Looking for Alaska, however, is not my favorite John Green book. Paper Towns holds that title, and I'm pretty sure it always will. I have a theory about that, though. Whatever the first John Green book you read is, it will probably be your favorite John Green book. Forever. You never forget the first time you read John Green.
That being said, Looking for Alaska is a very important book to me. First, it made me stop being afraid to highlight in my books. With the possible exception of my hardback Harry Potter novels and my favorite copy of my favorite book. Other than that, everything is free game. Second, my favorite thing from Looking for Alaska isn't the Great Perhaps or the Labyrinth of Suffering. No.
"It always shocked me when I realized I wasn't the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things." - Looking for Alaska; John GreenThat will always be my favorite part. That and the bit where Pudge is sitting in the French class conjugating the verb "to believe" and then the rain comes.
I picked Looking for Alaska to be the novel who's title I based all my second channel related things off of not because it is my favorite John Green novel (it isn't) or because I find the story that particularly moving for the reasons everyone else does (I don't), but because Looking for Alaska is something Pudge will always be doing. He will always be trying to find that girl who he couldn't reach, who he couldn't make love him, who he couldn't be sure he actually loved, who he didn't actually know, and who he couldn't save. Pudge will spend the rest of his life focusing on a girl he didn't really know, instead of focusing on who he really is.
That's what this is about. Remembering to never focus on why I'm not good enough to reach someone, to have someone truly love me, to truly love someone, to know someone fully, and to save someone however they need saving. It's about focusing on reaching myself, loving myself, knowing myself fully, and saving myself however I might need saving.
John Green didn't break or destroy the Manic Pixie Girl troupe with Alaska, but he shattered it in Paper Towns. Margo is who Alaska would have become. Quentin is who Miles would have become. That is probably why, when I look at the two novels after having read them both, I love Paper Towns more. It disproves the Manic Pixie Girl troupe because Manic Pixie Girls can never be reached. They can never love you. They can never accept your love. They can never be fully known. And they can never be saved.
They are fiction. We are not. I will always be looking for Wednesday, looking for myself, because that is the only person in the world who I can reach, love, fully know, and save.
You can show someone that they can do all those things for themselves, but you could never actually do them for that person.
-Wednesday
This is beautiful. I feel odd saying that for some reason, giving compliments on someone's analysis of a book, especially when it relates so personally to the analyzer. But it needs to be said so I repeat, this analysis is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIf there's a John Green book I need to spend more time thinking about, it's Looking for Alaska. I've torn An Abundance of Katherine's to shreds with my "analysis" (read: thinking about Colin in relation to me and who I am and want to be) and I've discussed many of the Paper Towns symbols with several friends. But I very much need to reread Alaska because there is so much more I want to get from it. And your comments are definitely going to mingle with my thoughts as I begin my reread sometime in the near future.
Basically, thank you.