Happy Belated Esther Day

So I'm not going to go into too much detail in this article, but basically yesterday was Esther Earl's birthday. Which in the nerdfighter community we celebrate as Esther Day. We do this for a number of reasons, but primarily it is to celebrate her life and her amazing contributions to awesome and efforts to decrease world suck, as well as to serve as a constant reminder that we have more pressing priorities than our own wellbeing: other people. Sadly, Esther died of a cancer that had been plaguing her for years at the age sixteen, yet she has been forever immortalized by the amazing friends, family, and community that she loved and that loved her in return. The foundation This Star Won't Go Out was founded by Esther's parents in order to continue Esther's legacy of helping people through charitable contributions to children battling cancer. If you want to donate that link up there will lead to their page where you can donate if you so choose. But more importantly I think the lesson that must be learned from Esther's life is that regardless of who you are or what your situation is, we should love other people to the point that serving ourselves is not something that necessarily matters in comparison to what we can do for other people. That's how Esther lived her life, and she was plagued by the disease her foundation combats. How much more than should we who are blessed with healthy bodies fight world suck and increase the amount of awesome in the world?

Anyway, Esther day was established while Esther was alive by John and Hank Green when John told Esther that they wanted to celebrate her birthday every year in whatever way she wanted them to. She said that on her birthday every year she wanted them to say "I love you" to each other, since the vlogbrothers have always had an issue with saying that to each other. As a result, we celebrate Esther day by telling someone in our lives that we find difficult to say "I love you" to that we love them. And while I celebrated a little early when my dad called me on my birthday, I want to let you guys, my readers, know that I love you too. So my friends, family, and random strangers reading this cause you're bored, I love you guys. For your participation in my life. For your commitment to me as companions. For your patronage and support of this blog. And for just being who you are. Because unless you are a serial killer or something, you just being you in this world is improving the world. Because there is no one like you, and so you have something new and exciting to introduce the world to in yourselves and I hope that Esther inspires you to share your light with everyone you encounter and truly improve our global community. Thanks for reading that slightly awkward point and I look forward to seeing your guys' contributions to this amazing planet on which we live.

Paper Towns - the Full Review

So I have two updates for you guys. The first one is that I’m on vacation from school for a week, and so that I don’t spend the whole time watching reruns of Friends and old vlogbrothers videos, I’m going to update ramblingsofacinephile every day. And each posting will be a full legitimate post, not the random plugs for halfgiant that I’ve been giving you. So I’d much appreciate it if you give me suggestions for posts in the comments, because coming up with a new idea every day is hard. The second update is that despite having already started my journey through Paper Towns as a review series, I have to cut it short because I wound up reading the rest of the book in one sitting. As a result I’m just going to write a full review of the book as my first post of the week. Here is the review:

The Summary:

Paper Towns is a novel written by John Green in three parts and a prologue. The prologue has been extensively covered here, so I won’t go into it too much in this review. The first part however is mainly concerned with a brief nocturnal adventure with our protagonist Quentin Jacobsen, also referred to as Q, and his neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo shows up in Q’s bedroom one night and whisks him away to help her get revenge against her cheating boyfriend and Margo’s friends who didn’t enlighten her as to her boyfriend’s licentious actions. This adventure is a fun one that draws the reader into the lives of these characters and allows us to see Q’s feelings for Margo develop. And yet, just as we become intrigued with discovering who Margo has grown up to be, the night is over and Margo leaves town, supposedly never to be seen again. Thus concludes the first part of the book.

The second part is concerned mostly with Q’s attempts to find Margo based on a string of loosely connected clues Margo leaves behind for Q to investigate. This part of the book is mostly comprised of Q’s stream of consciousness ponderings, which provide insight into the way Q sees the world. Furthermore, the segment consists of lots of setting development, introducing us to Q’s parents and showing us the everyday facets of Q’s life. The primary effect of this setting development is that we the readers get to see what it is that shapes Q as a human being: the way he sees the world, how he spends his free time, and what he truly values (which oftentimes is just as selfish as you’d expect from a teenager: Q often focuses on things that satisfy his own desires far more than they do his friends’ and hopes to see one of his classmates take off her clothes). After Q has thoroughly investigated Margo’s clues, and thus the little bit of her soul Margo allows Q to see, the second segment concludes with Q discovering where Margo has escaped to and undergoing his own adventure to find her.

To avoid spoilers I will not go into details on the third segment of the book. I will just inform you that it is highly entertaining and I read it straight through from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m.

