My reread of Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline — soon to be released as a major motion picture by Steven Spielberg — commenced today on Twitter. (I’ll finish tomorrow.) Here’s how it’s gone down so far.
(UPDATE 03.29.18: Here’s my review of Ready Player One the movie.)
Ten-minute countdown to my #ReadyPlayerOne live-tweet reread. If you want to avoid potential spoilers for the movie, you might want to mute the hashtag #ReadyPlayerOneReread… pic.twitter.com/eMfOfMW2he
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
I shall be rereading #ReadyPlayerOne on my ancient Kindle. If you want to read along: Amazon US [https://t.co/3wZ9Dn8h1R], Amazon Can [https://t.co/ccqOHTPGgn], and Amazon UK [https://t.co/WMZHkrriwy]. You don't need an actual Kindle: get the free Kindle app for lots of devices. pic.twitter.com/yJ6I6adxBa
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
(This Kindle has hung on for so long and has behaved like a real trooper, always, that this Twitter event is probably guaranteed to be the thing that finally kills it. Like, it'll just up in die right in the middle of the book.)
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Okay, here we go: #ReadyPlayerOne, Chapter 0. (Yes, there's a Chapter Zero.) #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Just a few paragraphs in, and already there's a pop-culture reference: a *Ghostbusters* quote… #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Ooo, a reference to "the Zapruder film"! So this isn't just about 80s junk: it's about history. Or else JFK is, in the 2040s, on a par with *Back to the Future* and Pac-Man… just one more bit piece of cultural flotsam and jetsam. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 0 has footnotes, because the infodump setup is just *too complicated* and too multilayered for regular prose. *facpalm* #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
So, James Halliday's fortune is here said to be $240 billion. Trailers for the film state "half a trillion." That's some mega inflation in just a couple of years since the book was published. Does $240 billion just not sound like enough money today? Sheesh. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
how much does Amazon's Bezos have?
— Angry Moderate 2020 (@PaulWartenberg) March 17, 2018
You think this is meant to up the ante on Bezos? Google says his net worth is "only" $131 billion, so no inflation was necessary. Perhaps the movie is being future-proofed (for a little while, anyway).
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
On to Level One, Chapter One, which opens with this quote from Halliday: "Videogames are the only thing that makes life bearable." That's *meant* to be pathetic, right? #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Our Hero Wade is an orphan, because of course. He basically raised himself on the Oasis, the VR Internet of the 2040s, from which he learned about how the world sucks and people are awful. But, hey, there's old episodes of *Family Ties* to keep a guy going! #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Ah, the stacks of trailer homes among which Wade lives, all held together in a "haphazard metal latticework." Kinda bad form for the book not to chuck in a Donkey Kong reference here. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Yup, there's Donkey Kong name-checked. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
So, Chapter 1 has established that the 80s give Wade life. It's sort of bizarre. Imagine if someone wrote a book set today in which a teenager feels like the 1960s give him life. That would probably feel really, *really* implausible. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
But we readers of this book are presumed to be 80s-obsessed as well — with a narrow, constricted set of 80s stuff, that is (I don't recall any Rainbow Brite or She-Ra stuff here) — so it's like, Hey, who *wouldn't* be obsessed with this awesome stuff?! #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 2: Wade goes to VR school and explains how OASIS, a private company, hosts the public school system, and also is the keeper of all users' actual identities while they use anonymous avatars. Dystopias gonna dystopia… #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Boy, way to pile on your protagonist: Wade is fat, has acne, and is a total dork who is unable to interact with people in the real world but does fine online (because he can mute the bullies). This is on top of being an orphan. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Okay, this story is supposedly Wade setting the world straight about how he competed to win Halliday's fortune; he is talking to his own contemporaries. But he keeps describing stuff that his ostensible readers should already know, like how the OASIS works. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Oh god, there's nostalgia for 300-baud modems. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Oh no! There's a big bad corporation, IOI, that is also after Halliday's fortune. How o how can Charlie Bucket win it when he is up against the likes of Slugworth?! #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Wow, Wade is *such* a lone-wolf outsider. Despises the grunts who work for IOI, won't team up with anyone in a "clan" to work in tandem on Halliday's treasure hunt. Much maverick, so iconoclast. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Wade is worried about the OASIS being "privatized" if IOI wins… but it already is. Halliday could have done anything with it… and in fact, he has set up all its secrets — like everyone's identities — to be handed over to who knows who? #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Ugh, and now we meet Art3mis, another hunter for Halliday's Easter egg, who's not like the other girls online. She's *special.* #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
