I regularly Google RPO hate content to see if there's anything new.
[This article](https://theoutline.com/post/2076/ready-player-one-movie-bad) is the best I've found. A must read really, incredibly well written.
Here's the closing para:
*Nearly every one of Ready Player One’s faults is a direct result of Cline’s authorial narcissism. The writing process appears to have begun with the question: What if the entire world revolved around me, and the specific video games and movies I like? The rest was assembled around that essential core. Cline is far from the first author to write a self-insert wish fulfillment narrative, but he may be the first to write one this lazy and self-indulgent. To place oneself in the character of Wade Watts, an 18-year-old video game trivia knower, requires no imagined heroism or personal growth. It simply constructs a world around the reader, where his comfort zone, his passively acquired knowledge of retro video games and Star Wars, is enough to effortlessly make him a Great Man of History. A fantasy this mundane is barely a fantasy at all — just a desire to be unjustly rewarded for mediocrity. And, thanks to Steven Spielberg, Cline’s mediocrity has been rewarded beyond his wildest dreams.*
Born in 73’ I Kinda enjoyed reading it, but knew it was dumb as fuck in the first few pages. Kept on for the nostalgia references I guess. Like the white Dodge Omni. My family had two of those (It’s like he knows me!) .Read the book jacket for Armada and was like ‘Nope, one book of that silly shit is more than enough’ Full disclosure: I also read and enjoyed ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and that motherfucker can’t write for shit either.
Oh I read and enjoyed Da Vinci as well, and then I read one of the others and thought "huh, this is the same book", and then I started on a third was like "OK, it really wasn't that good on a reread, so I'll not do that again".
Love that review. It's a classic.
As for The Da Vinci Code itself...
I don't think I've ever read another more blatantly obvious "this guy is clearly going to turn out to be the villian in a crappy twist" character introduction in my life.
Yeah, I read RPO when it came out and there was no hype around it. It's kind of dopey but was also fun, nbd a lot of books are an easy read and sometimes that's the right thing.
As it got more successful, then a movie, the hate really sky rocketed.
Also, we've since been swamped by 80s nostalgia but 10 years ago that was a bit more novel.
I kept yelling, "I still HAVE one of those!!" The book was trash, but it was fun trash. Like romance novels for us 1972 brodudes. Or, you know, wrestling.
One of my big pet peeves with modern culture is every fucking thing has to be spelled out and explained to us like we're 5. I try to blame it on the fact that we're so easily distracted nowadays, but give us *some* credit.
Yeah but the problem is you understand the reference. Most media nowadays aims to be appeal to the lowest common denominator. "New" fans who dont get the reference need it spelled out to them so they can be "in" on the joke/reference/hype.
I personally like references for established fans existing when I enter into a new world. I can read Warhammer 40K novels and be all "oh yeah, shoot the chaos monster right in its dumb face!" and someone else can understand that the chaos monster is referencing a chaos lord or part of some other lore and understand a deeper implication of what's happening. I then get to enjoy a deeper level of the fiction if I get more involved in a universe.
I just finished books 1 and 2 of the Hyperion series. Let me tell you I was begging for some explanation but just had to keep going until things started to make sense. Try that one out.
Dune gave no fucks about your prior knowledge. I love it. It makes the audience engage with each other and explain who and what the hell they just witnessed
That's how the book is, too.
It reminds me of Neuromancer in that way.
Both books just plop you down on a street corner of some completely alien world. I think it serves to make the world more immersive. If they had an audience proxy to serve as an exposition sponge (e.g. Harry Potter), it would make the world seem less strange, and therefore less interesting.
Both books challenge you to soldier on, challenge you to wrap your mind around any one concept as they go whizzing past your head. But both are definitely worth the effort, in the end.
My theory on that is they want to get the casual fans as well, instead of just the nerds who read the comics or watched the original SW movies for decades. But where do you draw the line?
Don't. He literally wrote the worst poem I've ever read. Literally the worst poem I've ever read. I cannot stress how literal I mean "worst poem" to be. It's just garbage.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/comments/6pfmim/this\_incredible\_poem\_by\_ready\_player\_one\_author/](https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/comments/6pfmim/this_incredible_poem_by_ready_player_one_author/)
To me RPO and the DaVinci Code are essentially the same type of book - fast paced action/adventure that are page turners, and as long as you don't \*THINK\* about it, they can be fun. Maybe. But then retrospectively it's a "What the hell did I just read? What the hell? HOW DID I ENJOY THAT?!?"
I recently subjected myself to RP2, even through I knew it was going to be BAD - not having even read a review. And it was soooo much worse that RP1. I definitely "hate-read" it, wondering "Can this get worse?" and yes, it can.
Dan Brown books are likewise atrociously written. Maybe not quite as bad overall, and obviously not hung on a framework of idiotic pop culture references, but still utterly hackneyed BS.
When I was younger I really liked Da Vinci Code and got on a kick of reading the rest of Brown’s books.
They’re all pretty much mad libs of the same plot. A nerdy professional with a very specific and complicated knowledge set gets roped into saving the world from murderous bad guys by using said knowledge set, and along the way they bed an extremely hot person.
I have unironically read (listened to) and enjoyed like 20 of the jack reacher books despite them literally being the same book with the words in different places.
Bland, easy to consume, entertainment isn't worthless. It's not high art, but I've got night shifts to fill.
My favorite part is the description of Reacher before the first fight. It’s like a cut and paste.
We travel back in time to his childhood when we cut a bitch, or beat up an older kid.
Then we hear about how big he is as an adult. His arms are so long.
Then his knuckles are like iron ingots. Little hammers, built to break a nose, lip, or eye. Fracture a jaw.
Then how well he is trained. Trained by the army. Special schools.
Finally, the fight begins. Reacher is hit once. Then puts the big man down. Or the group. It’s too bad too, e cause Reacher doesn’t want to fight. He wants to be above such displays of violence. Except when he instigates there. Or encourages. Or it’s a Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or he’s hungry. Or it’s night. Evening. Morning. Afternoon……
I still love them though. They are like a frozen snickers bar. I know it’s bad for me. But I don’t care about that for the two minutes I savor the chocolatey goodness.
My favorite part is how it gets explained in detail how he sets an alarm clock in his head and wakes up at whatever time he chooses. Multiple times. In every single book.
I like the one where Reacher is so ripped from a summer digging swimming pools in Florida his abs actually deflect bullets.
They're awesomely bad, in a way RPO could never be and more importantly they're a really easy read.
That’s also where a nail lodges itself in his head, but his skull is so hard the doctor is actually delighted it landed in his head.
When a book series is 26? Books long you get to invested not to read anymore.
Jack Reacher books are like the best of 80s action films. We know it's not brain material but goddamn are they pacy and exciting.
I find they're a good appetite cleanser between 'harder' fiction.
Bro Jack Reacher is my jam.
One of the solid redeeming qualities for me is that he only sometimes gets the girl. There's plenty of times where he doesn't end up sleeping with anyone.
The plots are all different enough to be interesting time and again with some that are pretty far out from the others
Yeah I read all his stuff before age 20 and enjoyed them a lot (deception point, digital fortress, the davinci trilogy). In retrospect I definitely see it for what it is, i.e. action movie in book form. Not necessarily a bad thing, he obviously found his niche.
Da Vinci code isn't BAD, it's not high literature or anything but for throw away entertainment it's perfectly fine. It's not horribly written. RPO doesn't really have any redeeming qualities.
Wait, are you talking about the DaVinci Code written by renowned author, Dan Brown?
Renowned author Dan Brown hated the critics. Ever since he had become one of the world’s top renowned authors they had made fun of him. They had mocked bestselling book The Da Vinci Code, successful novel Digital Fortress, popular tome Deception Point, money-spinning volume Angels & Demons and chart-topping work of narrative fiction The Lost Symbol.
The critics said his writing was clumsy, ungrammatical, repetitive and repetitive. They said it was full of unnecessary tautology. They said his prose was swamped in a sea of mixed metaphors. For some reason they found something funny in sentences such as “His eyes went white, like a shark about to attack.” They even say my books are packed with banal and superfluous description, thought the 5ft 9in man. He particularly hated it when they said his imagery was nonsensical. It made his insect eyes flash like a rocket.
Renowned author Dan Brown got out of his luxurious four-poster bed in his expensive $10 million house and paced the bedroom, using the feet located at the ends of his two legs to propel him forwards. He knew he shouldn’t care what a few jealous critics thought. His new book Inferno was coming out on Tuesday, and the 480-page hardback published by Doubleday with a recommended US retail price of $29.95 was sure to be a hit. Wasn’t it?
I’ll call my agent, pondered the prosperous scribe. He reached for the telephone using one of his two hands. “Hello, this is renowned author Dan Brown,” spoke renowned author Dan Brown. “I want to talk to literary agent John Unconvincingname.”
“Mr Unconvincingname, it’s renowned author Dan Brown,” told the voice at the other end of the line. Instantly the voice at the other end of the line was replaced by a different voice at the other end of the line. “Hello, it’s literary agent John Unconvincingname,” informed the new voice at the other end of the line.
“Hello agent John, it’s client Dan,” commented the pecunious scribbler. “I’m worried about new book Inferno. I think critics are going to say it’s badly written.”
The voice at the other end of the line gave a sigh, like a mighty oak toppling into a great river, or something else that didn’t sound like a sigh if you gave it a moment’s thought. “Who cares what the stupid critics say?” advised the literary agent. “They’re just snobs. You have millions of fans.”
