Tsk tsk.
Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images
At Vulture Festival last month, author John Green told us that, if he had to do it over again, he’d rely a little less on Walt Whitman’s influence for Paper Towns. But that’s nothing compared to the regret he feels for using a particular slur in the same book.
A fan on Twitter recently expressed her disappointment that Green deployed the word “retard†in a line in the aforementioned book (“sometimes he’s so retarded that he becomes kind of brilliant,†one character says). Green responded:
And while Jerry Seinfeld might think he’s being too p.c., Green says the slur won’t be included in the book’s film adaptation, and he’s done using it for good.