Skip to footer

New 'Fault in Our Stars' tagline divides fans

Some 'Fault in Our Stars' fans object to the phrase 'One sick love story' as a tagline for the film adaptation of John Green’s popular young adult novel.

'The Fault in Our Stars' stars Shailene Woodley (l.) and Ansel Elgort (r.).
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

Fans were excited to see the poster released for the film adaptation of John Green’s young adult book “The Fault in Our Stars,” but the excitement of some faded when they saw the tagline for the movie.

The line “One sick love story” appeared below a picture of actors Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, who portray the two main characters in Green’s novel, Hazel and Augustus, teenagers who meet and fall in love at a cancer support center.

After many fans made their thoughts known about the tagline, Green wrote a statement on his Tumblr about it.

“To the many of you who love it, I say, ‘I did not write the tag line,’” he wrote. “To the many of you who don’t, I say, ‘I did not write the tag line.’… That said, I like the tag line. I found it dark and angry in the same way that Hazel is (at least at times) dark and angry in her humor. I mostly wanted something that said, 'This is hopefully not going to be a gauzy, sentimental love story that romanticizes illness and further spreads the lie that the only reason sick people exist is so that healthy people can learn lessons.' But that’s not a very good tag line. I like the tag line because it says, literally, the sick can also have love stories. Love and joy and romance are not just things reserved for the well.”

Green also said he was very pleased by the poster showing Woodley with the tubes of her oxygen tank, which he called "near unprecedented."

Twitter user Chelsea Quintal was among fans who did not like the tagline. She wrote, "The tagline for the fault in our stars is probably my least favourite tagline to exist." However, user Arowana Flounder was more won over.

“I love it,” she tweeted. “I don't think it makes cancer a joke. It is the essence of a beautiful love story.”

“Fault in Our Stars” is scheduled for release next June.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to New 'Fault in Our Stars' tagline divides fans
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/1219/New-Fault-in-Our-Stars-tagline-divides-fans
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe