Where is my Great Perhaps?

I’ve just finished reading John Green’s Looking For Alaska. I spent my whole last night reading it.  I haven’t really gotten the time to read it so I decided to read it before sleep. I would safely say that it is the best book I’ve read, even better than The Fault In Our Stars. But in both stories the main character dies and I therefore conclude John Green is sadistic (but their deaths made the story more interesting).

I’ve not read a book this enthusiastically since The Fault In Our Stars. Looking For Alaska is probably too deep at some places, some at which I am still trying to understand. I am still finding the meaning of “Great Perhaps” and the reason for Miles Halter pursuing it. Why was François Rabelais seeking it? Did he ever find it in the end? I can’t find the answer to it. Those were his last words anyway.

Everyone has a “Great Perhaps”, I think. I don’t even know what a “Great Perhaps” is. It’s like I’m seeking for something I don’t know.

Another thing I learnt: we all forget. Some day I will forget I ever read this book and typed out this post and I would forget that I’m seeking this “Great Perhaps”. Some day everyone would forget that I even existed. God doesn’t forget me, but that’s a different story. It is true that all will forget. I’d actually rather forget than remember, because forgetting means that everything in the past- good or bad -means starting anew. And my life would just keep starting anew until the day I die.

This question: How do we get out of this labyrinth of suffering? I want to know too. But the answer is that no one can get out of it in the first place (except if you die). Or if you were gonna be stupid like Alaska and commit suicide just because you forgot your mother’s death anniversary, yes, you can get out of it. But while you’re still alive, you can never escape this fatal truth. The thing is, her death brought another obstacle in the labyrinth of suffering for all who mourned her death. Which also means that death is part of the labyrinth of suffering.

I really feel that this book just makes me understand the different phases in my life. Yes, this book was deep and I had to read and try to understand every single sentence before moving on. But it teaches. And it was interesting because John Green didn’t write about Alaska’s death incident before its announcement, but he separated this book into two parts and wrote about Pudge and the Colonel waking up, only to find out about her death. The way John Green wrote about Alaska as a girl with a messed up life and a even more messed up background allowed me to look into what my literature teacher might call ‘human condition’. Her love for reading and the way John Green described her beauty, was so pretty like the butterflies.

How do we get out of this labyrinth of suffering? Where is my Great Perhaps?

 

I don’t know but I hope to find out.

Written on: 27 January 2014

Published on: 18 February 2014