We Read

[Hemiak]

I could probably read this whole book in about two days if it's as engaging as people say, so in down with whatever the group decides. Only thing is that I will have to take it back to the library at some point. Max check out time is about six weeks, shouldn't be a problem really, but if it stretches too long I'll finish early and then wait for the finale to chat more.

[YourAdultFriend]

If its not too late, I'd like to join in as well.

[Bucknerd]

It's definitely not too late to join. However I'm on my phone which makes editing the list of people difficult for the moment. 

 

I'm more than ok with using the other proposed schedule but I also want to make sure the group has a say. On the 4th, when everyone was planning to gather to discuss, we can decide whether to postpone and read up to chapter 11 on the 11th. I'll set up a vote when I am not on my phone.

[Bucknerd]

Today is the day that 0000 - 0008 were due up for discussion but since another reading schedule was proposed I have opened a poll at the start of this thread. Please vote.

 

If the original schedule is kept let's resume discussion tomorrow.

 

If the new schedule is adopted we will discuss chapters 0000 - 0011 on the 11th.

[Edunstar84]

I voted! I like the other person's idea. If that's the natural break in the story, maybe we should stick with that?

[Bucknerd]

Welp, ladies and gents, it seems the January 11th schedule has it! See you guys then. I'm honestly glad. I got to the end of 0008 last night and wanted to keep reading.

[Hemiak]

I was crazy busy the last several days and just started this morning. It seems really good so far.

Edit: done through chapter 11... I don't want to stop reading. I like that we added some extra chapters but I'm more than a little bummed about the extra week we have to wait to start discussion. I feel like Jan 7th would've been a better compromise.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Hemiak

[Bucknerd]

I feel your pain, believe me. I usually can take out a book of this size in less than a week. However, since we all lead different lives and read at different paces, I am a proponent of patience. Painful, painful patience.

[Hemiak]

Yeah. I'm kind of in a lull other than this. I'm re-reading The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Stephen Erikson which is great. But it's the 3rd time I've read it and the lure of something new is strong.

On a positive note. I had a book from the library I was sure I had returned three weeks ago, but they didn't show returned. It was getting to the point where they were going to charge me for it, but they finally found it when somebody tried to check it out. :/ I actually had returned it but they mishandled it. First time this happened in almost 9 years of using the county library system.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Hemiak

[kittyxiii]

I've literally just finished reading chapter 11 - the urge to continue reading is so strong right now

[Ruliya]

Bleh, I think I just got a character spoiled while watching a podcast, from a simple offhand comment  :/ 

 

I'm like halfway through the 11 chapters atm tho. So plenty still to read ^^ Liking it thus far.

[Hemiak]

So myself, Kitty, and Buck(I'm assuming) are up to the checkpoint and Ruli is getting close. How is everyone else doing?

[KayoAye]

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the book and excited to read more. I'm ready whenever.

[AndyLish79]

I only got the book yesterday (damn you, Christmas post) but have managed to devour 50+ pages so far. Should hopefully get to the end of chapter 0011 by the end of tomorrow if not before. Very enjoyable so far - the references to the 80's and video game trivia certainly appeal to my overly-nostalgic brain.

[Scratchy172]

I'm caught up but don't mind waiting for any others.

[Bucknerd]

Time to talk about iiiitttt!

 

Beware, wayward poster, below lies the spoiler zone for 0000 - 0011. Enter at your own risk.

 

If you've read ahead and spoil things Waluigi will gobble you up.

 

• What are your thoughts on the book?
• Did this book make you care more about the eighties?
• How does this narrative make you feel about Occulus/VR?
• Have you ever played Joust? (It's hard as balls)
• What retro game and movie would you have guarding your gates?
• Why do you think the creator of OASIS was obsessed, not only with the eighties, but also recreating his own childhood home?

Edited January 12, 2016 by Bucknerd

[Ruliya]

Finished the final two chapters needed this morning and can say I'm loving it ^^

 

I already enjoyed the 80s ;P and in some ways lived it

 

The potential for what VR stuff has been explored before, and this is another cool take on it but we're far from that now, sadly. Where was Halliday in our 2012?

 

A long time ago yeah, haven't played those ultra retro games in a long time.