I forgot how insufferable this book is, and I've barely even started. On to Chapter 3… #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Wade and fellow gamer Aech are arguing about whether *Ladyhawke* is "canon," or something Halliday liked that would offer clues in the hunt. But I can't help but figure that this is meta commentary on whether that movie is good enough to be nostalgic about. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Or, rather, *manly* enough to be nostalgic about. This book might as well be from the *19*40s — it has the same inability as SF from that era to see past its own narrow straight-white-male-o-vision. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 3: Even in 2040s, a bearded man in tweed is considered more authoritative than "a small Inuit woman" (no matter how she dresses, I guess). Jesus Christ. I guess everyone is nostalgic for 20th-century bigotry, too. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Skipped a chapter number somewhere (that last tweet should have been Chapter 4). Onto Chapter 5. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 5: Infodump bio of Halliday and the backstory of OASIS. Inadvertent description of the horrific stagnation of human civilization. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Has everyone been too busy jerking off (figuratively and probably literally) in the OASIS to write any new books or make any new movies for decades? Signs point to yes. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 6: Wade is listing all the SF authors he has studied because Halliday mentioned them, all the movies he's watched, every TV show, every standup comic, all the music, etc. Is any love in this, or even any understanding? There is no indication. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
All those SF authors are male, too. No J.K. Rowling or Ursula K. LeGuin
— Owen1120 (@Owen11202) March 17, 2018
Yes, that's true. *headdesk*
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Even to a reader who recognizes all these names and titles, this isn't fandom. It's listmaking. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 7: A *Doctor Who* reference. Which refers to the character as "Doctor Who." Sad. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 8: Wade is richly rewarded for his genius, and we receive the fantasy reassurance that devoting your life to playing videogames is never wasted. *facepalm* #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 9: Wade meets Art3mis, and declares her "hot." He's "never felt such an instant connection with another person." *groan* #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Oh, and there's a She-Ra reference in Chapter 9, but it's only snark directed toward Art3mis, not a suggestion that it's anything a real dude would find cool. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 10: More reassurance that spending your entire life mastering videogames is a REALLY GOOD WAY TO SPEND YOUR TIME. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 11: Now Wade is getting rewarded for having memorized movies. This is geek masturbation. No, it's worse: it's like watching a geek masturbate. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
The movie Wade has to "play" is *WarGames.* This book is male power fantasies inside male power fantasies. And it has no freakin' idea that's what it is. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Male *genius* power fantasies, that is… Ugh. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 12: The bio of Halliday's partner, Ogden Morrow… and *he* had a manic pixie geek dream girl too! FFS. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Oh! Another male power fantasy: Morrow suggests that Halliday's contest is all about forcing the world to share his obsessions. That's nightmarish, yet we're supposed to find this so very cool. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Almost a hint that Cline has some idea that this intense boys' club he has created sucks (Art3mis says that it might have been cool if she could have played *WarGames* as Ally Sheedy), but that might just be an accident. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 13: Now we're getting a bio of the head villain at IOI. This book is like 85 percent infodumps. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
And now Wade learns that OASIS security, like the bit that protects users' identities, is only as strong as its weakest link. And yet he still has ridiculous faith in Halliday's capabilities. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Wade simply cannot believe the lengths to which evil IOI will go in order to win literally hundreds of billions of dollars and control of the world's most powerful resource. I'm starting to doubt that he has studied 80s movies all that closely, actually. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 15: Summing up the few female characters who have appeared thus far: Cruel and awful, really super sweet, or hot. All one-freakin'-note, and not even that many single notes, either. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
Chapter 16: So we're starting to learn that the "freedom" of the OASIS that Wade loves so much is more like free-for-all, lawless libertarianism. Some utopia… #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
One where money and power rule. So it's different from the real world how? Wade isn't fighting to freedom, he's fighting to claim the money and power (XP) that will make his stay here nicer. That's it. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
A Max Headroom reference. Im not sure any of the lessons of that brilliant TV show have been absorbed here. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
I have now reached the end of Level One (which is also about halfway through the book), and will save my game here and pick it up again tomorrow, starting at around the same time: 4pm GMT. #ReadyPlayerOneReread
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
If you're enjoying my #ReadyPlayerOneReread, and want to support my work in general, I'm on PayPal [https://t.co/1k6uLSnYLz] and Patreon [https://t.co/BUBuVYp1HC]. Thanks!
— MaryAnn Johanson (@maryannjohanson) March 17, 2018
If a kid from nowadays felt like the 1960’s gave him life, he would almost certainly be preoccupied with the social stuff and would probably not be focused on the children’s media of the time, not least because the children’s media of the sixties was all terrible. Imagine someone being given life by the social situation of the 1980’s. Like, Ready Player One but Wade is a young republican who jerks off to Oliver North and thinks AIDS is god’s punishment for the gays.
This kinda stuff does have a narrow focus. I think I first noticed that in Halt and Catch Fire, which is set in the Silicon Prairie in 1983 (first season, anyway) and I realized that it’s Dallas… in the 80’s… and never once is there a reference to the family Ewing. It’s kinda tunnel vision.
Memes should never be dreams.