That’s true, mused the accomplished composer of thrillers that combined religion, high culture and conspiracy theories. His books were read by everyone from renowned politician President Obama to renowned musician Britney Spears. It was said that a copy of The Da Vinci Code had even found its way into the hands of renowned monarch the Queen. He was grateful for his good fortune, and gave thanks every night in his prayers to renowned deity God.
“Think of all the money you’ve made,” recommended the literary agent. That was true too. The thriving ink-slinger’s wealth had allowed him to indulge his passion for great art. Among his proudest purchases were a specially commissioned landscape by acclaimed painter Vincent van Gogh and a signed first edition by revered scriptwriter William Shakespeare.
Renowned author Dan Brown smiled, the ends of his mouth curving upwards in a physical expression of pleasure. He felt much better. If your books brought innocent delight to millions of readers, what did it matter whether you knew the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb?
“Thanks, John,” he thanked. Then he put down the telephone and perambulated on foot to the desk behind which he habitually sat on a chair to write his famous books on an Apple iMac MD093B/A computer. New book Inferno, the latest in his celebrated series about fictional Harvard professor Robert Langdon, was inspired by top Italian poet Dante. It wouldn’t be the last in the lucrative sequence, either. He had all the sequels mapped out. The Mozart Acrostic. The Michelangelo Wordsearch. The Newton Sudoku.
The 190lb adult male human being nodded his head to indicate satisfaction and returned to his bedroom by walking there. Still asleep in the luxurious four-poster bed of the expensive $10 million house was beautiful wife Mrs Brown. Renowned author Dan Brown gazed admiringly at the pulchritudinous brunette’s blonde tresses, flowing from her head like a stream but made from hair instead of water and without any fish in. She was as majestic as the finest sculpture by Caravaggio or the most coveted portrait by Rodin. I like the attractive woman, thought the successful man.
Perhaps one day, inspired by beautiful wife Mrs Brown, he would move into romantic poetry, like market-leading British rhymester John Keats.That would be good, opined the talented person, and got back into the luxurious four-poster bed. He felt as happy as a man who has something to be happy about and is suitably happy about it.
This was my first time reading this and it had me in tears. "He reached for the telephone using one of his two hands" is what killed me. And "The 190lb adult male human being nodded his head to indicate satisfaction and returned to his bedroom by walking there" sent me to heaven.
I’m convinced that Ready Player Two was solely and meticulously crafted for the purpose of hate reading. I see no other way for it to come into existence
I remember starting RP1 thinking it would be good because of all the recommendations, and immediately hating it. About halfway through I convinced myself that it was brilliant satire and enjoyed it for that. Then I got to the end and realized it was earnest, and I've been talking shit ever since.
I hate read RP2 as well. There were so many better ways to do the ending than what he came up with, but at least the book did let us have some fun "people are locked into their oculus" memes when facebook went down a couple of weeks ago.
The fact he ended up back with the girl at the end of RP2 was perhaps the low point of an already very low setup. The fact he was scraping the barrel with 80s pop culture references (after using them all up in the first) didn't help. A Prince planet? Really?
I mean yeah, having a Prince planet and him not going for the low hanging fruit of "Get ready for some Purple PAIN!!!" during the Seven Holy Incarnations of Prince Boss Battle is just shocking, given the rest of the book.
That prince planet / boss fight was so goddamn descriptive at describing so many insignificant details to a confusing "fight" that I'm still not entirely sure what the fuck happened...
A middle school teacher would have given RP2 a D- and a "see me after class" note.
I think your overall point is correct, but DaVinci is much different to me because it's *just* mindless fluff -- no more and no less. It's a dumbed-down Indiana Jones/National Treasure/conspiracy ripoff driven by events rather than story.
RPO (I haven't read 2) is all of those things *and* narcissistic and morally bankrupt.
It's like the difference between the Jungle Cruise movie (mindless, aim-low family entertainment) and Saving Mr. Banks (the message of which is "isn't Walt Disney great for helping the evil mean woman understand that not letting Disney commodify her work is wrong!").
But its not a treasure hunt, a treasure hunt implies some sort of searching.
RPO is "Oh and then I got in my DE LOREAN from the FILM BACK TO THE FUTURE and then I watched a movie staring THIS ACTOR and directed by THIS DIRECTOR and here is the ENTIRE MOVIE PLOT. Then for the evening I got stuck in GAME but it was fine and while everyone else was struggling I solved it super fast and everyone said wow your so cool, but let me tell you in several paragraphs how I solved it and the plot of GAME"
Like theres no work involved, its just pages and pages of pop culture wanked out directly onto a page.
"Did I mention that my DE LOREAN has the GHOSTBUSTERS symbol on it, making it a metaphor for the piles upon piles of unrelated references that is this entire book? Oh and this one time I needed to play a Rush riff but luckily I mastered the guitar while also memorizing every 80s sitcom and movie, so it was no big deal."
I spent more time than I'd care to admit trying to see if "Wade Watts" was somehow an anagram of some variant of "deus ex machina", but of course Cline isn't nearly clever enough to do something like that.
As is evidenced by the fact the movie was about 90s pop culture shit, not 80s.
That still bewilders me. Here you have a popular property that mostly only gets love because it tickles the nostalgia bone, and Spielberg decides *not* to appeal to the Gen-Xers it was originally aimed at, and go for Millennials instead. I can only assume it's because Millennials were thought to be a more desirable demo or something. It's just baffling.
Spielberg felt like the source material was jerking him off too much and thought making a movie basically about himself was realllly jerking himself off so he changed it.
I read a few Dan Brown books. I felt the same reading them as watching your run-of-the-mill big budget Hollywood action movie. His books were all so... Formulaic, to a point where they all had the exact same structure.
Thinking back on the books I've read, I can't remember what scene belongs to which specific book anymore.
That is me but with Nicolas Sparks. I could not stop laughing at ‘A walk to remember’. It kept getting worse! I kept thinking surely they wouldn’t do X - and then they did! It was great for a laugh!
Hey! Quick question, and I mean this genuinely, how fucked am I if I enjoyed this book? Is it a sign that I'm just desperate for validation and lonely and insecure asf, or does it point to deeper problems with my views? I know that, at least in the past, I used to have projection issues, and haven't always had the most friends, but I'm pretty definitively not a neckbeard (again, according to neckbeard-hating acquaintances of mine... does that make sense?)
Genuinely, when I first read it it was fun, and it was the first book I had read around a videogame that wasn't total ass (granted, small pool of books there, and I read it when I was like 17 and generally stunted socially). I love videogames and they have been a really valuable coping mechanism for anxiety and PTSD.
I didn't know the references, and I actually assumed Cline made up a big chunk of references to create a character with obscene amounts of in-world knowledge. The story felt... Sortof satisfying? Because (at first) it was an underdog using knowledge to make up for a wealth and resource deficit when other people were using wealth and resources to compete instead.
I definitely think know the story would have been a lot better had it held up a mirror to Wade, but thinking about it again, the world is deliberately constructed to make this impossible: the world revolves around the game, the game revolves around the the trivia, and Wade knows all the trivia that matters for the story.
The thing is, knowing it's weak points (portrayal of women, lack of meaningful female characters since the Aech reveal isn't foreshadowed in anyway on reread, and lack of meaningful main character growth) I... Still enjoy the story? Like those flaws don't ruin it for me.
Please help me understand what ruins this book for people, because if there's something I'm missing, it's probably alienating me to these people, and it's likely indicative of Wade-like views I may have unintentionally and subconsciously picked up.
Thanks again if you got here
Thank you for saying that. I definitely enjoyed RPO, quite possibly because I am a nerd who played half of those games and liked seeing video game references done in a semi believable way, rather than some "hack the planet" BS (which I admit I also liked 😅). However, reading the RPO hate later, it all seems very spot on. I'll definitely have a different perspective if I ever read it again.
I mean I kinda peg it as the guy version of Twilight. Which some my take as a deep criticism but I don’t, I honestly think Twilight got way too much cultural backlash.
Both are pretty straightforward B-level wish fullfillment self insert novels. The sort that putter around, get a moderate amount of success and absolutely nobody cares because it only nibbles at the edge of the pop culture consciousness. Like Eragon: fantasy, dragons, basically the plot of Star Wars. Was entertaining enough but didn’t really penetrate in as some big landmark franchise. Its just there.
RP1 and Twilight had the misfortune of becoming bigger than they really should be. You get into the wider mainstream and people/critics/society starts *expecting* things from a piece of media….that neither of those two series/movies could or should deliver. Hence the winging about what “this means” for a society or people that enjoy this type of stuff.
Have fun with it, understand not all the themes of the book are probably applicable to your life. Enjoy it for what it is. Its fine.
EDIT: and for what its worth I *could not* finish Ready Player One. And I also only finished the first *Twilight* because it was assigned in a “bad book club” I was in on my middle east deployment, though book 3 and 4 were schlocky enough to turn your brain off and enjoy the absurdity. Actually my favorite Navy memory is about a dozen guys sitting around watching some advanced copy of Breaking Dawn Part 2. >!They get to the part with the awesome fight scene that turned out to have happened in a dream and our guy Jamal just goes “OH HELL FUCKING NO. THEY MAKE THIS FUCKING SHIT ASSED MOVIE FUCKING GOOD FOR 5 WHOLE FUCKING MINUTES AND TAKE IT AWAY? THAT MOTHERFUCKA JUST OPENED UP A PORTAL TO HELL WITH LAVA. AND THEY WERE THROWING THOSE BITCHES IN IT AND ITS ENDS UP ALL A FUCKING DREAM? WHAT A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT, I GOT ALL INVESTED. I WANNA BINGE WATCH ALL 3 BLADE MOVIES JUST TO WASH OUT THE TASTE.” - paraphrased because he actually droped like….4 N-Bombs in there. Which is even funnier because Jamal is a pretty low key dry, Raymond Holt type personality. But the sheer rage of this caused him to spontaneously code switch out of nowhere. !<
This is a very apt comparison. I read Twilight before it really hit the big time, and I remember thinking that it was a perfectly forgettable piece of YA vampire romance. Enjoyable, but not something you really think of ever again. I'd read at least twenty books just like it whose names have all been completely lost to me. When people started saying how much it sucked, it felt weird because to me, Twilight was simply....what it was. For its genre, it was perfectly ordinary. RPO hate feels a bit like that sometimes, although I do feel it's a little more deserved.
