Perhaps, but I’m in definite wait for reviews mode on this one.
Oh yeah. I just meant the music fit the trailer. That doesn’t say anything about the quality of the movie itself. I’'ve seen too many trailers that looked fantastic (Godzilla anyone?) only to find out they were way better than the movie itself.
That being said, I love me some Tron Legacy. Biggest disappointment for me was the club scene . . . specifically, when Jeff Bridges shows up and shuts the whole club down by using his coding power, then there’s a action scene where he doesn’t(!!!) use he abilities to fight. Imagine Neo being able to pull strings of code out of his enemies as he’s fighting them, reconstructing them as he balances defense and traps. It could’ve been so damn good, but it just highlighted he could be a badness but never allows it to be.
This is a long read, but a thoughtful analysis of the issues of the book.
Haven’t read it in 5 years, but I wonder if I was projecting more depth onto the book than it deserved.
It is basically a tale of empty nostalgia being used to solve puzzles about said empty nostalgia to learn more about a man trapped by his empty nostalgia.
I always thought there was more to the message of the sadness of James Halladay and his inability to grow up, and Parcival’s journey bringing, through that empty nostalgia, an actual human connection with a group of friends. Thus differing from the creator he worshipped so much. But, maybe I was reading too much into that idea.
It is hard to get a read off of Cline’s interviews.
Authorial intent doesn’t have to limit the reader’s response.
I just finished RP1 and I really liked it, and it got me thinking about a number of things, including what Cline’s intentions were. That’s despite it being little more than a mediocre YA novel. However, I am definitely glad I read it. It was fun and thought-provoking despite itself.
That is a very good point.
I scoured through interviews, and I did not find anything about the why of it all.
I seriously doubt that Cline was intending anything that profound. RPO feels mainly like a way to gush about his personal nostalgic obsessions. If it’s accomplished more than that for you as a reader, that’s great.
The thing about Ready Player One (the book) is that it is a thing that can only be done once. It isn’t great writing, and a lot of it makes no sense (the world’s most popular video game has permadeath? I don’t think so), but it is a perfect little narrowcast nostalgia bomb which is aimed directly at my brain. I played those games, I watched those movies. And I was able to figure out many of the puzzles in the book, and felt good about it.
Anyone who comes along and tries to make that same nostalgia bomb, even if they do it better… well, it’s too late. It’s been done. That’s partly why Armada was so bad. Even Cline can’t do it again! In fact, the movie may well suffer from this.
I also happened to listen to it as an audiobook, which adds another level of hilarity, because it is read by Wil Wheaton. So at one point during the book he name-checks himself.
I think if you look at excerpts without context, they always look bad, but the book is just so thick with the references that you don’t even notice after a while.
I loved the book, as did most critics in 2011, I wonder when the backlash came to this one? I mean, the book is ripe for criticism, but when that came out in 2011, it was recommended by basically everyone in the games and tech industry.
The NYT review was also decently positive.
So the breadth and cleverness of Mr. Cline’s imagination gets this daydream pretty far. But there comes a point when it’s clear that Wade lacks at least one dimension, and that gaming has overwhelmed everything else about this book.
No score, but the overall tone was a recommendation.
There was a pretty harsh backlash on this game a bit after it came out, I think it would be really interesting to see a timeline when the effusive praise turned to snarky criticism.
Although, to be fair, it still seems like most people reading and reviewing the book on goodreads and amazon still praise the book pretty much exclusively.
I don’t know which I like less… nostalgia humping or internet snarktivism?
If there was a whole subgenre of 80s nerd culture exploitation, like we see today with YA dystopias and whatnot, the backlash would have been severe. But this guy created something new, and joyful, and I had a lot of fun reading it.
I think that 2011 was before the inundation of nerdly culture entirely. Like, 2017, the nostalgia feels forced, but it seems like nobody had a problem with it in 2011.
I dunno. Can you point to anything else with that very particular flavor of 80s nerd nostalgia that’s come out since?
Stranger Things.
Which I also enjoyed.
Well, the NES Classic certainly didn’t have detractors.
The backlash came HARD on this book though, I hear about it basically on every podcast I listen to now, about how that book is not very good, which is the opposite of what the same groups of people were saying in 2012.
I think that hollywood has done a lot to push people against the nostalgia and pop culture referencing that RP1 is all about. Look at all of the awful reboots, and nostalgia cash ins lately. I think that 2011 was a bit freer of that sort of thing.
I haven’t watched Stranger Things yet, but it’s definitely on my radar. I thought that was 80s nostalgia, but not 80s nerd nostalgia. If it is, I’ll get to it sooner than later!
I loved the book, but I love lots of terrible shit. Like I posted in another thread recently, I non-ironically groove to Evanescence’s Bring Me to Life. I’m not embarrassed!
I just think the references are extremely clumsily delivered and constitute an enormous part of the book, to the point where it kind of overshadows the actual action. And that’s the part that’s appealing to me as a reader - the actual scavenger hunt/virtual treasure race/interpersonal interaction stuff. (That’s not amazingly well written either, but it’s good enough that I finished.)
When I say clumsy I mean he literally just lists and/or names stuff he’s referencing with explanatory context. So I mean, yeah, if you’re familiar with that thing it invokes it in an extremely basic sort of way, but it’s not something to “get”, it’s just there.
If you didn’t enjoy it, that’s your totally valid opinion.
I read for pleasure; I don’t read “the classics”, or to say I read a well-regarded book. Some trash I enjoy, some I don’t. I can’t stand reality TV, but if you’re into The Real Housewives of Madison County go be you, that’s fine.
I mean one of the major plot elements literally is explained through the mediums of D&D and Lord of the Rings.
So… do that?
Sweet!
Doing that.