#Alaska and pudge

[musiquesduciel]

Another reminder that characters from Looking For Alaska (2005) would be turning 35 this year.

[twinkpeaked]

idk why people get embarrassed and say “oh gosh i used to read john green when i was younger” like have you ever been fourteen reading looking for alaska and wishing you had her life’s library? it’s a universal experience embrace it

[ultravioletsworldd]

Them🤎

[idkwhatimdoing-help]

~Raine's Reviews: Looking For Alaska~

Rating: 8/10 Author: John Green Year: 2005

First of all there was a sticker on the book, i tried to remove it, messed up, and put the sunflower sticker to cover it. I think it looks pretty <3

Overall, i liked it very much, but since it's a thriller, i wouldn't read it again, im planning on putting it back in the charity shop, bc i got from there. But i do believe that John Green doesn't know how to write anything that isn't white, straight teenagers. And i don't like his works much. However, this was his debut so im cutting him some slack here.

Horny teenagers. It was basically horny teenagers in a boarding school in Alabama. And my asexual, unAmerican ass was sooo amused at how their brain works

I loved that we slowly learn about Alaska's past, and how everything slowly starts to make sense. Bc her home life was all a mystery until she confessed about the day her mom had an aneurism and she didn't call 911. We had snippets, but it didn't make sense why she hated home.

The pranks were AMAZING. The Barn Night, The Flooding, Alaska's Memorial Prank. There was a freaking stripper in the Creek!!! Like man, what the hell!!

I have to say, the amount of drinking and smoking felt fake. Like, i don't really think that was how much they smoked and drank. And the fact that it was all over in school and everyone was doing it. Wrong, fake.

But the sex was very realistic. The fumbling and not knowing of teenagers. Lara and Pudge's confusion over a blowjob made me so happy.

The fact that we never actually found out if it was suicide or accident was also realistic. I feel like there is always the pressure on an author to make everything crystal clear by the end of the book/series. An that's just not the case a lot of times irl. And there are so many cases that we will never know if it was a suicide or accident

Alaska's ptsd/cptsd was portrayed really well. I don't think that would be the case if the book was from Alaska's POV, but it was from Pudge's POV and for someone witnessing it from outside, it was well written

Takumi was a sweetheart, i love him so much <3

Him feeling left how was soo real and the letter at the end of the book broke my heart. He wa sthe loser of the friend group, and as the loser of the friend group, i relate to him so much

Speaking as an immigrant, Lara saying that the best day of her life and the worst day of her life were the same day (her family moving to the US from Romania) hit a bit too close to home. Im constantly thrown apart between trying to decide if i completely hate my family moving or completely loving it. And i learned that it's neither. And there's a bit of both in it. And Lara knew that as well.

Also, Lara deserved so much better!! They did my girl dirty. Period.

The Old Man/religion teacher was an icon and i loved the scenes of his classes. And what he did to remember Alaska and her Big QuestionTM

The teachers aren't just cruel robots, they are also human and that was potrayed nicely. I feel like we tend to forget that, esp while writing books. The Eagle getting emotional over Alaska's death and trying to help Pudge and the Colonel

I do have to say, John Green could have done better with writing emotions. Esp teenager emotions which are all over the place. Pudge's mind seemed so single minded and that didn't felt like how it is for teens

[woodlandfairy10]

Looking for alaska will forever be one of the greatest piece of YA literature that john green has bestowed uopn this world amd i will defend it till the day that i die When he wrote " I was gawky and she was gorgeous and i was hopellesly boring and she was endlessly fascinating so i walked back to my room and collapsed on my bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, i was drizzle and she was hurricane." And when he wrote " Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die." And when he wrote " I know so many last words, but i'll never know hers." The way my outlook on life completely changed when i read this i loved every aecond of it. Alaska's death will always remind me how grief and guilt play such a pivitol role in people's life and how life without meaning, without an identity of self is not really a life.

[samsdei]

Charlie Plummer

[whiterainbow-pearl]

"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." ~ John Green- Looking for Alaska

A soulful yet heartbreaking book, by John Green. An incredible read!

[qoslaw]

Before I got here, I thought for a long time that the way out of the labyrinth was to pretend that it did not exist, to build a small, self-sufficient world in the back corner of the endless maze and to pretend that I was not lost, but home. But that only led to a lonely life accompanied by the last words of the already dead, so I came here looking for a Great Perhaps, for real friends and a more-than-minor life.

