thereisnothemehere:

if hank green can, in his debut novel, write a relatable but deeply flawed female protagonist who is not just pretty or only smart or only a manic pixie dream girl or any of the other million one-dimemsional stereotypes and tropes that women in media fall into, what’s the excuse of all the other male writers

iaintnosidekick:

I hope you all don’t mind if I take a moment to rant for a bit, but I just finished Hank Green’s book “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” and I need to talk about it. Because it’s been so long since I’ve been able to read a physical book and I can’t get over how nostalgic it was for me. Because, like many of us long time nerds, I was a major bookworm from ages 8-14ish. But then something happened in high school and suddenly I’m 21 and have maybe read three books for fun since graduating. So the fact that “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” was able to not only suck me in but then remind me of the joy and excitement that came with reading… well that was truly special. I even got that angry/excited feeling when the book ended but I realized the story hadn’t! I still don’t think I can accurately describe how incredible it was for me to have this piece of joy in the middle of maybe the busiest end of the semester of my life. So I wanted to say thank you to @edwardspoonhands for writing this book and putting it out in the world. It’s a very important story, and I appreciate all the work that was put into it. 

Now wish me luck, because I need to find another book so I can work on one of my older, better habits. 

its so crazy bc im going through this literal exact time in my life and i feel all the same things abt this rollercoaster ride of a book. tHis is when tumblr is great; when someone else articulates your feelings almost perfectly

just getting back into reading, which means ive also come to realize just how much i love and miss booklr. ive just finished An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green and dare I say,,,,it was absolutely remarkable. i feel the need to #discuss, so here i am.

loved what green had to say about the world, loved the mystery of the carls, but i didnt, however, love the main protagonist April. but i did love that this was obviously greens intent in this perfectly poignant thesis about the pitfalls of fame and how it can turn you into a pretty unlikable protagonist. 4.5 stars, cant wait for the sequel!

unfortunatetv:

Here’s what Joe Tracz had to say about Ishmael’s Role In Season 3

violetbaudels:

“You still don’t get it. There IS no right side of the schism.”

suuuuuuuch a good moment

asfierceaslions:

A major point of interest to me is actually the way the show feels when taken at the completion of the books, especially if you were reading them as they were coming out and have aged into an actual adult in the interim. As a kid, and especially as an abused kid, there was something very helpful and very arming in having a story say “things might not even get better but you can survive. Over and over and over again, the world will be scary and confusing and you won’t have the answers but you’ll survive and you’ll find the smallest safe moments that make things worth it.” That was very, very useful knowledge to a child. That genuinely helped me survive.

But now, as an adult? There’s something very. I don’t know. When I was a kid, I assumed all those mysteries were beyond comprehension, or more convoluted than could be easily explained. Now that I’m an adult, I watch this and all these mysteries are explained and truths revealed and none of them were as complicated or strange as I might have expected. Things are simpler than me as a child imagined. That just… seems right. You grow up, and things you thought were complicated are actually more simple than they seemed, and somehow, that simplicity can be worse, because that’s how the world works. Sometimes, horrible things happen over squabbles that shouldn’t have blown up the way they did. Esme wanted to keep her sugar bowl because she’s petty and that thing belonged to her. It blew up because people are… people. I’m not sure I would have understood that then. 

I think, when you’re a kid, a bleak or ambiguous ending seems sort of powerful, because you’re a kid, and you’re used to reading stories where everything is okay in the end, but kids sometimes need to know that that isn’t how the story goes. As an adult? I need to be reminded, often, that the world isn’t as bleak as I think it is, that sometimes there are happy endings, that sometimes things break down just because people are simple and petty and human. I need to be reminded that people find their way home, that broken pieces and come together to make something new and whole.

I don’t know. I think that the show simplified some of the things the kids faced and decisions and mistakes a bit, and I wish they hadn’t done that. But as a long time viewer, and someone who grew from childhood to adulthood in the interim, there is something about the show that feels like completion. We still don’t have all the answers. Probably won’t ever. I firmly believe that the show and the books are meant to be taken as companion stories where neither has the whole truth and both have some things wrong, but as far as themes go, the show feels to me like an excellent capping to the story, and just another pointer to the cyclical nature of most things. That being said, though, you can always muster a chapter 14 in a story that’s otherwise been unlucky, and that’s part of the cycle, too. Maybe one day we’ll get another telling of this story, made for another time and a different group of people and we’ll glimpse more of the truth in the muddy reality of the story being told. Still not all of it, of course, but some. 

I’m just satisfied. This was the story I needed now, at this point in my life. The books were the story I needed then. I’m incredibly thankful for both of them. I’ll always have things to nitpick about both, but that’s just life. It’s all gonna be okay, whatever the case.

dwightyoumonkeyslut:

funnilybookish:

People are complaining about the happy endings, but theyre really not all that happy. Yes, the Quagmires are together but they live in a floating mobile home far away from civilization and probably dont feel safe enough to ever land anytime soon. Fernald and Fiona are together, but presumably in a submarine with a bunch of orphan snow scouts? who are surely also being hunted down by the bearded man and hair woman? And the Baudelaires are all together and made it off the island, but its implied in the Beatrice Letters that Beatrice II is talking to Snicket in order to get his help in finding the other Baudelaires bc she got seperated from them and isnt even sure if they are alive. overall, the series has a lot of themes and messages, but i think the decision to wrap up some of the storylines in the way that they did is justified by the ongoing theme that terrible things do happen, but as long as youre not alone there is always hope. All of the characters find their family, but that doesnt mean that terrible things are done happening to them.

now, all that being said, idk why the fuck they made Ish the head of VFD lol

It’s not about the endings being happy. It’s about the endings bringing some sense of closure, finality, a relative sense of safety. If the show wanted to remind us of those moments they would have but instead they focused on every happy moment. Reuniting families and recognition. What made the series so powerful, unusual and important was that it was making a statement that closure, finality and safety do not come to those who deserve it. It was about introducing children to the reality of the world we live in, one with injustice and suffering and incompetency. One where you don’t get justice, one where you have to compromise your morals to protect the ones you love. One where noble people do wicked things and where the father of Kit’s baby is Olaf, where she still loves him despite everything he’s done. It saw the world, and the people in it, complexly. The show still goes miles beyond what anything else in this genre is doing, but doesn’t go far enough. And it’s sad because the show will overshadow the book (i hope it doesn’t) and people will receive a diluted version o the original message. I could write a lot more, and this isn’t as coherent as it could be, but I hope it makes the point I think may people are feeling

I like your points, but I also always knew that there was no way the show was going to end with as much ambiguity as the books bc tv shows get lambasted when they end that way. They had to give the viewers some kind of finality, especially since they’ve always said that they aren’t making any more episodes. However, other than the sugar bowl secret, I dont think anything was added in the ending that wasnt hinted at or confirmed at some point within the books. I think the ambiguity is still present bc nothing was wrapped completely up. The closure and safety you mention still isnt brought to the characters in my mind because they are all in rather compromising positions when we see them last. If we had cut to a scene with the adult Baudelaires laughing and playing with Beatrice II in their happy home on a hill, that would have been too much. But we didn’t, we got them sailing away on a tiny boat in the ocean, and then Beatrice II years later without them. I think what we got was a nice balance of closure for the fans and ambiguity for the characters.