I haven't read the whole book yet, about 100 pages in. I wouldn't say there's anything uniquely male about it. I don't think there's anything gender specific about searching for something bigger than yourself, or wanting to change your circumstance or live in an alternate reality where you can be thin if you're fat, pretty if you're ugly and so forth. People might think it's more of a male book based on the fact that it has to do with virtual reality/gaming, and that tends to appeal more to men, but having read a little, I am enjoying it, even with my sensitive female brain. But who knows? Maybe page 101 is where it turns uniquely male. I don't know.
My vote would be for ModernRomance by Azziz Ansari. Getting pretty good reviews, plus it would be interesting to get male and female perspectives.
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I'm not sure one is supposed to say, so I'll just start with my favourite paragraph from the book, and add, this book was ####ing awesome:
Quote:
“I would argue that masturbation is the human animal's most important adaptation. The very cornerstone of our technological civilization. Our hands evolved to grip tools, all right—including our own. You see, thinkers, inventors, and scientists are usually geeks, and geeks have a harder time getting laid than anyone. Without the built-in sexual release valve provided by masturbation, it's doubtful that early humans would have ever mastered the secrets of fire or discovered the wheel. And you can bet that Galileo, Newton, and Einstein never would have made their discoveries if they hadn't first been able to clear their heads by slapping the salami (or "knocking a few protons off the old hydrogen atom"). The same goes for Marie Curie. Before she discovered radium, you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe.”
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My first thought about the book was that I was a decent ways in and I hadn't stopped reading like I'd expected I would. Usually when a book has an overly specific "theme" to appeal to a certain group of people I can't stand it. I can't remember names but there's been many books I've started to read that area supposed to appeal to nerds or programmers or whatever, but the author is so focused on nerding out over the hyper-detailed descriptions that the rest of the story suffers, or is non-existent. Or it feels like I'm reading indoctrination material (Cory Doctorow's books are somewhat like this).
I don't know if it's because I was a kid and teen in the 80's (I certainly didn't have as much interaction with pop culture as most normal kids did), but while I fully expected to stop reading this due to nerdout overload, I didn't.
There's nothing overly special about the plot or the characters that make them stand out but they're there and do their job sufficiently well to make the book enjoyable to read.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
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There is a part in the book where Wade is in the wash room, maybe he just showered or is on the toilet, but his eyes pass over the mirror and he makes a comment like he doesn't like what he sees or something, so he just refuses to look at the mirror again. Then he wonders why he hasn't spray painted that black yet like he did the windows. That to me was a big holy crap type moment, this guy is really dialed into the OASIS, that is literally all he has.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
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I really liked this book! It took me a bit to get into it, but when I did I ended up staying up until 2am to finish it.
I wasn't crazy about the ending. I didn't dislike it, just was a bit disappointed by it.
Spoiler!
Wade's reaction to winning seemed pretty restrained, considering how much build up there was throughout the book. He was more concerned with meeting Art3mis than the fact that he won. I know it was supposed to show the fact that he was becoming more focused on reality rather than his virtual existence, but it was a bit disappointing.
(Not sure if we are supposed to put spoiler tags until everyone has finished reading?)
I liked the overall theme of the book, escaping into a virtual fantasy world vs facing reality...the author makes the whole OASIS thing actually seem plausible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
I was going to ask if Ready Player One was a book that appeals mostly to males (like a Rush concert), and if so, why?
Just wanted to comment on this as well...I don't know if it would appeal to as many females as males (I enjoyed it but can't speak for all females, of course), but I really liked the fact that it had a few female characters who were strong characters and not outwardly 'perfect'. That's often something you don't see a lot in books that are geared toward girls, so I thought that was great.
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I think the subdued reaction reflected Wade's realization that living in the real world might just be preferable to fantasy. The last lines punctuated this.
I really enjoyed that 'H' turned out to be a girl and liked that the females protagonists were such strong characters.
The first gate took 5 years to find and the entrance matched the dungeons and dragons game he used to play. People looked throughout the entire game for this and couldn't find it when it was sitting out in the open. An organization with unlimited computing power somehow didn't build bots to discover and check these things but then it's discovered by a random kid. Then the next two gates go down quickly. He plays a perfect game of pac-man a game he is rusty at and then puts in a ridiculous score at tempest. The speed shoes just happen to be able to fly. And the whole willy wonka idea that the person who finds it will somehow be noble as opposed to giving it to his friend who won't sell out to Comcast.