John Green, Looking for Alaska

[lollreagan]

looking for alaska by john green

as with all my review posts, *spoiler warning*

well well well folks. i am officially finished with my first year of college and my exams. since moving from my small town high school to an ivy league - i can now say that i am a mediocre student - at best. i went from someone who had all A’s during high school to having half of my transcript be B’s and B-. And even so, I still had the best time. I can’t wait to leave my hell hole of a house to go back in June, because I miss the city so much already. (I think it’s something having to do with the sun being out now, because I wanted to go home soooo bad when it got cold - i am not a cold person). 

In my scrumptious 16 hour car ride back home, i took up one of my previous pastimes - reading. because I was in the car, I only had the selection of books which i had previously downloaded on my iPad - one of them being Looking for Alaska by John Green. 

I have mixed feelings about this book. I reallyyy want to like it. I do. I really do. But for some reason I just can’t. I don’t like how the book is built around the one central point and it happens halfway thru the book.

We never got to see Pudge and Alaska in their moment. There was so much buildup and then suddenly it was gone. And Pudge got super annoying and thank GOD the characters were able to recognize this and tell it to him. However because the story is told from Pudge’s point of view, we have to put up with him.

Pudge is unlikeable. He’s lowkey narcissistic and a pick-me. He thinks that no one wanted to be friends with him in high school because he just wasn’t cool or because he was too skinny. This really bothered me.

Alaska is unlikeable. She’s manipulative, especially toward Pudge. She would get jealous when Pudge would be with Lara, but she wouldn’t want to be with Pudge. And she knew that she could control Pudge.

The only likeable characters were Colonel and the Eagle. I actually really liked the Eagle. And Takumi and Lara but they were so minor that they didn’t even add much to the story.

The story was too short. I feel like John could have expanded the story so much. It ended so abruptly. It felt like we were just finally getting to understand the characters and how they act with one another and then *boom* climax of the story and then its over. that was it. too short and too abrupt of an ending. 

the climax didn’t make an sense. the story felt like John knew he wanted Alaska to die, but then wrote the story before he had figured out how. It felt like John didn’t even know how she died either. And i didn’t like this. I don’t like being in the same state of ‘not knowing’ as the author. I like being kept in the dark, if it means that the reveal is coming later on. It never came. I was still left confused. “Yeah but that’s the point, you’re supposed to come to your own conclusion like Pudge and Colonel” Shut up. Just shut up. You sound like you’re trying to justify bad writing. Shut up. 

There should have been more buildup to the car crash. And the book would have been better if it was told from both perspectives of both Pudge and Alaska. Because it would be better for the audience to know exactly what was going through Alaska’s head.

The part where she just storms out and has to drive to see her mother at 3 am was so abrupt and stupid too. It made no sense. She would have been too drunk to even remember, which is what they made a point of at first. Also she never would have been able to drive straight. Her committing suicide made NO SENSE. and john made a point of that through the characters’ investigations and THEY EVEN SAID IT MADE NO SENSE FOR HER. this is why there should have been a perspective from alaska. it was just lazy writing in my opinion to have not had that.

i hate this book. i hate this book. it had so much potential and then it felt like john got in a rush at the end and rushed the ending. the buildup was so good and then he just ruined it.

rating: 4/10

it pains me to give this rating, can someone please make a fan version of the novel that is actually good, im begging.

[xoxodestany]

“…. if people were rain, i was drizzle and she was hurricane.” - John Green

[chloelouygo]

[sleepdeprivedsimp234]

Really long headcanon post for the stuff that I’ve posted on Wattpad :3

Massachusetts:

-Mans is my height, 5'6, and he hates being bullied about being the shortest of his brothers lmao

-Is twins with New Jersey, though Jersey makes fun of him cuz he's five minutes younger

-he has reddish brown shoulder-length wavy hair and hazel eyes

-mf is built like the Dwayne Johnson though he's just missing the height

-TRANSMASC MASS SUPREMACY 🛐🛐

-this man acts all tough until the cramps come along. Then he's dead.

-doctor of the statehouse, along with Texas. He deals with sickness/illness whilst Texas deals with injuries. Though he can do both cuz we love that.

-tried learning how to make flower crowns cuz NY would always make them for everyone when they were younger. He tried his best, and he's actually kinda okay at it, so him and any will just hang out and make flower crowns.

-^he has put a spell on every single flower crown that he's ever given or received so that they never shrivel up and die

-OCD, autism, and ADHD

-loves rock, metal, and punk music. Especially FFDP (THEY HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING THAT FRICKIN' GOOD LIKE WHAT-)

-friends with the OG13 (no dip Sherlock-), Maine, Texas, and Louisiana.