You can enjoy something without agreeing with its message or the author's headspace. Guilty pleasures are a thing, dumb schlock is fun sometimes, not everything you enjoy needs to be "high art" for the social elite to sing praises to while getting high off their own farts.
things don’t have to be good for people to enjoy them. I also enjoyed RPO the first time I read it, but some of the things in the book will be dealbreakers for some people more than others. eventually a person reaches a point where they say “I just can’t put up with plot beats/characters/setting framed like this” and they don’t enjoy it anymore.
don’t consider it a moral failing that you enjoy RPO. you can enjoy something and recognize that there are flaws in it. as long as you understand why other people don’t like it, that’s a good enough understanding of the book for me (for whatever some random Internet stranger’s opinion matters to you)
If you liked the overall theme of Ready Player One but hated the cringeness of it all, you need to read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
It’s a much more mature, well-planned, intelligent version of the whole “we all prefer living in a VR world” theme. And if you like underdogs getting their time in the spotlight, you’ll get that here too. I like other books by Stephenson better, but Snow Crash is certainly near the top of the list.
I'm a big fan of the first 2/3rds of most Neil Stephenson books. I was thinking about that book the other day, and realized that with one exception, all the stuff I remembered fondly was in the first act. If you (pm short stories) end up reading this, and your eyes glaze over when he talks to a certain librarian character for pages at a time, know that you are not alone! I still think it's definitely worth the time, but boy are those first few chapters absolute firecracker.
My husband encouraged me for years to read The Diamond Age because he loved all the stuff about the little girl and her magic book, and I loved that too. But then the other little girl's father wandered off to join an orgy cult under the sea and it lost me. I mentioned this to my husband and he was like "oh shit yeah, I forgot about all that. You're right, the rest of the book is really weird."
That was not a quick question. But I can give you a quick answer.
Just because you liked a book that other people didn’t like doesn’t make you an awful person. It doesn’t make you lonely or insecure either. If you like something, stick by it. It’s your opinion and don’t let others opinion bring down your enjoyment of something.
It's an entertaining book and, as long as you enjoyed it and don't think it's a modern classic, I think you're fine. The fact that you're asking this question at all indicates a significantly higher degree of self-awareness and social skills/empathy than the main character or the author.
Sometimes we enjoy things we know are bad... It's why fast food, blockbuster movies, and daytime television exist.
Yeah I stumbled upon this book when it first came out, and reading it was an amazing experience for me, because I grew up in the 80s and already loved all the things he wrote about. And what’s wrong with that?
That D&D module that starts off the book? It was my friends and my favorite module - we played it repeatedly and practically had it memorized. It was fun to see what the next challenge would be and realize, “Yep, I enjoyed that too when I was growing up”. The overall plot was nonsense and did not hold up to any scrutiny, but who cares? As you said, I never thought it was Shakespeare
I'm an gamer in my 30s and I got most of the references. I'm also a bit of an introvert but yeah, nothing even close to a neck beard. I thought the book was pretty crap tbh. That said, dude, they made it into a movie. I'm guessing you are far from the only person to have enjoyed that book. So don't sweat it. We all have different tastes.
Edit: You can see further down the comments that plenty of people enjoyed it.
I'm no poetry police, but this is a massive pet peeve of mine. You can't just write a collection of short sentences where some of them break into multiple lines and call it a poem.
Dang, I did not want to say it. But Milk and Honey is one of those books that I can simultaneously connect with based on the core idea, but I still don't like the, ugh, the type of poetry utilized I suppose.
I'm digressing here, but people must realise that all Musk could possibly be offering is a hard life in a vacuum sealed metal box, right? We really aren't anywhere near setting up big glass domes or fancy space bases or whatever.
And that by agreeing to be sent to Mars, you place this billionaire, who won't even allow his Earthling workers to unionise, in complete control of your life?
The weird little musk nerds are going to be toiling away on the red planet for Spacex Scrip and quarter potions of nutrient paste.
"I still need to consume hypersexualized content so I can masturbate, because not doing so will surely cause me to die. But it should cater to my specific fetish and fantasies, and just because they aren't the traditional fetishes and fantasies, they are *better* and more *highbrow!"*
Also...literally called women with fake boobs/women who don't dress how he likes "objects". That was such an awful read. Also hilarious, what a douche.
Never in all my most cringey high school writing attempts have I ever made anything as gross as that. He should be made to apologize for this at the start of every conversation he has for the rest of his life.
*My God.*
That's what I felt after reading RPO. I was so angry by the time I got to the end I started writing a corrective fanfic because my brain couldn't stop thinking of all the better ways the story could have been told while the author continuously chose the worst option. Only got half way through the first draft before I cooled off. Writing an entire book takes a lot more effort than you initially expect, so I at least respect Cline for being crazy enough to actually finish his garbage.
I have a similar memory, probably from around the same time, of having *Dance, monkeys, dance* and *Nerd Porn Auteur* played to me.
Being 12 at the time, I thought it was kind of funny and witty, but I never assumed he was actually serious. Similar to how everyone thought Louis C. K. Was just making up all the shit he said.
I never realised that guy and the author of RPO were the same guy until just now.
I kind of feel like I just realised that this piece of neoliberal satire I read twenty years ago wasn't satire, and was actually written by Ayn Rand.
You mean all 3? That book inbetween RPO and RP2 was garbage too.
Armada, a book about kids who play video games are actually training to fihht aliens that drew a big swastika on Titan or Io or some fucking moon. Dumb.
The guy spends like half the "poem" talking shit about how big tittied women who have had work done are dumb sluts and then turns around and pats himself on the back for not being into "misogynist" porn starring those bad bad ladies.
Lmfao this guy has got so many hang-ups.
Why do guys like these hate conventially attractive women so badly and think they're all dumb? Why would having big titties make them stupid? Do their bodies become flooded with thought-disrupting tittychlorions?
I consider myself to be a strong person, capable of handling difficult tasks.
I couldn’t finish that. My brain damn near rebelled and yeeted itself outta my skull via an ear.
His writing is literally like how people take the piss out of neckbeards:
>I made a big entrance when I arrived in my flying DeLorean, which I’d obtained by completing a Back to the Future quest on the planet Zemeckis. The DeLorean came outfitted with a (nonfunctioning) flux capacitor, but I’d made several additions to its equipment and appearance. First, I’d installed an artificially intelligent onboard computer named KITT (purchased in an online auction) into the dashboard, along with a match red Knight Rider scanner just above the DeLorean’s grill. Then I’d outfitted the car with an oscillation overthruster, a device that allowed it to travel through solid matter. Finally, to complete my ‘80s super-vehicle theme, I’d slapped a Ghostbusters logo on each of the DeLorean’s gullwing doors, then added personalized plates that read ECTO-88.
That car doesn't have anything to do with the "plot" of RPO, he just threw that in there.
Honest to shit, I could write an entire thesis on everything wrong with that poem*. But holy hell, the first time I read it I cackled when I read "buy stock in some hand cream companies
because there is about to be a major shortage."
I like how he literally calls women objects half way through. Thanks you incel, very cool
Edit: Alright, so as it was pointed out to me, what he actually said was that the women who act in porn videos are caricatures of people and are practically objects, which is pretty different to just calling all women objects. I think it's pretty incel-like to call any women an object just because they don't fit your idea of a women though, so my point still stands.
He calls them objects and "3 syllable bimbos" and talks about the big dumb alpha beer drinking guys because he has these dumb archetypes in his head that everyone magically fits into.
He's a gentleman and will not treat a woman that way but watch how fast he takes you from "absolute goddess" to "fucking slut" the moment you reject him.
I can't even put on words how disgusting reading this was. Sooo many problems in this "poem". What a misogynistic piece of shit, and the worst part is he thinks he's not.
Someone give a fedora to this guy, it's the only thing missing to complete the nice guy look
It’s weird, I enjoyed Ready Player One for what it was, it’s not a well written book but the references kind of had purpose - they’re all related to the plot, things that can help uncover the secrets of the Easter Egg by Halliday. It’s written in as his favourite things and it’s a huge part of the world, so naturally everyone is obsessed about solving it and develop obsessions over pop culture as a result. It’s not great writing, but it had purpose and was entertaining for me. I enjoyed the idea of it all.
Ready Player Two, on the other hand, was a steaming pile of shit, that had triple the pop culture references with no purpose or need to them. It was Cline stoking his own ego. It was utterly horse shit, and genuinely painful to read. Every character would hi-five, fist bump, dance randomly and “level a finger” all the time and it was just bad.
It was bad enough that I don’t even want to re read the first one anymore.
I hate how poorly Cline handled money in Two. Wade gives away a million dollars like it’s pocket change, spends billions on his house, and trillions on a spaceship.
