Review of Ready Player One
Entering the world of Ernest Cline’s SF novel Ready Player One is like taking a trip
back to the future, for this futuristic world has embraced a resurgence of
1980s pop culture due to a high-stakes contest that necessitates knowledge
about the era. The 80s nerd in me – the one who obsessed over certain movies,
music, and video games – felt a thrill each time Cline alluded to one of these
iconic friends who journeyed with me through my youth.
Today, people claim to be “geeks” and “nerds,” and those
titles are largely celebrated; however, this was not always the case. During
the 80s, it was deemed perfectly acceptable to obsess over sports trivia, spend
hours watching football, and spend obscene amounts of money at the mall, but
waste time and money in the arcade, plaster your bedroom walls with posters of
bands whose entire catalog you know by heart, or try to build a robot in your
spare time? Only loser nerds who needed to get a life would do such things.
These activities were not celebrated, except by the other nerds with whom one
could commiserate over a game of Dungeons & Dragons or a debate about which
Star Trek captain is superior (#JeanLuc4Life).
One only has to view the classic film Revenge
of the Nerds – briefly mentioned in Cline’s novel – to understand how nerds
were regarded (or not really regarded at all) during the decade. I find it ironic, since so many cultural
influences seemed poised to push all of us into nerdom. I certainly fell into
this world as much as possible in the 80s, though social status would determine
to some extent how far I could go. Not everyone had access to Atari systems or
endless rolls of quarters, so like other tech-deprived nerds, I played when I
could but focused largely on more accessible media like movies, music, and TV.
Cline doesn’t merely
allude to an array of favorites from the best decade ever; he also captures its
essence. The nod to War Games serves
as a reminder of a decade wrought by tensions with the Soviet Union and the
notion that technology could either save us or destroy us all. These are still
very relevant ideas. The idea that a kid – a nerd who spends too much time on
his computer – can save the world not only celebrates nerdiness, but also provides
hope. In fact, the entire novel offers hope as a solo nerd faces off against a
large, evil corporation in a race to the ultimate goal. Again, Cline captures
extremely relevant currents in our society by fusing a vision of the future
with one from the past.
There’s so much I want to share about this book – far too
much for a blog post. The only problem is that I don’t know who else to
recommend it to. My students won’t get the allusions, and though the story
stands on its own merit, it just won’t be as magical to them as it is to me.
For example, in the audiobook version, you can hear Wil Wheaton refer to Star Trek: the Next Generation, in which
he played the prodigy Wesley Crusher, and even to himself, as he reads. I’m not
sure my students would get why that’s cool or appreciate the sincere joy with which
Wheaton reads about the various games, TV shows, and movies of that time. They
certainly didn’t obsess over Stand by Me,
one of the best films ever made, like I did when I was young, so they also
won’t recognize the actor from that iconic role as Gordie Lachance. I knew
every line of dialogue, every expression that crossed each actor’s face, every
song lyric, and, of course, every deep thematic idea in the film, and the fact
that such nerdy obsessions have been so beautifully respected and celebrated by
Cline in Ready Player One makes me
feel like I wasn’t so alone in my obsessions after all.
Ultimately, the message that I wish my students could
harvest from this book is that the truly important connections in life are
those made with real people in the real world. I often watch them stare at
their phone screens while ignoring their peers sitting right next to them, and I
worry that they have already traded the messiness of true interaction with
others for the safety and anonymity of a virtual world.
Check out fan art and collections inspired by the book:
Steven Spielberg will direct the film version of the novel:
A review and brief interview with the author:
http://boingboing.net/2011/08/15/ready-player-one-the-best-scie.html
Comments
Post a Comment