minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Even more so than the crutch of over reliance on references to better media, one of the worst things about RPO is that it’s a copy of a copy. All good art involves stealing and referencing and taking influence, but RPO takes all of that wholesale from things that are essentially its first cousins. It doesn’t borrow from anything unusual or interesting or different. It just cribs wholesale from a full slate of the exact same 80s adventure movies and cartoons that it desperately wants to be and ends up being a pale imitation with nothing to say worth remembering.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
+1
HacksawJ. Duggan Esq.Wrestler at LawRegistered Userregular
Bright was such a mess that had no idea what kind of movie it wanted to be.
+11
Johnny ChopsockyScootaloo! We have to cook!Grillin' HaysenburgersRegistered Userregular
I was on a road trip with my dad and we listened to maybe the first hour of the Ready Player One audiobook before I told him I would grab the wheel and kill us both if he didn't change it.
The only way to listen to Ready Player One is to listen to Michael J Nelson's (of MST3K fame) podcast (named '372 Pages We'll Never Get Back') episodes about it. Sadly, some of the episodes concerning Ready Player One are missing on Spotify.
I was skeptical of Ready Player One when it first came out, but both of my roommates at the time liked it and up till then they had pretty reliable taste in media so I figured I'd give it a fair shot
Borrowed one of their copies and I didn't make it 10 pages in. If it hadn't been someone else's copy I literally would have thrown it in the trash. RPO is awful
Like yeah the content and themes of Tom Clancy books suck but at least they're (generally) competently written and at worst they're just forgettable. RPO is offensive in its top-to-bottom shittitude
Having read Clancy books and RPO, I can speak with authority that, whatever rightful criticism for jingoism or paternalism you want to lay at the feet of the former, they were at least fun to read and workable prose. RPO was boring along with being poorly written. (Not to mention its more 'modern' misogyny and other judgmental perspectives.)
Also it's a Dad Book. Why would a young white guy read a book about 80s trivia?
I do not understand or agree with this assertion.
As someone who grew up in the 80s & nerdy, Ready Player One was marketed directly to that demographic as a fun, light dystopian scifi adventure. I read it shortly after release thanks to my local library, while it still had good word of mouth. Having read it, I filed it into "bad" and "baby's first dystopia", best suited to indiscriminate tweens desperate for reading material after chewing through Hunger Games-alikes.
The majority of the demographic might be dads now, but in 2010, the oldest were just into their early 30s. So whether talking about those young men, or a contemporary audience of young men now, it's still unfortunately relevant to the current trend with the inundation of media tailored for 80s nostalgia.
Also, like... why wouldn't a young white guy read any given thing? ...I'm a 40s queer Indigenous neurodivergent woman -- what am I 'supposed' to read? If nothing else, young people are notorious for reviving old trends to then remix.
I'm not trying to be snippy, I just find it an alien assumption.
I was skeptical of Ready Player One when it first came out, but both of my roommates at the time liked it and up till then they had pretty reliable taste in media so I figured I'd give it a fair shot
Borrowed one of their copies and I didn't make it 10 pages in. If it hadn't been someone else's copy I literally would have thrown it in the trash. RPO is awful
Like yeah the content and themes of Tom Clancy books suck but at least they're (generally) competently written and at worst they're just forgettable. RPO is offensive in its top-to-bottom shittitude
You missed the really excellent list of Brands on the eleventh page that would have surely hooked you
The irony is that you might expect me to be exactly the target audience/demographic for RP1. But no, all the bits of it I read and saw just had me thinking, "this is awful."
More than anything, it made me think of how my generation grew up in the long shadow of the Boomers and their cultural hegemony. But the lesson Cline seemed to take from that was "someday it'll be our turn to inflict all of our stuff on another gen."
the part in RPO where in like, the first chapter, cline basically spends an entire page listing off the things he liked as a kid is so crazy that if it was on archive of our own or something i'd think man this is some terrible writing.
and it's in a published book! presumably an editor read it! what the fuck happened?
I didn't see the movie, but I thought the beginning of Ready Player One was kind of interesting, like the world sort of living in the internet, stuff like that. The rest of it was not good. The main romance is just the worst, like the girl is not interested in him at all but he's in love with her after like one date, but he saves the world and gets the girl anyway.
+2
LasbrookIt takes a lot to make a stewWhen it comes to me and youRegistered Userregular
The only worthwhile part of RPO is that movie poster, and later book cover, where they gave him like a 10ft long leg.
the part in RPO where in like, the first chapter, cline basically spends an entire page listing off the things he liked as a kid is so crazy that if it was on archive of our own or something i'd think man this is some terrible writing.
and it's in a published book! presumably an editor read it! what the fuck happened?
