Questions about Paper Towns (SPOILERS!)
NOTE: This page is for people who have read Paper Towns. As such, it contains numerous huge spoilers. If you have not read Paper Towns, kindly avert your eyes.
Q. Do you have any teaching suggestions for Paper Towns?
A. There are discussion guides available for Paper Towns that can be downloaded here. (There’s also one for Looking for Alaska.) You may also be able to find lesson plans online from teachers who’ve already taught Paper Towns.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote from Paper Towns?
A. I don’t really have a favorite quote from Paper Towns (or from any of my other books, really). But there’s a quotes page on goodreads, so I’m able to tell you what goodreads members’ favorite quote from the book is: “What a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than a person.” I tend to trust the wisdom of readers on this topic.
Q. Can you explain the ending of Paper Towns?
A. I think I put everything I wanted to say about the end of the book in the end of the book, but I’ll try to answer your question broadly: I wanted Margo and Q to come together one last time, but not to walk off together into the sunset. I don’t think life really ends with walking off into the sunset; it’s far more complicated than that. So my hope was that Q and Margo could both find some peace with each other and with themselves while making very different decisions about how to live their lives.
Q. Where’d you get the idea for Black Santas?
A. Well, I will repeat again that books belong to their readers, so you take away from it whatever you want to take away from it, but: When I was growing up I had a girlfriend whose parents had a huge Santa collection, so the possibility was lodged in my brain. I wanted the black Santas because the novel is about how we imagine people (how Q imagines Margo, for instance), places (how Agloe was imagined into existence), and our stories (like Santa). It says a lot about us that we imagine Santa as white (particularly given that St. Nick, on whom Santa is based, looks like this). So Radar’s parents are trying to get us to imagine Santa differently, which is actually (I would argue) pretty important.
Q. Is Agloe pronounced like Aglow or like AGG-low?
A. I suspect if I say one more time that books belong to their readers you will potentially punch me in the face, but books belong to their readers. Never has this been more true than in the example of Agloe, which I didn’t even invent. (I’ve never heard any cartographer familiar with the story say Agloe out loud, so I don’t know how they say it, either.) I happen to say it AGG-low; my lovely editor Julie Strauss-Gabel happens to say it Aglow. It’s up to you!
Q. What’s the significance of the giant cow scene in Paper Towns?
A. I’m going to resist the urge to say that books belong to their readers and try to walk you through what I was trying to do there, even though the very act of walking through it sort of kills everything. So Moby Dick is a gigantic white whale, right? In the book Moby Dick, the whale is famously described as “a great white wall.” White, in Moby Dick, is used to symbolize the terrifying blankness of nature, its absolute indifference to us. So in Moby Dick, Captain Ahab ceaselessly yearns to kill this whale, and he keeps chasing it even after it becomes totally irrational to do so.
Similarly, Q keeps chasing Margo even after it becomes totally irrational to do so. And white is also used in a similar (although much less brilliant) way in Paper Towns as it is in Moby Dick—all the really awesome things in the world (like Santa) are black in my book; the things that are indifferent to us (like the walls in the school) are white.
But in Paper Towns, the great white wall (of cow, not of whale) is an obstacle to the thing, not the thing itself. And Q is saved from destruction because he isn’t the captain of the ship; he has friends who he treats as equals, one of whom saves him.
Or that’s the idea anyway.
Q. Do you think Margo and Q will see each other again?
A. That’s a decision you have to make, I’m afraid.
{ 67 comments… read them below or add one }
Saying “That’s a decision you have to make, I’m afraid.” in answer to the question of whether Margo and Q will meet again makes you sound like Dumbledore. =D
I’m pretty sure John and Dumbledore would get along well! =)
Of course they would, everybody knows that. Dumbledore is Greg Mortenson in disguise, and John’s been a wizard all this time. John’s Hogwarts letter got lost in the mail, and he confused a random librarian with Greg, so they’ve sadly never met.
Psh, where’ve you been?
I personally loved the ending. It was realistic and sad, but also hopeful. It wasn’t the perfectly happy ending that seems so common nowadays. I also like how you try to just leave a lot of answers at, “Books belong to their readers,” but can’t seem to. (: Oh, and I say AGG-low, too.
@Jessie- I agree with the Dumbledore comment. But since Dumbledore never forgets to be awesome it’s a good comparison.
I have to disagree; Dumbledore’s forgotten to be awesome a few times. I think that was a main part of his subplot in DH.
Hehe even the comments on here are nerdy. What a lovely NerdHaven.
I was thinking the same thing. :D
What else can you expect from Nerdfighteria?
Oh, touche.
well most all of us are made of awesome!
To whom do books belong?
I have no idea! Maybe John can tell us.
