"This was written for a world that no longer exists" Wow... I don't think one can accurately sum up humanity's collective experience of the past month or so better then that sentence. Looking forward even more to your new book Hank!! Good luck with last past!!
@JESUS SALVA, CURA E LIBERTA JESUS ESTÁ VOLTANDO are you talking about the lame Christian gospel or the gospel of the FSM because that's great, I'm in. also: what is your answer to the theodicy question?
Hello! My name is Elder Price And I would like to share with you The most amazing book. ELDER GRANT: Hello! My name is Elder Grant. It's a book about America A long, long time ago. ELDER PRICE: It has So many awesome parts You simply won't believe How much this book can change your life. ELDER GREEN: Hello! My name is Elder Green I would like to share with you This book of Jesus Christ. ELDER YOUNG: Hello! My name is Elder Young ELDER HARRIS: Hello! ELDER YOUNG: Did you know that Jesus Lived here in the U.S.A.? ELDER GRANT: You can Read all about it now! ELDER WHITE: Hello! ELDER YOUNG: In this nifty book, it's free! No, you don't have to pay! ELDER YOUNG: Hello! ELDER SMITH: Hello! My name is Elder Smith! And can I leave this book with you For you to just peruse? ELDER BROWN: Hello! ELDER GREEN: Hello! ELDER HARRIS: Hello! ELDER SMITH: I'll just leave it here. It has a lot of information you can really use! ELDER PRICE: Hello! ELDER HARRIS: Hi! ELDER PRICE: My name is- ELDER GREEN: Jesus Christ! ELDER GRANT: You have a lovely home! ELDER CROSS: Hello! ELDER YOUNG: It's an amazing book! ELDER SMITH: Bonjour! ELDER WHITE: Hello! ELDER HARRIS: Ni hao! ELDER WHITE: Me llamo Elder White! ELDER GRANT: Are these your kids? ELDER GREEN: This book gives you the secret To eternal life! ELDER SMITH: Sound good? ALL: Eternal life! ELDER GREEN: With Jesus Christ! ALL: Is super fun! ELDER BROWN: Hello! ELDER HARRIS: Ding dong! ALL: And if you let us in, We'll show you how it can be done! ELDER GRANT: No thanks? ELDER GREEN: You sure? ELDER GRANT: Oh, well. ELDER GREEN: That's fine. ELDER GRANT: Goodbye! ELDER GREEN: Have fun in hell. ELDER GRANT and ELDER CROSS:
As a YA librarian, I am so interested in what types of books come out in like, 2 years! Will there be star crossed teen lovers separated by quarantine?
Right now my girlfriend and I are separated by 1000 miles and I was supposed to leave for a visit one week before lockdown was announced (where I am) so I feel like I am currently living that story.
HANK: since you seem to predict the future in you books, please let your next book be about a utopian earth where we are all safe and happy and healthy, and maybe there are unicorns? :) Or maybe write about a Mars mission that is remarkably succesful in the year 2027...? Stay safe everyone.
Y'all remember when Hank predicted Harry Potter being a horcrux before Deathly Hallows came out and now this book seems to have predicted our current state of being? I'm not saying you can see the future Hank....but I'm also not saying you can't see the future somehow
Last year when I was reading the book, I used to imagine AART world to be in a distant future, a world where everyone has been impacted by a single thing, and the news is talking about just one thing, everyone is afraid/confused/ overwhelmed by of one thing, and ppl with power r trying to manipulate the situation for their advantage. But I never thought that we would be living in that world in 2020. Its seems surreal, and I'm amazed about how accurate the book was. I have been thinking a lot about that...
gitoshri sen what I find surreal is the fact I read AART two days before the UK went into lockdown and oh boy that was good timing as it’s probably stuck with me more than it would have done any other time
Mmm, I don't know about that, he didn't mention in the video that the book is available for pre order now, have to go to the description for that. Lol.
Too cynical. 1) this is on his side channel...speaks for itself really; 2) this video actually has insightful and interesting thoughts and does not come across as just an advert.
Elina Terava Congrats on teaching me a new word! PODSNAPPERY!!! That’s an amazing word, I’m going to use that all the time now! 😂 (PS: sorry but you have not convinced me that this video is anything but a genuinely heartfelt discussion of a really interesting change Hank is making to his book)
The thing is, AART was and remains the only book I have ever read that gives me the same feeling the internet does. April's online presence is amazing, to the point where her live stream made such an imprint in my brain because of the things she says about the general reality of being a human. AART is about community, the good and the bad. It is a what-if story that is about connection and togetherness and I first came to realize this because of The Dream. Human have never had something that happens exactly the same for everyone. Sure, you can have a medical condition and then hear similar stories from others who also ha e it but nothing is ever exactly the same, so when The Dream becomes a worldwide collaborative puzzle, it worked because it connected people. I honestly believe that it's the only thing that summarizes how I feel in quarantine.
Rain Like The Weather , I’ve felt that too in quarantine! Like so many people are collaborating to engineer solutions, like creating personal protective equipment for medical personnel or mentoring soon-to-be graduates or coming up with ways to get lunches to families in need. It makes me think: humanity really is beautiful! Sure, there’s a ton of awful stuff happening, but I see that I really agree with Carl.
I kind of feel like every book coming out needs this? Like when you think about the publication date of a book as a reflection of the time in which these ideas were presented, but so much has changed that as Hank says, that world doesn't exist anymore for us.
In the last couple of weeks, I've found my thoughts wandering to AART a lot, which is interesting, considering I read it in October of 2018. I thought about April and the Dreamers, who wanted the arrival of Carls to be a sign for the world to stick together. This in particular feels very relevant to me now. I kept wondering about the sequel and how this fictional world will reflect our current world. I'm glad you talked about this, Hank. What a weird sequence we're living through.
