The Fault in Our Stars (Whatta Load of Trife!) [ENG-ESP]
My second criticism, I'm going to be the one to say it -- screw the Anne Frank House attic kiss. ... What an extremely ignorant and narcissistic thing to do. Anne Frank was a young girl who was persecuted for her faith, something that Green endlessly pokes fun at.
(Source: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/188200/the-fault-in-our-stars-by-green-john/9780141355078)
English Version:
I tried; I really did try to go into this novel as neutral as possible! I could not do it...
When this novel (and the God awful movie) first came out circa. 2014, it was THE Highlight of the Year on Tumblr. People seemed pretty divided on whether John Green was a literary genius, or a pompous fool. Having never read the book, I was fairly unopinionated.
Until today lol.
Altogether, I have Three 3️⃣ Big Criticisms. My top criticism is similar to that for Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It is NOT a coincidence that he bears a striking resemblance to Green -- people who look alike definitely seem to think alike! 😅
(Cline is on the left, Green is on the right)
Cline attempted to live vicariously through his characters, as did Green; every character was a shade of Green (no pun intended 😏). It made it impossible to connect with the book. Every character was just a different flavor of vanilla: bland and boring. There was no uniqueness whatsoever.
Like, yeah, being sick gives you a lot of free time to read or whatever, but what 17-year-old talks like this?
"'Do you realize how rare it is to come across a hot girl who creates an adjectival version of the word pedophile? You are so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are.'"
I'm 30 and have never spoken like this in my life. No one has, except for pretentious assholes, trying to seem more cultured than they really are! 🥴
And every single character spoke like this. Hazel, Augustus, Isaac, van Houten, everybody's parents, and Hazel's stupid friend with the fake British accent. This made it impossible to connect with anyone or anything!
My second criticism, I'm going to be the one to say it -- ffffuuuck the Anne Frank attic kiss. I don't give a damn about Hazel and Gus' cancer, that they're dying and always thinking about death, that "this is what she would have wanted 🥺" -- kindly shut it! What an extremely ignorant and narcissistic thing to do. Anne Frank was a young girl who was persecuted for her faith, something that Green endlessly pokes fun at.
"I'd always associated belief in heaven with, frankly, a kind of intellectual disengagement."
The fear of death didn't loom over her head because she had a disease; the two experiences are not even comparable. Frank actively feared for her life the entire time she was hiding, and Green thinks people who believe in heaven are dumb. Isn't that nice?! 🥴
THEN the fact that Green thought on-lookers would APPLAUD at the travesty -- get the fuck over yourself!
"And then they started clapping. All the people, all these adults, just started clapping, and one shouted, 'Bravo!'"
My last criticism of The Big 3: Green's hypocrisy. Here's what I mean!~ ⚠️ SPOILERS ⚠️ For example, Hazel wrote this after Augustus passes away:
"...written by people I'd never met and whom he'd never spoken about, people who were extolling his various virtues now that he was dead, even though I knew for a fact they hadn't seen him in months and had made no effort to visit him."
"I knew these people were genuinely sad, and that I wasn't really mad at them. ... Even so, it infuriated me: You get all these friends just when you don't need friends anymore."
B-but remember how not but 5 chapters ago Hazel claimed that she knew what Anne Frank would want, despite nobody knowing the real her? 🙂
"...you cannot kiss anyone in the Anne Frank House, and then thinking that Anne Frank, after all, kissed someone in the Anne Frank House, and that she would probably like nothing more than for her home to have become a place where the young and irreparably broken sink into love."
(Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/fault-in-our-stars-unique-details-you-missed)
Green would also constantly go back on his opinion about God and religion.
"I'd always associated belief in heaven with, frankly, a kind of intellectual disengagement. But Gus wasn't dumb."
"I silently resolved to remember and pray for the four Aron Franks as long as I was around. (Maybe some people need to believe in a proper and omnipotent God to pray, but I don't.)"
By definition, prayer is "a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship." Or, perhaps an alternative definition: "an earnest request or wish." (Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prayer).
To who? lol. A request to who? We just scream into the void, hoping that no one hears and helps? By this logic, one would have to believe that everything happens by fate (and Green doesn't seem like the type to accept such a rudimentary theory 🥴). You don't get to pick and choose, and you CERTAINLY don't get to make fun of the ones who are self-assured in their faith simply because you aren't.
To end things off on a lighter note, I would like to share some of the WORST lines from this book 😄
"'It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing.'" (uuuUGGgGghHH!!)
"Awesomesauce." (uuuUGGgGghHH!!)
"'Observation: Standing in line is a form of oppression,' and he said, 'Seriously.'"
"'Hazel has developed an issue with the ghettoization of scrambled eggs,' Mom said."
"When surprised and excited and innocent Gus emerged from the Grand Gesture Metaphorically Inclined Augustus, I literally could not resist."
"'Phantasms, specters, ghouls, visitants, post-terrestrials, APPARITIONS, Lidewij.'"
"'Sweet Jesus Christ, that kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphorical resonances of human waste production.'"
