Hello again! Now that we're finished with Looking for Alaska, it's time to start on the next John Green novel, probably his most popular, the Fault In Our Stars (named for the quote from Ceasar; "the fault, dear brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.")

Hi everyone! Kathy here with passages from pages 56-110!

First and foremost, this section was super important to character, relationship, and plot development in general. Along with that comes some really great passages and quotes. The one that caught my attention most was:

Just like that. From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not f*ck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane. (88)

This passage is extremely important to the development of Alaska and Pudge's relationship. It shows how unattainable he thinks she is and how highly he thinks of her. It's an illusion that she's putting up for him, in my opinion, and it's going to break. What do y'all think about this, specifically what it says about Alaska's character and Pudge's idealization of her?


Bonus passage! You don't have to think as critically about this one. I just wanted to include it, as it is also important to Pudge and Alaska's relationship, which is a critical theme for both the book and this section in particular.

Her hand just above my knee, the palm flat and soft again my jeans and her index finger making slow, lazy circles that crept toward the inside of my thigh, and with one layer between us, God I wanted her. And lying there, amid the tall, still grass and beneath the star-drunk sky, listening to the just-this-side-of-inaudible sound of her rhythmic breathing and the noisy silence of the bullfrogs, the grasshoppers, the distant cars rushing endlessly on I-65, I thought it might be a fine time to say the Three Little Words. And I steeled myself to say them as I stared up at that starriest night, convinced myself that she felt it, too, that her hand so alive and vivid against my leg was more than playful, and f*ck Lara and f*ck Jake because I do, Alaska Young, I do love you and what else matters but that and my lips parted to speak and before I could even begin to breathe out the words, she said, "It's not life or death, the labyrinth." (81-82)

So I included this because it, too, is incredibly important to Alaska and Pudge's relationship, especially Pudge's side. I'd just like y'all to think about it, but not necessarily speak to it directly in your responses.

Kathy

Good Evening! Week one has come to a close, and it is my job as "Passage Person" to find meaningful, difficult, or interesting quotes and talk about them here. What better place to start than with one of the most commonly recurring themes-- the Great Perhaps.

"Hold on," I said. I went into Dad's study and found his biography of Frangois Rabelais. I liked reading biographies of writers, even if (as was the case with Monsieur Rabelais) I'd never read any of their actual writing.
I flipped to the back and found the highlighted quote ("NEVER USE A HIGHLIGHTER IN MY BOOKS," my dad had told me a thousand times. But how else are you supposed to find what you're looking for?).
 "So this guy," I said, standing in the doorway of the living room.
"Francois Rabelais. He was this poet. And his last words were 'I go to seek a Great Perhaps.' That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps."

Miles' obsession with last words has consequently made him fascinated with death. Later in the chapter, Chip's roommate comments on a poet's last words that Miles recites-- "That's morbid. I like it." Death becomes a common theme within the book -- mostly within discussions between the characters.

"No drugs. No drinking. No cigarettes." As an alumnus of Culver Creek, he had done the things I had only heard about: the secret parties, streaking through hay fields (he always whined about how it was all boys back then), drugs, drinking, and cigarettes. It had taken him a while to kick smoking, but his badass days were now well behind him.

Until next time,
 ~Audrey