years later during a surge in Green's
popularity after the release of The Fault in Our Stars. Green left his job at
Booklist after receiving the Printz Award.
Established
author and internet personality (2017–present)
In
November 2014, amidst the intense success of The Fault in Our Stars, Green
wrote on his Tumblr page that he was not working on his previously announced
next project, The Racket, anymore, but was working on something else with a
different title. In September 2015, Green announced that he would be taking a
break from social media to focus on writing his next book.[146] Around this
time, Green experienced a period of severe anxiety, partly due to the perceived
burden to follow up the massive success of The Fault in Our Stars. He worried
he might never write another book. He stopped taking his prescribed medications
hoping to reinvigorate his creativity and his mental health suffered, with him
later describing the experience saying, "I can't think straight — I can
only think in swirls and scribbles." After he recovered in late 2015, he
began writing Turtles All the Way Down.
In
August 2016, Green stated that over the next ten months he would be limiting
his public appearances in order to finish a draft of the new book. But on
September 20, Green took to his YouTube channel to say that he may never
publish another book, citing his current writing experience as, "this
intense pressure, like people were watching over my shoulder while I was
writing." He eventually submitted a draft, and he and Strauss-Gabel worked
on the book together for another year.
On
June 22, 2017, it was announced that Green's fifth solo novel would be titled
Turtles All the Way Down. It was released on October 10, 2017, and debuted at
number one on the New York Times bestseller list. The story centers on
16-year-old Aza Holmes, an Indianapolis high school student with
obsessive–compulsive disorder and anxiety, and her search for a fugitive
billionaire as she begins a relationship with that billionaire's son. Speaking
about the novel, Green said, "This is my first attempt to write directly
about the kind of mental illness that has affected my life since childhood, so
while the story is fictional, it is also quite personal." Like his
previous books, Green signed the first 200,000 copies of the book, as part of
the initial run of 1.5 million copies.
Upon
the release of his book, he and his brother Hank went on a book tour. In May
2018, Green was interviewed by then-quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts
Andrew Luck after Turtles All the Way Down was named a selection for the Andrew
Luck Book Club. They discussed the book and their relationships with anxiety
and stress for the event that promoted the PBS series The Great American Read.
The
Anthropocene Reviewed
In
January 2018, Green launched The Anthropocene Reviewed, a solo podcast where he
reviews different facets of the Anthropocene, the epoch that includes
significant human impact on the environment, on a five-star scale. This can
include completely artificial products like Diet Dr. Pepper, natural species
that have had their fates altered by human influence like the Canada goose, or
phenomena that only influence humanity such as Halley's Comet. Episodes
typically contained Green reviewing two topics, accompanied by stories on how
they have impacted his life. At the end of 2018, the Green brothers partnered
with WNYC Studios to bring all of their podcasts, including The Anthropocene
Reviewed, to the distributor.
Green
adapted the essays into a book, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a
Human-Centered Planet, which was published by Dutton Penguin on May 18, 2021.
The book was Green's first nonfiction book and sixth solo publication. The book
received positive reviews and debuted at number one on The New York Times Best
Seller list. The book featured revised versions of many of the essays from the
podcast, as well as new original essays, ordered chronologically through
Green's life to give the book the approximate structure of a memoir. Green
wrote about living through the COVID-19 pandemic in many of the essays. As he
had done with many of his previous books, Green signed all 250,000 tip-in
sheets of the first printing for the United States and Canada. He wrote a
review of the experience on the final signed page.[ac] This review was later
revised and expanded on for an episode of the podcast released on the same day
as the book. Green subsequently ended the podcast in August 2021 after 36
episodes.
In
May 2021, Green hosted a virtual book tour for The Anthropocene Reviewed, with
guests Clint Smith, Latif Nasser, Sarah Urist Green, Hank Green, and Ashley C.
Ford making appearances at the various shows. In April 2022, The Anthropocene
Reviewed was chosen to be the 2022 common read at the University of
Mississippi. Green gave a keynote address at the university's annual fall
convocation.
Further
adaptations
Books
All
of Green's book have received positive critical reception and appeared on the
New York Times Best Seller list. Green's books have been translated into 55
languages with more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including The
Fault in Our Stars, which is one of the best-selling books of all time. Green's
idiosyncratic voice and rapid rise to fame in 2014 are credited with creating a
major shift in the young adult fiction market. While reviewing the Andrew Smith
young-adult novel, Winger, A. J. Jacobs of The New York Times used the term
"GreenLit" to describe young adult books that contain "sharp
dialogue, defective authority figures, occasional boozing, unrequited crushes,
and one or more heartbreaking twists." According to The Wall Street
Journal, "[s]ome credit him with ushering in a new golden era for
contemporary, realistic, literary teen fiction, following more than a decade of
dominance by books about young wizards, sparkly vampires, and dystopia. A blurb
or Twitter endorsement from Mr. Green can ricochet around the Internet and
boost sales, an effect book bloggers call 'the John Green effect'." Zareen
Jaffery, executive editor of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers said:
"What I really like about what people are calling 'the John Green effect'
is that there's more of an interest in authentic, genuine, relatable
characters." Some readers and authors have been critical of the terms.
Green himself voiced his disagreement with the idea that he is single-handedly
responsible for launching or promoting any one individual's career.