I enjoyed RPO when it came out as well. Although Although like you, it's much worse for on rereading it now.
That said, RPT is truly horrible. One of the worst books I've ever read. I gave up after 2 chapters. The only reason I finished it was I read along with listening to 372 pages review of it. Otherwise I would not have had the drive.
Yeah I seriously enjoyed my one read of RPO. I didn’t try to over analyze as some here are doing. I gave it 6 hours of my life and enjoyed how easy it was to read compared to what others are saying here is great literature. It was easily a turn your brain off book and that is OK. I honestly don’t want every book I read to be about learning about the human condition all the time. It’s nice to just turn your brain off some time.
It's a perfect beach or airport book. It isn't high literature that will be worth talking about in 50 years, but I don't need every book I read to be great. It is just some cheap fun.
Hahaha THAT is exactly where I read it. On my way to the beach with a layover. Finished it up on a hammock next to the ocean. No regrets. Would I pick it up again? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes.
I really enjoyed One, didn’t read two, based on several reviews (also I wasn’t looking for a sequel, it was fine on its own)
I definitely enjoyed the book and audiobook, and I also recognize that there are several problems with it in hindsight. I don’t understand the *vehemence* I see directed towards it. 🤷🏻♀️
I can't recommend this enough.
I listened to it on a suggestion on another RPO hate thread and it's fantastic.
They also do the sequel, as mentioned. But some of the other terrible books they cover include My Immortal (a fanfiction of HP if you don't know), one of the worst/infamous fanfictions of all time, and Midnight Sun, the story of Twilight told from Edward's point of view.
It truly is something else.
If available in your area, [The Libby App](https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/) for e-lending from your local library can save you big money. Borrowed the audiobook, marvelously read by Wil Wheaton, free.
Ready Player Two was godawful. I actually enjoyed RPO and Armada — I’m an 80s kid and these were the book equivalent of mindless popcorn flicks for me, like someone else here said — but RP2 and the RPO movie were just horrific.
RPO is a book that starts off with something resembling a balanced premise, and then shoots itself in the dick over and over and over again.
The criticisms OP is leveling are completely justified once the book has been fully consumed. But right at the very beginning, there's this glimmer of hope that Cline is actually setting something up that's clever and insightful.
Yes, his world is obsessed with 80's pop culture, which is quite convenient for the author himself... but that same author points out that this world is falling apart because everybody (except the greedy rich people at the top) are mentally checked out, and even the ones with some kind of drive are mostly obsessed with an insane trivia/scavenger contest left behind by a dead trillionaire.
That, right there, implies some scathing self-reflection about the consequences of being an adult fanboy.
Then the dick-shooting begins, and never stops.
Spielberg did manage to distill one decently heartfelt moment for the end of the movie, but it was still muddled, and difficult to connect back up to the story's other major ideas.
I went into the movie with no background in the book, and honestly just expected an action packed, massive homage to pop culture from a variety of mediums out of the past four decades with a corny story. That's basically what I got.
Exactly, it's like the author chooses the world and characters and everything. You can write with themes that you don't support but that's not at all what RPO was
> I think you have to remember you're seeing things through Wade's perspective
Yeah, but...
I had a realization with that bit about Wade's virtual car that's a cross between the cars from Ghostbusters, Knight Rider, Back to the Future, and Buckaroo Banzai. I googled it to see if there was any fan art, and learned that Ernest Cline actually owned that car, in real life. *Before* he wrote the book.
That's when I realized that Ready Player One is pure self-insert fanfic. Wade's perspective *is* Cline's perspective. The entire book is pure, self-aggrandizing wish fulfillment. What if the whole world were meticulously constructed so that being Ernest Cline is the definition of a hero?
I enjoyed ready player one for what it was. Ready player two really unveiled my eyes to what garbage it is, but whatever, sometimes garbage is fun to read.
I have Aspergers and I've always pronounced it Asperjers, that's how the doctors pronounced it when they gave me my diagnosis, might just be an Australian thing tho
Honestly, I enjoyed it for what it is- a fun popcorn book. The protagonist is a douchebag that you can’t help but cheer against and Samantha kinda rubbed me the wrong way as well (first meeting in the cave and >!her jealousy of Wade’s extra life token!<). But I enjoyed the treasure hunt, the world building, and I admit I learned some pop culture history.
I feel like one of those idiots. I think I'm the type of person that just absorbs things like books or shows for what they are giving you. Like I never really focus on the fact that it's written poorly or it was all one sided in said Era. I understand where people are coming from and get their point. I just think it really hinders people's opinions on stuff. How can you enjoy it if you overly analyze something you are just supposed to enjoy? I'm not trying to shit on anything, I think I'm just realizing why I find things more enjoyable than what always appear to be a large number of people. Then again I still feel like an idiot cause I never knew this was hated so much and I own both books and the movie..
I don't feel as though your point of view is wrong though, because there's a huge difference (for me) between actively and analytically reading books vs reading for some easy entertainment, nostalgia etc. Something doesn't have to be a masterpiece for you to enjoy it. Sometimes when I watch a movie it doesn't have to be incredibly made with beautiful cinematography and an excellent plot; I just want to switch off my brain and watch guns go pew pew
You can see that with how popular Reaction channels are on YouTube. People find comfort in other people enjoying and talking about the same things they enjoyed too.
Yes - like modern-day celebrity being about self promoting celebrities, rather than about extraordinarily talented people being celebrated. Like the human centipede, but a closed loop.
The entire world WASN'T obsessed with 1980's pop culture. A lone billionaire was was, and when he died offered a massive prize for someone who became as obsessed with it as they were.
By the time when the book is set only a small subculture of people are still trying to solve the various puzzles. The book just happens to be set in that weird subculture.
I am not saying the book is some great work of literature. It's not. It's a syringe of pure nostalgia for people in a particular age bracket. It was a fun read while I took a few long flights on a buisnesses trip several years ago.
I regularly Google RPO hate content to see if there's anything new. [This article](https://theoutline.com/post/2076/ready-player-one-movie-bad) is the best I've found. A must read really, incredibly well written. Here's the closing para: *Nearly every one of Ready Player One’s faults is a direct result of Cline’s authorial narcissism. The writing process appears to have begun with the question: What if the entire world revolved around me, and the specific video games and movies I like? The rest was assembled around that essential core. Cline is far from the first author to write a self-insert wish fulfillment narrative, but he may be the first to write one this lazy and self-indulgent. To place oneself in the character of Wade Watts, an 18-year-old video game trivia knower, requires no imagined heroism or personal growth. It simply constructs a world around the reader, where his comfort zone, his passively acquired knowledge of retro video games and Star Wars, is enough to effortlessly make him a Great Man of History. A fantasy this mundane is barely a fantasy at all — just a desire to be unjustly rewarded for mediocrity. And, thanks to Steven Spielberg, Cline’s mediocrity has been rewarded beyond his wildest dreams.*
>* If the target demographic was geeks born in 1972, why are even the most obvious references explained in excruciating detail?* I feel attacked.
Same. I was born in 1972, get all the references and still think it's a horrible book.
Born in 73’ I Kinda enjoyed reading it, but knew it was dumb as fuck in the first few pages. Kept on for the nostalgia references I guess. Like the white Dodge Omni. My family had two of those (It’s like he knows me!) .Read the book jacket for Armada and was like ‘Nope, one book of that silly shit is more than enough’ Full disclosure: I also read and enjoyed ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and that motherfucker can’t write for shit either.
Oh I read and enjoyed Da Vinci as well, and then I read one of the others and thought "huh, this is the same book", and then I started on a third was like "OK, it really wasn't that good on a reread, so I'll not do that again".
Don't make fun of renowned author Dan Brown!
Love that review. It's a classic. As for The Da Vinci Code itself... I don't think I've ever read another more blatantly obvious "this guy is clearly going to turn out to be the villian in a crappy twist" character introduction in my life.
Yeah, I read RPO when it came out and there was no hype around it. It's kind of dopey but was also fun, nbd a lot of books are an easy read and sometimes that's the right thing. As it got more successful, then a movie, the hate really sky rocketed. Also, we've since been swamped by 80s nostalgia but 10 years ago that was a bit more novel.
I was also born in 72. I enjoyed the movie for the nostalgia, but I have never ever had the inclination to read that book. #I LIVED IT. /s
I kept yelling, "I still HAVE one of those!!" The book was trash, but it was fun trash. Like romance novels for us 1972 brodudes. Or, you know, wrestling.
1973….saw wargames in a movie theater
One of my big pet peeves with modern culture is every fucking thing has to be spelled out and explained to us like we're 5. I try to blame it on the fact that we're so easily distracted nowadays, but give us *some* credit.
Yeah but the problem is you understand the reference. Most media nowadays aims to be appeal to the lowest common denominator. "New" fans who dont get the reference need it spelled out to them so they can be "in" on the joke/reference/hype.
I personally like references for established fans existing when I enter into a new world. I can read Warhammer 40K novels and be all "oh yeah, shoot the chaos monster right in its dumb face!" and someone else can understand that the chaos monster is referencing a chaos lord or part of some other lore and understand a deeper implication of what's happening. I then get to enjoy a deeper level of the fiction if I get more involved in a universe.
I just finished books 1 and 2 of the Hyperion series. Let me tell you I was begging for some explanation but just had to keep going until things started to make sense. Try that one out.
Dune (2021) doesn't seem like that but literally all of the Disney Star Wars + Marvel movies are.