To be fair, I asked the same thing about Twilight.
I didn't see the movie, but I thought the beginning of Ready Player One was kind of interesting, like the world sort of living in the internet, stuff like that. The rest of it was not good. The main romance is just the worst, like the girl is not interested in him at all but he's in love with her after like one date, but he saves the world and gets the girl anyway.
It's amazing that there's an entire generation that thought Say Anything was an instruction manual. Just the absolute worst.
There isn't really a "turn", it's just a lot of people being upset that it's bad in a way that THEY take exception to, rather than bad in one of the socially acceptable (pro-torture, pro-racism, anti-democracy) ways.
Or I guess what I'm saying is: there's MUCH worse.
I think it's high time someone took a pro-Ernest Cline turn on this forum, and I'd like to support your effort. Fuck yeah, it's not that bad - like, look at the horrible shit people post with no shame - how can Ready Player One be as bad as this (and therefore good???):
I've noticed that there don't seem to be any porno movies
that are made for guys like me.
All the porn I've come across
was targeted at beer-swilling sports bar dwelling alpha-males
Men who like their women stupid and submissive
Men who can only get it up for monosyllabic cock-hungry nymphos
with gargantuan breasts and a three-word vocabulary
Adult films are populated with these collagen-injected
liposuctioned women
Many of whom have resorted to surgery and self-mutilation
in an attempt to look the way they have been told to look.
These aren't real women. They're objects.
And these movies aren't erotic. They're pathetic.
These vacuum-headed fuck bunnies don't turn me on.
They disgust me.
And it's not that I'm against pornography.
I mean, I'm a guy. And guys need porn.
Fact.
"Like a preacher needs pain, like a needle needs a vein,"
Guys need porn.
But I don't wanna watch this misogynist he-man woman-hater porn.
I want porno movies that are made with guys like me in mind:
Guys who know that the sexiest thing in the world
is a woman who is smarter than you are.
You can have the whole cheerleading squad,
I want the girl in the tweed skirt and the horn-rimmed glasses:
Betty Finnebowski, the valedictorian.
Oh yes.
First I want to copy her Trig homework,
and then I want to make mad, passionate love to her
for hours and hours
until she reluctantly asks if we can stop
because she doesn't want to miss Battlestar Galactica.
Summa cum laude, baby!
That is what I call erotic.
But do you ever see that kind of a woman in a contemporary adult film?
No.
Which is why I'm going to start writing and directing Geek Porno.
I shall be the quintessential Nerd Porn Auteur.
And the women in my porno movies will be the kind
that drive nerds like me mad with desire.
I'm talking about the girls that used to fuck up the grading curve.
The girls in the Latin Club and the National Honor Society.
Chicks with weird clothes, braces, four eyes, and 4.0 GPAs.
Brainy articulate bookworms, with MENSA cards in their purses
and chips on their shoulders.
My porn starlets will come in all shapes and sizes.
My porn starlets will be too busy working on their PhD to go to the gym.
In my kind of porno movies the girls wouldn't even have to get naked.
They'd just take the guys down to the rec room and
beat them repeatedly at chess
and then talk to them for hours about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
or the underlying social metaphors in the Aliens movies.
Buy stock in some hand cream companies
because there is about to be a major shortage.
And I'm not just talking about straight porn. Oh no.
There should be fuck films for my nerd brethren
of all sexual orientations.
Gay nerd porn flicks with titles like "Dungeons and Drag-queens."
This idea is a fucking gold mine.
I am gonna make millions,
because this country is full of database programmers
and electronics engineers
and they aren't getting the loving they so desperately need.
And you can help . . .
If you're an intelligent woman is interested in breaking into the adult film industry,
and if you can tell me the name of Luke Skywalker's home planet,
then you are hired.
It doesn't matter if you think you're overweight or unattractive.
It doesn't matter if you don't think you're beautiful.
You are beautiful. . .
And I will make you a star.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Now, if I only knew who wrote that terrible poem that makes Ernest Cline look great in comparison. Oh well.
Just gotta support my guy in the fight to support Ernest Cline.
#nostalgia #oh yeah #gotta get it #feel the burn (and by burn I mean that feeling Luke Skywalker must have felt when his hand was cut off - remember that, dads? It's Star Wars!)
This post was sponsored by Tom Cruise.
+1
BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
*looks upon "poetry"*
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
There isn't really a "turn", it's just a lot of people being upset that it's bad in a way that THEY take exception to, rather than bad in one of the socially acceptable (pro-torture, pro-racism, anti-democracy) ways.