But I know this is a kid-lit fantasy trope so I should ignore the above and accept that maguffern are part of the genre.
My main problem with the book though was the creepy stalkerish, no means yes, relationship that was built up between him and Artimis. Their relationship essentially consisted of him creeping her blog and Facebook. Then she protests meeting up and hanging out and through persistence he wears her down. She dumps him, he keeps up the stalking, then they meet up again and she finally falls in love with him.
It never mattered what she wanted or got out of the relationship. It was just about him.
It's very much a teenage gamer fantasy relationship of meeting a lesbian and a girlfriend online and hooking up in real life by keeping on sending chat requests, dick pics and being good at video games.
All that said I liked the world that was built up. Where as the world crumbles on the outside access to the virtual world becomes an escape. I think that already occurs where people are more concerned with celebrity and Twitter than the real world. Tech just hasn't caught up.
Really liked the economy to. Free access, pay to move within the world and for looking cool. And in a bitcoin kind of way something that doesn't exist becomes a real dominant currency. The exercise setting on the device was a neat idea as people died playing wow and Everquest because they didn't eat or sleep, this would be worse.
I think you should make an executive decision on a book for November troutman.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
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There is so much I could say about Ready Player One. I was in high school in the early 1980s, and it feels like this book was written specifically for me. Most of the pop culture references are familiar and dear to me. The book is not especially poetic, but the references are like candy for me. The concept of the Hunt is interesting. Some of the characters are cliche archetypes.
For me the book peaked in the Tomb of Horrors, not because that is the climax, but because that contained my favorite 1980s references. I learned to play AD&D in the early 1980s. Tomb of Horrors was released in 1978, so I missed playing that module. I did know about The Tomb by reputation - it was considered a death trap dungeon (TPK = total party kill) with the most kick ass Boss Acererak (a Lich!). I also had some early Atari computer that had a Joust cartridge.
I liked the future vision of the word - real and virtual. Being educated and socializing on-line. The virtual disco. The stacks of trailers where Wade lives.
I could open up any page of Ready Player One at random, and have something to say about it.
Let me start with this - is it significant that Wade is an orphan, living with relatives? This is common archetype - ex. Luke Skywalker, Peter Parker, Frodo. Wade is really striving to become a man on his own, and that is the real prize.
Orphan archetypes are down-to-earth realists, with solid virtues and a lack of pretense. They are empathetic egalitarians who believe in the inherent worth of all and highly value dignity of others, as well. Acceptance comes easily to them, as they are fair, friendly, understanding, and inviting. They are democratic, and not in the political sense, because they believe in the Three Musketeers concept of "one for all and all for one."
They learned independence and interdependence at a young age, and they pragmatically and perceptively face facts as they are, not as they wish they are. They can really rally after a set-back and have a natural resilience. They are most fulfilled when they are within a group and feel like they are "one of the gang." As a result, they relate and connect well with others, enjoying networking and camaraderie, which suits their warm, kind, outgoing and sociable personality. They have what is a called a "common touch" to motivate others to pitch in, solve problems, and just generally do and be their best.
After the death of his father, Perceval's mother takes him to the forests where she raises him ignorant to the ways of men until the age of 15. Eventually, however, a group of knights passes through his wood, and Perceval is struck by their heroic bearing. Wanting to be a knight himself, the boy leaves home to travel to King Arthur's court. In some versions his mother faints in shock upon seeing her son leave. After proving his worthiness as a warrior, he is knighted and invited to join the Knights of the Round Table.
Later, I want to return to two questions:
1. Wade's car is a Frankenstein's monster mash of cars from Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, and Knight Rider. Is this an original idea? Can you make something original when you are building things solely from others' creations?
2. How will Spielberg show the virtual world on the big screen?
Last edited by troutman; 10-16-2015 at 11:05 AM.
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I am having trouble deciding where to start so I'll piggyback off of something you brought up. Unlike you, I didn't get all of the references because I was born in the mid 80's. I recognized a lot of the TV shows, movies and even many of the games. But that got me thinking, who exactly is this book targeted towards? Is it a book that will only appeal to people nostalgic for the time period? I enjoyed it but what would someone reading it for the first time 100 years from now think?
As to your question, I believe it is significant that Wade is an orphan and living with a neglectful aunt. If he had an ideal life in the real world he probably wouldn't feel compelled to escape into the OASIS.