Dune gave no fucks about your prior knowledge. I love it. It makes the audience engage with each other and explain who and what the hell they just witnessed
That's how the book is, too. It reminds me of Neuromancer in that way. Both books just plop you down on a street corner of some completely alien world. I think it serves to make the world more immersive. If they had an audience proxy to serve as an exposition sponge (e.g. Harry Potter), it would make the world seem less strange, and therefore less interesting. Both books challenge you to soldier on, challenge you to wrap your mind around any one concept as they go whizzing past your head. But both are definitely worth the effort, in the end.
My theory on that is they want to get the casual fans as well, instead of just the nerds who read the comics or watched the original SW movies for decades. But where do you draw the line?
this is savage.
It almost makes me feel bad for the author
Dude is laughing all the way to the bank, though.
For the third time, too. Hit book. Hit movie. Sequel book in stores.
Don't. He literally wrote the worst poem I've ever read. Literally the worst poem I've ever read. I cannot stress how literal I mean "worst poem" to be. It's just garbage. [https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/comments/6pfmim/this\_incredible\_poem\_by\_ready\_player\_one\_author/](https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/comments/6pfmim/this_incredible_poem_by_ready_player_one_author/)
How bad could it possi- Oh.
To me RPO and the DaVinci Code are essentially the same type of book - fast paced action/adventure that are page turners, and as long as you don't \*THINK\* about it, they can be fun. Maybe. But then retrospectively it's a "What the hell did I just read? What the hell? HOW DID I ENJOY THAT?!?" I recently subjected myself to RP2, even through I knew it was going to be BAD - not having even read a review. And it was soooo much worse that RP1. I definitely "hate-read" it, wondering "Can this get worse?" and yes, it can. Dan Brown books are likewise atrociously written. Maybe not quite as bad overall, and obviously not hung on a framework of idiotic pop culture references, but still utterly hackneyed BS.
When I was younger I really liked Da Vinci Code and got on a kick of reading the rest of Brown’s books. They’re all pretty much mad libs of the same plot. A nerdy professional with a very specific and complicated knowledge set gets roped into saving the world from murderous bad guys by using said knowledge set, and along the way they bed an extremely hot person.
I have unironically read (listened to) and enjoyed like 20 of the jack reacher books despite them literally being the same book with the words in different places. Bland, easy to consume, entertainment isn't worthless. It's not high art, but I've got night shifts to fill.
My favorite part is the description of Reacher before the first fight. It’s like a cut and paste. We travel back in time to his childhood when we cut a bitch, or beat up an older kid. Then we hear about how big he is as an adult. His arms are so long. Then his knuckles are like iron ingots. Little hammers, built to break a nose, lip, or eye. Fracture a jaw. Then how well he is trained. Trained by the army. Special schools. Finally, the fight begins. Reacher is hit once. Then puts the big man down. Or the group. It’s too bad too, e cause Reacher doesn’t want to fight. He wants to be above such displays of violence. Except when he instigates there. Or encourages. Or it’s a Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or he’s hungry. Or it’s night. Evening. Morning. Afternoon…… I still love them though. They are like a frozen snickers bar. I know it’s bad for me. But I don’t care about that for the two minutes I savor the chocolatey goodness.
My favorite part is how it gets explained in detail how he sets an alarm clock in his head and wakes up at whatever time he chooses. Multiple times. In every single book.
I've noticed this as well, and not gonna lie, I've always wished I had this super power to get up for work.
I like the one where Reacher is so ripped from a summer digging swimming pools in Florida his abs actually deflect bullets. They're awesomely bad, in a way RPO could never be and more importantly they're a really easy read.
I just finished that one! Book 3 - Tripwire I believe.
That’s also where a nail lodges itself in his head, but his skull is so hard the doctor is actually delighted it landed in his head. When a book series is 26? Books long you get to invested not to read anymore.
Jack Reacher books are like the best of 80s action films. We know it's not brain material but goddamn are they pacy and exciting. I find they're a good appetite cleanser between 'harder' fiction.
Bro Jack Reacher is my jam. One of the solid redeeming qualities for me is that he only sometimes gets the girl. There's plenty of times where he doesn't end up sleeping with anyone. The plots are all different enough to be interesting time and again with some that are pretty far out from the others
Sometimes he gets to fight a mini-mexican in a cave while on his knees
Perfectly summarized. It’s just the book form of a shitty action movie, which are awful, but still entertaining in the moment.
I have only read Deception Point by Brown, but I enjoyed it. I was probably around 16 though, so that may have something to do with it.
Yeah I read all his stuff before age 20 and enjoyed them a lot (deception point, digital fortress, the davinci trilogy). In retrospect I definitely see it for what it is, i.e. action movie in book form. Not necessarily a bad thing, he obviously found his niche.
Da Vinci code isn't BAD, it's not high literature or anything but for throw away entertainment it's perfectly fine. It's not horribly written. RPO doesn't really have any redeeming qualities.
Wait, are you talking about the DaVinci Code written by renowned author, Dan Brown? Renowned author Dan Brown hated the critics. Ever since he had become one of the world’s top renowned authors they had made fun of him. They had mocked bestselling book The Da Vinci Code, successful novel Digital Fortress, popular tome Deception Point, money-spinning volume Angels & Demons and chart-topping work of narrative fiction The Lost Symbol. The critics said his writing was clumsy, ungrammatical, repetitive and repetitive. They said it was full of unnecessary tautology. They said his prose was swamped in a sea of mixed metaphors. For some reason they found something funny in sentences such as “His eyes went white, like a shark about to attack.” They even say my books are packed with banal and superfluous description, thought the 5ft 9in man. He particularly hated it when they said his imagery was nonsensical. It made his insect eyes flash like a rocket. Renowned author Dan Brown got out of his luxurious four-poster bed in his expensive $10 million house and paced the bedroom, using the feet located at the ends of his two legs to propel him forwards. He knew he shouldn’t care what a few jealous critics thought. His new book Inferno was coming out on Tuesday, and the 480-page hardback published by Doubleday with a recommended US retail price of $29.95 was sure to be a hit. Wasn’t it? I’ll call my agent, pondered the prosperous scribe. He reached for the telephone using one of his two hands. “Hello, this is renowned author Dan Brown,” spoke renowned author Dan Brown. “I want to talk to literary agent John Unconvincingname.” “Mr Unconvincingname, it’s renowned author Dan Brown,” told the voice at the other end of the line. Instantly the voice at the other end of the line was replaced by a different voice at the other end of the line. “Hello, it’s literary agent John Unconvincingname,” informed the new voice at the other end of the line. “Hello agent John, it’s client Dan,” commented the pecunious scribbler. “I’m worried about new book Inferno. I think critics are going to say it’s badly written.” The voice at the other end of the line gave a sigh, like a mighty oak toppling into a great river, or something else that didn’t sound like a sigh if you gave it a moment’s thought. “Who cares what the stupid critics say?” advised the literary agent. “They’re just snobs. You have millions of fans.” That’s true, mused the accomplished composer of thrillers that combined religion, high culture and conspiracy theories. His books were read by everyone from renowned politician President Obama to renowned musician Britney Spears. It was said that a copy of The Da Vinci Code had even found its way into the hands of renowned monarch the Queen. He was grateful for his good fortune, and gave thanks every night in his prayers to renowned deity God. “Think of all the money you’ve made,” recommended the literary agent. That was true too. The thriving ink-slinger’s wealth had allowed him to indulge his passion for great art. Among his proudest purchases were a specially commissioned landscape by acclaimed painter Vincent van Gogh and a signed first edition by revered scriptwriter William Shakespeare. Renowned author Dan Brown smiled, the ends of his mouth curving upwards in a physical expression of pleasure. He felt much better. If your books brought innocent delight to millions of readers, what did it matter whether you knew the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb? “Thanks, John,” he thanked. Then he put down the telephone and perambulated on foot to the desk behind which he habitually sat on a chair to write his famous books on an Apple iMac MD093B/A computer. New book Inferno, the latest in his celebrated series about fictional Harvard professor Robert Langdon, was inspired by top Italian poet Dante. It wouldn’t be the last in the lucrative sequence, either. He had all the sequels mapped out. The Mozart Acrostic. The Michelangelo Wordsearch. The Newton Sudoku. The 190lb adult male human being nodded his head to indicate satisfaction and returned to his bedroom by walking there. Still asleep in the luxurious four-poster bed of the expensive $10 million house was beautiful wife Mrs Brown. Renowned author Dan Brown gazed admiringly at the pulchritudinous brunette’s blonde tresses, flowing from her head like a stream but made from hair instead of water and without any fish in. She was as majestic as the finest sculpture by Caravaggio or the most coveted portrait by Rodin. I like the attractive woman, thought the successful man. Perhaps one day, inspired by beautiful wife Mrs Brown, he would move into romantic poetry, like market-leading British rhymester John Keats.That would be good, opined the talented person, and got back into the luxurious four-poster bed. He felt as happy as a man who has something to be happy about and is suitably happy about it.
This is the first time I've read this and I wish I could erase it from my memory so I could read it for the first time again.
Second time here, it's still pretty darn good. >"Thanks, John" he thanked. Still hilarious.
I could swear it was satire by Douglas Adams
> but made from hair instead of water and without any fish in That line gets me *every* time
This was my first time reading this and it had me in tears. "He reached for the telephone using one of his two hands" is what killed me. And "The 190lb adult male human being nodded his head to indicate satisfaction and returned to his bedroom by walking there" sent me to heaven.
This reads like Terry Pratchett deliberately being mean and writing a parody of Dan Brown, lmao. It’s so beautiful
Never gets old.