One of the things I like about these faqs is that John Green lets the reader come to their own interpretation of events both during and after the books take place. Some authors (J.K Rowling) like to meddle with the narrative after their books are written and I find that their authorial interpretation does a disservice to the fans that love their books. Who wants to ponder a puzzle with the dots already connected?
The wonderful thing about books is that no matter what anyone says about them (authors included) the only interpretation that really matters is your own. At the end of the day you choose what you want to be true about your favorite books. As John says, books belong to their readers and once a book is written, its author becomes just another reader. He (or she) is entitled to his own interpretation, but by no means does he have the final say.
Agreed ^ :3 It’s the reader that matters.
I freaking love your books, but Paper Towns is my favorite.
same here :D
I followed your link to goodreads and it is so neat! I’m probably going to update my new account more often than my MySpace or my diary!
Thanks!
John,
I have read all of you books and loved them, but the thing that i love most about all of this (as in the Vlog Brothers and whatnot) is that usually after I finish a book, i am done and forget about it mostley. With all of your books though, I can go onto youtube and watch how you talk about them and so many other things so much, and it rely makes the charachters live on in my head.
As for Paper Towns, I thought that it was your best book yet. I loved the story line and thought the ending was perfect. when you talk about what the “big white wall of cow” meant, I remembered that in a question tuesday video you said that the “big white wall of cow” was just______. i cant really remember the word that you used, but it didn’t have the whole Moby Dick comparison. I don’t know, maybe Im hallucinating but just I’m speaking my mind.
Thanks!!
I never thought of the great white cow as a reverence like that but now that you explain it like that now it makes scene!
Warning: don’t start reading John Green books late at night. You will fight sleep to keep reading the story, stay up until 3 AM to finish it, which gives you 2 hours of sleep before you got to start your day. Recursively ironic.
omg i totally agree! I stayed up all last night finishing Paper Towns. Such a good book!
This happened to me too. I stopped up until 2 am, because I couldn’t put it down. I needed to find out if they were going to find her or not. Also, I really like John’s explanation about the white cow. That never occurred to me before. I’m going to go read Whitman’s Song of Myself Now.
I know! I stayed up until 5AM reading The Fault In Our Stars and contemplating it and 2AM reading Looking For Alaska way back when. And I read Paper Towns in my mom’s room and refused to leave until I was done. I’m a jerk.
……heh…..
I don’t get that why my reply was deleted..it seems not respected in this way.
is there going to be a movie or were those just rumors?
Hi, I was wondering, has Paper Towns been published in Danish? I love it so much and was hoping to get it for my friend in Denmark…
So, sice I have such a huge ownership stake in the book “Paper Towns”, when do I get some of those royalty checks? I have it in writing that the author gave me ownership of the story!
ahaha this is brilliant
whats going on with the movie? i saw your very enthuisiastic vlogbrothers post and ive been trying to find out more
I just finished Paper Towns tonight and I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly. Even some of the less overt themes of the book like Q leaving High School hit struck a heavy chord with me (I just started college and said good bye to a bunch of friends).
I personally would like to think that Q and Margo will get together again, mainly because now that they truly see each other perfectly clearly, completely cutting someone like that out of your life would actually be near impossible.
So yeah. I hope they reunite.
Personally I would love to read another one of your books where Q and Margo see each other again and maybe end up together… I think you would make alot of your readers happy Mr. John Green. The book was excellent and kind of sad at the end bit I loved it
“ Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he gets desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths.”
This is why your novels are able calm the soul of a restless teenager. You have found the ability to utter those profound truths that we have not been quiet enough to hear within ourselves. The words hit home, and light is shed upon the shadowed questions lurking in the back of our minds. Paper Towns helped me to better understand myself and all the people who pass through my life. What was it compelled you to write this story?
Hey,
I just want to point something out that maybe some other people saw.
ok, backstory.
I watched every youtube video you two uploaded and then I read the books. I didn’t expect anything but I was blown away. I started with Alaska and cried twice in the same sitting. I grew to care for these kids and was sincerely sad when Alaska died.. as if I was Miles and I was the one with the crush on her. It took me to familiar places that when I was there previously, I didn’t want to be there but when I was in those sad places because of Alaska I liked being there, it was cathartic. I liked that Alaska died because it reinforced the importance of life.. anyways..
I moved on to Katherines and then Paper Towns.
Did anyone feel that Margo was juuust like Alaska only she didn’t die? I felt so.. cheated almost. Like John some how removed the importance of Alaska’s death and said, “just kidding, here she is, she didn’t die, she just ran away” Either way, I loved all John’s books, even Paper Towns.
I even named one of my mice Margo :) she’s my little explorer..
I’m not saying it ruined it, I’m not mad, there are similarities in people all over the world I just found it.. odd I guess.
