Alex Suffolk is Reading: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
With the premise of a romp through an 80’s-nerd-culture-obsessed, globally-significant MMORPG, and with the likes of Steven Spielberg trying to get it turned into a movie, there’s really no way I could have resisted Ready Player One. A world where a video game is the most culturally important thing in the entire world – where rejecting a growingly-depressing reality in favor of seeking video game prowess is smiled upon? Sign me up!
There are two great strengths to Ernest Cline’s first novel. The first is obviously all the callbacks and references to tons of 20th-century nerd culture. Everything from classic arcade titles like “Joust” and “Black Tiger,” to cheesy favorite films like “Ladyhawke,” to obscure Japanese TV-shows like “Supaidaman” all holding some type of reverence. On his quest for the most convolutedly hidden easter-egg ever created, Wade Watts (or Parzival) goes on a wild ride visiting locations pulled entirely “Dungeons and Dragons” or “Blade Runner” in order to engage in tests of skill, including a shot-for-shot re-enactment of the movie “War Games.” It’s a wild, fun ride, one in which you feel like you’re at the edge of your seat, yet in a place you’re entirely familiar and comfortable with.
The second is how surprisingly plausible the entire scenario is. On paper, the premise of this book is laughable – a nerdy schoolboy fan-fiction. And yet, by drawing on trends in our current world, Cline is able to make his crazy future seem likely. With the rise of tech controlling our lives more and more, and with the leaders of this tech more often than not being giant nerds, it isn’t a stretch to believe that a giant nerd would rise to be the most influential person on the planet and infuse his greatest innovations with all his nerdy obsessions. With the advents of more personalized entertainment like Netflix, the innovations with VR technology like the Oculus RIft, and with the internet’s catering to introverts and anonymity, it’s hardly a stretch to imagine a future where everyone willingly plugs into a giant simulation where they can be or do everything they could ever want. How long will it take for our world to feel so corporate and dreary that we all indulge in escapism to the point where events in a video game impact society on a global level? Maybe it’s not too far off.
I’ll admit that I’ve read better prose. It seems Cline hasn’t sat through enough writers workshops to have “Show, don’t tell!” embedded into his gray matter. A lot of the book is Wade just explaining what he did or felt without any real sensory imagery or literary embellishment. However, for the most part, Cline gets away with it thanks in part to Wade’s charming voice as well as the direct references he’s always making. I don’t need to be put in the scene to hear the boops of Pac-Man; I’ve played Pac-Man countless times in my own life to instantly know what it looks and sounds like at just the briefest mention. This reliance and revelry of nerd iconography is why I can definitely see why this novel is being considered to be movie. If all these classic images are able to play out on the big screen, I feel like the experience will be even more exciting than it is on the page.
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