Amazon Editors' YA Book Club discussion

We sent John Green questions from some of our book club members, including myself. Thank you to all who submitted questions, here is the Q&A:

From Sc at Goodreads: We're going to start our teen book club off with Paper Towns. Is there a particular element you suggest they look for as they read your book? They are all readers, but this will be their first book club. Thanks!

John Green: First, thanks for including Paper Towns in your book club. I really believe that books belong to their readers and I don't want readers to feel me hovering over their shoulder telling them how to read, but I do hope they look at the way Q, and everyone in the story, misimagines Margo.

Seira Wilson: What was the most surprising or fun aspect of the book-to-film journey for Paper Towns?

John Green: The actors. Cara, Halston, Jaz, Nat, Austin, and Justice are six really extraordinary people, and I felt like the way they each inhabited their characters made the movie very special. Getting to know them on set was one of the great gifts of my professional life, and I feel so lucky to have shared the weird and magical experience with them.

From Kathless at Goodreads: How did the idea come to you about working Whitman's Leaves of Grass into your story?

John Green: A lot of Paper Towns is about how difficult it is to REALLY imagine what it's like to be someone else, especially since we spend our whole lives stuck inside of just one body, with just one consciousness. It's almost impossible not to see ourselves at the center of the universe, because I don't have direct access to any other selves. For me at least, Leaves of Grass is the great American work about the relationship between the self and the other--the ways we are individual and the ways we are connected. So it made sense to me to include it, and also that it would be the kind of book where Margo—who is really struggling with those questions—would find meaning.

From Anastasia at Goodreads: What should we learn from Margo's character? She truly is paper thin as far as characters go, and by that I mean we really know almost nothing about her. Does she represent how people idolize others without even really knowing them? Thanks for doing this Q&A!

John Green: Well, Margo's last name means "mirror man" in German, and when people look at Margo, they mostly see reflections of themselves. Like, what Q sees when he looks at Margo says a lot more about Q than it does about her. And when we idealize or romanticize those we say we love, we're hurting them (and ourselves). Margo's response to that is obviously extreme, but I don't think it's entirely unreasonable.

Seira Wilson: Readers always have their opinions about your characters, they love this one but not that one, etc., Have you ever toyed with the idea of what you would change (just for the sake of a daydream or perfectionism) about Margo, Q, or the story itself in the years since you wrote it?

John Green: I guess I'm sort of biased toward characters who aren't likable, or at least not easily likable. Mere likability doesn't seem to me the most important character asset a human being can have. That said, I do think about Q and Margo (and Radar and Ben) sometimes and wonder how I might have made their stories different. I got to see some alternate realities of the book through the movie, which was really fun for me. But I try to put my revisionist energies into the next book, which is the only one that current me has any control over.

Seira Wilson: You recently opened up about the challenges of having OCD and anxiety—I’m wondering if you’ve read Teresa Toten’s novel, The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B, or any other works of fiction that, to you, felt like authentic representations of young people suffering from OCD?

John Green: I haven't read that novel, although I will now! When I was a kid, I didn't know that I had OCD (if indeed I did have it), and I think contemporary teenagers living with mental illness are more qualified to say what feels authentic than I am. The obsessive behaviors portrayed in The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach felt very real to my sickest days in my early 20s, though. (I should add here that I am lucky to be in good health and encourage young people who are concerned about their health to talk to a supportive adult who can help them find the right resources. The majority of chronic illnesses—including chronic mental illnesses—are treatable.)

From Linsey at Goodreads: What are you working on now?

John Green: A lot of my time these days is spent working on our educational video series Crash Course, especially curricular materials that we're building around the videos and hope to make available freely to students and teachers in the coming months. But I am trying to write stories, too. It's been a slower process than I would've liked, but I'm lucky to have so much fulfilling work outside of writing.

Seira Wilson: If you were to do a word association exercise, what comes to mind when you hear PAPER TOWNS?

John Green: Nerdfighteria. Paper Towns was the first book I wrote that was shaped by having a direct relationship with my audience thanks to the videoblog my brother and I started, and it was largely written in response to their thoughtful and deep questions about individuality and empathy.

Great interview. It's really nice that he took the time to answer these (thoughtful questions).