The thing that's keeping me going through isolation is thinking about how much we're going to enjoy the little things. In South Africa we aren't allowed to go out to exercise, because it isn't really safe enough here. So I'm just thinking about how much we're going to enjoy walking with friends. How much were going to enjoy traffic. Being with friends. Going to university or work every day. Seeing new places. I just can't wait for everyone to enjoy the little things again.
I legitimately think I might cry the first time I go out to a restaurant or bar. I know I will the first time I go to a church service. And probably when I can see friends and family without worrying that I might inadvertently make them sick.
YES! I read the first book in February 2020, just before the full-out spread of the Corona virus and the changes that it brought, and whatever has happened since then just eerily keeps reminding me of your book. Like how everyone is so confused in the beginning, and then the whole world needed to be brought together to survive the situation, and how everyone was working towards the same goal and even then there were groups within the people fighting each other ! How is your timing so good! Its reminding of Accio Deathly Hallows :)
As someone who works in a bookstore, it's really interesting to hear more about the behind the scenes aspects of writing a novel and the last few months leading up to release with the changes you are having to make. Good luck with the last revisions, I look forward to reading your book once it is released!
I would be super interested in hearing more on your thoughts about your book in the context of the coronavirus after it is out so you can mention spoilers and the impact of whatever other developments happen in the world between now and then. Also, I enjoyed hearing about your thinking of the Carls as an analogy for the arrival of the internet; I never thought of it like that, perhaps in part because I have never lived in a world without the internet, so that change isn't something I can really conceptualize, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting lens through which to look at the book during my reread before the sequel comes out!
It's so interesting to hear about the behind the scenes stuff with your book and the current situation. I can't wait to read it! I wonder if your book will be raised up and considered as more reflective than you meant. The future is so uncertain. I'm headed to my peace corps service on June 28th, so I'll have to have my family ship the book to me when it comes out on the 7th!!
I actually re-read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing the other week, because I felt like I needed a story that dealt with what people do when the world changes. It felt particularly poignant in this moment and I loved it all the more for the perspective. (Though it made me cry more this time...) Anyway, I'm so excited for the next one!
Thanks for posting this Hank! Super cool hearing about the publishing process in general, but also what it's like dealing with the book making process now. (Also, good luck with your deadline)
I just finished reading both AART and ABFE in the span of a couple of days, and MAN, am I blown away. Altus is such a great exaggeration of the algorithms and platforms we use now that the effects it has are super clear. I am thinking a LOT of thoughts about this series right now and I don't think I'm going to stop anytime soon. I've finished ABFE this morning and have already recommended it to my father, and I really want to recommend it to my siblings because it strikes SUCH A CHORD. Oh, and it's also funny and brilliantly written. You, your brother and this community greatly shape my way of thinking and acting, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. Thank you.
I'm only a few minutes into the video, but it's interesting to hear how you're thinking about your book. It's a little weird to me, because for me it doesn't matter if it matches up to the real world, since it's fiction. I know your story takes place around the present day, but it feels like a parallel universe to me, rather than /our/ world. Idk if this is coherent, and I'm not trying to say you're wrong for changing things... More than anything, this is just making me think about my own personal relationship with fiction, I guess, and I wanted to get this all out of my head. But all that aside, I think it will be fascinating to see these kinds of changes happen in entertainment media.
It's not meant to represent the world, but it is meant to resonate with readers. The world changing means that /we/ have changed. I need to write for people as they exist now.
@@hankschannel That makes sense, and I probably posted my comment too soon into the video, before I kind of understood what you were getting at. Thanks for explaining it further!
I think it's more that like, there are probably some base assumptions Hank is making while writing it, about the way both worlds work--like yeah it's a parallel universe, but a lot of the core cultural stuff is the same, that's what makes it relevant. And so if those things change (like the way we imagine the world, the United States, how humans are social, what really matters), and his book doesn't reflect that, it's going to be off-putting or seem out-of-touch. At least that's how I interpreted a lot of it. It's not like his book is going to be *about* this, or have COVID-19 actually in the book, because it is fiction and a different world. But I think it's more subconscious assumptions that have been changing with everything shifting so much right now, and he needs to reflect that in how he writes and offhand comments in the book and stuff.
You guys are doing such a service for the world in general, but this is a great video not only on your process with your book but also a general tutorial on how publishing work, and what slows up or doesn't slow up the process and why. Terrific.
I’m so excited to read it Hank! Thanks for going through this with us, it’s really fascinating to see that not only does the world change quicker than we expect but our media does too. I’m so glad you’re such a good steward of all the media you create and end into the world; not just your books, but all the content. It gives me a lot more hope for the future of nuanced conversation or nuanced books or nuance in general.
Now that the book is published and we’ve read it, can you make an updated video with more specifics about how coronavirus changed the book and affected how you view the story now and it’s place in our present?
I literally just finished rereading AART today with Tuataria. Somehow, your comments about how the world was changed by the Carls felt Very Now. The idea of humanity coming together with a common goal, of groups of professionals forming across the world to join to solve one problem... yeah, that hits different right about now. And you know what? I think I needed the reminder that humanity is good, and that we have the ability to work together, and that we are beautiful. And being left without knowing how the world is going to be after the Carls... yeah. I don't know what the world is going to be like after COVID, either.
This was such an insightful video, thank you for making it! I'm really interested in what future entertainment will look like but also it was great hearing about a book that happens to unintentionally reflect some of what we're all going through right now. Really excited to read your second book, I flew through the first one as soon as it came out!