Critics
have also noted Green's evolution as an author. With the release of the Turtles
All the Way Down in 2017, several reviewers referenced a dismissive perception
of Green's now very popular œuvre as "sad teen books", which had
emerged since the success of The Fault in Our Stars. Despite this, they praised
Turtles All the Way Down as truthful and authentic enough to transcend these
imagined drawbacks. Matt Haig of The Guardian wrote, "[Turtles All the Way
Down] often dwells in cliché, but only as pop songs and epic poems do, mining
the universal to create something that speaks to the familiar rhythms of the
heart. It might just be a new modern classic." Likewise, with the release
of The Anthropocene Reviewed book in 2021, Scott Neumyer of Shondaland wrote
that, "Green may have made his name by writing fiction (and for good
reason), but this first foray into nonfiction is his most mature, compelling,
and beautifully written book yet."
Green
has received criticism for his perceived writing of "Manic Pixie Dream
Girls", a term coined by Nathan Rabin to describe a female character 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". Paper Towns and the character of Margo Roth
Spiegelman have often been cited as a deconstruction of the "Manic Pixie
Dream Girl" trope, and Green has stated he specifically wrote her as such.
In October 2022, Green tweeted, "I think basically all criticisms of my
work are correct and justifiable other than the most popular one, 'he writes
manic pixie dream girls,' which is just so stupid. [...] THE WHOLE POINT OF THE
NOVELS is the danger of such misimagining, hence the eventual revelation:
'Margo was not a miracle. She was not an adventure. She was not a fine and
precious thing. She was a girl.' It's not like I made it subtle." Despite
this, some critics have questioned whether the story adequately deconstructed
the trope, or merely perpetuated it. Green has readily discussed what he
believes to be flaws in his novels when he looked at them in retrospect.
Additionally, in response to a fan's tweet, Green apologized for using the word
retarded in Paper Towns, stating, "Yeah, I regret it. At the time, I
thought an author's responsibility was to reflect language as I found it.
Still, now... eight years later, I don't feel like a book about humanizing the
other benefited from dehumanizing language."
Several
of Green's books have been the subject of book banning attempts. Looking for
Alaska was named the most challenged book of 2015 by the American Library
Association, with some people complaining about the book's "offensive
language" and "sexually explicit descriptions". In September
2022, a group of parents attempted to ban the novel from all Orange County,
Florida school libraries, a district Green had attended as a child.
Online
ventures
As
John and Hank Green began uploading YouTube videos regularly in 2007, they
became part of the early culture of YouTube as the modern content creator
industry was born from the YouTube Partner Program. The New York Times noted
John as having "[an] uncanny knack for channeling the voice of
marginalized but smart, self-identifying nerds, a gift he has turned into a
YouTube empire." Many others have come to regard the brothers and their
YouTube empire as pioneering in the online video space. In 2011, The Daily Dot
named the Green brothers as the most important people on YouTube.
The
Vlogbrothers' content has received positive reception from commentators and
fans alike, especially for the shared values expounded by their videos. Amelia
Thomson-Deveaux writing for The American Prospect commented that, "what
makes Nerdfighteria so potent does seem to be the moral imperative that the
Brothers Green throw at their bajillion viewers' feet: to take their weirdness
and anxiety and turn it into empathy. It's become kind of a culture." The
Crash Course project has also been successful in its reach, with the John
Green-hosted "World History" series alone having attracted millions
of viewers.
Works
Books
Looking
for Alaska (2005)[at] , An Abundance of Katherines (2006)
Let
It Snow: Three Holiday Romances (2008) – with Maureen Johnson and Lauren
Myracle , Paper Towns (2008) , Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010) – with David
Levithan , The Fault in Our Stars (2012) , This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and
Words of Esther Grace Earl (2014) – Introduction only , Turtles All the Way
Down (2017)
The
Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (2021)
Short
stories
"The
Approximate Cost of Loving Caroline," Twice Told: Original Stories
Inspired by Original Artwork, illustrated by Scott Hunt (2006) , "The
Great American Morp," 21 Proms, edited by David Levithan and Daniel
Ehrenhaft (2007) , "Freak the Geek," Geektastic: Stories from the
Nerd Herd, edited by Holly Black (2009) , "Reasons," What You Wish
For: A Book for Darfur (2011)
Other
Cocktail
Party Cheat Sheets (2006), Mental Floss gift book for which Green served as an
editor and contributor , Scatterbrained (2006), Mental Floss gift book for
which Green served as an editor and contributor , What's the Difference?
(2006), Mental Floss gift book for which Green served as an editor and
contributor
Thisisnottom
(2009), an interactive novel hidden behind riddles.
Zombicorns
(2010), an online Creative Commons licensed zombie novella.
The
War for Banks Island (2012), a sequel to Zombicorns, released as a Project for
Awesome donation perk.
The
Sequel (2012), an unfinished novel, much of which was reworked into The Fault
in Our Stars. The first 6,000 words were released as a Project for Awesome
donation perk.
Space
and The Cat and the Mouse (2013), stories released as Project for Awesome
donation perks
An
Imperial Affliction (2014), extracts used as a prop in the film adaptation of
The Fault in Our Stars and later released as a Project for Awesome donation
perk.
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