More encouragement, via John Green
What I took away from his best-selling new book.
Hey there —
“Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection” may be an unlikely title for a bestseller — and may seem like an unlikely way to open for a note where I’ve promised you encouragement.
But John Green’s book hit number one on The New York Times list when it came out in March, and in early May it was still number three — one spot ahead of a book by Pope Francis and just two spots behind one by Beyonce’s mom.
Which isn’t completely unexpected: Green has a faithful fan base of his own, both as an author — best known for the young-adult novel “The Fault in Our Stars” — and as a star on YouTube, where he and his brother Hank have spent almost two decades building not just a following, but a community.
And: Finding ways to go on when things seem pretty bad is a major theme in his work.
That blockbuster novel, “The Fault in Our Stars?” The narrator and protagonist is a 16-year-old girl who is dying of cancer.
“Everything Is Tuberculosis” follows that theme, and I want to share a key passage:
Hopelessness has the insidious talent of explaining everything: The reason X or Y sucks is that everything sucks, the reason you’re miserable is because misery is the correct response to the world as we find it, and so on.
Which, all by itself, may sound condescending — but stay with me.
Because first, this paragraph comes near the end of a book that has, by this point, chronicled a lot of misery and injustice in the world.
And here’s where that paragraph goes next:
I am prone to despair, and so I know its powerful voice; it just doesn’t happen to be true. Here’s the truth as I see it: Vicious cycles are common. Injustice and unfairness permeate every aspect of human life. But virtuous cycles are also possible.
This passage sets up the book’s payoff, a story of how people — strangers from different parts of the world — persevere in their struggles: to survive, to cure disease, to fight injustice. And how the victories they manage to claim build on each other, and compound.
Not to spoil the book, but I’ll mention: Some sections of it will be familiar if you’ve listened to our two-part podcast about how John Green became part of that story, and helped nudge it along.
(Part 1 of our series is more about John, and part 2 is more about 20+ years of work by others — and they both have a lot to tell us about why medicine costs so much, and what we can maybe do about it.)
In a recent video about the book’s launch, John Green continues his balancing act: Combining earnestness and wit to confront darkness — including the Trump administration’s abrupt withdrawal from supporting global efforts to fight tuberculosis — without despair.
“I hope someday I will publish a version of this book called ‘Everything Was Tuberculosis,’” he says. “But I will confess that that day does seem rather distant at the moment.”
He goes on to talk about the inspiration he draws from the people who come to his book tour events (one of whom gave him a “TB SUX” bracelet).
Being on tour is just constant reminders I cannot afford to be hopeless. Cynicism is not the right response right now.
It feels like we live at the end of the story, but we don't live at the end of the story. This is the middle of the story, and together we have to fight for a better end.
Amen to that.
Coming next week: We take inspiration from you:
In April, I shared an idea from an Arm and a Leg listener — creating a “one-stop shop” resource to give folks who have been treated at a hospital, and might be worried about paying the bill — and asked you for input.
And boy have you come through. More than a dozen of you sent suggestions — including links to some existing resources that I wish I’d known about sooner. We’ll share some of that next time.
Till then, take care of yourself.
—Dan