-REFUSES TO ADMIT HE HAS A SOFT SPOT FOR NEW YORK. EVEN IF HE'S ACTIVELY HUGGING HIM. HE WILL DENY IT TILL THE DAY HE DIES. HE WILL DO ANYTHING FOR THIS DAMN KID.

-^the moment he met New York, he was filled with the urge to take him away from England immediately. He does pick favorite brothers btw. And it's New York.

-sharp lil canines like he's a friggin vampire smh

Sippi:

-he is a squishy boy and we love that <3 it just makes him better for cuddling

-he's not short, not tall, he's only 5'8.

-he's a pathetic loser tbh but we still love him

-sippi loves stuffed animals, but his favorite is a teddy bear that was given to him by New York (fun fact, teddy bears were invented in Brooklyn, and were named after the president that refused to shoot a bear!).

-he named it Mr. Cuddles, and it is the most beat up stuffed animal that he owns (as in, its ear had to be sewn back on, one of its eyes has been replaced by a button, and it has random stitches and patches all over) but he still loves it and cherishes it to this day.

-friends with (omg he has friends????) Texas, Louisiana, Florida, New York, South Carolina and Georgia

-yes yes he is but a cuddly marshmallow. Until you hurt someone he loves. Then you're dead.

-he SCREAMS whenever there's a bug. Strangely though, he likes ants, moths, and butterflies.

-mans is colorblind

-he doesn't like his squishy-ness and has tried to starve himself on numerous occasions :(

-I think that the fact that he's been owned by 3 different countries is grounds to give him abandonment issues right? Okay.

-if it weren't for his friends just simply existing, he would've been long gone by now. (same tho- I mean what?)

-I'm not gonna say he's hurt himself before, but I'm not gonna say he hasn't either 👁️👁️

-bro thinks that anybody he gets close to is gonna leave him :[

-if he gets hurt, he's not gonna bother telling anyone cuz he doesn't wanna feel like a failure for not being able to defend himself

Texas:

-this man is T A L L- he's 6'5 (not as tall as Alaska though so HA-)

-I imagine him to be very slim and fit, but he has a tiny bit of pudge around his lower stomach and hips and thighs.

-he LOVES animals so, so much. More than humans tbh.

-he has a horse (Ranger), 5 dogs (Rosco, Daisy, Cassy, Billie, and Maria. Rosco and Cassy are German Shepherds, Daisy and Billie are heelers, and Maria is a demonic chihuahua), 3 cats (Mittens, Sassy, and Milo), and 2 snakes (Spot and Harvey).

-^thats just at the statehouse. Back home, he has an animal sanctuary where he takes care of animals, takes them in, nurses them back to health, ect... It's very adorable and I love it.

-speaking of animals, he cannot, I repeat, CANNOT keep it together if an animal dies or gets hurt in a movie. Homeward Bound? Mans was not okay. Hachi? He wasn't ballin', he was bawling 😔.

-I BELIEVE IN TRANSMASC TEXAS SUPREMACY 🛐

-he still wears a binder cuz he doesn't trust the doctors to perform top surgery on him.

-ADHD for DAYS- don't give him an energy drink unless you want a 6'5 chihuahua on cocaine to be following you around.

-ADHD, autism, ocd, depression, anxiety, and ptsd. Idk if daddy issues counts, but he has those for sure.

-this bitch has fallen off of so many things that he no longer takes fall damage

-Mexico was such an asshole to poor Texas...... I wanna skin him alive :)

-Texas CANNOT handle someone raising their hand or voice at him. He can't. He will flinch and/or cry. Which he hates. Cuz he's supposed to have this reputation as the big strong Lone Star State.

-he has SH scars on his wrists, sides, and thighs. They vary from blade marks, to cigarette burns, to even scratches.

-he hates all of his scars so, so much and sees them as nothing but a sign of his weakness and inability to defend himself.

-Texas is also kinda insecure about the little bit of pudge on his lower belly, hips, and thighs. What makes it worse is that he can't really help it. Especially the stomach pudge cuz that's just where his uterus is. Does he know this? Yes. Is he still insecure? Yes.

-he often binds too long or forgets that he has his binder on until it's too late and there is severe bruising and even minor bleeding underneath the band. Along with breathing difficulties.