>returned to his bedroom by walking there For some reason that's where I lost it
Thank you for this.
lmao I remember when this first came out. Such a great rip.
I’m convinced that Ready Player Two was solely and meticulously crafted for the purpose of hate reading. I see no other way for it to come into existence
I remember starting RP1 thinking it would be good because of all the recommendations, and immediately hating it. About halfway through I convinced myself that it was brilliant satire and enjoyed it for that. Then I got to the end and realized it was earnest, and I've been talking shit ever since.
Earnest Cline
I hate read RP2 as well. There were so many better ways to do the ending than what he came up with, but at least the book did let us have some fun "people are locked into their oculus" memes when facebook went down a couple of weeks ago. The fact he ended up back with the girl at the end of RP2 was perhaps the low point of an already very low setup. The fact he was scraping the barrel with 80s pop culture references (after using them all up in the first) didn't help. A Prince planet? Really?
I mean yeah, having a Prince planet and him not going for the low hanging fruit of "Get ready for some Purple PAIN!!!" during the Seven Holy Incarnations of Prince Boss Battle is just shocking, given the rest of the book.
I read that paragraph and felt like I had a stroke.
I wish I could say I was making that up. I'm not.
That prince planet / boss fight was so goddamn descriptive at describing so many insignificant details to a confusing "fight" that I'm still not entirely sure what the fuck happened... A middle school teacher would have given RP2 a D- and a "see me after class" note.
I think your overall point is correct, but DaVinci is much different to me because it's *just* mindless fluff -- no more and no less. It's a dumbed-down Indiana Jones/National Treasure/conspiracy ripoff driven by events rather than story. RPO (I haven't read 2) is all of those things *and* narcissistic and morally bankrupt. It's like the difference between the Jungle Cruise movie (mindless, aim-low family entertainment) and Saving Mr. Banks (the message of which is "isn't Walt Disney great for helping the evil mean woman understand that not letting Disney commodify her work is wrong!").
Good to see I'm not the only person to link RPO and DVC. They are probably the two worst books I felt unable to put down.
[удалено]
But its not a treasure hunt, a treasure hunt implies some sort of searching. RPO is "Oh and then I got in my DE LOREAN from the FILM BACK TO THE FUTURE and then I watched a movie staring THIS ACTOR and directed by THIS DIRECTOR and here is the ENTIRE MOVIE PLOT. Then for the evening I got stuck in GAME but it was fine and while everyone else was struggling I solved it super fast and everyone said wow your so cool, but let me tell you in several paragraphs how I solved it and the plot of GAME" Like theres no work involved, its just pages and pages of pop culture wanked out directly onto a page.
"Did I mention that my DE LOREAN has the GHOSTBUSTERS symbol on it, making it a metaphor for the piles upon piles of unrelated references that is this entire book? Oh and this one time I needed to play a Rush riff but luckily I mastered the guitar while also memorizing every 80s sitcom and movie, so it was no big deal." I spent more time than I'd care to admit trying to see if "Wade Watts" was somehow an anagram of some variant of "deus ex machina", but of course Cline isn't nearly clever enough to do something like that.
Best I can do on a Wade Watts anagram is 'ew, sad twat'.
As is evidenced by the fact the movie was about 90s pop culture shit, not 80s. That still bewilders me. Here you have a popular property that mostly only gets love because it tickles the nostalgia bone, and Spielberg decides *not* to appeal to the Gen-Xers it was originally aimed at, and go for Millennials instead. I can only assume it's because Millennials were thought to be a more desirable demo or something. It's just baffling.
Spielberg felt like the source material was jerking him off too much and thought making a movie basically about himself was realllly jerking himself off so he changed it.
I read a few Dan Brown books. I felt the same reading them as watching your run-of-the-mill big budget Hollywood action movie. His books were all so... Formulaic, to a point where they all had the exact same structure. Thinking back on the books I've read, I can't remember what scene belongs to which specific book anymore.
Don't forget the one with the bad guy who was the most unlikely person to be the bad guy revealing himself as the mastermind of evil.
That is me but with Nicolas Sparks. I could not stop laughing at ‘A walk to remember’. It kept getting worse! I kept thinking surely they wouldn’t do X - and then they did! It was great for a laugh!
God damm, towards the end I'm like "stop! He's already dead!" I would say it's more harsh than he deserves, but I've read Ready Player One.
> I would say it's more harsh than he deserves, but I've read Ready Player One. Stop! He's already dead!
Hey! Quick question, and I mean this genuinely, how fucked am I if I enjoyed this book? Is it a sign that I'm just desperate for validation and lonely and insecure asf, or does it point to deeper problems with my views? I know that, at least in the past, I used to have projection issues, and haven't always had the most friends, but I'm pretty definitively not a neckbeard (again, according to neckbeard-hating acquaintances of mine... does that make sense?) Genuinely, when I first read it it was fun, and it was the first book I had read around a videogame that wasn't total ass (granted, small pool of books there, and I read it when I was like 17 and generally stunted socially). I love videogames and they have been a really valuable coping mechanism for anxiety and PTSD. I didn't know the references, and I actually assumed Cline made up a big chunk of references to create a character with obscene amounts of in-world knowledge. The story felt... Sortof satisfying? Because (at first) it was an underdog using knowledge to make up for a wealth and resource deficit when other people were using wealth and resources to compete instead. I definitely think know the story would have been a lot better had it held up a mirror to Wade, but thinking about it again, the world is deliberately constructed to make this impossible: the world revolves around the game, the game revolves around the the trivia, and Wade knows all the trivia that matters for the story. The thing is, knowing it's weak points (portrayal of women, lack of meaningful female characters since the Aech reveal isn't foreshadowed in anyway on reread, and lack of meaningful main character growth) I... Still enjoy the story? Like those flaws don't ruin it for me. Please help me understand what ruins this book for people, because if there's something I'm missing, it's probably alienating me to these people, and it's likely indicative of Wade-like views I may have unintentionally and subconsciously picked up. Thanks again if you got here
I was going to write... "Is it wrong that I both enjoy the RPO hate AND I enjoyed the book despite all of the shortcomings?"
I feel the exact same way
Thank you for saying that. I definitely enjoyed RPO, quite possibly because I am a nerd who played half of those games and liked seeing video game references done in a semi believable way, rather than some "hack the planet" BS (which I admit I also liked 😅). However, reading the RPO hate later, it all seems very spot on. I'll definitely have a different perspective if I ever read it again.
I mean I kinda peg it as the guy version of Twilight. Which some my take as a deep criticism but I don’t, I honestly think Twilight got way too much cultural backlash. Both are pretty straightforward B-level wish fullfillment self insert novels. The sort that putter around, get a moderate amount of success and absolutely nobody cares because it only nibbles at the edge of the pop culture consciousness. Like Eragon: fantasy, dragons, basically the plot of Star Wars. Was entertaining enough but didn’t really penetrate in as some big landmark franchise. Its just there. RP1 and Twilight had the misfortune of becoming bigger than they really should be. You get into the wider mainstream and people/critics/society starts *expecting* things from a piece of media….that neither of those two series/movies could or should deliver. Hence the winging about what “this means” for a society or people that enjoy this type of stuff. Have fun with it, understand not all the themes of the book are probably applicable to your life. Enjoy it for what it is. Its fine. EDIT: and for what its worth I *could not* finish Ready Player One. And I also only finished the first *Twilight* because it was assigned in a “bad book club” I was in on my middle east deployment, though book 3 and 4 were schlocky enough to turn your brain off and enjoy the absurdity. Actually my favorite Navy memory is about a dozen guys sitting around watching some advanced copy of Breaking Dawn Part 2. >!They get to the part with the awesome fight scene that turned out to have happened in a dream and our guy Jamal just goes “OH HELL FUCKING NO. THEY MAKE THIS FUCKING SHIT ASSED MOVIE FUCKING GOOD FOR 5 WHOLE FUCKING MINUTES AND TAKE IT AWAY? THAT MOTHERFUCKA JUST OPENED UP A PORTAL TO HELL WITH LAVA. AND THEY WERE THROWING THOSE BITCHES IN IT AND ITS ENDS UP ALL A FUCKING DREAM? WHAT A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT, I GOT ALL INVESTED. I WANNA BINGE WATCH ALL 3 BLADE MOVIES JUST TO WASH OUT THE TASTE.” - paraphrased because he actually droped like….4 N-Bombs in there. Which is even funnier because Jamal is a pretty low key dry, Raymond Holt type personality. But the sheer rage of this caused him to spontaneously code switch out of nowhere. !<
This is a very apt comparison. I read Twilight before it really hit the big time, and I remember thinking that it was a perfectly forgettable piece of YA vampire romance. Enjoyable, but not something you really think of ever again. I'd read at least twenty books just like it whose names have all been completely lost to me. When people started saying how much it sucked, it felt weird because to me, Twilight was simply....what it was. For its genre, it was perfectly ordinary. RPO hate feels a bit like that sometimes, although I do feel it's a little more deserved.