I think they’re similar but not the same. Alaska was well and truly a damaged person. When she tells the story about her mother’s death and then we find out she dies, I thought, “That was inevitable.” I really didn’t think Alaska could continue on forever, but I also don’t think she had to die that night.
Margo is different. She was unhappy and dissatisfied, but she wanted to go find a place where she could be real. Margo was searching, and Alaska was trying to quiet the guilt.
At least that’s how I read it. I’m the reader after all :)
I read it as them both being completely amazing characters, that had more differences than similarities. Alaska was self-destructive, wanting to forgive herself for the mistake she thought she made – while Margo just wanted to destroy everything around her so that she could just be.
Both characters had an element of loneliness and were searching for something, but in my opinion they were completely different.
dude, I’m 19 and a senior in high school. I’ve read Looking For Alaska, Abundance Of Catherines, and Paper towns (respectively), but that’s just not enough man!!!! when are they going to make a movie from one of these awesome works of literature, or when is he going to get off his ass and write another one? I swear it’s the prose and plots he uses are laced with Columbian bambam……(cocain) literature is once again addicting to me!!!!
as of the movie i am no so sure but as of the book he wrote a new book !!! you can preorder it now on amazon. all preorders will be sighned. DFTBA
Paper Towns is to this day one of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think. :)
Paper Towns is to this day one of th most awesome book i’ve read in fifteen years.. And i like John Green’s books. I can’t wait to see for Paper Towns Movie to be in theatre.
I just finished this book last night, and it was amazing.
I just wanted to let you know John, that my favorite part of the book was on Graduation day when Q goes to find Margo, and i loved the split second where the reader (me) realizes that he is not going alone, but his friends are coming with him. It made me so so happy.
I love the strong themes of friendship in all your books. Especially this one.
I found myself craving for more when I finished reading Paper Towns. I need a part 2!XD
Is the character of Margo Roth Speigleman in anyway based off of Margot Tenenbaum from the Wes Anderson film ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’?
They have similar characteristics – especially with their affinity for running away…
I’m not sure what to think about Paper Towns. I enjoyed reading it, but was not in love with the novel, though I can’t quite place my finger on the exact reason. So I’ll just give a few thoughts.
1. The use of “honeybunnies” annoyed me for some reason. I know that it was supposed to be a weird phrase that Ben uses, and Q even says so, but it just irked me. Like it was something added just to be a quirk, an afterthought.
2. I didn’t feel anything for the characters. I couldn’t sympathize. Ironically, I would describe the characters as paper people. This is one of the reasons I started to read Looking For Alaska and stopped after the first chapter. I couldn’t imagine the characters as being real, and the ones that did seem real were simply not likable.
3. The idea of paper towns reminds me of when I was a kid, and I saw the equator labeled on a map or globe. For some reason, I thought this meant equator was a giant river that ran around the Earth, a never-ending ring of flowing water with the power to cross the ocean. After all, everything else labelled was “real.” To my dismay I later learned that the equator was an idea, a place only there in name. No amount of searching would yield discovery of such a place, yet it still exists in our minds and on paper.
I definitely love the end of this book. I love that the whole book is Q imagining this person that doesn’t exist, and how hard he holds onto this imagined person who he thinks is Margo. I love how she totally shatters that at the end, and she’s not this perfect girl but really kind of a selfish bitch. It’s wonderful and emotionally realistic.
I can’t wait for John’s next book!
Okay since the book belongs to its readers I’ve decided that Q and Margo simply CAN’T live without each other, and that they will be a couple forever and ever. If you imply otherwise I will hunt you down and murder you in your sleep (and by murder you in your sleep I mean I will think angry thoughts about your username!).
On a serious note: This is the best book I’ve ever read.
this book needs to be turned into a movie!
as an, dare I say, intelligent 14 year old, its so hard to find young adult books that are about real things, like loss and friendship. Your books are amazing and they are what real young adult books should be like, not books about vampire sex.
Hello John–
Greetings from Connecticut!
I am a student interested in film, and I’d like to make an independent adaptation of Paper Towns. I realize you sold the rights already, and that kind of fell through, but I’m not interested in making any money off the film, just doing it for fun and experience. My questions are: Any ideas? Any requests? Any objection? Let me know what you think, and if you want to talk further about this then feel free to contact me.
Thanks, Ben Cowper
(I think you can retrieve my email from this comment, but if not just let me know, I just don’t want to make it public if I don’t need to. I asked this in the ‘movie questions’ section, but I figured you check here more often.)