-^to make the breathing difficulties thing worse, he has asthma :)

——————

[metyouattherighttime]

ok here are my comments for looking for alaska by john green (aka siaras fav) @luvusrry

it was a good story that incorporates the elements religion, life, and death and i could see why this book is popular but me personally i didnt love it (IM SO SORRY SIARA)

before this from books by john green ive read paper towns and i saw the reviews and they say that all his books follow the same kind of storyline and i was like oh ok and yk i just thought ill see for myself and i guess this is me seeing it for myself because yes the storylines are very similar 😭

there are some things in the book that i just dont get like jake (why wasnt he at the funeral) or the nicknames (just plain confusing and i forget their real names) or pudge loving alaska (could just be me but why did he even fall for her)

maybe im just not fit for john greens writing.. the way he describes alaska kinda bothers me

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

[iknowwhythecagedbird]

Looking for Alaska by John Green: The Teenager's Grueling Search for Meaning in Life

Naturally, this book saw itself into my life as an extremely fitting one. At the time of my reading it, I was spending my summer days on the college turf John Green once walked on — Kenyon College — immersed in the writing and reading scene. This, paired with my being just a teenage girl, made this read that much more enjoyable and impactful.

Note: beyond the overview, spoilers, mentions of death, suicide, and mental illness lurk.

Overview

Looking for Alaska follows the lanky, awkward Miles "Pudge" Halter and his adjustment to new life at his boarding school in Alabama. He meets a number of troublemakers — one of which he falls in love with, Alaska Young. Despite getting set up on a date with another girl, Pudge tries not to get himself into too much trouble with her or his other cigarette-pack-smoking friends.

One feature I particularly enjoy about this book is the number of days listed at the beginning of each chapter. During the novel, the days count down from '136 days before' until they get to a certain event, and then they count upwards until they get to '136 days after.' Some of the days count down consecutively. Other times, a week or so skips by. I think this is so reflective of life, because time is just as Einstein said — relative. Some days, I'll exist, and the days will just speed by. As someone who goes to camp every summer, and who has had the privilege to attend two two-week sessions of camp this year, camp was just a set of dates on a calendar. Then I blinked. Then it was over. When I woke up each morning at Sewanee and Kenyon, I felt guilty that I hadn't spent my time sleeping to appreciate the college campuses. Each day was so interesting and fun that time just sprung up and sprinted away.

Of course, in the case of this novel, I interpreted the larger time skips as weeks where nothing particularly interesting happened. However, this makes the select days even more valuable — it takes the fun days, which usually move awfully quickly, and it documents them, slowing them down for the readers and serving as a countermeasure to what would usually be a day that just slipped under the characters' noses. Then, it took the slower days and sped them up, to show that not every event in Pudge's life is as riveting as the ones documented. He's a normal human with a normal life, just like all of us, with a few fun days out of a lifetime that stand out from the rest. In terms of the larger theme of existence in this novel, the lapses in time pose an interesting question: why live life if not everyday brings something new?

That leads me to my next point: the question of existence coupled with the teenaged perspective is highly effective. In my formative years, I have often found myself wondering, both prompted and unprompted, what it is I am doing here, and what it is I want to get out of this life. When it's prompted, it's in the form of an application where I'm staring at my blank, white laptop screen at the question of "Why _____ ?" and I'm trying to dive deep enough into myself to find the answer. Existing is hard. It's a funny world— how we use this question of "why?" as a marker, as a hand dangling meaning over our heads, taunting us to see how high our developing brains can jump up to reach it. Because, in actuality, the question of "why?" we as humans do certain things is something we have less control over than we think. That is why the religions of the world also try to grasp at it. They are examples of the human tendency to go searching for meaning, for purpose, and an answer to this existential, faraway question.

The novel proposes the question of the meaning of life as per Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The General in His Labyrinth, and as per Simon Bolivar's supposed last words: "How will I ever escape this labyrinth?" Watching this question develop into more questions and answers in the minds of the characters was a true delight. As someone constantly seeking answers to life, I'd say this novel provided a sound answer to the question.

This novel takes this complex philosophical question of existentialism and places it into context of teenagers. It is essentially a Philosophy for Dummies book with a captivating plot and complex characters that are all the more human.

Birdsong (Quotes)

I decided to dedicate a section to different quotes that really stood out to me.

"Sarah slammed the door so hard that a sizable biography of Leo Tolstoy (last words: 'The truth is, I care a great deal what they…') fell off my bookshelf and landed with a thud on our checkered floor like an echo of the slamming of the slamming door."

