Two Cents for Stories

Before reading this posts, it may behoove you to hop over to Anya  and Kat’s blogs for their entries titled “The Magic of Storytelling” and “Story Magic” (respectively). Here are my two cents on the subject that we, as friends, discuss often.

One of the oldest traditions of the human race was oral tradition- telling stories, myths, adages, and tales from generation to generation. Stories shape the way we think, teach us lessons, and create new little infinities within our world that are as large and expansive as our imaginations.

Like many students, intellectuals, nerds, and human beings, I took to reading at a very young age. Now, I am not saying I had the pathetically lonely childhood of an outcast, but let’s just say I was not popular (which is entirely overrated, anyhow- but that’s a different discussion). I often reread or look back to short books I loved when I was a kid knowing that there was probably a reason I loved them so much. I realize that a lot of what I read when I was younger greatly affected how I grew up and who I now am as a young adult. One I constantly refer to is Gordon Korman’s No More Dead Dogs, (the title relates to a kid hating how in every famous book the dog always dies in the story) and one part where the kid writes a terrible but truthful book review on a book called Old Shep, My Pal. The quote that I have used many times in regards to books I have been assigned to read by my school is this: “Old Shep, My Pal by Zack Paris is the most boring book I’ve read in my entire life. I did not have a favorite character. I hated everybody equally. The most interesting part came on the last page where it said “The End.” This book couldn’t be any lousier if it came with a letter bomb. I would not recommend it to my worst enemy.” Accurate, concise, and honest.

Moving on, Anya’s blog she discusses the magic of storytelling and what happens when we think and dissect through stories. For me, part of the magic of books and stories is that immense amounts of thought and care are (for a good book) put into the details, to create the environment, the world, the space for the adventure or events to take place. With this being said, looking into the books that I love it is interesting to see what the author adds into the story, tiny details that seem irrelevant but help paint a bigger picture. Kat writes about rereading books, how each time you reread a book you experience the book differently yet at the same time just as you remembered it. And yes, to me there is something greatly magical about this. I always have books that I love and will go back and read knowing that it is a worthwhile and meaningful read (quite like Kat, the Percy Jackson series was a childhood favorite. I also love to reread J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit/ The Lord of The Rings trilogy, anything and everything by John Green, Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, and the list goes on).

I discussed in “The Thing About Deja-Vu” that there is an order to the chaos on my bookshelf. My bookshelf has everything from a 2,000+ page Webster’s Dictionary (unabridged), to The Fault in Our Stars, to Just The Arguments: The 100 Most Important Arguments of Western Philosophy. The order in which the books appear on my shelf is by date that I read them/acquired them (although, there are very few I have yet to read). Walking from left to right on the bookshelf and rereading the books on it is a walk (literally and metaphorically) down memory lane, but every time the books grow a little- I notice another detail, find another joke, or realize something I simply had not before. Books are magical like that- just like humans, they are complex.

Now I will talk about something Anya talked about- movie adaptations (and movies in general). Because I love books and stories so much it is no surprise I have a deep affection for movies. The stories, the actors, the way the film is shot, and possibly above all else the scores written for the soundtrack. Although movies never capture a book entirely (book is always better- there are only a few, rare occasions in which that is not true), there is an added element to the “movie magic.” Seeing someone else’s interpretation of the exact same thing I read is fascinating, because even though we read the same book our interpretation of the characters and story is entirely different. We, as readers, get to see our imagination, the stories that we love and cherish, become real, like Pinocchio becoming a real boy. Yes, some things are lost (such as one of the single greatest lines of The Fault in Our Stars) but much more is gained by attempting to make something that was simply an idea into a real, physical story.

One step even more intense than this we find musicals- I have, personally, never been in a musical production but I have many musicals I consider to be my favorites. To be able to capture a story on the big screen through music is no easy endeavor. A wonderful example of this feat would be Rent. Out of all musicals that have been made into movies, this one is on the top of my list. Beautifully done, we get to see the story of love, loss, poverty, illness, and more expressed through music- and that is magical. Each time I rewatch this movie there is something new: it was always there, but I just hadn’t picked up on it yet.

