Paper Towns question

Well, the thing is, sometimes a character is meant to be immature and offensive. Fiction aims to be a reflection or commentary of reality, and some people are immature and crass and use words like retard in a demeaning way. Since individuals such as this exist in reality, it' fair game that they may also appear in fiction. I don't think this necessarily is a reflection of John Green's views. He writes characters who are often not just very young, but very immature and insensitive. It is not a stretch, in these cases, that they would throw around words like that, and is in many ways a realistic portrayal of a particular kind of person. Hassan in an Abundance of Katherines I think said retard a lot, right? Well, Hassan is very much depicted to be an immature, insensitive teenager - he's insensitive towards even his best friend in many ways.

Fiction, as a matter of course, is sometimes offensive. It often contains offensive characters, because again, fiction is meant to reflect reality, and in reality, there are offensive people who say offensive, rude things. I don't think fiction should aim to be politically correct, because it's just not true to real life to populate a book about teenagers with all thoughtful, sensitive, and kind people. This is not to say that some teenagers aren't thoughtful, sensitive, and kind, but you're simply not going to find a high school filled with these kinds of people. Realistically, you're going to have people who will say words like retard and any number of other racist or sexist slurs. Including these slurs in fiction doesn't mean the author subscribes to these ideas, but that they're trying to depict an individual that does, or an individual who is simply careless in how they throw these words around.

I love his books, but I don't usually like the ending. I wish Q and Margo got together.

Wow.

Hmm, don't quite get why "retarded" is considered to be offensive, guess I'm just missing some context here.

I don't remember reading that. Where is it used in the book?

I don't understand how you would find this offensive as it is very widely used today and no one id offended by it

Using "retarded" in this context implies that people with mental/social disabilities are stupid, or that it's embarrassing and negative to be like them, which is incorrect and insulting. My sisters have worked in special education for years, and belittling those people in such a way is so ignorant I can't stand it. I agree withb the OP that it's offensive, although I think John Green probably wrote it for the sake of realism, not because he actually holds that belief. Still. I get what you mean.

I noticed it a lot too. Yes, kids do say it. I hear it all the time at school. However, I do think that in the context of talking about a mentally disabled person, it should have been taken out.
On the other hand, there are a lot of parts in both Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska that I saw as offensive or just disgusting that should have been taken out.
I'm not even going to read An Abundance of Katherines, I'm done with John Green books swearing and making a sexual reference every other line.

I agree. It's a horrible thing to say. I'll admit I say it to my friends, but I don't truly mean it, never. John Green would have recognised that this is how we teenagers speak - but you have to draw the line somewhere don't you? Especially an author now inspiring many teenagers all over the world for his books. As an adult, a grown man, he should have known better. There's a difference between a characters saying "Shit!" and "You retard."