 

Being a Sci-Fi fan and limited to 80's movies? Hmmm First Gate: Empire Strikes Back. Second Gate: Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country. And my Third Gate? Transformers the Movie.

 

Probably Nostalgia. My childhood was full of ups and downs, a lot of downs, but you get older, you look back and you realise it wasn't as bad as you remember and you gain a certain fondness for where you came from. 

[AndyLish79]

Well, I have stuck to the recommended reading structure and only read up to the end of chapter 0011 so these are my jumbled thoughts so far (and using Lady Buck's template for discussion).

 

I have enjoyed the book quite considerably so far - the pacing is just right and Mr. Cline has made me want to see what happens next and what clever constructs Percival will come up against (he even handles the love interest quite well). If I have a criticism about it so far it is that the main character, in my eyes, doesn't have much of a character. When I read a book where the characters are well-developed you can predict how each of them will react in a certain situation because they have a well-structured backstory and have shown how they have reacted in previous situations throughout the book but with Parzival it is like things happen around him and he is just there to have them happen to (if that makes sense). As we are only about a quarter of the way through the book, though, I am perhaps judging this too harshly and will reserve judgment on this until later. Perhaps Ernest Cline did this on purpose so that the real star of the book can come to the fore - the 1980's.

 

Having been born at the arse-end of the 1970's, most of my childhood memories revolve around the eighties - the music, the movies, the TV and the gaming in particular. I wouldn't say that I care more about the eighties after reading the first 11 chapters (if anything, I probably cared too much about them before!) but it does remind me why I enjoyed living through them – even if it did mean having to live through Margaret Thatcher’s government. Everything about the decade has a kind of identity about it - if you watch a movie from the eighties you just know it is an eighties film which I don't think I really get about many other decades - certainly not the last two. Plus, it was the decade that spawned movies such as Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Goonies, Flight of the Navigator, Back to the Future, the John Hughes back catalogue and some of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s greatest hits. Movies that get referenced endlessly to this day with the likes of The Simpsons and Family Guy constantly sending them up which makes you familiar with them even if you haven’t seen them endlessly when you were growing up. I think what makes the eighties stick out for me most, though, is the sheer number of times that I listened to the same music, played the same games or watched the same movies over and over again when I was young. It is something that has left me as I have got older, doing the same thing over again just doesn’t appeal anymore, but when you were younger you thought nothing of watching Ghostbusters every day for 4 weeks which is probably why they have been ingrained on my brain. So when Cline makes, sometimes quite oblique, references to 80’s culture throughout the book you get the impression that he was similarly affected growing up and probably wrote much of the book without needing to even check the source material. It is ingrained in his brain and the book is a homage to growing up in the 80’s. What was more pleasing to me than the movie references were the video game references – most people know Ghostbusters and Back to the Future, even if they didn’t grow up in the 80’s, but not many can say the same about the obscure coin-op games and Atari classics from that decade. Reading about games, like Galaga, that I poured small fortunes into while skulking around the arcades in Scarborough as a youngster brought back more memories than the movie references – even something as seemingly mundane as entering your initials on the high score table.

 

I think it will be a long, long time before game worlds and technology as complex as OASIS are created for a mass audience. Looking at what they intend to charge for the Occulus Rift set-up, prohibitive costs will prevent it from becoming a common item in the home (and I seriously doubt that it will ever cost 25 cents like in the book!) which means that the desire to develop for it will be limited to begin with. But what happens in the book with VR schooling is very interesting and the point that he makes about the teachers being able to actually teach without worrying about misbehaving children is a good one. If teachers are asked to be babysitters for naughty children then their teaching will suffer – but if the teacher has the power to mute his class like in the book then you lose the debating that I remember having at school where you got to ask the questions that you didn’t get taught and it encouraged you to think beyond what was on the syllabus. I suppose one of the problems with living in a virtual world is that the people with the power have ALL the power and can silence you at the touch of a button more easily than in the real world.

 

I never played Joust in the arcade, sadly, just a rather poor port on MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator, for those of you not as obsessed with coin-op games) which probably made it even harder to play. In general, I always have in my head that games were much harder back then in general – there was no difficulty setting and everything was set on “Death March” mode so that you were forced to keep handing over your money to keep playing! However, that might have been because of my lack of skillz back in the day.

