Cline, E. (2011). Ready player one. New York: Crown.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline:
This week i've completed this YA Sci-Fi Novel.
-Are there any parts of this work that were confusing to me?
I chose to answer this question first because, while I connected with this incredibly fun story on many levels, i do have one major critique which makes Ready Player One extremely alienating. The novel is dystopian sci-fi tale about a young, hyper-intelligent, male protagonist who lives 95% of his life within an advanced virtual reality version of a video-game internet. Everything takes places in VR: school, work, games, exercise. The fact that he is of school-age will be relatable, but the main reason why I found this so gripping will be lost on the actual intended audience.
While the setting is futuristic, the plot revolves around a contest involving 1980s references. I, being born in 1991 and having a hobby of devouring pop culture understood that majority of the jokes and 80s plot allusions. I feel like anyone in high school or middle school right now will completely miss every single Highlander and Atari reference...which is about 1/3 of the main storyline. So while this was not confusing for me, it has the possibility to fall very flat with a number of readers.
-Overall, what kind of feeling did i have after/during reading this work?
As I mentioned in the above question, this book dealt a lot with nostalgia of childhood and the idea of escape through virtual entertainment and pop culture. While the writing wasn't nobel prize-worthy, it hit all the buttons that it was trying to hit. I felt the excitement of young love as i vicariously experienced the nervous admiration of a teenage girl through the protagonist's POV. This, i would imagine would be more present through the eyes of younger readers.
What was my favorite part of this text?
The best part of this book (without giving too much away) had to have been the dark and truly dystopian twist it takes halfway through, when it switches from essentially a video-game LiveJournal into a espionage prison thriller. Honestly, i loved almost every ingredient in this adventure. It was some of the most fun i've had reading since the first time i finished Ender's Game.
Overall Reader's Digest Version:
Absolutely LOVED it. I would recommend it to any gamer regardless of age. Because of the POV, it would resonates much better with males, but I personally know women who have enjoyed it too.
Themes: Identity, Appearance, Competition, Friendship, "Home"
4/5.
Julian,
ReplyDeleteYour comment about pop references definitely hits home with me! I love pop culture references in literature, because they make the mundane and relatable into something someone mystical and uncanny. Yet I'm definitely old enough to have mentioned something I thought was common knowledge to students, only to have them reply, "Huh? Who?"
Also, this book sounds fascinating, and I can't wait to give it a read. I'm intrigued by the inclusion of a romance plot, because I can just imagine all sorts of intimacy/relationship themes obfuscated by his virtual second life... kind of an intense re-imagining of early 90's AOL "relationships" (I totally had a "girlfriend" in Canada when I was 10).
Also, if you're interested in some pretty hefty lit that tackles themes related to pop culture references and shared experiences, you should check out Don Delillo's White Noise. There's a great scene where a bunch of pop culture professors keep spouting out questions about experiences we've all had, but never mentioned (when's the last time you brushed your teeth using just your finger and toothpaste?).
Loved the post!
Yeah! White Noise is a great book, I actually read it in a postmodern class while abroad as an undergrad, Delillo looks a lot like Carl Sagan to me.
DeleteI think you will enjoy this book and should be able to breeze through it in a sitting or two. I have the audiobooks and pdf if you want me to email them
The pop culture and atari references may lose some readers, however it seems like there is enough that is relatable to them to bring them back. What I think is the most relatable is the fact that the protagonist experiences the majority of his life in VR. That is pretty much the reality of most teenagers growing up today. Everywhere they go, they have some sort of technology attached to their hands and they are not paying attention to anything else. Your favorite part of the text makes me want to take a gander! I mean, it being dystopian literature makes it a winner already!
ReplyDeleteI HAVE to read this book--as a daughter of the 80's (I actually used to hang out at CBGB's in the 80's and skipped my junior poem to attend an Adam Ant/ Bow Wow Wow concert), this sounds fascinating--but what is most intriguing to me is that this setting is yet further proof of who is really reading YA--ADULTS! Primarily white moms living vicariously through the dystopian female lead characters.
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