I'm very excited to read your book, and this might end up being an odd and serendipitous tool that may help some of us cope.... in a way maybe your book will help this bizarre situation seem more normal....? I don't know. I'm fascinated by this, though. Can't wait to read it.
Hank, this is one of the many examples why I respect you, admire you, and love you. I hope I'm not the first to say so, but this is incredibly responsible and gracious of you to go through your book, prior to publishing, and share this insight with us. I know I'm just a fan, but you make me feel like a valued friend. As we're all dealing with Covid-19 and being as careful as we can, you are being careful in another way I didn't even imagine as a valid concern. Thank you for caring. DFTBA. You got this, Hank.
I read Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (takes place 2024-27) in early 2018 and it was eerie how a lot (not all but) of things still held up and how I could see how current life could turn into what was happening in the book
I loved AART. It got me out of my book slump and reminded me why I love reading. I've put date for the sequel on my calender and counting down the days. I can't wait. So glad yours isn't being pushed back
I have very similar concerns right now because I'm an aspiring writer working on my first book and this really changes everything. It revolves around a school field trip, but schools are closed now, soooooo... I'm really not sure what to do about that. I'm glad that things are working out well with your book though, and I'm super excited for it to come out!
thank you for taking the time to tell us about how covid-19 is influencing your book! i have been looking forward to the sequel; you and john came to my town when an absolutely remarkable thing was first released and i read your book the next day. it was a powerful novel and i can't wait to experience your next work. this is a side of publishing we don't usually get to see, especially during a world altering event, so thank you for filming this. i am so so excited to read your book and to follow the carls on their next adventure. stay well!!
I am a little emarassed to say that i only read your book a couple of weeks ago, around the time that corona became a pandemic. And oh man was it a ride. But at the same time i think that as far as books about world changing events i picked one that didnt make me feel more anxious then i already was. It sort of helped to remind me that humans while selfish are also incredible collaborators.
I'd enjoy hearing about more specific things that got changed between the different series of edits with AART, but also John's books. Perhaps even episode break downs of Looking for Alaska.
My friend and I started trading (disinfected) books since we've been home for the remainder of our semesters, and I gave her AART as a shot in the dark. She really fell in love with it, just like I did last year. I don't know what else I'm trying to say, but I hope you get to see how we really appreciate your work.
I really relate to the feeling of books not feeling relevant. I’m struggling a lot because I want to reread my most favorite books, but they feel less relatable to me now...I know this sort of disenchantment can happen over time, but I’m struggling a lot that my world has changed so drastically so quickly that my favorite stories seem like they appealed to a different world.
I just finished the book less than 20 min ago and re found this video that I apprently had watched a minute thirty of and paused as if saying this contains too much potential nods at themes you gotta wait to watch this. Glad I did.
The books are almost eerily related to someone like me who read both in December 2020 (so the world’s seen the pandemic, the election and those weird monoliths). Now I’m enjoying watching these behind the scenes videos on your channel as a way to gently bring myself back from Carl-world to the real world. It really helps. More authors should do this. :)
one of my favourite podcasts just started its final season and had to have a warning about how it might seem similar to current events despite the fact it was made before hand... context and the world evolve SO quickly. media that has a long production time is always a risky game.
It's interesting to hear you talk about not knowing what the world will look like when the book comes out, because I recently had that experience turning in an assignment at the end of last quarter in school. The professor in that class always has the last assignment be a note about the class to the next quarter's students, and I felt the need to write at the beginning of my paragraph a sentence about how I had to turn it in on March 14th, so I wasn't sure yet if classes would be held in-person at the end of the quarter or if they'd just shut down campus until Fall. It's a strange time we're living in, and I'm excited to read your book knowing the cultural lenses you're editing it through. :-D
I can see the class of 2045 discussing A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor in English class and talking about how Hank wrote it to reflect the world he was living in in 2020 and how profound it was that he was able to preserve how the world felt at that time,,
What I find funny in your description is the disconnect between how you view the economy of last year and how I am my peers in lower class saw it. The economy was doing well for people who were well to do, but due to wealth, which rises up, a wealth of us made do with mu.
I just read an absolutely remarkable thing for the first time :) sorry that i'm behind fellow nerd fighters, some can handle the university reading load and still read for fun, and others need more time 😂 anyways it was amazing Hank. The spectrum of human experience that is covered between your and John's books is so helpful to me and to so many. ♥️
I have read the book in the past few days (i loved it) and the effects of corona absolutely added another layer to the book. Because themes that are really important in the book, power, humanities doom, new technologies and those being owned by billionaires, are also a lot more talked about in todays society. Which for me made the book so much more interesting to me. So thank you for writing a book that is so meta that it gives me a lot of comfort. (Theres a lot more I love about the book and it made me feel a lot of other happy feelings, but this is a thought I had and it felt prevalent to the video)
I was late to pick up book number one. I finished it last week and the timeliness of it amazed me. You have a gift, but I'm not sure if it's for storytelling or channeling the future.
The point about what holds up and feels real in stories as the world changes is interesting. One thing I notice about older science fiction is that A) the science predictions can be weirdly accurate, although small-scale technology (like smartphones) tends to progress faster than large-scale technology (like space travel) and B) social change is nearly always underestimated. Like 1950s science fiction stories tend to have gender dynamics and such that feel VERY 1950s. There are exceptions, of course, especially for authors whose main focus is cultural (like Ursula LeGuin), but I find it interesting that most seem to find it easier to imagine flying cars and such than, say, that how marriage works might change.
"This was written for a world that no longer exists" this is true of EVERY SINGLE BOOK EVER WRITTEN. the world changes every day. i read both books back to back in 3 days, every book that deals with large themes like isolation will apply somewhat to ANY current situation.