 

Guarding my gate would be Ghostbusters, all the way. Playing the Bill Murray / Peter Venkman character with all the best lines.

 

Dana: That’s the bedroom, but nothing ever happened in there.

Venkman: What a crime.

 

and

 

Ray: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here

Mayor: Is this true?

Venkman: Yes it’s true, your honour. (pause) This man has no dick

 

… and that, tragically, came without needing much prompting! It is a great idea for a game in its own right though, getting the lines right and bonus points for delivery style and expressions. It’s got to happen one day - it would be the ultimate multiplayer party game (like karaoke for movies). EDIT: I hadn't read the question probably and, after reading everyone else's discussions, realised that I hadn't chosen a game. OK, for the bronze key it would be Starforce from 1984 (same year as Ghostbusters, coincidentally). I owned the high score tables way back when and hopefully it wouldn't take long for my memory reflexes to kick back in after the first couple of waves. Damn, now I have the theme music stuck in my head!

 

I think I may have touched on why he was obsessed with the 80’s in my endless waffle earlier when discussing my own love of the 80’s. When you are younger you just lose yourself in something more readily and are prepared to watch movies over and over again until they become your life. It also sounded like Halliday had a pretty crappy childhood and losing himself in other worlds must have seemed like a great escape. He sounded like a reclusive child and so his family home would be where he spent most of his time and the place where most of his memories got created.

 

Right, apologies to everyone for all of that. Both the length of the post and that I was kind of writing in a stream of consciousness without any real care for readability! Now I have got that off my chest I think I can crack on with the next chapters now. Really can’t wait. Thanks for setting this up, Bucknerd. I doubt I would have gotten around to reading this anytime soon without this reading group and it has been great fun.

Edited January 12, 2016 by AndyLish79

[kittyxiii]

Yay, discussion time!

 

What are your thoughts on the book?
Before I started I was worried about the references littered throughout the book (since that's one of the only things I'd heard about it before hand ) in case that I would get lost amongst them but it turns out my worries are for naught - of course there are still some moments where they'll reference something and I'll have no idea what they're talking about but I'm currently enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would!

 

Did this book make you care more about the eighties?

Maybe not care, but definitely curious - while I've heard of a lot of the media referenced in the book there are items that sound interesting that I'll look into more when the book is over. Also, an 80's movie marathon session may be in order in the near future

 

How does this narrative make you feel about Occulus/VR?

It makes me wonder if we'll be able to achieve something like OASIS or even SAO in the near future - of course, people will try to create VR games like the ones mentioned in RPO and SAO and while I'm not sure if we'll be able to completely replicate those programs I can see us getting pretty close. I'm so down for virtual schools though, they sound a lot better than our schools

 

Have you ever played Joust? (It's hard as balls)

Nope! I'll take your (and the books) word for it though

 

What retro game and movie would you have guarding your gates?
Oh man. This is tough since I haven't really played or watched many retro games/movies I would maybe go for Frogger aanndd Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

Why do you think the creator of OASIS was obsessed, not only with the eighties, but also recreating his own childhood home?

It seems like his childhood was a pivotal point in who he became later on in his life, especially since it seems like due to his upbringing with his parents games were an escape (of which he then gave the same experience to the children of the present, like Wade, although it's a lot more literal). I'll be interested to see how else his childhood will be implemented in OASIS and the next 2 keys since I would assume that something happened in the 80s that probably made him become so obsessed with everything about it.

 

I'll continue reading until the next checkpoint tomorrow since it's getting late - I'm excited to see what happens next!

Edited January 11, 2016 by kittyxiii

[KayoAye]

What are your thoughts on the book?

I love learning and reading about pop culture/nerdom history so when I originally heard that his book was one big love note to the 80s I was excited. A few pages in when Halliday's Will had nods to John Hughes, Heathers, DnD, and Duran Duran I was hooked. It could be argued that the frequent diversions into 80s minutia isn't the best prose, but it's part of the reason I enjoy the book.

 

Did this book make you care more about the eighties?