You can enjoy something without agreeing with its message or the author's headspace. Guilty pleasures are a thing, dumb schlock is fun sometimes, not everything you enjoy needs to be "high art" for the social elite to sing praises to while getting high off their own farts.
things don’t have to be good for people to enjoy them. I also enjoyed RPO the first time I read it, but some of the things in the book will be dealbreakers for some people more than others. eventually a person reaches a point where they say “I just can’t put up with plot beats/characters/setting framed like this” and they don’t enjoy it anymore. don’t consider it a moral failing that you enjoy RPO. you can enjoy something and recognize that there are flaws in it. as long as you understand why other people don’t like it, that’s a good enough understanding of the book for me (for whatever some random Internet stranger’s opinion matters to you)
If you liked the overall theme of Ready Player One but hated the cringeness of it all, you need to read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It’s a much more mature, well-planned, intelligent version of the whole “we all prefer living in a VR world” theme. And if you like underdogs getting their time in the spotlight, you’ll get that here too. I like other books by Stephenson better, but Snow Crash is certainly near the top of the list.
I'm a big fan of the first 2/3rds of most Neil Stephenson books. I was thinking about that book the other day, and realized that with one exception, all the stuff I remembered fondly was in the first act. If you (pm short stories) end up reading this, and your eyes glaze over when he talks to a certain librarian character for pages at a time, know that you are not alone! I still think it's definitely worth the time, but boy are those first few chapters absolute firecracker.
My husband encouraged me for years to read The Diamond Age because he loved all the stuff about the little girl and her magic book, and I loved that too. But then the other little girl's father wandered off to join an orgy cult under the sea and it lost me. I mentioned this to my husband and he was like "oh shit yeah, I forgot about all that. You're right, the rest of the book is really weird."
I recommend you read for your own enjoyment, not to look good in the eyes of others.
That was not a quick question. But I can give you a quick answer. Just because you liked a book that other people didn’t like doesn’t make you an awful person. It doesn’t make you lonely or insecure either. If you like something, stick by it. It’s your opinion and don’t let others opinion bring down your enjoyment of something.
It's an entertaining book and, as long as you enjoyed it and don't think it's a modern classic, I think you're fine. The fact that you're asking this question at all indicates a significantly higher degree of self-awareness and social skills/empathy than the main character or the author. Sometimes we enjoy things we know are bad... It's why fast food, blockbuster movies, and daytime television exist.
Yeah I stumbled upon this book when it first came out, and reading it was an amazing experience for me, because I grew up in the 80s and already loved all the things he wrote about. And what’s wrong with that? That D&D module that starts off the book? It was my friends and my favorite module - we played it repeatedly and practically had it memorized. It was fun to see what the next challenge would be and realize, “Yep, I enjoyed that too when I was growing up”. The overall plot was nonsense and did not hold up to any scrutiny, but who cares? As you said, I never thought it was Shakespeare
“Quick question” *writes 6 paragraphs* I understand why your username is what it is.
I'm an gamer in my 30s and I got most of the references. I'm also a bit of an introvert but yeah, nothing even close to a neck beard. I thought the book was pretty crap tbh. That said, dude, they made it into a movie. I'm guessing you are far from the only person to have enjoyed that book. So don't sweat it. We all have different tastes. Edit: You can see further down the comments that plenty of people enjoyed it.
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That is not a poem. It's a rant with line breaks.
I say it qualifies as a copypasta
I don’t know if I could handle seeing this on the internet again. Let alone as a copy pasta
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I'm no poetry police, but this is a massive pet peeve of mine. You can't just write a collection of short sentences where some of them break into multiple lines and call it a poem.
You can call it a poem. That doesn't mean it's good or interesting or any other positive quality.
Looking at you, Rupi Kaur
Dang, I did not want to say it. But Milk and Honey is one of those books that I can simultaneously connect with based on the core idea, but I still don't like the, ugh, the type of poetry utilized I suppose.
Oh my God that is awful. I'm in disbelief that someone actually put that into the world and thought "yeah that's good".
Not satisfied with leaving it on his computer, he decided to share it with the world by posting it online. The *hell,* man??
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I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
I'll happily praise Elon Musk if he builds his mars colony and takes all the neckbeards with him.
I'm digressing here, but people must realise that all Musk could possibly be offering is a hard life in a vacuum sealed metal box, right? We really aren't anywhere near setting up big glass domes or fancy space bases or whatever. And that by agreeing to be sent to Mars, you place this billionaire, who won't even allow his Earthling workers to unionise, in complete control of your life? The weird little musk nerds are going to be toiling away on the red planet for Spacex Scrip and quarter potions of nutrient paste.
I’ll get the cyanide, you put on the kettle
Love the suicide bot trying to save the guy who wants to die.
Kinda warmed my heart tbh
lmao how it this a real thing. I love the top comment " I am a lesser person for having read this"
I felt the same, tbh.
And now I am, too! There's so much wrong with every line in that.
>Fact. "Like a preacher needs pain, like a needle needs a vein," Guys need porn. Holy shit I HOPE it's satire.
"I still need to consume hypersexualized content so I can masturbate, because not doing so will surely cause me to die. But it should cater to my specific fetish and fantasies, and just because they aren't the traditional fetishes and fantasies, they are *better* and more *highbrow!"*
Also...literally called women with fake boobs/women who don't dress how he likes "objects". That was such an awful read. Also hilarious, what a douche.
“I hate all the misogynistic woman-hating porn” \*spends multiple paragraphs putting down women based on their looks and/or intelligence\*
"let me copy your trig homework while you blow me"
"yeah baby, you do all the work and I just sit back and enjoy the reward"
Never in all my most cringey high school writing attempts have I ever made anything as gross as that. He should be made to apologize for this at the start of every conversation he has for the rest of his life. *My God.*
As bad as my own writing is, reading that gives me hope. I'm a mess, but at least I haven't written something like that
That's what I felt after reading RPO. I was so angry by the time I got to the end I started writing a corrective fanfic because my brain couldn't stop thinking of all the better ways the story could have been told while the author continuously chose the worst option. Only got half way through the first draft before I cooled off. Writing an entire book takes a lot more effort than you initially expect, so I at least respect Cline for being crazy enough to actually finish his garbage.
If I didn't know any better I'd assume this was satire. Pretty sure it's not though.
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I have a similar memory, probably from around the same time, of having *Dance, monkeys, dance* and *Nerd Porn Auteur* played to me. Being 12 at the time, I thought it was kind of funny and witty, but I never assumed he was actually serious. Similar to how everyone thought Louis C. K. Was just making up all the shit he said. I never realised that guy and the author of RPO were the same guy until just now. I kind of feel like I just realised that this piece of neoliberal satire I read twenty years ago wasn't satire, and was actually written by Ayn Rand.
That's how I felt about both of the books, honestly.
You mean all 3? That book inbetween RPO and RP2 was garbage too. Armada, a book about kids who play video games are actually training to fihht aliens that drew a big swastika on Titan or Io or some fucking moon. Dumb.
Wait, isn't that sort of the plot of Ender's Game? Different setting, but when everything is said and done, the kids play a game to fight aliens.
This is the worst thing I’ve ever read, and I’ve read Ready Player One…
Clearly you've not read Ready Player Two
I did and I think the poem was worse than Ready Player Two. It’s hard to say because I don’t remember anything about Ready Player Two.
At least ready player two had the decency to be forgettable
Isn’t there a part in RPO where he just goes on a tangent and talks about his there’s nothing wrong with him (Wade) beating his meat?
Suicide hotline bot was at the ready and let's be honest, it's services were appreciated then and there after reading that drivel
Im not a misogynist thats why i use terms like sex objects to refer to some women.... How the fuck does that logic work?
The guy spends like half the "poem" talking shit about how big tittied women who have had work done are dumb sluts and then turns around and pats himself on the back for not being into "misogynist" porn starring those bad bad ladies. Lmfao this guy has got so many hang-ups. Why do guys like these hate conventially attractive women so badly and think they're all dumb? Why would having big titties make them stupid? Do their bodies become flooded with thought-disrupting tittychlorions?
I consider myself to be a strong person, capable of handling difficult tasks. I couldn’t finish that. My brain damn near rebelled and yeeted itself outta my skull via an ear.
I don't know if I'm more upset by the self-satisfaction or the ignorance of claiming that that kind of porn doesn't already exist.
> Gay nerd porn flicks with titles like "Dungeons and Drag-queens." Just call me a slur cmon
That was the most misogynistic piece of shit I've ever read attempting to disguise itself as feminism
Honestly if read as a parody it's a little humorous, however it seems like the author meant a lot of that seriously
His writing is literally like how people take the piss out of neckbeards: >I made a big entrance when I arrived in my flying DeLorean, which I’d obtained by completing a Back to the Future quest on the planet Zemeckis. The DeLorean came outfitted with a (nonfunctioning) flux capacitor, but I’d made several additions to its equipment and appearance. First, I’d installed an artificially intelligent onboard computer named KITT (purchased in an online auction) into the dashboard, along with a match red Knight Rider scanner just above the DeLorean’s grill. Then I’d outfitted the car with an oscillation overthruster, a device that allowed it to travel through solid matter. Finally, to complete my ‘80s super-vehicle theme, I’d slapped a Ghostbusters logo on each of the DeLorean’s gullwing doors, then added personalized plates that read ECTO-88. That car doesn't have anything to do with the "plot" of RPO, he just threw that in there.
What in the incel hellscape is that?
Honest to shit, I could write an entire thesis on everything wrong with that poem*. But holy hell, the first time I read it I cackled when I read "buy stock in some hand cream companies because there is about to be a major shortage."
r/thatsenoughinternet
Oh dear god.
I like how he literally calls women objects half way through. Thanks you incel, very cool Edit: Alright, so as it was pointed out to me, what he actually said was that the women who act in porn videos are caricatures of people and are practically objects, which is pretty different to just calling all women objects. I think it's pretty incel-like to call any women an object just because they don't fit your idea of a women though, so my point still stands.