Pudge's 'last words' quirk works so effectively and beautifully here in several ways. First, there appears to be an irony in the way that the book is falling to its death and is, in effect, dying like Leo Tolstoy and saying its last words. Second, in context, this last word musing serves as an effective tactic to share a bit about the subtext or the reaction of Chip towards Sarah in the conversation they just had. Tolstoy’s last words are Chip’s words left unsaid, and so they come crashing down on him and hurting him as badly as Sarah slamming the door hurts him. This juxtaposition was just so captivating. And now, onto the Alaska highlights.

"'Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia ... imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.'”

This is one of the many reasons why I love Alaska Young. Here, she's talking about using the future as a crutch to cope with the suffering in the present, in the labyrinth of life. This quote presents an alarming awareness of the tendency to rely on time to heal our wounds and quell our suffering. Looking back, this quote does err on the side of suicidal. I interpret it as her saying, "it does in fact, never get better, even though we promise ourselves it will." It's a good seed-planting tactic on Green's part, and a deep thought to resonate with.

"'They just don't make sex look fun for women. The girl is just an object. Look! Look at that! ...This is what can happen to women, Pudge. That woman is someone's daughter. This is what you make us do for money.”

This might just turn into an essay on why I love Alaska Young because here is the second exhibit. Alaska says this during one of the more controversial parts of the novel where she highlights the objectification of women as she watches pornography with Pudge. To just take this scene as "kids watching porn" and not highlight the clear commentary that is being made about women in the films, in my opinion, is missing the point of the scene entirely. Green couldn't be more obvious in his messaging on women and the patriarchy than through Alaska's claims in this quote. This scene and similar scenes in literature addressing the misogyny and sexism in pornography are valuable because without scenes like these, teens may just encounter pornography one day, receive the subliminal—and sometimes overt—objectification of women, and go on in life thinking that this kind of behavior is okay, when it's not.

“'You don't even care about her!'” he shouted. "'All that matters is you and your precious fucking fantasy that you and Alaska had this goddamned secret love affair and she was going to leave Jake for you and you'd live happily ever after. But she kissed a lot of guys, Pudge. And if she were here, we both know that she would still be Jake's girlfriend and that there'd be nothing but drama between the two of you—not love, not sex, just you pining after her and her like, 'You're cute, Pudge, but I love Jake.' If she loved you so much, why did she leave you that night? And if you loved her so much, why'd you help her go? I was drunk. What's your excuse?'”

My jaw literally hit the floor. The conflict that bloomed between Pudge and The Colonel when Alaska died was just so well executed. This monologue hit HARD. I don't really have any analysis to say about this one, just that it evoked such an insane reaction out of me. Maybe that's the point of this quote—to demonstrate the duality this book has: artful prose worth analyzing and also moments like these that just left me absolutely stunned. I'm not sure how Pudge came back from this. Especially the last two lines. Absolutely crazy.

"It was not enough to be the last guy she kissed. I wanted to be the last one she loved. And I knew I wasn't. "

Painful.

Discussion

I'll start with the most pressing concern about this book in the literary community. And I will start by saying that the scene with Lara and Pudge did in fact have a literary purpose, and that was to add to the gallery of teenagehood the entire rest of the story had been painting. It specifically harped on the part of being a teenager that is experimentation and learning what one enjoys and what one does not enjoy. Wisdom comes from experience, and sometimes we only learn by living through a thing. Sometimes things happen, and we're stuck because we've never encountered it before, and the only way we learn is by doing. And for most, the teenage years are for that learning. It's what the novel calls The Great Perhaps, and there will come a time in all of our lives when we have to explore it.

I knew Alaska was going to die when I saw the countdown and the I knew that Pudge loved her. I had seen it in The Fault In Our Stars and I thought I was ready. But I ended up getting emotionally attached to her anyway, and so I felt the grief just as much as Pudge did. There is something beautiful in that, how my mind overrode the thought of death so quickly, as if it was trying to force its way out of my brain, how the writing took her away too soon. Maybe it had to do with the first person perspective of the novel. Only John Green could make the same move twice and have it hurt just as hard both times. 

The death scene makes an interesting callback to what I wrote earlier before the days began counting upwards; some days are less interesting than others. When you lose someone, you sometimes wish you could remember all of the days, both the interesting and the boring. You wish you could somehow go back to the boring ones and find something interesting about them, but it was just another day that went by when that person was alive and you took it for granted. Life moves too quickly to not feel the urge to enjoy it while you have it.

This book gave me a newfound joy for life. It made me eternally grateful for the fact that I am, indeed, a teenager, right now in this moment, and that I am, in fact, indestructible. It infused a newfound sense of hope and courage into me. I can do anything.