The Spoiler Free Assessment:

Now I was already familiar with John Green before reading this book via his vlogbrothers youtube channel, which did give me a level of referential enjoyment you can only get by having watched John Green talk for several hours. However, I had no clue what to expect upon reading this book, as I had never seen any of Green’s writing beforehand. That being said I was extensively surprised at how well written Paper Towns is. It being a young adult novel, I assumed it would be moderately well written, as it had won a couple awards, but probably nothing particularly special. But no, Green manages to consistently impress with his snappy and witty dialogue as well as his use of internal monologue, on which the novel (particularly the second section) relies heavily. These two things work together seemingly effortlessly to create vastly complex characters and relationships between those characters. Q and his friends feel as if they have been friends for years and Q’s relationship with Margo seems as if the two are rekindling an old companionship. Furthermore, Green paints an environment that matches seamlessly with the characters living in it. Q and his parents’ relationship helps to clarify why Q is the way he is; the paper quality of Orlando helps to explain Margo’s desperation to leave. Additionally, all the characters serve some purpose in the novel. No one is useless. Every character works together to reveal what I believe John Green is trying to say with this novel. And that is that people are complex. And limiting people to single facets of understanding endangers that person’s understanding of himself or herself and works against allowing people to be who they truly are. Q’s constant inner monologue wondering why Margo is the way she is paints her to be this supernatural girl beyond human understanding in Q’s mind, when she is in fact a complex person with feelings and fears and fervor just like Q. Every aspect of the book works to reveal that every character, even basic archetypes like ‘school bully’ and ‘popular hot girl’ are far more than the simplistic shadows they are often portrayed as. A novel in which all the parts work together so seamlessly to convey a message as powerfully as Paper Towns does is, in my opinion, the very definition of an excellent novel.

Five stars out of Five

Things to Think About While Reading:

Rather than end with a spoiler-filled nitty gritty section like I did with my Hunger Games review, I’m going to tie this novel to two other pieces I couldn’t help but think about while reading Paper Towns. The first is The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, which was fresh in my mind from having to read it for an English class. I couldn’t help but be constantly reminded of Basil’s understanding of Dorian limiting who Dorian could be by Q’s limited understanding of Margo. In both cases, that limited understanding results in creation of an impossibly perfect ideal that leaves no room for human flaw, effectively dehumanizing the character. And while I probably can’t go into the comparison too much without writing a whole essay, it is definitely an interesting comparison to think about while reading this novel (which I wholeheartedly recommend you do). The other thing Green’s novel reminded me of, particularly his exploration of the idea that certain people bring out aspects of other people that wouldn’t otherwise be there, thus increasing the complexity of said person, is a quote from the book The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis that basically states that a person brings out parts of another person’s personality that would not otherwise exist, suggesting that the specific complexities of human beings is highly dependent on the way they interact with each other. That was interesting to think about in conjunction to Green’s book because it deepened the question, “what then happens when instead of bringing out more complexity we attempt to simplify?”

My Favorite Quote:

“I understand now that I can’t be her and she can’t be me. Maybe Whitman had a gift I don’t have. But as for me: I must ask the wounded man where he is hurt, because I cannot become the wounded man. The only wounded man I can be is me.” –John Green pg 298 of Paper Towns

Paper Towns-A Review in Progress

Hello! So I know my blog is Rmablingsofacinephile. Yeah that's right. didn't know you'd been reading my blog name wrong all this time hanh? Or maybe I'm a little dyslexic after typing for the last three hours. Probably that last one. Anyway, though I'm supposed to be a cinephile, I'm really more an all around nerd, and I've been drawing a blank on what to write lately. So I've decided to share my thoughts on John Green's book Paper Towns (which admittedly I'm a little late to be reviewing due to it having been published four years ago [2008 for those of you future readers! {Like anyone is going to read my blog in the future, no one really reads it now |Man that's a lot of brackets in brackets, so many I ran out of different kinds of brackets and had to resort to awkwardly placed lines|}] However I ordered it from Goodwill Books just last week and am extremely excited to read it.) as I read it. Woo! That was a fantastically complicated sentence/thought. Anyway, so I will share a post for every three chapters I read. However, I just checked to see how many chapters there are and the three-chapter-system may become problematic due to the categorization of the later parts of the book. [Edit: Yeah, the three chapter sequences system won't work because I'm reading the book too fast. Instead, I will write a post for each section of the book, there are three, for a grand total of five posts, including this one and the spoiler free review.] We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Please be warned, this will be a spoiler-filled journey through Paper Towns so if you're like me and hate having stuff spoiled for you, don't read these posts, after I have completed the journey through the book, I will post a spoiler-free review of the book as well. Without further ado, let's begin.

I lied. Here's some more ado. I have recently been watching an excessive amount of vlogbrothers videos, a vlogger series that John Green and his brother Hank do together. If you have not yet seen them then go watch them. They're good. And I have provided you a cleverly hidden link to their youtube channel in the third sentence of this paragraph. Anyway, having established that I am reading this book upon becoming familiar with John Green in a new media setting, we can begin our step by step journey through Paper Towns.