Or I guess what I'm saying is: there's MUCH worse.
I think it's high time someone took a pro-Ernest Cline turn on this forum, and I'd like to support your effort. Fuck yeah, it's not that bad - like, look at the horrible shit people post with no shame - how can Ready Player One be as bad as this (and therefore good???):
I've ...resorted to ... dwelling ... in...a...gargantuan ... Battlestar. I call ...in ..Latin .. and four eyes ... come in all shapes and sizes. My ... brethren.. desperately ... help ...and...tell me the name of...home
Keep fighting the good fight!
Now, if I only knew who wrote that terrible poem that makes Ernest Cline look great in comparison. Oh well.
Seems fine I like space horror
Styrofoam Sammich on
+3
HacksawJ. Duggan Esq.Wrestler at LawRegistered Userregular
And here I thought I couldn't despise his writing any more than I already did. It seems I was wrong!
I believe that's an excerpt from Ernest Cline's 2001 collection of his spoken-word slam poetry, The Importance of Being Ernest. It got a second edition in 2013 after the success of Ready Player One.
Ernest Cline is a poet, basically a modern-day James Joyce. One can but wonder what fascinating tidbits a hypothetical Letters of Ernest Cline will give us a century from now.
0
BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
Ernest Cline is a poet, basically a modern-day James Joyce. One can but wonder what fascinating tidbits a hypothetical Letters of Ernest Cline will give us a century from now.
I have a different (though equally likely to be looked upon as epochal) proposition, I beat EC to death with a copy of Finnigan's Wake
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
Ernest Cline is a poet, basically a modern-day James Joyce. One can but wonder what fascinating tidbits a hypothetical Letters of Ernest Cline will give us a century from now.
I have a different (though equally likely to be looked upon as epochal) proposition, I beat EC to death with a copy of Finnigan's Wake
Ernest Cline is a poet, basically a modern-day James Joyce. One can but wonder what fascinating tidbits a hypothetical Letters of Ernest Cline will give us a century from now.
I have a different (though equally likely to be looked upon as epochal) proposition, I beat EC to death with a copy of Finnigan's Wake
I’d recommended Ulysses. It is a bit thicker.
never ends, it just loops around, yeah but with Finnegan's Wake the beating
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
Ernest Cline is a poet, basically a modern-day James Joyce. One can but wonder what fascinating tidbits a hypothetical Letters of Ernest Cline will give us a century from now.
I have a different (though equally likely to be looked upon as epochal) proposition, I beat EC to death with a copy of Finnigan's Wake
But then how will we read the posthumous letters addressed to his dirty little farting fuckbird?
Posts
bright was the real transmedia event of our generation
The only way to listen to Ready Player One is to listen to Michael J Nelson's (of MST3K fame) podcast (named '372 Pages We'll Never Get Back') episodes about it. Sadly, some of the episodes concerning Ready Player One are missing on Spotify.
Steam ID XBL: JohnnyChopsocky PSN:Stud_Beefpile WiiU:JohnnyChopsocky
Borrowed one of their copies and I didn't make it 10 pages in. If it hadn't been someone else's copy I literally would have thrown it in the trash. RPO is awful
Like yeah the content and themes of Tom Clancy books suck but at least they're (generally) competently written and at worst they're just forgettable. RPO is offensive in its top-to-bottom shittitude
Having read Clancy books and RPO, I can speak with authority that, whatever rightful criticism for jingoism or paternalism you want to lay at the feet of the former, they were at least fun to read and workable prose. RPO was boring along with being poorly written. (Not to mention its more 'modern' misogyny and other judgmental perspectives.)
It's Okay to Be Mad About Multiple Things.
As someone who grew up in the 80s & nerdy, Ready Player One was marketed directly to that demographic as a fun, light dystopian scifi adventure. I read it shortly after release thanks to my local library, while it still had good word of mouth. Having read it, I filed it into "bad" and "baby's first dystopia", best suited to indiscriminate tweens desperate for reading material after chewing through Hunger Games-alikes.
The majority of the demographic might be dads now, but in 2010, the oldest were just into their early 30s. So whether talking about those young men, or a contemporary audience of young men now, it's still unfortunately relevant to the current trend with the inundation of media tailored for 80s nostalgia.
Also, like... why wouldn't a young white guy read any given thing? ...I'm a 40s queer Indigenous neurodivergent woman -- what am I 'supposed' to read? If nothing else, young people are notorious for reviving old trends to then remix.