This is so interesting! I'd never thought about "This was written for a world that no longer exists", it's like scary but true and novels even fiction reflect that.
90 days?! I thought it would take a lot longer to make a book and get it on shelves! P.S.- 6 months sounds more like it, but even that sounds a little short! P.P.S.- I can't wait until October to get this for my birthday (I would pre-order it to get it on the day it comes out, but I'm saving money to take my dad to a football game--if we're not still locked down during Thanksgiving that is) P.P.P.S- You came and spoke at my college and it was so amazing! (I was the one that asked something to the extent of "What is the most absolutely remarkable thing (you laughed at the very subtle reference to your book) that human society has done to combat climate change in our lifetime?" and you said something about coal mines I think.)
Listening to this book a year later is so creepy for the opposite of the reasons you talk about here... like, wow. You mention "the lost year" talking about the time of the Carls and the dream... and here we are...when Bex talks about Subway being all delivery orders because everyone is inside all the time... clearly this book came mysteriously, leather bound into your possession.
I edit audiobooks for a living (proofing, noise removal, etc) and I've been thinking a lot recently about what you were talking about in the first few minutes because I've worked on a couple of near-future books recently (one set a few months from now and one a few years from now), neither of which of course discuss the pandemic at all, but both of which the storyline would be massively different had they been written six months to a year later than they were. It was a quite surreal experience to read/listen to the book when it is set in a future that in reality will be fundamentally different. One of the books in particular (set a few months from now) I feel sorry for the author as if all the references to real year dates (2020, 2017 etc) were substituted for just saying 'present day' or '3 years before' then I think it wouldn't clash half as much with the reality of our current situation. (For those wondering, generally the audio version of a book is recorded about a month before release, after all the proofing and it's gone to print.)
I've been thinking about this too because I have a webcomic that's also set in generally the present time, and has commentary about what life is like, and I've already written the next few months of it. It's slow-moving and I don't think I'll change much about it, but I don't know all the ways that this pandemic will change the world in ways that last several years or more, so it's hard to know to proceed with the writing.
This reminds me of rereading The Doomsday Book and how despite loving the book, it was really hard to suspend my disbelief when the plot hinges on people in 2054 desperately trying to contact each other during a crisis using landlines, because there are no cellphones, internet, or even answering machines. The world has changed so much since I first read it.
You talking about taking out the word 'pandemic' reminds me of when I was recently writing an award nomination for a friend, and couldn't find an effective synonym for 'infectious' (sense of fun)
"This was written for a world that no longer exists"
Wow...
I don't think one can accurately sum up humanity's collective experience of the past month or so better then that sentence. Looking forward even more to your new book Hank!! Good luck with last past!!
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This is one of my favourite things about genre fiction a lot of the time, how it fits or doesn't fit together. Sci-fi.......... is good
@JESUS SALVA, CURA E LIBERTA JESUS ESTÁ VOLTANDO Nah, I'll pass
@JESUS SALVA, CURA E LIBERTA JESUS ESTÁ VOLTANDO are you talking about the lame Christian gospel or the gospel of the FSM because that's great, I'm in.
also: what is your answer to the theodicy question?
Hello!
My name is Elder Price
And I would like to share with you
The most amazing book.
ELDER GRANT:
Hello!
My name is Elder Grant.
It's a book about America
A long, long time ago.
ELDER PRICE:
It has
So many awesome parts
You simply won't believe
How much this book can change your life.
ELDER GREEN:
Hello!
My name is Elder Green
I would like to share with you
This book of Jesus Christ.
ELDER YOUNG:
Hello!
My name is Elder Young
ELDER HARRIS:
Hello!
ELDER YOUNG:
Did you know that Jesus
Lived here in the U.S.A.?
ELDER GRANT:
You can
Read all about it now!
ELDER WHITE:
Hello!
ELDER YOUNG:
In this nifty book, it's free!
No, you don't have to pay!
ELDER YOUNG:
Hello!
ELDER SMITH:
Hello!
My name is Elder Smith!
And can I leave this book with you
For you to just peruse?
ELDER BROWN:
Hello!
ELDER GREEN:
Hello!
ELDER HARRIS:
Hello!
ELDER SMITH:
I'll just leave it here.
It has a lot of information you can really use!
ELDER PRICE:
Hello!
ELDER HARRIS:
Hi!
ELDER PRICE:
My name is-
ELDER GREEN:
Jesus Christ!
ELDER GRANT:
You have a lovely home!
ELDER CROSS:
Hello!
ELDER YOUNG:
It's an amazing book!
ELDER SMITH:
Bonjour!
ELDER WHITE:
Hello!
ELDER HARRIS:
Ni hao!
ELDER WHITE:
Me llamo Elder White!
ELDER GRANT:
Are these your kids?
ELDER GREEN:
This book gives you the secret
To eternal life!
ELDER SMITH:
Sound good?
ALL:
Eternal life!
ELDER GREEN:
With Jesus Christ!
ALL:
Is super fun!
ELDER BROWN:
Hello!
ELDER HARRIS:
Ding dong!
ALL:
And if you let us in,
We'll show you how it can be done!
ELDER GRANT:
No thanks?
ELDER GREEN:
You sure?
ELDER GRANT:
Oh, well.
ELDER GREEN:
That's fine.
ELDER GRANT:
Goodbye!
ELDER GREEN:
Have fun in hell.
ELDER GRANT and ELDER CROSS:
@JESUS SALVA, CURA E LIBERTA JESUS ESTÁ VOLTANDO could you just answer the (theodicy)question?
An author I read tweeted that in 20 years, people will be like "wow 2019 must've been a great year, seeing how many books are set in it"
Ida Lizette
Are there a disproportions number of books set in the late 1920s (just pre-Great Depression) and late 1930s (just pre-WW2)?
