
‘Ready Player One’ is a terrible book and it will be a terrible movie - BerislavLopac
https://theoutline.com/post/2076/ready-player-one-movie-bad
======
falcolas
'Ready Player One' is 80's nostalgia porn. It was obvious from very early on
in the book, and if you read more than a few chapters in the book and expected
more, well, you would indeed be disappointed.

Knowing that the book is 80's nostalgia porn, and that this is what made it so
popular, I would be disappointed to get anything else out of the movie. I
don't want to get an in-depth story about lessons learned from using media to
escape from pain... I want to watch a DeLorian race Akira's motorcycle while
Voltron and Godzilla duke it out in the background.

------
Aaargh20318
The book is meant as entertainment, I was entertained. Mission accomplished. I
am not aware of any other requirements for books.

I’m sure the movie will be just as entertaining.

~~~
general_pizza
Exactly. Some of the points just seem ridiculous and make me wonder what this
person expected to get out of the book. For example:

> Halliday’s character combines the worst traits of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg
> and Kim Dotcom.

Do you think its purpose is to inspire you to be a better person? Since when
are fiction books self help books? Since when are perfect characters the most
interesting ones?

------
alistproducer2
I was wondering if I was the only person who thought the trailer was terrible.
I only watched it because the reviews were so hyperbolic. This article is
right: the source material is supremely mediocre.

~~~
siegecraft
I was wondering if I was the only one who thought the book was terrible. Once
I made it past the first third (it was tough, but I didn't pay for the book so
I just read it on my phone when I was bored) I was able to enjoy it for what
it was.. mediocre fanfiction.

~~~
npsimons
> mediocre fanfiction

I think you might be giving Cline too much credit. I've read _much_ better
fanfiction than "Ready Player One". Even the bad fanfiction chock-a-block full
of nostalgiac references doesn't stop to explain it's references every other
page. I literally hate-read through RPO on a transatlantic flight because the
screen for my seat was broken and I had nothing better to do.

ETA another excellent review: [http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/ready-player-
one-finds-the-...](http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/ready-player-one-finds-
the-bleak-limits-of-nostalgia-1797497066)

------
shalmanese
Here's a page from the book in case you're curious:
[https://i.warosu.org/data/lit/img/0085/59/1475081841319.jpg](https://i.warosu.org/data/lit/img/0085/59/1475081841319.jpg)

It's like American Psycho, only non-ironically.

------
bl4ckm0r3
_" But, rather than take a stand against the apotheosis of self-satisfied male
nerdism, the mainstream media made itself complicit in an atrocity."_

For how I have read it, the book starts with a guy that find in `self-
satisfying male nerdism` his only way out of a depressed hopeless world and
and up opening up, growing and making real friends over the digital world
(while saving it).

Also since when nerdism is bad and why would the media not accomplice in `the
atrocity`?

Regarding the quotes problem you talk about, `that's 70s show` and `Stranger
Things` aren't staged in a distant future and their own zeitgeist is important
to understand some things and to stage the show, but in `ready player one` the
character is a `millennial from the future` that has to solve puzzles and
riddles related to a far away in time culture (tbh good luck asking today to
kids what `war games`, a nerd movie that came out 34 years ago, was.) and
while recalling those movies (in a few lines) and having a thought process
revolving around them (sure just to pull memories from his brain) he puts
himself in hallyday's shoes as if it was an async tutorial setup by hallyday,
a path towards world salvation that goes through the revival of a culture
'lost in time'.

The world doesn't spin around specific games and movies the author likes, I
think the book delivers a simple story (classic hero journey
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey#Campbell.27s_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey#Campbell.27s_seventeen_stages))
with an interesting catch of being revolved around a specific time, culture
and media.

 _" 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."_

that is exactly what it takes to make someone `a great man of history` on the
internet.

I didn't like the trailer, but i think the book is a nice and very easy to
read.

ps i don't play videogames.