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I think many/most/all of us, as kids, 'escaped' to a world where we were the hero. Back in the 80's when I was a kid, it was in our mind - through literature or imagination. And the world should be a magical place when we are young. Maybe it isn't anymore, I dunno. The opening page(s) of 'Boy's Life" by Robert McCammon paints this scene so perfectly (text of this spoilered):
Spoiler!
“You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody else didn’t realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present and into the future. You probably did too; you just don’t recall it. See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.
After you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.
That’s what I believe.
The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. Things happen to us. Loved ones die. People get in wrecks and get crippled. People lose their way, for one reason or another. It’s not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. Life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. You don’t know it’s happening until one day you feel you’ve lost something but you’re not sure what it is. It’s like smiling at a pretty girl and she calls you “sir.” It just happens.
These memories of who I was and where I lived are important to me. They make up a large part of who I’m going to be when my journey winds down. I need the memory of magic if I am ever going to conjure magic again. I need to know and remember, and I want to tell you.”
― Robert McCammon, Boy's Life
I loved going back to that time
And we love the tragic hero: No dad, mom died of overdose, poor, mean aunt, overweight, bullied, terrible with girls, etc. etc. So yeah, it makes the reader want him to succeed, and obviously him to want to escape.
Last edited by EldrickOnIce; 10-16-2015 at 11:23 AM.
I just finished the book. Pretty proud of myself, as I had barely passed 100 pages yesterday. I got no work done, but I can join in with everyone.
I was born early 80s, so a child through most of the decade. Some of the references were lost on me, mostly the gaming stuff. The shows, music and movies that were mentioned I knew. I was giddy with each reference I recognized. I think I even began looking for stuff that wasn't there. Near the end, when Wade and the Sixers are all playing the Tempest and it's being broadcast, I immediately thought of the movie The Wizard with Fred Savage and Christian Slater, where the kids all play Super Mario Brothers and such in a big gaming competition. I pictured that whole part like that movie. Not sure if that was just me or if that was intentional or not, but I liked it.
My criticism of the book would be the obviousness of the theme of choosing to live in reality, versus virtual reality, of choosing connecting/working with others over solitary confinement. It probably could have been more subtle. In a number of parts of the book, it crept into soap opera territory. The ending was particularly sappy.
I think one reason why the ending seemed almost anticlimactic was because the search for the egg became secondary to Wade's desire to be with Artemis. I think this whole contest just mirrors our desire as people to search for something (a husband, job, new house) and we get fixated on it to the point where we miss out on just living life.
Here's my attempt at creating discussion surrounding the theme, given what we are saying about virtual vs reality and the good and bad of it all, do you think Wade should hit the button and end it all?
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Last edited by Eastern Girl; 10-16-2015 at 11:37 PM.
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I am having trouble deciding where to start so I'll piggyback off of something you brought up. Unlike you, I didn't get all of the references because I was born in the mid 80's. I recognized a lot of the TV shows, movies and even many of the games. But that got me thinking, who exactly is this book targeted towards? Is it a book that will only appeal to people nostalgic for the time period? I enjoyed it but what would someone reading it for the first time 100 years from now think?
I like this question. I think it can and will appeal to people, even years from now. When I was younger, I was obsessed with the 50s, 60s and 70s, even though I was born in the 80s. I read, watched and listened to everything from those decades, even though it was before my time. I think going into the future, people will still look back and enjoy those pop culture phenoms. It's really all in what peaks your interest. Further to this, I'm not into video games at all and I found the book interesting. Wade is a character from 2040-something, I forget the year, but he is into the 80s which is well before his time.
Who is this book geared toward? Good question. My initial feeling would be anyone with a passing interest in, to raging hard on for, video games. Having read it, I could see young girls liking it, because of it's "accept who you are, live your life" themes.
One other thing I noticed was how flippantly they dealt with the stacks explosion that killed the Aunt and Mrs. Gilmore (think that was her name). It blows up and it just didn't feel like there was much emotion connected to it. Thousands of people just died. Moving on.... I understand he was running for his life, but I just never felt like it was a big enough deal. Am I reading too much into it to say that perhaps that was to illustrate we are in a way desensitized to this kind of tragedy, because our reliance on technology and our access to millions of images/videos of tragic circumstance? Or maybe I just didn't pick up on the sorrow of it all.
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Last edited by Eastern Girl; 10-16-2015 at 11:52 PM.
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Overall I found it a light, but enjoyable read. I had just finished Seveneves, which was pretty hard and serious sci-fi. It felt refreshing after that.
