The Dictator’s Handbook
(a non-fiction work in which two economists study trends in “successful”dictatorships throughout history),
was released only four months before John Green’s latest masterpiece. TDH
begins and ends with the quotation from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “the
fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in us”, which oddly also happens
to also be the inspiration for the title of John Green’s absolutely brilliant
most recent novel, The Fault in our Stars.
While The
Dictator’s Handbook studies the
way a few deeply flawed villainous men can ruin a society (the great problem is
in their flaws, not the situation), Green’s novel depicts the
situational villain I’ll be taking on this month.
Cancer.
Cancer is
definitely a villain, as anyone who has seen the devastation it leaves in its
wake, and it is inside a person, but the characters don’t do anything to
deserve this villain, and no person is at fault. Nobody. Nobody to blame. No
one to psychoanalyze. No one to sue. Nothing.
And so, while most great classic
villains have layers, depth, etc. to explore -- How did they get that way? What
are their quirks? etc. making them fascinating to read about and to write -- disease, as a villain, does not. And that provides Green
with certain opportunities.
In Green’s
work, all of the central characters are teenagers with cancer. He adeptly milks
the opening scene to introduce us to our characters via the carnage of the
villain’s dark power. Great for showing us who’s boss right up front (mental note: introducing all new characters via a similar characterizing point can work wonders for an intro.)
He sharply
juxtaposes this horror with the most ordinary of settings, a rec room at an
ordinary midwestern church. The teenagers’ initial characterization tags spill
out in a support group: ball-less-ness, a missing leg, lungs that require
assistance to breathe, a boy preparing to have his last eye removed; looking
around, our protagonist even runs numbers on the odds of dying. There is more than enough real
danger present to up the stakes. But here is the beauty of Green’s balance. They’re broken, but
they’re also in a place of support.
And this scene
is hilarious.
And that, too,
is the power of disease as a villain. Since it’s a villain that never leaves
its victims, the characters may embody the best of gallows
humor. Mankind has a tendency to laugh at awkward times.
With so much
heaviness in which we will be unrelentingly trapped throughout the novel, we can’t
help but crave a laugh to lighten. Green’s jokes are spot-on throughout, almost
brutally so, but it’s not only his facility with language that makes us laugh
out loud in that first scene, it’s also that we’re primed to need relief.
Under Green’s
masterful hand, the villain becomes the indifferently malicious reminder to all
of us that our bodies will fail us. That our most intimate asset, that which
has sustained us since birth will eventually just stop working.
But by
experiencing the hazy humorous terror through Hazel’s half-adult/ half-child’s
insightful eye, it allows the reader license to laugh at his own inevitable
mortality and to see each moment as a gift.
By making even the worst of the characters, a remote author, "good" on some level, Green removes the "fault"
from man. And that allows for a kind of hopefulness in humanity. Maybe, we could, in fact, live in a place where the villains are not our own kind. Unlike in The Dictator's Handbook (also an excellent work and one I highly recommend for those looking to write an external villain,) Green’s optimism
for humankind shines throughout.
Green takes us on a journey through a nightmare and gives us humor and hope and bravery as deeply as he gives us terror and sadness, and we thank him for it. NYT Bestseller thank him for it.
Green takes us on a journey through a nightmare and gives us humor and hope and bravery as deeply as he gives us terror and sadness, and we thank him for it. NYT Bestseller thank him for it.
To see a real (no longer living) dictator looking at things go to: http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/
Easy-to-use small appliances, the time at home is longer, and many things that can be done outside are now inconvenient. For example, I like massage, because massage can make me relax, but going out will increase the risk of infection and it is also inconvenient. But I found a good alternative tool, NIKSA footbath massager, so I can enjoy massage at home, which greatly improves the happiness and comfort of my home.
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