Analize the book epigraph: what reaction does it make on you?
I really like the prologue because of the way in which it is talked about time in it. It feels like if the characters had stepped outside reality, being able to watch time, to look at it in its natural metaphysical state. It is something obviously impossible for a human, but after knowing that the Dutch Tulip Man is a metaphor of God, it makes more sense, since he could be the only one able to "watch" it. Maybe this is all a little pretentious, but it is the reaction that makes on me.
Analizing the epigraph, I realized it gave important hints of the book, hints that I didn’t see when I read TFIOS for the first time.
The epigraph illuminates two great aspects of the story: water and time. Both of them are things that are killing Hazel, water because the cancer she has makes her fill her lungs with water, and time, because as time goes by she is more close to her death. We all "suffer" this, but Hazel is more aware of it due to her disease. Such as Augustus, she doesn't have many time left, and they know that they can pass away at any moment. Also, both are always discussing about infinites, how some people have more of it than others, and how big is the mark we leave in the time we have.
What does John Green talk us into doing in his note?
He asks us to remember that this is a made up story. I believe he wrote it, so we didn't lose our time looking for real events in the story, and for learning that although novels can be made up stories - as well as its epigrah in the case of TFIOS - that doesn't mean they are not worth reading. Also he says that part of the human nature and magnanimity is its imagination, which lets it create beautiful things and that has helped us to be who we are today.