In hindsight it was, compared to the awful world we live in now.
@@ragnkja Yes! Theres a Trope called "Christie Time" that covers the interwar years
As a YA librarian, I am so interested in what types of books come out in like, 2 years! Will there be star crossed teen lovers separated by quarantine?
Zoamary
That and zombie apocalypse stories.
Right now my girlfriend and I are separated by 1000 miles and I was supposed to leave for a visit one week before lockdown was announced (where I am) so I feel like I am currently living that story.
Rain Like The Weather wow! I am sorry you are trapped apart... but maybe it’s time to get into the writing game?
@@Zoamary I've already sent 5 letters!
what abt enemies trapped together 👀👀
He said "Hello Hank's Channel"
but I heard "Hello Angst Channel"
and was like 'same Hank, same'
sanity's quota Oh, good. it wasn’t just me.
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I heard that too!!! I thought it was my GenX roots. But it’s spot on either way.
HANK: since you seem to predict the future in you books, please let your next book be about a utopian earth where we are all safe and happy and healthy, and maybe there are unicorns? :) Or maybe write about a Mars mission that is remarkably succesful in the year 2027...? Stay safe everyone.
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A Stitch Too Far +
Dear John and Hank must be stopped! XD
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Y'all remember when Hank predicted Harry Potter being a horcrux before Deathly Hallows came out and now this book seems to have predicted our current state of being? I'm not saying you can see the future Hank....but I'm also not saying you can't see the future somehow
Sam Pitman I think he also predicted Hedwig’s death in that song 🧐
He has a higher percentage of accuracy than Trelawny
He's the American Hideo Kojima.
He also predicted pride and prejudice and zombies
He's good at predicting based on compiling current info and applying it to precedent.
"Unless something really weird happens."
* headdesk *
Last year when I was reading the book, I used to imagine AART world to be in a distant future, a world where everyone has been impacted by a single thing, and the news is talking about just one thing, everyone is afraid/confused/ overwhelmed by of one thing, and ppl with power r trying to manipulate the situation for their advantage.
But I never thought that we would be living in that world in 2020. Its seems surreal, and I'm amazed about how accurate the book was. I have been thinking a lot about that...
gitoshri sen what I find surreal is the fact I read AART two days before the UK went into lockdown and oh boy that was good timing as it’s probably stuck with me more than it would have done any other time
So Hank has finally learned to promote and market his book.
Mmm, I don't know about that, he didn't mention in the video that the book is available for pre order now, have to go to the description for that. Lol.
tbh i did preorder his book bc of this video so maybe you're right
Too cynical. 1) this is on his side channel...speaks for itself really; 2) this video actually has insightful and interesting thoughts and does not come across as just an advert.
Valerie Blackwood Congrats on your self-censorship and podsnappery.
Elina Terava Congrats on teaching me a new word! PODSNAPPERY!!! That’s an amazing word, I’m going to use that all the time now! 😂 (PS: sorry but you have not convinced me that this video is anything but a genuinely heartfelt discussion of a really interesting change Hank is making to his book)
The thing is, AART was and remains the only book I have ever read that gives me the same feeling the internet does. April's online presence is amazing, to the point where her live stream made such an imprint in my brain because of the things she says about the general reality of being a human. AART is about community, the good and the bad. It is a what-if story that is about connection and togetherness and I first came to realize this because of The Dream. Human have never had something that happens exactly the same for everyone. Sure, you can have a medical condition and then hear similar stories from others who also ha e it but nothing is ever exactly the same, so when The Dream becomes a worldwide collaborative puzzle, it worked because it connected people. I honestly believe that it's the only thing that summarizes how I feel in quarantine.
Rain Like The Weather , I’ve felt that too in quarantine! Like so many people are collaborating to engineer solutions, like creating personal protective equipment for medical personnel or mentoring soon-to-be graduates or coming up with ways to get lunches to families in need. It makes me think: humanity really is beautiful! Sure, there’s a ton of awful stuff happening, but I see that I really agree with Carl.
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you should put a preface in the book saying "This book was written before the Covid-19 outbreak"
It may be an epilogue, actually.
hankschannel such a great idea!
Written 1BP
I kind of feel like every book coming out needs this? Like when you think about the publication date of a book as a reflection of the time in which these ideas were presented, but so much has changed that as Hank says, that world doesn't exist anymore for us.
@@hankschannel Definetly add it into your afterwards/acknowledgements somewhere if you can!
In the last couple of weeks, I've found my thoughts wandering to AART a lot, which is interesting, considering I read it in October of 2018. I thought about April and the Dreamers, who wanted the arrival of Carls to be a sign for the world to stick together. This in particular feels very relevant to me now. I kept wondering about the sequel and how this fictional world will reflect our current world. I'm glad you talked about this, Hank. What a weird sequence we're living through.
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Hank: I made this for a world that doesn't exist anymore.
Also Hank: I didn't make it so close to the current reality intentionally I swear
We're 94 days into 2020. Hank's book won't be out for 111 years
The thing that's keeping me going through isolation is thinking about how much we're going to enjoy the little things.
In South Africa we aren't allowed to go out to exercise, because it isn't really safe enough here. So I'm just thinking about how much we're going to enjoy walking with friends.
How much were going to enjoy traffic. Being with friends. Going to university or work every day. Seeing new places.
I just can't wait for everyone to enjoy the little things again.
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I legitimately think I might cry the first time I go out to a restaurant or bar. I know I will the first time I go to a church service. And probably when I can see friends and family without worrying that I might inadvertently make them sick.
Hankschannel Hank is best Hank. You've been missed. Thanks for the little window into this.
YES!