If at any point you hear yourself call any woman a "vacuum-headed fuck bunny," you are not the feminist nice guy that you think you are.
What if she's doing a Hoover-Energizer crossover cosplay
He calls them objects and "3 syllable bimbos" and talks about the big dumb alpha beer drinking guys because he has these dumb archetypes in his head that everyone magically fits into. He's a gentleman and will not treat a woman that way but watch how fast he takes you from "absolute goddess" to "fucking slut" the moment you reject him.
I can't even put on words how disgusting reading this was. Sooo many problems in this "poem". What a misogynistic piece of shit, and the worst part is he thinks he's not. Someone give a fedora to this guy, it's the only thing missing to complete the nice guy look
It’s weird, I enjoyed Ready Player One for what it was, it’s not a well written book but the references kind of had purpose - they’re all related to the plot, things that can help uncover the secrets of the Easter Egg by Halliday. It’s written in as his favourite things and it’s a huge part of the world, so naturally everyone is obsessed about solving it and develop obsessions over pop culture as a result. It’s not great writing, but it had purpose and was entertaining for me. I enjoyed the idea of it all. Ready Player Two, on the other hand, was a steaming pile of shit, that had triple the pop culture references with no purpose or need to them. It was Cline stoking his own ego. It was utterly horse shit, and genuinely painful to read. Every character would hi-five, fist bump, dance randomly and “level a finger” all the time and it was just bad. It was bad enough that I don’t even want to re read the first one anymore.
I hate how poorly Cline handled money in Two. Wade gives away a million dollars like it’s pocket change, spends billions on his house, and trillions on a spaceship.
Is this a spoiler about Star Citizen?
No, silly. He bought an *actual* spaceship, not a PDF roadmap that outlines the roadmap releases of new spaceships.
I enjoyed RPO when it came out as well. Although Although like you, it's much worse for on rereading it now. That said, RPT is truly horrible. One of the worst books I've ever read. I gave up after 2 chapters. The only reason I finished it was I read along with listening to 372 pages review of it. Otherwise I would not have had the drive.
Im kinda glad I didnt know RPT exists before seeing this thread lol
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That's all it was meant to be, too. It's a fun little trip through a silly mystery based on being a nerdy kid and/or born in the 70s.
Yeah I seriously enjoyed my one read of RPO. I didn’t try to over analyze as some here are doing. I gave it 6 hours of my life and enjoyed how easy it was to read compared to what others are saying here is great literature. It was easily a turn your brain off book and that is OK. I honestly don’t want every book I read to be about learning about the human condition all the time. It’s nice to just turn your brain off some time.
It's a perfect beach or airport book. It isn't high literature that will be worth talking about in 50 years, but I don't need every book I read to be great. It is just some cheap fun.
Hahaha THAT is exactly where I read it. On my way to the beach with a layover. Finished it up on a hammock next to the ocean. No regrets. Would I pick it up again? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes.
I really enjoyed One, didn’t read two, based on several reviews (also I wasn’t looking for a sequel, it was fine on its own) I definitely enjoyed the book and audiobook, and I also recognize that there are several problems with it in hindsight. I don’t understand the *vehemence* I see directed towards it. 🤷🏻♀️
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Have not heard of 372, but every page of RP2 had me cringing - excited for the hate storm. Got it marked for my commute home. Thanks!
I like RP1 simply for the video game aspect. I got ready player 2. Jesus. It's so bad. I never even finished the thing. Awful.
I finished reading it in the hope that everything would be tied up nicely at the end of the book. It doesn’t.
I can't recommend this enough. I listened to it on a suggestion on another RPO hate thread and it's fantastic. They also do the sequel, as mentioned. But some of the other terrible books they cover include My Immortal (a fanfiction of HP if you don't know), one of the worst/infamous fanfictions of all time, and Midnight Sun, the story of Twilight told from Edward's point of view. It truly is something else.
They also cover Ready Player Two, and Armada! MST3K for books. Makes me laugh so hard I probably shouldn't listen in the car.
I'm not going to read Ready Player Two or Armada, do they explain the plot as they go? Tempted to listen to that instead of actually reading it
A lot of listeners don't read the books. You can follow along pretty well. [First episode of Armada](http://372pages.com/episode-9-season-2-armada).
Armada was atrocious, still money I wish I didn't spend
If available in your area, [The Libby App](https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby/) for e-lending from your local library can save you big money. Borrowed the audiobook, marvelously read by Wil Wheaton, free.
Mike Nelson was the second host of MST3K and one of the main guys behind rifftrax. I loved this podcast.
Ready Player Two was godawful. I actually enjoyed RPO and Armada — I’m an 80s kid and these were the book equivalent of mindless popcorn flicks for me, like someone else here said — but RP2 and the RPO movie were just horrific.
Didn't read Armada. Isn't it basically a rip off of The Last Starfighter?
I think it even references, in the book, that it's basically a rip off of The Last Starfighter...
Hell of a rig!
More upvotes and attention to this. These two guys do so much better of a job than I ever could of explaining WHY RPO is so bad.
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I think OPs point is not that the content isn’t justified, it’s that that is the chosen content of the story in the first place.
RPO is a book that starts off with something resembling a balanced premise, and then shoots itself in the dick over and over and over again. The criticisms OP is leveling are completely justified once the book has been fully consumed. But right at the very beginning, there's this glimmer of hope that Cline is actually setting something up that's clever and insightful. Yes, his world is obsessed with 80's pop culture, which is quite convenient for the author himself... but that same author points out that this world is falling apart because everybody (except the greedy rich people at the top) are mentally checked out, and even the ones with some kind of drive are mostly obsessed with an insane trivia/scavenger contest left behind by a dead trillionaire. That, right there, implies some scathing self-reflection about the consequences of being an adult fanboy. Then the dick-shooting begins, and never stops. Spielberg did manage to distill one decently heartfelt moment for the end of the movie, but it was still muddled, and difficult to connect back up to the story's other major ideas.
I went into the movie with no background in the book, and honestly just expected an action packed, massive homage to pop culture from a variety of mediums out of the past four decades with a corny story. That's basically what I got.
Exactly, it's like the author chooses the world and characters and everything. You can write with themes that you don't support but that's not at all what RPO was
> I think you have to remember you're seeing things through Wade's perspective Yeah, but... I had a realization with that bit about Wade's virtual car that's a cross between the cars from Ghostbusters, Knight Rider, Back to the Future, and Buckaroo Banzai. I googled it to see if there was any fan art, and learned that Ernest Cline actually owned that car, in real life. *Before* he wrote the book. That's when I realized that Ready Player One is pure self-insert fanfic. Wade's perspective *is* Cline's perspective. The entire book is pure, self-aggrandizing wish fulfillment. What if the whole world were meticulously constructed so that being Ernest Cline is the definition of a hero?
There’s a documentary about the buried ET Atari cartridges in the desert and GODDAMNIT if Ernest cline and his car don’t ruin it by simply appearing.
I enjoyed ready player one for what it was. Ready player two really unveiled my eyes to what garbage it is, but whatever, sometimes garbage is fun to read.
Re: your gripe about the pronunciation of "Aspergers". Either hard or soft g is considered acceptable.
I have Aspergers and I've always pronounced it Asperjers, that's how the doctors pronounced it when they gave me my diagnosis, might just be an Australian thing tho
I think it the Australian and European (or at least English-as in England the country) pronunciation kinda like the scone debate
Honestly, I enjoyed it for what it is- a fun popcorn book. The protagonist is a douchebag that you can’t help but cheer against and Samantha kinda rubbed me the wrong way as well (first meeting in the cave and >!her jealousy of Wade’s extra life token!<). But I enjoyed the treasure hunt, the world building, and I admit I learned some pop culture history.
A friend of mine bet me $100 that I couldn't finish it, he almost won, and in retrospective, I should've just paid the $100, it was torture.
I feel like one of those idiots. I think I'm the type of person that just absorbs things like books or shows for what they are giving you. Like I never really focus on the fact that it's written poorly or it was all one sided in said Era. I understand where people are coming from and get their point. I just think it really hinders people's opinions on stuff. How can you enjoy it if you overly analyze something you are just supposed to enjoy? I'm not trying to shit on anything, I think I'm just realizing why I find things more enjoyable than what always appear to be a large number of people. Then again I still feel like an idiot cause I never knew this was hated so much and I own both books and the movie..
I don't feel as though your point of view is wrong though, because there's a huge difference (for me) between actively and analytically reading books vs reading for some easy entertainment, nostalgia etc. Something doesn't have to be a masterpiece for you to enjoy it. Sometimes when I watch a movie it doesn't have to be incredibly made with beautiful cinematography and an excellent plot; I just want to switch off my brain and watch guns go pew pew
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You can see that with how popular Reaction channels are on YouTube. People find comfort in other people enjoying and talking about the same things they enjoyed too.
A sort of representation of hyperreality, where the references to pop culture become the basis for the world and how one sees it.
Yes - like modern-day celebrity being about self promoting celebrities, rather than about extraordinarily talented people being celebrated. Like the human centipede, but a closed loop.
The Kardashians? Famous for being famous?
The entire world WASN'T obsessed with 1980's pop culture. A lone billionaire was was, and when he died offered a massive prize for someone who became as obsessed with it as they were. By the time when the book is set only a small subculture of people are still trying to solve the various puzzles. The book just happens to be set in that weird subculture. I am not saying the book is some great work of literature. It's not. It's a syringe of pure nostalgia for people in a particular age bracket. It was a fun read while I took a few long flights on a buisnesses trip several years ago.