I am also born in the early 80s. I found that I felt a little trapped between ages that would have increased my enjoyment. I think it would really appeal to people that were teens in the 80s and modern young adults (especially those that enjoy shows like hunger games, the 100 and the maze runner). I probably would have enjoyed it more if the references were to He-Man, transformers, game boy, the original Nintendo, grunge music and MTV.
I thought it could have done more with the Dystopian themes and secretly I was hoping for an unhappy ending.
I do see junior high and high school students loving it the way I loved Enders Game.
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Lol is Seveneves worth finishing? I got to the point
Spoiler!
where it jumps forward like 5000 years or something
and just kind of... stopped reading... I don't know what is is about Neal Stephenson, my brain shuts off reading him.
I nearly did too. It was quite abrupt. I stuck with it and it improved, but never matches the first part. Maybe go back and read it as a stand alone novella / sequel.
Spoiler!
I felt it should have ended with a short epilogue where we get just a small glimpse of the future. Maybe a meeting of the 7 races honouring the Seven Eves.
I liked the homage to MMO's and how he felt he could actually build a connection with people even though he had never met them (even fall in love). Art3mis is adamant that he doesn't really know her, just her avatar or persona.. but having played a lot of online games myself I feel that no matter how hard you try to be someone else your true personality will always filter through, especially the more time you spend around someone. However you can't substitute online connections or avatar connections for the real thing.
I started playing MMO's when I was 14, Ultima Online by Richard Garriot (who he gives credit to in the podcast, and props in the book, but he mentions WOW and EQ as the trend setters for MMOs, that bugged me. They may have helped popularize it, but UO created the genre!) I made a lot of friends in that game that I still talk to (some daily) 18 years later. We formed a "guild" and still hang out in the same IRC room while at work and chat about RL, help each other with work problems, beak each other etc.. it is as far as I am concerned a circle of friends. So I was able to relate to his relationship with these avatars except the love part, I can honestly say that never happened to me. Hell even look at this board, we form relationships on here. We've all got posters we like and are liked by, and we've all got posters we don't like and that don't like us. Some of us hang out in the same threads a lot and find ourselves discussing mutual interests on a daily basis. So the author did a really good job of bringing all of that home and projecting how it could be in the future, or at least this future, as people immerse themselves even deeper in these worlds.
I can also relate to the addiction side of it. I definitely was addicted at one point to UO. My grades went from advanced classes to some modified in a matter of years. Part of that can be attributed to alcohol, chasing girls and partying (usually all 3 at once), but a good chunk of my time went into that game. I would come home early from parties as a teenager just so I could log in and kill people with my online friends. So that part to me was very interesting and something I was paying close attention to. I did find it all comes together a little fast at the end, especially with that last sentence about not wanting to plug in that seemed really rushed. But again, Cline did a good job of emphasizing how addictive this world or search can be and how much can affect your real life, or lack of it.
At the end the point I got from is that you can hide or escape as long as you want but there really is no substitute for the real thing. And at our core in the deepest parts of our emotion we will always crave the human connection, and connecting through a computer screen only gets you so far.
Edit: Yes I also agree that being born in the 80s did hurt a bit on the references. A lot of them I recognized but lacked context, so his descriptions were helpful. Looking stuff up as I went though was a lot of fun and opened my eyes to some areas of sci-fi that I hadn't realized were there before.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
Last edited by GreenLantern; 10-17-2015 at 09:39 AM.
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Lol is Seveneves worth finishing? I got to the point
Spoiler!
where it jumps forward like 5000 years or something
and just kind of... stopped reading... I don't know what is is about Neal Stephenson, my brain shuts off reading him.
I wasn't fan of the last act. It honestly felt like a completely different book, but you may like it because of that. Very little carries over from first part of the book. I was listening to the audio book and it switched readers. From a female to a male. I had to rewind 3 times because I was so caught off guard.
At the end the point I got from is that you can hide or escape as long as you want but there really is no substitute for the real thing. And at our core in the deepest parts of our emotion we will always crave the human connection, and connecting through a computer screen only gets you so far.
I think here is where I disagree with the books premise that the real world will always pull us out for a real connection.
I think that the human mind is easily tricked and once you get through the uncanny valley our minds won't be able to tell the difference between the matrix and the real world. So I think once VR is good enough your avatar will be you.
I think that the human mind is easily tricked and once you get through the uncanny valley our minds won't be able to tell the difference between the matrix and the real world. So I think once VR is good enough your avatar will be you.
What does it mean to be human then? Are we just consciousness, and our bodies only vessels?
