- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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He says that there's streams of electric cars going down the interstate to the city when Wade leaves for his hideout, but also that oil is so expensive that people need to use OASIS to get out because they can't even take road trips.
So...which is it?
Carrying goods and workers, yes
Ernest Cline wanted to have it both ways, with a post-apocalyptic future but also a future with easily accessible technological wonders and that creates a confusing mess but who cares do you remember Star Wars Droids and that toothpaste that came out starshaped and was three different colors?
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Mar 15, 2018 14:20
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May 22, 2024 11:07
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- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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The obvious thing in a filmwould be to have the Joust game be, y'know, an actual game of Joust; Wade fighting Acerak with lances while aboard a giant ostrich-thing.
I mean, when I picked up the book because people were talking about it, I just kind of assumed that's what it would be about, because that's what it says on the back: Wade Watts enters a fantastic VR world to experience video games in real life. And that's fine; I'm not proud. I read lovely novels all the time. I would have been okay with a book about guys flying X-wings into gundams, or whatever the gently caress seems to be going on in RPO the movie. And then you read the book, and he is literally playing an arcade game in VR: he is using an advanced piece of fantastical computer technology to painstakingly simulate the experience of slinking around the dim and stinky corner of a bowling alley with the loser middle-school friends that he's not actually cool enough to have.
It would be a fantastic one-off joke to subvert natural audience expectations, if it were in any way a joke or the author were capable of understanding another human being well enough to judge what their expectations would be. But unfortunately, spoiler alert, this is how every single challenge in the book plays out. Just like this. Literally just playing 80's arcade games on 80's arcade consoles and quoting lines from movies verbatim until he is rewarded with money and fame and pussy.
Nah, this is a lot worse than most, both because it's surprisingly popular and because Cline is much much worse about it than all but the most dire white male nerd fantasists. He has drilled white male nerd fantasy to its hollow quaking bones. He is to nerd fantasy what John Ringo and Tom Kratman are to jock fantasy.
Like, check it out; traditionally, even the most sketched-in, hackneyed, paper thin power fantasies at least pay lip service to the idea of the Hero's Journey of Self Discovery, but Cline doesn't even do that much. You can see him cludgily stealing the framework of such stories from other media, but he does so in such a half-assed way he wrecks them utterly. Take Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a movie this book is often compared to because they start from similar premises. If RPO was just a bad copy of Willy Wonka, that'd be all right. But it actively undermines the main thrust of WW's moral, and it does it in an amazingly toxic way. In Willy Wonka, Wonka's factory is presented by its quirky creator as a fantasy dream-land, but it's actually a kind of moral crucible, weeding out the bad, selfish, arrogant, and greedy children with hidden traps until only Charlie, who displays optimism, tenacity, and honesty, is rewarded for his purity of spirit by gifts beyond his wildest dreams.
Halliday's Puzzle at first looks like a similar set up, with one major difference; there's no moral crucible. There's no value judgment whatsoever. The whole idea of moral value judgments seems toxic to Cline. The quixotic mystery man at the heart of the story is literally doing exactly what he said he was: testing his audience's tolerance for rote memorization of useless trivia and capacity for obsessive compulsion. It is a game that can only be won by being as good at the video games of Halliday's childhood as Halliday was. The ultimate prize, complete control over a billion dollar corporation, goes to the person most capable of narcissistic emulation of a man trapped in a vision of his own past. Think how creepy that is: to live your life entirely within the shadow of someone else's childhood, and then imagine what it would be like to voluntarily dive into that fate. Wade Watts doesn't prevail in the end because he's pure of heart, or because he has unique talents or insights, or because he learns the power of friendship, but because he's the biggest, nerdiest, hikikomori-est loser in the world.
The fundamental message of the book is that if you ignore your friends and the outside world and keep doing exactly what you've been doing and don't change in any way, you too can earn a billion dollars and be famous and gently caress the nerdy non-threatening girl next door.
But, you know, "go outside", "enjoy reality"
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Mar 16, 2018 03:39
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- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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his ability to memorize nerd poo poo?
That’s literally his superpower though. Like the dude in his 18 years of living has memorized 25 years of nerd bullshit. Every time there’s some sort of challenge you can count on the phrase “he had watched <80’s movie or series that relates to the problem> <over a hundred times> and memorized it by heart”
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Mar 16, 2018 13:47
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- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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There's also a scene where the bad guys use a robot that is modeled after Johnny 5 and Ernest makes fun of them for being so unoriginal
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Mar 17, 2018 01:30
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- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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It's a star wars thing, figure it out nerdlinger
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Mar 17, 2018 18:30
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- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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Dry doesn’t even begin to describe how this is written
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Mar 24, 2018 00:59
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- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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Wardoor, sagecage, dropcop, joltvolt motherfucker was Dr Seuss all of a sudden
Also you can get cushy tech support jobs with housing and food and utilities and stuff that fine it's indented servitude but lmao there's years long waiting lists for lovely mcjobs in a post apocalyptic hellscape with Mad Max raiders and also luxury goods
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Mar 26, 2018 02:47
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May 22, 2024 11:07
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- Calaveron
- Aug 7, 2006
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My avatar's trademark was all these other, better trademarks
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Apr 11, 2018 01:35
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Mar 15, 2018 14:20