I read the first book in February 2020, just before the full-out spread of the Corona virus and the changes that it brought, and whatever has happened since then just eerily keeps reminding me of your book.
Like how everyone is so confused in the beginning, and then the whole world needed to be brought together to survive the situation, and how everyone was working towards the same goal and even then there were groups within the people fighting each other !
How is your timing so good! Its reminding of Accio Deathly Hallows :)
Thank you Hank. Take a couple of big breaths, release them slowly, give your wife and children hugs. Keep on being yourself, with all your quirks.
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Corvid-19 might just cause Hank to write a third book. Who’s titled will take just as long as the second title took to come up with.
A Completely Social Distanced Year?
@@GaviLazan An Impeccable moment of stillness
HANK will you ever post a video talking about the viewer census thing u did a while back :0
YES!!! Sorry, it has been too busy!
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i'm even more excited for ARFE after this. it's interesting to see how much goes into writing a book.
Lol, a beautifully remarkable endeavor... An absolutely foolish thing...
Honestly, even in July Hank's first book felt like a prophecy. Hank is a great prophet.
It is surely changing how frequently I pick up a book
You're not kidding. I went from reading 1-2 books a month to having read 4 in the last two weeks.
As someone who works in a bookstore, it's really interesting to hear more about the behind the scenes aspects of writing a novel and the last few months leading up to release with the changes you are having to make. Good luck with the last revisions, I look forward to reading your book once it is released!
I would be super interested in hearing more on your thoughts about your book in the context of the coronavirus after it is out so you can mention spoilers and the impact of whatever other developments happen in the world between now and then.
Also, I enjoyed hearing about your thinking of the Carls as an analogy for the arrival of the internet; I never thought of it like that, perhaps in part because I have never lived in a world without the internet, so that change isn't something I can really conceptualize, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting lens through which to look at the book during my reread before the sequel comes out!
It's so interesting to hear about the behind the scenes stuff with your book and the current situation. I can't wait to read it! I wonder if your book will be raised up and considered as more reflective than you meant. The future is so uncertain. I'm headed to my peace corps service on June 28th, so I'll have to have my family ship the book to me when it comes out on the 7th!!
I actually re-read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing the other week, because I felt like I needed a story that dealt with what people do when the world changes. It felt particularly poignant in this moment and I loved it all the more for the perspective. (Though it made me cry more this time...)
Anyway, I'm so excited for the next one!
Thanks for posting this Hank! Super cool hearing about the publishing process in general, but also what it's like dealing with the book making process now. (Also, good luck with your deadline)
I just finished reading both AART and ABFE in the span of a couple of days, and MAN, am I blown away. Altus is such a great exaggeration of the algorithms and platforms we use now that the effects it has are super clear. I am thinking a LOT of thoughts about this series right now and I don't think I'm going to stop anytime soon. I've finished ABFE this morning and have already recommended it to my father, and I really want to recommend it to my siblings because it strikes SUCH A CHORD. Oh, and it's also funny and brilliantly written.
You, your brother and this community greatly shape my way of thinking and acting, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. Thank you.
I'm only a few minutes into the video, but it's interesting to hear how you're thinking about your book. It's a little weird to me, because for me it doesn't matter if it matches up to the real world, since it's fiction. I know your story takes place around the present day, but it feels like a parallel universe to me, rather than /our/ world. Idk if this is coherent, and I'm not trying to say you're wrong for changing things... More than anything, this is just making me think about my own personal relationship with fiction, I guess, and I wanted to get this all out of my head.
But all that aside, I think it will be fascinating to see these kinds of changes happen in entertainment media.
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It's not meant to represent the world, but it is meant to resonate with readers. The world changing means that /we/ have changed. I need to write for people as they exist now.
@@hankschannel That makes sense, and I probably posted my comment too soon into the video, before I kind of understood what you were getting at. Thanks for explaining it further!
I think it's more that like, there are probably some base assumptions Hank is making while writing it, about the way both worlds work--like yeah it's a parallel universe, but a lot of the core cultural stuff is the same, that's what makes it relevant. And so if those things change (like the way we imagine the world, the United States, how humans are social, what really matters), and his book doesn't reflect that, it's going to be off-putting or seem out-of-touch. At least that's how I interpreted a lot of it. It's not like his book is going to be *about* this, or have COVID-19 actually in the book, because it is fiction and a different world. But I think it's more subconscious assumptions that have been changing with everything shifting so much right now, and he needs to reflect that in how he writes and offhand comments in the book and stuff.
You guys are doing such a service for the world in general, but this is a great video not only on your process with your book but also a general tutorial on how publishing work, and what slows up or doesn't slow up the process and why. Terrific.
This is another accio deathly hallows situation, Hanks just here predicting the future.
I’m so excited to read it Hank! Thanks for going through this with us, it’s really fascinating to see that not only does the world change quicker than we expect but our media does too. I’m so glad you’re such a good steward of all the media you create and end into the world; not just your books, but all the content. It gives me a lot more hope for the future of nuanced conversation or nuanced books or nuance in general.
Now that the book is published and we’ve read it, can you make an updated video with more specifics about how coronavirus changed the book and affected how you view the story now and it’s place in our present?
I literally just finished rereading AART today with Tuataria. Somehow, your comments about how the world was changed by the Carls felt Very Now. The idea of humanity coming together with a common goal, of groups of professionals forming across the world to join to solve one problem... yeah, that hits different right about now. And you know what? I think I needed the reminder that humanity is good, and that we have the ability to work together, and that we are beautiful. And being left without knowing how the world is going to be after the Carls... yeah. I don't know what the world is going to be like after COVID, either.
This was such an insightful video, thank you for making it! I'm really interested in what future entertainment will look like but also it was great hearing about a book that happens to unintentionally reflect some of what we're all going through right now.
