Ready Player One by Ernest Cline came out three years ago, but I did not read it until now, after letting the book sit in my Kindle library for a while. For some reason, I had gotten this crazy notion in my head to read the books on my Kindle in order from the books that had been there the longest. For the fifth time, I struggled to try to read Infinite Jest and once again, it just did not work out. After the mental onslaught I felt from trying to read that monstrous book again, I decided to start reading what I perceived to be the easiest book to read: Ready Player One. At first, I knew I was right; this book was going to be easy to read and get sucked in to. But then, I just could not stop reading it.
A Brief Summary
Ready Player One follows Wade Watts, an eighteen-year-old from Oklahoma, who finds his escape in OASIS, a virtual reality that used globally for education, work, and of course, gaming. Wade lives in poverty in one of the trailers parks that consist of stacks of trailers piled one on top of the other, and lives for being logging into OASIS to become his alter-ego, Parzival. It takes place in the future, in 2045, when the Earth is going through an energy crisis, poverty, and famine. The plot is an adventure, fueled by the players search for an Easter egg built into the system by James Halliday, one of the creators of OASIS. The first person to finish the quest will win Halliday’s $240 billion fortune, which he has put up for grabs since he left no heirs. A culture springs up of those intent on finding the fortune, and those involved call themselves “gunters,” shortened from Easter egg hunters. Along with the masses of people hoping to find the egg, an evil corporation, Innovative Online Industries (IOI), whose gunters are called “Sixers,” is in on the hunt in hopes of gaining control of OASIS. However, the catch is that those hunting his fortune will need to become experts in 1980’s pop culture including games, movies, and music, because it is the era that Halliday grew up in.
A Love Letter to the Eighties
Much like Halliday creates his Easter egg hunt as a love letter to the eighties, and his generation, Cline does the same thing with his book. The references in Ready Player One are numerous and littered throughout the novel, from the most obvious to the most obscure. Even though this novel is set in the future, it almost feels like it is set in the past, and indeed, Halliday’s hunt causes a resurgence of 80’s fashion and pop culture. The science fiction element from the futuristic setting of the book is reminiscent of the groundbreaking science fiction books, movies, and television shows that populated the 80s. I could not help but think of Neuromancer while reading this book, and then, it was actually referenced in the book. This book is probably the nerdiest book ever written about 80’s pop culture, making it feel like a real labor of love.
A Love Letter to Ready Player One
I was born in the late 80s, so I do not have the experience of actually growing up in the decade. However, I was exposed to all kinds of 80s pop culture, because as I was growing up, they still played 80’s music on the radio and reruns of 80’s television shows. There are so many 80’s movies that I love, and even right before I started reading this book, I had just watched Pretty in Pink. As a rule, I love pop culture, and spent a good part of my graduate education studying pop culture in the form of comic books and postmodern novels. Even though I pretty much hated going to school, I wish I would have read this book when I was still in grad school. This book is a smorgasbord of pop culture and I can imagine I could have found a whole semester to devote to this awesome book.
I love this book, not only for the massive use of 80’s pop culture references, because it was engaging, entertaining, and I just could not wait to see how it ended. There were moments when a reference was made, and I was so excited because I already knew what it was before the actual title of the movie was stated. There is something exciting about reading the book and feeling like a participant. All of the characters’ knowledge about the 80s are tested, so it made me as a reader feel as if I was a part of the adventure. There is something so satisfying about solving puzzles and figuring out clues. Maybe it is just because there is a little gunter in all of us.
A Movie Version?!
One of the best things about this book is that it is going to be made into a movie, since Cline had sold the movie rights before the book was published. Even thought the movie version is usually never as good as the book, I am still excited to see this story on the big screen. The latest news on the movie version is that the script is being rewritten by Zak Penn, who has worked on the scripts for the The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men 2, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Penn obviously has experience working on comic book movies, so I hope he does justice to the story.