When we revisited stories from our childhood, or simply from our pasts, we revisit the same stories yet now we are different people. We all have memories of a childhood friend that we lost touch with but remember fondly, and a good book is somewhat like that- frozen in time and preserved as a save haven, a source of joy, adventure, and memories. Yet at the same time revisiting stories is like getting to know a new friend- the more time you spend with them, the more they grow on you and the more you know about them.  And as readers, writers, and humans can create them with our brains, and that is magical.

 

Okay? Not Okay.

Not too many years ago man kind discovered the internet. Then I did. Millions of people did. Al Gore really thought he did- but that’s not the point.

Along with this revolution of the internet becoming a world wide social community came the birth of a website everybody loves: YouTube. A documentary, made by none other than the famous YouTubers (YouTube partners, a.k.a the people who work as content creators on YouTube) that documents the lives of the prestigious YouTubers and how YouTube has become a global community. YouTubers like Charles Trippy, Alli Speed, ShayCarl, and very importantly, the Green brothers John and Hank.

John and Hank Green are very active on YouTube- they run Vlogbrothers, a channel in which they vlog to each other, CrashCourse, which in an educational channel that covers topics such as U.S. History, World History, Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, Literature, and more. They also run Emma Approved, Sexplanations, SciShow, HankGames, personal channels for both John and Hank, and John on MentalFloss. In addition to these YouTube channels they started the website called Susbbable and help run DFTBA.com. They both dabble outside of YouTube with Hank working in the music industry and John Green writing books such as Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and most popular, The Fault in Our Stars.

The Fault in Our Stars is a heartbreakingly beautiful account of two teenagers with terminal cancer experiencing a love story with an expiration date. I will most likely write a blog dedicated to the story itself, but for now I am writing to focus on the movie premiere.

Walking into the theatre at the earliest showing possible, 9 o’clock Thursday the 5th of June, I was surrounded by other teenage girls sporting their Nerdfighter/TFiOS gear. There was approximately two guys in the entire theatre. One of which most likely had absolutely no idea what he had gotten himself into. The other was clearly enjoying himself- this guy cheered loudly and cried like nobody was watching- as we all did.

A brief summary of the emotions of the theatre ranged from busting out laughter to more people ugly crying in one room than you could ever imagine. Some media coverage described the tears shed in the TFiOS theaters not as quiet, polite trying-to-not-interupt-the-movie-crying, but instead as “racking sobs.”

Unlike most movie theater visits, in which crabby people have told me to “pipe down” or “be quiet, other people are listening!” (as the couple yelling at us promptly left half an hour into the movie not due to any sort of talking) this was a group of strangers who wanted to talk, mingle, and converse over a shared love of this story. Looking down the isle I was in, I could see just about every girl in the theater came prepared with snacks, drinks, and most importantly, tissues. So many tissues. It was fun being able to be surrounded by other people with a mutual love and admiration for the production of the movie adaptation of this wonderful book, people who had read the book and got your jokes and knew what you would feel.

At one point the famous line comes and it goes “okay?” and then “okay.” and I was sitting in my chair like “No. IT IS NOT OKAY.”

And here we have a gif from BBC’s Sherlock in which Watson adequately describes every fan’s emotions at the end of the movie.

And the girl next to me laughed, because she got my reference, and that was pretty amazing. The girl on the other end of me and my two sisters was also in tears but laughing at the same time, as we all were, because that is exactly the beauty of this movie- although the characters are dealt bad cards and live with perpetual pain and an impending doom, they are able to be so happy and content it really speaks to how people should try to strive to live their lives.

And finally, what part of the book indisputably was the best part that was left out of the movie. The funny half of the Swing Set scene. Hazel and Gus are sitting on the rickety, depressing swing set in her back yard speaking about how her family planned, or wanted to, sell it. So they make up some funny advertisements for it:

“‘Swing Set Needs Home,’ I said. ‘Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home,’ he said. ‘Lonely, Vaguely Pedophilic Swing Set Seeks the Butts of Children,’ I said.” It literally cannot get better than lonely, vaguely pedophilic swing set seeks the butts of children. If anybody thinks they can compete with that, be my guest.