Leave any comments in My Pants. Actually don't.
I wont get them there. Leave them in the comments section

Just a reminder...there are spoilers below this sentence - either be prepared or avoid altogether.
The book begins with a prologue that introduces the characters of Quentin, our first-person narrator and protagonist, and Margo, the "miracle" that lives next door to Quentin, or Q as he is referred to in the novel and will be referred to in this blog. After sharing his philosophy that everyone gets one miracle, one incredibly unlikely event that happens to them, Q remarks that living next to Margo is his miracle. This sets up the whole tone of the story, allowing us readers to understand that the events of this novel will be fantastical. And  that tone is even further set up through the nine year old Q and Margo happening upon a dead body. As for this section of the story I found myself engaged quite effectively, however I was unsure as to the believability of John Green's provided narration of a nine-year old boy. I found myself thinking, "Really John? A nine year old thinking about the 'circumstances of his [the dead body's] demise?' That's a little advanced. Doncha think?" Then I felt stupid because it was obviously a story being told by Q as an older human being. Upon realizing this, I became aware of how absolutely fantastically John was able to create the mind of a teenage boy and welcome his readers into it. There are thoughts of sex and selfishness and development and concern. It is quite well done.

The first chapter after the prologue is concerned primarily with establishing the setting in which Q lives. We get a sense of his friends, all of whom are independently developed characters and rely in no ways on archetypes, and his school. He and Margo are no longer really friends. He's a band geek, and she's one of the hot popular kids. If I had one complaint at all with the novel thus far, it would be that Green made all of the teenagers witty. Which, though it makes for more interesting reading, is not the most realistic portrayal of teenagers in my experience. Usually they're a little slow and kinda dumb. No offense teenagers who are reading this. You'll get better, I promise. But hey, maybe teenagers are different in New York and Indianapolis.

Chapter 2 introduces us to what appears to be the main plot, but I will wager a guess is going to actually lead into a much more convoluted plot. Margo shows up at Q's house one night dressed in black and wearing black face paint. She requests his help in completing a mysterious 11 part plan since she needs a car and Q has access to one. At this point in the novel, we have not yet been introduced to Q's family, with the notable exception of him contemplating when his parents granted him mostly unlimited access to the family van, which I imagine will serve some thematic purpose concerning authority; though I am basing this entirely on conjecture and have no idea yet since the parents haven't been introduced.

A quick analysis and review of the first three chapters:
Q is highly representative of the nerd collective. He is a virgin who tends to stay where he is comfortable: in the band room. However, the nerd is being whisked off by the interesting hot chick on an adventure unlike anything he's experienced. What is in store for him is yet to be seen, but we can expect it to be the most exciting adventure he has ever encountered, with the exception of his stumbling upon the dead body. Despite this appearing to be a get-out-of-your-comfort-zone-and-enjoy-what-life-has-to-offer anti-introverted nerd story, anyone who is familiar with the vlogbrothers at all knows that John himself is an introverted nerd. So what twists will come to reveal what John Green has to say about life as a teenager is something I look forward to (sorry for ending in a preposition but I've been going back and correcting myself all day and I'd rather stop).
If you choose to read this book, which so far I would definitely recommend, it might help to familiarize yourself with nerdfighteria (the vlogbrother's online community), as the book reading experience is greatly enriched by being able to catch references to the stuff John says in his vlog as well as to a number of things John likely included just because he likes. Paper Towns has so far made me feel really smart since I get so many of Green's allusions. If you watch the videos, you'll get that feeling too.

I am going to end each segment of this series with my favorite quote from that section. Here is this one's:
"In every room, save Radar's, their home was awash in black Santadom-plaster and plastic and marble and clay and wood and resin and cloth. In total, Radar's parents owned more than twelve hundred black Santas of various sorts. As a plaque beside their front door proclaimed, Radar's house was an officially registered Santa Landmark according to the Society for Christmas."

A New Article and an New Direction for My Blog

Howdy y'all. I ave recently develped a bi' of a southen accent. Ok that's not true, but I am in an exstatically extaticaly? Ecstatically? Aha! That's it. Anyway I am in an ecstatically good mood for a number of reasons. Reason number one:
       I have started watching the vlogbrothers youtube videos and they are just so awesome. So they have put me in a hyper static good mood. I don't even know what that phrase means but it is most definitely true.
Reason number two:
       This weekend, I not only acted in a student film for one of my fellow film students, but co-wrote and co-directed a film with my friend Ryan that we entered into a 24 hour film race competition. I'm not allowed to share either of these films with you guys yet, but as soon as they are done you can expect a large increase in the amount of videos linked in my blog. Man that was an awkward sentence.
Reason number three:
        I am now the guest movie reviewer/entertainment article writer for a website called SidewalkOnline Magazine (that link goes to the first article I wrote for them on Why Legend of Korra is so awesome).
As a result of this last one I have decided to write my major movie or TV articles for SidewalkOnline and to start using my blog here mostly to rant like this and to write short stories based on things I encounter during my week. This week's story will be the mystery of what happened to a letter to a dude named Greg. More on that later this week.
     
        So yeah, I just thought I'd update you guys and let you know about the content shift in my blog. Also I just really wanted to express my excitement today. Woohoo! I'll talk to you all later this week.