I've always been a fan of 80s pop culture because my sisters are a bit older than I am, so while I'd be considered a 90s kid I grew up learning every word to Clue, Princess Bride, and Goonies. This book didn't make me MORE interested in the 80, but gave me way more directions to go in if I ever got bored. My copy is full of annotations and underlined references.

 

How does this narrative make you feel about Occulus/VR?

I don't know much about Occulus or modern VR, but if they're steps toward the Oasis I'm on board. When Wade originally described the haptic gloves and visor the first thing I thought of was the Virtual Boy.

 

Have you ever played Joust?

I played it once on an arcade cabinet and Bucknerd's right, hard as balls.

 

What retro game and movie would you have guarding your gates?

My favorite 80s game, or the one I've played the most at least, would have to be the original King's Quest. I'll still boot it up and try to speedrun/100% it about once a year. As for movies, I'd have to go for Clue or Princess Bride. The chance to give the to do the To The Pain speech would be amazing, although, on second thought, cliff scaling and sword fighting might be beyond me.   Maybe just Clue.

 

@Bucknerd Thanks for coordinating this, but don't forget to post your thought too.

@AndyLish Don't worry about the stream of consciousness post, it still made an interesting read!

 

I figured breaking between the Copper Key and 1st Gate would be difficult, which is why I originally suggested the alternate schedule. I hope the other breaks work out as well as this one. 

[StrickenBiged]

I've fallen behind because I was finishing up a couple of Powers story archs. So I'm only in 0002 at the moment. However, I've read the book before so I think I can get involved anyway. 

 

First off, I think Cline does a good job of world-building. The post-global-warming, ice-caps-have-melted, everyone's-escaped-into-VR world is plausible, at least. I do feel there might be a little bit too much dystopia in the opening chapters, but maybe humans really would be that shitty to one another in that situation. 

 

Re-reading it, I was struck by how similar the conceit is to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, albeit with a few modern twists. Impoverished young protagonist, mysterious benefactor, global competition to be his heir, and so on.

 

How does it make me feel about the '80s... Well, I sort of missed the '80s as I was a little kid then, growing up in a part of the world that didn't have satellite TV yet. My childhood cultural influences consisted of Disney movies on VHS and Roald Dahl books on cassette tape when in the car. But I think the book does a good job of explaining what's up. You don't need to have seen all of these things Cline name-drops to understand their significance to Percival or the other gunters.

 

Edit:

 

Ok, so I've caught up a bit more. I have to say, I was less of a fan of the Basement chapter the second time around. It did get a bit like a dick swinging competition between Aech and Percival, especially so once the other guy turned up. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh... after all, as an extension of the Internet, maybe this sort of behaviour is appropriate amongst Gunters and in OASIS generally.

 

Just read up to the bit in the Latin class where Percival realises that the copper key might be on Ludus. Seems a bit surprising that no other gunters had made the connection between learn=play in latin before.

 

I'll keep updating this post once I've caught up a bit more. Once I'm on the same schedule I'll start posting normally. 

Edited January 14, 2016 by StrickenBiged

[Hemiak]

What are your thoughts on the book?

  I'm really enjoying it so far.  It was incredibly difficult not to just read ahead and be done with it.  I think Cline does a good job with introducing 80s stuff throughout the book.

 

Did this book make you care more about the eighties?

  I was born in 1979, so the first few years of the 80s are a blur obviously.  I feel like I experienced enough of them to not really worry about the parts I missed.   

 

How does this narrative make you feel about Occulus/VR?

  I feel like this kind of environment would be a mixed blessing for gamers.  Obviously it would be an incredibly immersive experience and lead to some truly amazing games.  But at the same time spending so much time wrapped up sitting in one place and pretty much giving up on the real world would lead to a whole slew of new problems obviously.  I still won't be purchasing an Occ or PsVR.  I'm an extremely frugal gamer.  There are way too many games I haven't played out there that I can get for $5-20, I have no need to spend $60 on a brand new game, or several $100 on a new console.

 

Have you ever played Joust? (It's hard as balls)

  Yup.  As I said, being a child of the 80s I've played most of the games he's mentioned so far.  I also played some table top D&D on occasion with buddies in high school, though that was never our go-to solution for Friday night fun.  I never owned an Atari, but I had a Commodore 64 which had many of the same games.  We didn't actually own Joust, but I got to spend a lot of time with Centipede and Jumpman and other classics.