Really excited to read your second book, I flew through the first one as soon as it came out!
I'm very happy your book is still coming on time. It's one of the things I was really looking forward to this year.
It kind of sounded like he said “Hello Angstchannel” and.. yeah. I felt that.
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I'm very excited to read your book, and this might end up being an odd and serendipitous tool that may help some of us cope.... in a way maybe your book will help this bizarre situation seem more normal....? I don't know. I'm fascinated by this, though. Can't wait to read it.
"Who knows what the world is going to look like in 94 days?" STOP IT I can barely even as it is.
Hank, this is one of the many examples why I respect you, admire you, and love you. I hope I'm not the first to say so, but this is incredibly responsible and gracious of you to go through your book, prior to publishing, and share this insight with us. I know I'm just a fan, but you make me feel like a valued friend. As we're all dealing with Covid-19 and being as careful as we can, you are being careful in another way I didn't even imagine as a valid concern. Thank you for caring. DFTBA. You got this, Hank.
ONCE again my time blind ass watching hankschannel thinking its vlogbrothers and 13 minutes in being like "this seems like more than four minutes?"
I read Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (takes place 2024-27) in early 2018 and it was eerie how a lot (not all but) of things still held up and how I could see how current life could turn into what was happening in the book
Anyone else think that Hank may be controlling the fate of the world with his writing? WRITE SOME NICE STUFF NEXT PLEASE
"Little did he know...."
I loved AART. It got me out of my book slump and reminded me why I love reading. I've put date for the sequel on my calender and counting down the days. I can't wait. So glad yours isn't being pushed back
im so excited for this book! ive been excited since i read your first book, but now im even more excited.
Can't wait to read your book!! Good luck finishing the 2nd pass!
I have very similar concerns right now because I'm an aspiring writer working on my first book and this really changes everything. It revolves around a school field trip, but schools are closed now, soooooo... I'm really not sure what to do about that. I'm glad that things are working out well with your book though, and I'm super excited for it to come out!
I finally got a chance to read this book a week ago and I was amazed at the future-predicting qualities - even the part with the stocks!
Just finished my reread of AART today actually, very much looking forward to ABFE no matter what 💗
Seeing the inside of the writing of a book I'm expecting (based on the first one) to love is amazing
thank you for taking the time to tell us about how covid-19 is influencing your book! i have been looking forward to the sequel; you and john came to my town when an absolutely remarkable thing was first released and i read your book the next day. it was a powerful novel and i can't wait to experience your next work. this is a side of publishing we don't usually get to see, especially during a world altering event, so thank you for filming this. i am so so excited to read your book and to follow the carls on their next adventure. stay well!!
I can't wait to read it and I love Hanks honesty with his audience
Thanks for picking All Systems Red for Life’s Library!! I loved it and I’ve already ordered all the sequels 😃
Wait, there are books that do well with airport travelers?
Can you make a video about publishing considerations in general maybe?
I am a little emarassed to say that i only read your book a couple of weeks ago, around the time that corona became a pandemic. And oh man was it a ride. But at the same time i think that as far as books about world changing events i picked one that didnt make me feel more anxious then i already was. It sort of helped to remind me that humans while selfish are also incredible collaborators.
I'd enjoy hearing about more specific things that got changed between the different series of edits with AART, but also John's books. Perhaps even episode break downs of Looking for Alaska.
this video is FASCINATING and it has made me even more excited to read the book
I want an updated, spoilery version of this discussion!
1) Found Carl in a SciShow Kids episode. 2) The Song of the Dodo on your shelf... great read. Rereading Spillover now. It holds up.
Ordered my copy just now from my local bookstore! It comes out on my birthday - best gift ever!
I really love how you talk about publishing. Have you ever graced the r/writing subreddit for an AMA or something? That'd be awesome
My friend and I started trading (disinfected) books since we've been home for the remainder of our semesters, and I gave her AART as a shot in the dark. She really fell in love with it, just like I did last year. I don't know what else I'm trying to say, but I hope you get to see how we really appreciate your work.
I really relate to the feeling of books not feeling relevant. I’m struggling a lot because I want to reread my most favorite books, but they feel less relatable to me now...I know this sort of disenchantment can happen over time, but I’m struggling a lot that my world has changed so drastically so quickly that my favorite stories seem like they appealed to a different world.
I am absolutely having this issue! I picked up the Warriors series about cats because I couldn't get myself to read about humans.
I just finished the book less than 20 min ago and re found this video that I apprently had watched a minute thirty of and paused as if saying this contains too much potential nods at themes you gotta wait to watch this. Glad I did.
The books are almost eerily related to someone like me who read both in December 2020 (so the world’s seen the pandemic, the election and those weird monoliths). Now I’m enjoying watching these behind the scenes videos on your channel as a way to gently bring myself back from Carl-world to the real world. It really helps. More authors should do this. :)
Can’t wait to read it! I got the first one at the meet up in KC!💗
Would love to hear you speak more about this process, reminding me of a BookTuber I love Leena Norms
Thank you. For explaining this I was soooo worried you were going to have to push it back. I’m so glad you don’t have to!!!
one of my favourite podcasts just started its final season and had to have a warning about how it might seem similar to current events despite the fact it was made before hand... context and the world evolve SO quickly. media that has a long production time is always a risky game.
I've just read the second book, and I can't believe that AART was released before the pandemic and ABFE released before NFTs entered public discourse
That was interesting!! I don’t feel like you needed to explain but I loved learning it!
This video reminded me to pre-order the book :3 Also very interesting look behind book publishing, thank you.
