https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 06 May 2026 22:22:42 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hb-book-club-feb-tfios-week-3-discussion#post-1435329 Thu, 20 Feb 2014 00:13:14 +0000 lovehoneybee 1435329@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm two glasses of wine in so I hope this won't be total word vomit. </p> <p>1) (In hindsight, this question might be a spoiler if you haven't finished the book, sorry!!!!)</p> <p>My first impression was of an out of touch, washed-up has-been asshole. The more of his story that was revealed the sadder I got for him. I don't think I could ever have affection for him, the same way that Hazel doesn't, but I certainly feel a large amount of empathy for him. </p> <p>2) I absolutely agree with everything you said here, @IRunForFun: . I think she's almost less worried about dying herself than she is worried about how it will affect her parents. I think of the line in the first section, when she was in the hospital at 14 and they thought she was going to die that night and she heard her mother tell her father something along the lines of "I won't be a mother anymore"? She's very worried about how her parents will handle it, which seems very human. I'm scared of dying, but I'm more scared and sad and worried about how Dave and Evan would handle my death, especially if I was young. I worry about how much it would wreck my mother to have to bury her only daughter. </p> <p>3) I don't think it's unseemly. I think it's really hard to put one's self in the shows of someone with a terminal disease. Though the big part of me hopes I could and would do what I could to survive as long as possible, another part of me wonders if I would even bother if it was so likely I was going to die. Part of me fears that I would just stay in bed and give up. </p> <p>But not having been in that position I just don't feel it would be my right to call someone who does try to survive against all odds a hero, and I can see why the phrases might be off-putting to someone who's life is just trying to stay alive another day, another week, another year. </p> <p>4) So I accidentally read through to the end last night, and I was a wreck most of the night. I sat on the floor in E's room and watched him sleep for a long time. Then an episode of The Wonder Years left me a mess. I wasn't actually expecting to have been hit so hard. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hb-book-club-feb-tfios-week-3-discussion#post-1434798 Wed, 19 Feb 2014 19:12:05 +0000 IRunForFun 1434798@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I guess I'll go first! :happy: </p> <p>1.) Oh man. Peter Van Houten made me so sad. At first I just hated him and thought he was a little bit crazy, but then I thought he might just be a man in pain, masking it with alcohol and not wanting to deal with life. I think Green has an affection for him because he feels sad for him, a once "brilliant" man whose life had come to what it was.</p> <p>2.) I think it is Hazel's favorite book because she can relate to the main character and kind of thinks her story might mimic that of the the character's. That's why I think it's so important for her to find out what happened. Her desperation to know what happens to the character is really her desperation to know what will happen to her. I think it's especially true of her wanting to know what happens to the character's mother - she's so worried about how her own mother will handle her death, she wants to know that the character's mother was OK. I don't think I've ever thought a book was too special to talk about! I love talking about books.</p> <p>3.) I think the point is that outsiders view the struggle with cancer as a "hero's journey" whereas the person with cancer is just doing what they have to do to survive and they definitely don't believe they are heroes. It's just...what anyone would do. Survival instinct. People on the outside can see how much courage it takes not to give up and give in, though. I don't think it's an unseemly comment for Green to make. I think it's a normal person's perspective.</p> <p>4.) I honestly can't remember exactly where this section ended, so I don't want to say anything that might be a spoiler!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hb-book-club-feb-tfios-week-3-discussion#post-1432816 Wed, 19 Feb 2014 00:15:03 +0000 lovehoneybee 1432816@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hey all, sorry this is late. </p> <p>And I forgot to add the pages last week, so these are spoilered (maybe?) through page 260, or through the end of Chapter 20. </p> <p>1) What do you think about Peter Van Houten, the fictional author of An Imperial Affliction? This book's real author, John Green, has said that Van Houten is a "horrible, horrible person but I have an affection for him." Why might Green have said that? What do you think of Van Houten?</p> <p>2) Hazel considers An Imperial Affliction "so special and rare that advertising your affection for it feels like a betrayal." Why is it Hazel's favorite book? Why is it so important that she and Gus learn what happens after its heroine dies? Have you ever felt the same way about a book as Hazel does—that it is too special to talk about?</p> <p>3) Green once served as a chaplain in a children's hospital, working with young cancer patients. In an interview, he referred to the "hero's journey within illness"—that "in spite of it, you pull yourself up and continue to be alive while you're alive." In what way does Green's comment apply to his book—about two young people who are dying? Is theirs a hero's journey? Is the "pull yourself up" phrase an unseemly statement by someone, like the author or any reader, who is not facing a terminal disease?</p> <p>4) Other thoughts on this section? </p> <p>I'll come back and write my thoughts tomorrow. </p>