06. Dear Hank & John. 010. When Your Friend Likes Ayn Rand... Part 1/6
• [Intro]
Hank: Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John.
John: Or as I like to think of it, Dear John and Hank. I'm back!
Hank: It's the podcast where Hank and occasionally his brother John answer your questions, give you dubious advice, and bring you all of the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. John, how you doing?
John: I'm doing well, I'm a little tired. I'm still recovering from the last couple of months, but on the whole I am well. How are you, Hank?
Hank: I'm good. I'm also tired. you can tell by my voice that I...
John: Yeah, it's a tiring time of year for us, Summer. It used to be the time of year when we relaxed and played together, making games of our own creation, me always winning them by changing the rules midway through even though you, despite being younger, were stronger and smarter and more talented. I always held the rules of the game which made me a winner. But these days it isn't a place where we just relax and play games where I make the rules, these days Summer is a stressful time of year where we must play a series of games involving rules made by other people.
Hank: And also Winter, and Fall, and Spring.
John: I feel that Winter, and Fall, and Spring are times when I am home with my family more, and I get to make the rule in my own home, at least with my wife. The children don't get to make rules and it's great fun to control them.
Hank: Do you have a poem?
John: I do have a poem for today. It's called Never Again The Same, it's by James Tate. Hank, I apologize in advance, this isn't the shortest short poem you've ever heard in your life, but I think it's a good one, OK?
Hank: OK.
John: Alright.
"Speaking of sunsets, last night's was shocking.
I mean, sunsets aren't supposed to frighten you, are they?
Well, this one was terrifying.
People were screaming in the streets.
Sure, it was beautiful, but far too beautiful.
It wasn't natural.
One climax followed another and then another
until your knees went weak
and you couldn't breathe.
The colors were definitely not of this world,
peaches dripping opium,
pandemonium of tangerines,
inferno of irises,
Plutonian emeralds,
all swirling and churning, swabbing,
like it was playing with us,
like we were nothing,
as if our whole lives were a preparation for this,
this for which nothing could have prepared us
and for which we could not have been less prepared.
The mockery of it all stung us bitterly.
And when it was finally over
we whimpered and cried and howled.
And then the streetlights came on as always
and we looked into one another's eyes-
ancient caves with still pools
and those little transparent fish
who have never seen even one ray of light.
And the calm that returned to us
was not even our own." That's a poem by James Tate, Never Again The Same. More or less the way that I've felt coming home after the last two months of crazy travel and the calm that has returned to me does not even feel my own. Sorry for the long short poem, Hank, but it's a good one right?
Hank: Yeah, it was wonderful. It was definitely not the lyrics to an Elton John song.
John: Yeah, I mean I've noticed that in my absence the short poems have been pretty terrible. Nothing against the many wonderful guest hosts you've had, but they don't have a gift for short poetry.
Hank: Yeah. That's something that you, you know, that you in particular are very good at.
John: So remind me Hank what this podcast is all about. I know it's about AFC Wimbledon and Mars and poetry, but I believe that there is a fourth component.
Hank: Yes, the fourth component is that we answer questions and give dubious advice, John.
John: Oh God, I love dubious advice. Where are we starting today, Hank?
• [Question 1]
Hank: We're gonna start with Russ in London who asks, "Dear Hank and John, according to the notes app on my phone, I have 23 books on my must read list, 25 films, 6 TV shows, 21 theater shows and 34 bands to check out on Spotify. My RSS reader shows probably 200 articles a day from webcomics and video games to philosophy and politics, this is all too much. I'm piling up more information than I can take in, I'm stressing myself out, at the same time the world is full of brilliant people making beautiful insightful things. I love to learn about those things and I'm really interested in lots of areas. As two crazily productive people with varied interests, how do you decide what to let through the filter so you don't get overwhelmed?" Ooh.
John: What a great question from Russ. We do live in an era defined by the overabundance of information and everything else. How do we choose what to discover in a world where there is so much that might be discovered?
Hank: Yeah, I don't, I don't even know.
John: I'm really bad at that actually.
Hank: I read quite slowly, so I can't even take in that much media. I do have a diverse set of interests, but I don't really have a diverse set of media consumption habits. Like, I watch one TV show at a time pretty slowly.
John: What are you watching right now?
Hank: I'm watching the second season of Orange is the New Black, which I'm quite late to.
John: Oh, you know what's coming up at the end of the second season of Orange is the New Black? Spoiler alert! The Fault in Our Stars.
Hank: What do you mean by that?
John: I mean that some of the characters read and discuss the book The Fault in Our Stars, written by me.
Hank: Oh, I think I maybe... No, yes. Indeed I am watching the third season of Orange is the New Black.
John: Yeah, that doesn't have anything written by me in it, but it's still good.
Hank: Um, yes. I don't know. It's hard to keep track, but yes.
John: You know what I'm watching?
Hank: What?
John: Is the third season of the television program The Americans.
Hank: Oh yeah, I've heard that's good.
John: Which is the best TV show I think I've ever watched.
Hank: Well you're not helping Russ here, by potentially adding a new series to his must watch list.
John: Aw, man. Well... And the other thing that Russ needs to do is bear in mind that Paper Towns the movie isn't even out in the United Kingdom yet, so he needs to add that to his list. (Hank laughs) Russ, I mean you need to put aside those 25 films immediately and focus on consuming the media that is the Paper Towns movie adaptation. Um, yeah. I mean I think that the only thing you can do is to forgive yourself for all of the amazing things that you will never learn about, and to try to focus with energy and passion and joy on the things that you will learn about. So, you know, I don't read 100 books a year like I used to in my early 20s, but I try to read books that I really like and if I don't like a book, frankly, these days I just stop reading it because I know that there's so many books on my to-read list. So, that would be my main recommendation is to kind of forgive yourself and to, you know, when you find something that you like, hold onto it and get excited about it and share it even if it means that it's gonna add to someone else's reading list.
Hank: Absolutely, and have it be about the process, like don't, you know, like thinking about the future of your media consumption habits is. you know, you're spending time thinking about that rather than just enjoying the media which is the kind of the purpose of them. Just read the books, don't worry about the books that you might read and I, frankly, if we're talking about a list, that's one thing, I've bought a lot of books I haven't read. They just sit there and I'm like "Wow, that space viking book is probably really good, but I probably won't ever read it." John: Yeah, but that's OK. I mean... I don't know, we're all gonna die, Hank, as is frequently pointed out on this comedy podcast. We're only here for a brief glimmer of time and I don't think that when you're on you deathbed, you're going to look back and think about all of the things that you didn't read. Hopefully, you'll think about and be lifted up by all of the things that you did read. So Russ, you're gonna die, and in the meantime, you might as well try to find joy and pleasure where you can. Hank, can we move on to another question?
Hank: Yes, we can.
