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A review by logarithms
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
5.0
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*add to this. my reviews are so messy oof
*ah. so goodreads doesn't allow html list tags. dissapointing...
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Super interesting book! :0 I was hooked the whole time... (but you could tell from the 5 stars, I'm sure)
Completely called out. I've had so many dreams where I discover aliens and then I'm livestreaming my discovery and the MIB break into my house, taking me away while millions of people watch. And then my disappearance becomes the most talked about conspiracy or smth. Good to know we all have a weird complex for seeking notoriety and social media fame...
Onto actually discussing the book: (in a series of poorly ordered and unlinked notes)
Writing was great! I love writing that is casual and easy to parse like this. I'm with April - I could read 25000 tweets easy, but a book? That's a whole ordeal. Writing seems to be something a lot of people are criticizing since it's 'too amateur'? Or sounds like 'nanowrimo' or is 'too pretentious'. but like. Books with (supposedly) simple writing are great and make reading accessible to wider audiences! How is that anything but good? And the themes were never dumbed down or made trivial despite the casual register. Handled well imo.
It was super interesting reading speculative fiction about an alien invasion in modern times... Social media is so big now, - it's about time it starts appearing in books (esp scifi :o) as the massive cultural phenomenon it is. (reminds me of the MP100 omake where the esper kids are like 'god i wanna tweet about it'. hehe)
Despite all the struggle it has a really positive message :^) It isn't a doomsday invasion story. Believing that humanity is inherently good and kind and can work together!!! Hell yea!
Me, reading 'I am (or at least was) human' on page 1:
aART, validating me on page 64:
I found some of the references kinda funny(in an ironic -makes it clear that this setting is our setting kinda way), cause they were taken from popular posts/tweets that I recognized :p I think it goes with the whole 'social media culture' theme well cause we get a lot of our humour from things we see on social media.
A few examples that I had tabbed:
Non-internet based humour that really got me going:
- "I wanted people to wake up and spend a few moments looking at the exceptional amazement of human creation. Hilarious in hindsight." (ah. ze irony)
- "With the following words I give you the power to save or destroy me: My password is 'donkeyfart'" (this line is just very classic Hank - it's something you'd expect him to say in a video)
- "But I have investigated the other possibility, which is leaving this alone and disengaging completely and that doesn't sound like any fun at all" p69 ay (priorities who)
Headcanons: (that might as well be canon because I am very smart)
Since this is set in our universe and timeline I am calling it that the way April said 'Carl' in the first video was exactly the same as "Llama's in hats" because that is literally the only connection to the name Carl that I or any other English speaking millennial share. The entire rest of the book I could only read Carl in that voice... (why did you kill this person?? Caaarrrl?!)
Misc(somehow even more misc than the rest of these notes)
- the grape jelly lip gloss bit in the ambulance. somehow extremely creepy and morbid and severely freaked me out. good bit. very small mention but somehow worse than if it was the killers blood on her face...
- miranda is the cutest. feral scientist. i love her. got so excited about thermal conductivity that she accidentally involved herself in a massive alien mystery with an extremely famous girl
- the som/dreamer community sounds so fun. like, the carls just tailored an incredible puzzle game for the entire human race i would be on that shit in SECONDS
- "whats the weirdest thing thats happened to you in the dream?" "haha, probably the plane" honestly sounds like the concept for a welcome to nightvale episode and thats probably why i liked that bit so much
*add to this. my reviews are so messy oof
*ah. so goodreads doesn't allow html list tags. dissapointing...
***************************************
Super interesting book! :0 I was hooked the whole time... (but you could tell from the 5 stars, I'm sure)
Completely called out. I've had so many dreams where I discover aliens and then I'm livestreaming my discovery and the MIB break into my house, taking me away while millions of people watch. And then my disappearance becomes the most talked about conspiracy or smth. Good to know we all have a weird complex for seeking notoriety and social media fame...
Onto actually discussing the book: (in a series of poorly ordered and unlinked notes)
Writing was great! I love writing that is casual and easy to parse like this. I'm with April - I could read 25000 tweets easy, but a book? That's a whole ordeal. Writing seems to be something a lot of people are criticizing since it's 'too amateur'? Or sounds like 'nanowrimo' or is 'too pretentious'. but like. Books with (supposedly) simple writing are great and make reading accessible to wider audiences! How is that anything but good? And the themes were never dumbed down or made trivial despite the casual register. Handled well imo.
It was super interesting reading speculative fiction about an alien invasion in modern times... Social media is so big now, - it's about time it starts appearing in books (esp scifi :o) as the massive cultural phenomenon it is. (reminds me of the MP100 omake where the esper kids are like 'god i wanna tweet about it'. hehe)
Despite all the struggle it has a really positive message :^) It isn't a doomsday invasion story. Believing that humanity is inherently good and kind and can work together!!! Hell yea!
Me, reading 'I am (or at least was) human' on page 1:
aART, validating me on page 64:
I found some of the references kinda funny(in an ironic -makes it clear that this setting is our setting kinda way), cause they were taken from popular posts/tweets that I recognized :p I think it goes with the whole 'social media culture' theme well cause we get a lot of our humour from things we see on social media.
A few examples that I had tabbed:
- - aliens gif (of course) p64 (also just the concept of reaction images)
- - "Behold the field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and see that it is barren." p8
- - Andy Is Addicted To Hentai p8 (yes this is canon look I'm not Hank Green I don't know his mind but I have some questions...)
- - "Step 1: Stumble around the point and sound like an idiot.
Step 2: Insult the entire institution that is currently giving voice to your inane musings as well as the people who enjoy it.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit." p37
can even link the know your meme page for that
Non-internet based humour that really got me going:
- "I wanted people to wake up and spend a few moments looking at the exceptional amazement of human creation. Hilarious in hindsight." (ah. ze irony)
- "With the following words I give you the power to save or destroy me: My password is 'donkeyfart'" (this line is just very classic Hank - it's something you'd expect him to say in a video)
- "But I have investigated the other possibility, which is leaving this alone and disengaging completely and that doesn't sound like any fun at all" p69 ay (priorities who)
Headcanons: (that might as well be canon because I am very smart)
Since this is set in our universe and timeline I am calling it that the way April said 'Carl' in the first video was exactly the same as "Llama's in hats" because that is literally the only connection to the name Carl that I or any other English speaking millennial share. The entire rest of the book I could only read Carl in that voice... (why did you kill this person?? Caaarrrl?!)
Misc(somehow even more misc than the rest of these notes)
- the grape jelly lip gloss bit in the ambulance. somehow extremely creepy and morbid and severely freaked me out. good bit. very small mention but somehow worse than if it was the killers blood on her face...
- miranda is the cutest. feral scientist. i love her. got so excited about thermal conductivity that she accidentally involved herself in a massive alien mystery with an extremely famous girl
- the som/dreamer community sounds so fun. like, the carls just tailored an incredible puzzle game for the entire human race i would be on that shit in SECONDS
- "whats the weirdest thing thats happened to you in the dream?" "haha, probably the plane" honestly sounds like the concept for a welcome to nightvale episode and thats probably why i liked that bit so much