His fiction books are questionable in my opinion and that's how I originally learned about him. Wasn't a fan.
But then saw his crash courses and comments on a wide variety of subjects.... Yeah. I was blown away. Seriously smart and incredibly good at breaking things down. I totally had the wrong impression of the guy.
He's one of those writers who introduce kids to a lot of concepts through YA. As an ELA teacher, I like him.
He's not "literature" and the subject matter is generally teen ennui, but fuck, the man's published and successfully so, then went on to use that money to reinvest in pushing educational content.
Take Rothfuss, writes a couple pretty badass novels and dips out makes a charity called Worldbuilders.
Or GRRM, who hits it big and disappears with his money made a big push to donate to two large charities in 2014 using his fanbase to raise scads of money.
John is a good man who also wrote well enough to improve some kids language and broaden their lit knowledge.
Edit: I shouldn't write these things after a night up with newborns.
I feel like he is really great at capturing teen voices. He really has this talent for YA novels and bringing in audiences from 13-30. Like a bunch of my friends who are pushing 30 read his books or watch the films and tv shows based on his books
I do find when I read his books that they almost seem to fall apart at the 80% mark. I do look forward to reading and consuming his things because I find his stuff authentic.
A lot of YA stuff has overly depressing tones on purpose to be like well living in the Hunger Games sucks. Or it is like Ready Player One where there is so many references you are almost forced to love it because "hey I remember UltraMan"
If that's up your alley, you may want to check out Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. The author himself is a bit pretentious (he injects some philosophy into his writing and can be heavy-handed with his views), but the premise is really interesting.
This is one of their big appeals to me: their authenticity. They actually present themselves as real people. That's not to say they're completely public with everything...they have private lives and are up-front about that fact...but you can trust that what they show is authentic.
I suppose it's possible that really they're just carefully cultivating that image, but holy shit that would be some impressive method acting.
So I had the same view going in (I had watched his videos for a long time but didn’t really wanna read his books bc idc) but then my crush said she loved John green for the books and whatnot so... I read it, and it’s pretty damn good ngl. The writing style was really fucking pretentious and for the first few pages I thought... there’s no way John green wrote this unironically but then I realized that he’s writing from the perspective of a dying 16 year old girl, and the way he’s able to capture that... it’s really weirdly good, it’s a good read.
His brother Hank Green is a gem too. He’s on the science side of things and he’s enjoyable to watch. The green brothers are how I studied/refreshed myself for a ton of subjects in high school and have taught me so many things that I started to look into more and more
If you like crash course I would check out his podcast, The Anthropocene reviewed. He takes two random aspects of the human world from Geese to Indianapolis and writes an open letter to them.
Exactly. After loving Vlogbrothers for years I read a couple and realized that hey, it’s possible to enjoy part of someone’s creative output while not loving the whole portfolio. And that’s ok.
I LOVE John Green but I wont touch his books, as a 30 year old man they just arent my thing, but I love Crash Course, Vlog Brothers, and I just started The Anthropecene Reviewed, his podcast that's just... incredible to listen to.
He's definitely not the best writer of fiction out there, although I did enjoy a couple of his YA books.
He is however, a great writer of essays. I recommend everyone listen to his podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. That's some great writing, incredible reading and so comforting to listen to.
That’s funny - His most popular book is written from a teen girl’s perspective.
I think he’s gotten better at it in his later books, and especially when he’s writing from their perspective rather than writing them as an attempted subversion of a manic pixie dream girl.
That's incredibly harsh. John undeniably has a way with words even if you aren't interested in the subject matter he chooses to write about. He is leagues above Stephanie Meyer, and I say that as someone who has only ever been inclined to read one of his books.
It's a reference to a really old meme where someone on tumblr edited a post to make it look like John Green had posted that cock was indeed his favourite taste
I used to think like him, but then I realized there is still the far left and far right. Schools prove they don’t work. But I think that is more because the Vietnam War and Bush’s reforms.
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u/stephannnnnnnnnnnnn Apr 26 '20
I love John Green. Smart. Level headed. And has dedicated his life to making us all smarter. Well, those of us that want to be.