That is it for my review! 🙏 To make a long story short, I was not too impressed. I find it ironic as well; I recently found a tweet from Green criticizing Atlas Shrugged and that is the next novel I am reading! 😄 We'll see if his criticism is any better than his novels LOL! 😂
Traducción al español:
Lo intenté; ¡de verdad que intenté adentrarme en esta novela de la forma más neutral posible! No pude...
Cuando esta novela (y la horrible película) se publicó por primera vez en 2014, fue el Mejor del Año en Tumbler. La gente parecía bastante dividida sobre si John Green era un genio literario o un tonto pomposo. Como nunca había leído el libro, no tenía una opinión clara.
Hasta hoy, jaja.
En total, tengo tres grandes críticas. Mi principal crítica es similar a la de Ready Player One de Ernest Cline. No es casualidad que se parezca tanto a Green; ¡la gente que se parece definitivamente piensa igual! 😅
(Cline a la izquierda, Green a la derecha)
Cline intentó vivir indirectamente a través de sus personajes, al igual que Green; cada personaje tenía un matiz de Green (sin doble sentido 😏). Eso hacía imposible conectar con el libro. Cada personaje era simplemente un sabor diferente: soso y aburrido. No había nada único.
Sí, estar enfermo te da mucho tiempo libre para leer, pero ¿qué chico de 17 años habla así?
"'¿Te das cuenta de lo raro que es encontrarte con una chica guapa que crea una versión adjetival de la palabra pedófilo? Estás tan ocupado siendo tú mismo que no tienes ni idea de lo completamente inédito que eres.'"
Tengo 30 años y nunca había hablado así en mi vida. Nadie, salvo los pretenciosos que intentan parecer más cultos de lo que son. 🥴
Y todos los personajes hablaban así. Hazel, Augustus, Isaac, van Houten, los padres y la amiga de Hazel con el falso acento británico. ¡Esto hacía imposible conectar con nadie ni con nada!
Mi segunda crítica, voy a ser yo quien la diga: olvídense del beso en el ático de Ana Frank. Me importa un bledo el cáncer de Hazel y Gus, que se estén muriendo y siempre estén pensando en la muerte, que "esto es lo que ella habría querido 🥺"... ¡Cállense, por favor! Qué cosa tan ignorante y narcisista. Ana Frank era una joven perseguida por su fe, algo de lo que Green se burla sin parar.
"Siempre había asociado la creencia en el cielo con, francamente, una especie de desapego intelectual."
El miedo a la muerte no la agobiaba porque tuviera una enfermedad; ambas experiencias ni siquiera son comparables. Frank temió por su vida todo el tiempo que estuvo escondida, y Green piensa que la gente que cree en el cielo es tonta. ¡Qué bien! 🥴
Luego, el hecho de que Green pensara que la gente aplaudiría en la escena... ¡superalo!
"Y entonces empezaron a aplaudir. Toda la gente, todos esos adultos, empezaron a aplaudir, y uno gritó: '¡Bravo!'"
Mi última crítica a Los Tres Grandes: la hipocresía de Green. ¡A esto me refiero! ⚠️ Spoilers ⚠️ Por ejemplo, Hazel escribió esto después del fallecimiento de Augustus:
"...escrito por gente que nunca había conocido y de la que nunca había hablado, gente que alababa sus diversas virtudes ahora que había muerto, aunque sabía con certeza que no lo habían visto en meses y no habían hecho ningún esfuerzo por visitarlo.
"Sabía que esta gente estaba realmente triste, y que no estaba realmente enfadada con ellos. ... Aun así, me enfureció: Uno consigue todos estos amigos justo cuando ya no los necesita."
¿Pero recuerdan cómo, hace apenas 5 capítulos, Hazel afirmó saber lo que Ana Frank querría, a pesar de que nadie conocía su verdadera identidad? 🙂
"...no puedes besar a nadie en la Casa de Ana Frank, y luego pensar que Ana Frank, después de todo, besó a alguien allí, y que probablemente nada le gustaría más que su hogar se convirtiera en un lugar donde jóvenes e irremediablemente destrozados se sumerjan en el amor.
(Fuente: https://www.businessinsider.com/fault-in-our-stars-unique-details-you-missed)
Green también contradecía constantemente su opinión sobre Dios y la religión.
"Siempre había asociado la creencia en el cielo con, francamente, una especie de desapego intelectual. Pero Gus no era tonto."
"Decidí en silencio recordar y rezar por los cuatro Aron Franks mientras estuviera vivo. (Quizás algunas personas necesiten creer en un Dios verdadero y omnipotente para rezar, pero yo no.)"
Por definición, la oración es "una petición solemne de ayuda o expresión de agradecimiento dirigida a Dios o a un objeto de culto". O, en otra definición: "una petición o deseo ferviente". (Fuente: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prayer).
¿A quién? ¿Una petición a quién? ¿Simplemente gritamos al vacío, esperando que nadie nos escuche ni nos ayude? Según esta lógica, uno tendría que creer que todo sucede por obra del destino (y Green no parece de los que aceptan esta teoría 🥴). No puedes elegir, y mucho menos bromear con quienes tienen fe firme simplemente porque tú no la tienes.