 

What retro game and movie would you have guarding your gates?

This is an incredibly tough decision for me.  Again, I didn't play many Atari games, so I'll go with one of two classic NES titles that I absolutely loved.  Blaster Master.  It's a 2d action game, where you take over a boy who's pet frog jumped onto a radioactive container in his backyard, mutated to the size of an elephant, and proceeds to fall into a hole in the ground, pulling the boy in after him.  At the bottom the boy finds a space age tank and a suit that fits a boy of about 10 perfectly.  He jumps in the tank and sets off to find his frog.  There are 8 levels and by the end your tank can climb walls, stick to the ceiling, and even fly for short periods.  I rented this game about 30 weekends in a row from our local game store, since we were too poor to actually purchase new games except on Christmas and Birthdays.  I've never actually beaten the full game (I apologize) and it's one of my great (easily correctable) gaming regrets. 

 

The movie is waaaaaay easier.  Tron of course.  This is still, after 30 years, my favorite movie of all time.  It also seems perfectly designed for something like this.  If you don't know what this is, punch yourself, then go look it up, the original is cheesy, but still better than the 2nd one released a couple years ago.

 

Why do you think the creator of OASIS was obsessed, not only with the eighties, but also recreating his own childhood home?

  Part of it is like other people said, he grew up in the 80s and it made a huge impact in his life.  I believe it said somewhere that he probably had Asperger's syndrome (a type of autism) which makes people focus on certain things and unable to let go and move on.  I just think he felt lonely throughout his entire life, and wanted other people to identify with.  Instead of stepping out of his box and looking for common things with other people, he created this elaborate game to "force" other people to step into his world, achieving the same thing through very different means.

 

Bonus Thoughts

Anyone else see a plot twist coming with Aech?  He's too good of a friend it seems.  I'm thinking there is definitely something there.  Maybe he's a sixer spy, or it's something simple like he's a she or... something, I have no idea, but I see some kind of twist coming there.  Can't wait to find out, but I'm guessing something like this will come much deeper into the book.

 

Also, I totally called that he would run into Art3mis.  After the first time he mentions her it seemed like she just had to show up in the book later.

[Edunstar84]

What are your thoughts on the book?

 

I'm loving it so far. It's very exciting, and I can't wait to read more!

 

Did this book make you care more about the eighties?

 

I LOVE the 80's! I always have. Well, maybe except some of the fashion. I could give that a pass. But I was born in the mid-80's and grew up watching some, if not, most of the movies Cline mentioned in his book. My favourite director is John Hughes, and my favourite movie is The Breakfast Club. I even had the poster hanging on my university wall. You have no idea how many times I watched it as a kid.

 

How does this narrative make you feel about Occulus/VR?

 

A bit nervous but excited. I'm sure a few decades from now the technology will be like SAO. On the other hand, like Hemiak stated above, there might be related problems that maybe we're not prepared for. It's pretty scary to think that OASIS was so much better than the real world that it was able to create an educational system. I think that's absolutely crazy!! We as humans are very tactile. We need to be out with others to play, to have contact or whatever. Though I would get one in the future, definitely after the first generation.

 

Have you ever played Joust? (It's hard as balls)

 

I've never even heard of the game, sadly. Actually most of the games of that era, my family couldn't afford. 

 

What retro game and movie would you have guarding your gates?

 

That's hard for me to answer since the earliest games I played were from arcades in the pizzeria, down the street where I used to live. They were Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man. The earliest home console that I played on was NES. I used to play one of the Mario games (I can't remember which one). I don't know...maybe Zelda Ocarina of Time.

 

Why do you think the creator of OASIS was obsessed, not only with the eighties, but also recreating his own childhood home?

 

I think he simply wished or wanted to go back, maybe because of nostalgia. And since he was so single-minded and obsessed about that era, it just made it seem more profound in his view.

 

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this book and glad it was chosen.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Edunstar84

[Edunstar84]

Reached the second checkpoint already. I couldn't put the book down!

[Hemiak]

I'm there too.