John,
Thank you for publishing a truly thought-provoking, emotional, and deeply touching book. After finishing Paper Towns last night, It got me thinking about how people perceive each other, and how we cling to the ideas of each other that we fabricate from slight “truths” we see. I can honestly say, this is definitely one of the better works of literature that I’ve read, not because of it’s complexity, or it’s fantastical ideals, but because you’ve effectively told us the truth we (I) needed to hear; People are not cattle, they are not perfect. They are not what we think they are; they are individuals with the same feelings, doubts, emotions, and truths that we hold.
Thank you for opening a door for me,
~Joseph
Well dang,
“Q. Do you think Margo and Q will see each other again?
A. That’s a decision you have to make, I’m afraid.”
At first I thought he meant “you will decide if I make a sequel” but then I realized he meant that he wont make a sequel, so we have to make up whats going to happen after that. CRAP.
I literally (I promise I’m not misusing the word) just finished reading Paper Towns. It was absolutely fantastic and I hope and dream every night to have the ability to write metaphors like John Green. :) I have been working on a book for about five months now, though the process really started three years ago. It was a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read The Fault in Our Stars!
Also, I might add that my book starts with me hating foxes and ends with nobody liking me.
Obscure references, anyone?
(No, seriously. It really does.)
I’m a huge zelda-nerd and I refer to the console games as the “zelda biggies”. I now refer to John’s solo novel his “biggies”. I’m putting John Green and zelda into the same boat, which is a very good sign. I can’ t what for the next “biggie”! (AFIOS)
I just finshed Paper Towns, you are damn good at endings John Green.
To be totally honest, Margo and Quentin are my OTP. And I think they will reunite and be together.
Thank you, John Green.
Great, just great stuff. Bought it for my son, but read it first for myself in two nights. As it is quotated from a newspaper on the cover, it is worth to be read by everyone who likes a good book.
:-):-):-)
Q. Do you think Margo and Q will see each other again?
A. That’s a decision you have to make, I’m afraid.
I don’t like this answer. I really don’t. I don’t like it because these are not my characters, this is not my story, and while I understand the idea of once a story is told the story is no longer the writers and that the readers now take a part of the story with them, I do not accept this answer.
Just as with Looking for Alaska, I find myself wanting answers to questions that apparently will never come. And it, for lack of a better word, sucks.
I want to know if Q and Margo meet again. If perhaps they find a place and time to stay together. Just as I want to know if the Colonel and Pudge truly forget Alaska as it is implied they will. Or whether or not she actually committed suicide or died accidentally.
I want answers that I know I will never get, but that does not change the wanting of them.
And, for the record, and before I fall asleep I just wanted to mention that when I said “Just as I want to know if the Colonel and Pudge truly forget Alaska as it is implied they will. Or whether or not she actually committed suicide or died accidentally” I know the answer to the former and the importance of never knowing the latter.
But, in a way, that understanding fuels my hatred for the “leaving it up to the reader” ending to Paper Towns because as much as not knowing what happened to Alaska is haunting and a true of life (sometimes you just never know), the opposite is true of Q and Margo and we are still deprived an answer.
Hello John,
Could you make a 2nd part of this amazing book? We all love this book!
I love this book, but I can’t help but think that sequel would just ruin it… I would love to see Q and Margo again but that would mean having to undo the meaning of the ending. Another book would end with them walking off into the sunset, which defeats the purpose; or it could end similar to how it did now, which would be too repetitive… so no, not a sequel, but maybe there could still be a way for us to see more of Margo and Q.
If You john Edit this i want To ask You — how Do You relate To quentin? To margo? thanks John!
I see what you did there.
I just finished The Fault in Our Stars and it is easily one of the best books I’ve ever read. however, after reading the page on contacting John Green I must say his refusal to read any fan mail at all reminds me slightly of Peter Van Houten (the fictional one, not the real one that writes yoga books). not only am I saying this because, like hazel I have a lot of questions for John but personally when I become a famous author I would like to read at least some of my fan mail in order to see the impact I’ve had on people’ lives (if I had any impact at all). any way that’s just my opinion. love your books John Green and I look forward to reading them all over and over again :)
First of all, this book is very different from “Looking for Alaska”, but the deeper I got into this, the more I realized it was EXACTLY what I expected during both my first glance at the title and description and during predictions in Alaska. Honestly, that just made me love John’s awesomeness more. And, yes, I say AGG-low. Looking for Alaska was the first book in a long time that has gotten me truly fired up in actual emotion, and Paper Towns makes me think deeply about what writers actually mean. Thank you! :D DFTBA!
How many words are in Paper Towns?
I want to know because I am an aspiring writer and sometimes I look at the progress my story has made and the word count and it feels like I have progressed too quickly.
If I could know specifically how long any random part is (prologue?) I could have an idea of what I am doing wrong or not doing wrong.
I know you probably won’t make a sequal, but I thought it would be sweet if there was a second part written from Margo’s point of view, just after Q left. Awesome book by the way