It's interesting to hear you talk about not knowing what the world will look like when the book comes out, because I recently had that experience turning in an assignment at the end of last quarter in school. The professor in that class always has the last assignment be a note about the class to the next quarter's students, and I felt the need to write at the beginning of my paragraph a sentence about how I had to turn it in on March 14th, so I wasn't sure yet if classes would be held in-person at the end of the quarter or if they'd just shut down campus until Fall. It's a strange time we're living in, and I'm excited to read your book knowing the cultural lenses you're editing it through. :-D
I can see the class of 2045 discussing A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor in English class and talking about how Hank wrote it to reflect the world he was living in in 2020 and how profound it was that he was able to preserve how the world felt at that time,,
I love the fact that your Y2K count down clock still works.
What I find funny in your description is the disconnect between how you view the economy of last year and how I am my peers in lower class saw it.
The economy was doing well for people who were well to do, but due to wealth, which rises up, a wealth of us made do with mu.
I just read an absolutely remarkable thing for the first time :) sorry that i'm behind fellow nerd fighters, some can handle the university reading load and still read for fun, and others need more time 😂 anyways it was amazing Hank. The spectrum of human experience that is covered between your and John's books is so helpful to me and to so many. ♥️
I have read the book in the past few days (i loved it) and the effects of corona absolutely added another layer to the book. Because themes that are really important in the book, power, humanities doom, new technologies and those being owned by billionaires, are also a lot more talked about in todays society. Which for me made the book so much more interesting to me. So thank you for writing a book that is so meta that it gives me a lot of comfort. (Theres a lot more I love about the book and it made me feel a lot of other happy feelings, but this is a thought I had and it felt prevalent to the video)
I, for one, would really like for the book to come out too, Hank
as always, thank you Hank for being awesome
Thank you for sharing this stuff. It is unendingly fascinating to me.
I was late to pick up book number one. I finished it last week and the timeliness of it amazed me. You have a gift, but I'm not sure if it's for storytelling or channeling the future.
The point about what holds up and feels real in stories as the world changes is interesting.
One thing I notice about older science fiction is that A) the science predictions can be weirdly accurate, although small-scale technology (like smartphones) tends to progress faster than large-scale technology (like space travel) and B) social change is nearly always underestimated. Like 1950s science fiction stories tend to have gender dynamics and such that feel VERY 1950s. There are exceptions, of course, especially for authors whose main focus is cultural (like Ursula LeGuin), but I find it interesting that most seem to find it easier to imagine flying cars and such than, say, that how marriage works might change.
I hope you got it done!❤☀️❤
I like learning more about the process of publishing a book. Tell us more 😊
Super interesting stuff. I can’t wait to read the new book! 🤓📖
I think the microorganisms from your other channel have conspired to bring you this surreal book launch... enjoy it... can't wait to read it 😊
"This was written for a world that no longer exists"
this is true of EVERY SINGLE BOOK EVER WRITTEN. the world changes every day.
i read both books back to back in 3 days, every book that deals with large themes like isolation will apply somewhat to ANY current situation.
This is so interesting! I'd never thought about "This was written for a world that no longer exists", it's like scary but true and novels even fiction reflect that.
90 days?! I thought it would take a lot longer to make a book and get it on shelves!
P.S.- 6 months sounds more like it, but even that sounds a little short!
P.P.S.- I can't wait until October to get this for my birthday (I would pre-order it to get it on the day it comes out, but I'm saving money to take my dad to a football game--if we're not still locked down during Thanksgiving that is)
P.P.P.S- You came and spoke at my college and it was so amazing! (I was the one that asked something to the extent of "What is the most absolutely remarkable thing (you laughed at the very subtle reference to your book) that human society has done to combat climate change in our lifetime?" and you said something about coal mines I think.)
Listening to this book a year later is so creepy for the opposite of the reasons you talk about here... like, wow. You mention "the lost year" talking about the time of the Carls and the dream... and here we are...when Bex talks about Subway being all delivery orders because everyone is inside all the time... clearly this book came mysteriously, leather bound into your possession.
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I edit audiobooks for a living (proofing, noise removal, etc) and I've been thinking a lot recently about what you were talking about in the first few minutes because I've worked on a couple of near-future books recently (one set a few months from now and one a few years from now), neither of which of course discuss the pandemic at all, but both of which the storyline would be massively different had they been written six months to a year later than they were. It was a quite surreal experience to read/listen to the book when it is set in a future that in reality will be fundamentally different. One of the books in particular (set a few months from now) I feel sorry for the author as if all the references to real year dates (2020, 2017 etc) were substituted for just saying 'present day' or '3 years before' then I think it wouldn't clash half as much with the reality of our current situation.
(For those wondering, generally the audio version of a book is recorded about a month before release, after all the proofing and it's gone to print.)
This was fascinating. Thank you for talking about it.
I've been thinking about this too because I have a webcomic that's also set in generally the present time, and has commentary about what life is like, and I've already written the next few months of it. It's slow-moving and I don't think I'll change much about it, but I don't know all the ways that this pandemic will change the world in ways that last several years or more, so it's hard to know to proceed with the writing.
It makes me really happy to see the Discworld books behind you Hank. Which are your favourites from the series?
This reminds me of rereading The Doomsday Book and how despite loving the book, it was really hard to suspend my disbelief when the plot hinges on people in 2054 desperately trying to contact each other during a crisis using landlines, because there are no cellphones, internet, or even answering machines. The world has changed so much since I first read it.
In my sci fi class we are reading Gibson right now and my professor made the same comment about the megabytes.
You talking about taking out the word 'pandemic' reminds me of when I was recently writing an award nomination for a friend, and couldn't find an effective synonym for 'infectious' (sense of fun)
This was really interesting, and I can't wait to read it!