I'm not trying to be snippy, I just find it an alien assumption.
You missed the really excellent list of Brands on the eleventh page that would have surely hooked you
More than anything, it made me think of how my generation grew up in the long shadow of the Boomers and their cultural hegemony. But the lesson Cline seemed to take from that was "someday it'll be our turn to inflict all of our stuff on another gen."
and it's in a published book! presumably an editor read it! what the fuck happened?
Steam
To be fair, I asked the same thing about Twilight.
It's amazing that there's an entire generation that thought Say Anything was an instruction manual. Just the absolute worst.
I think it's high time someone took a pro-Ernest Cline turn on this forum, and I'd like to support your effort. Fuck yeah, it's not that bad - like, look at the horrible shit people post with no shame - how can Ready Player One be as bad as this (and therefore good???):
I've noticed that there don't seem to be any porno movies
that are made for guys like me.
All the porn I've come across
was targeted at beer-swilling sports bar dwelling alpha-males
Men who like their women stupid and submissive
Men who can only get it up for monosyllabic cock-hungry nymphos
with gargantuan breasts and a three-word vocabulary
Adult films are populated with these collagen-injected
liposuctioned women
Many of whom have resorted to surgery and self-mutilation
in an attempt to look the way they have been told to look.
These aren't real women. They're objects.
And these movies aren't erotic. They're pathetic.
These vacuum-headed fuck bunnies don't turn me on.
They disgust me.
And it's not that I'm against pornography.
I mean, I'm a guy. And guys need porn.
Fact.
"Like a preacher needs pain, like a needle needs a vein,"
Guys need porn.
But I don't wanna watch this misogynist he-man woman-hater porn.
I want porno movies that are made with guys like me in mind:
Guys who know that the sexiest thing in the world
is a woman who is smarter than you are.
You can have the whole cheerleading squad,
I want the girl in the tweed skirt and the horn-rimmed glasses:
Betty Finnebowski, the valedictorian.
Oh yes.
First I want to copy her Trig homework,
and then I want to make mad, passionate love to her
for hours and hours
until she reluctantly asks if we can stop
because she doesn't want to miss Battlestar Galactica.
Summa cum laude, baby!
That is what I call erotic.
But do you ever see that kind of a woman in a contemporary adult film?
No.
Which is why I'm going to start writing and directing Geek Porno.
I shall be the quintessential Nerd Porn Auteur.
And the women in my porno movies will be the kind
that drive nerds like me mad with desire.
I'm talking about the girls that used to fuck up the grading curve.
The girls in the Latin Club and the National Honor Society.
Chicks with weird clothes, braces, four eyes, and 4.0 GPAs.
Brainy articulate bookworms, with MENSA cards in their purses
and chips on their shoulders.
My porn starlets will come in all shapes and sizes.
My porn starlets will be too busy working on their PhD to go to the gym.
In my kind of porno movies the girls wouldn't even have to get naked.
They'd just take the guys down to the rec room and
beat them repeatedly at chess
and then talk to them for hours about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
or the underlying social metaphors in the Aliens movies.
Buy stock in some hand cream companies
because there is about to be a major shortage.
And I'm not just talking about straight porn. Oh no.
There should be fuck films for my nerd brethren
of all sexual orientations.
Gay nerd porn flicks with titles like "Dungeons and Drag-queens."
This idea is a fucking gold mine.
I am gonna make millions,
because this country is full of database programmers
and electronics engineers
and they aren't getting the loving they so desperately need.
And you can help . . .
If you're an intelligent woman is interested in breaking into the adult film industry,
and if you can tell me the name of Luke Skywalker's home planet,
then you are hired.
It doesn't matter if you think you're overweight or unattractive.
It doesn't matter if you don't think you're beautiful.
You are beautiful. . .
And I will make you a star.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Now, if I only knew who wrote that terrible poem that makes Ernest Cline look great in comparison. Oh well.
Or
Man, what?
#nostalgia #oh yeah #gotta get it #feel the burn (and by burn I mean that feeling Luke Skywalker must have felt when his hand was cut off - remember that, dads? It's Star Wars!)
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Pretending not to be intimately familiar with the poetry of Ernest Cline.
Right.
Mega Man.
Mega Man.
Seems fine I like space horror
Ernest Cline can’t be that bad when there’s shit like that posted somewhere, u know?
I believe that's an excerpt from Ernest Cline's 2001 collection of his spoken-word slam poetry, The Importance of Being Ernest. It got a second edition in 2013 after the success of Ready Player One.
Ernest Cline is a poet, basically a modern-day James Joyce. One can but wonder what fascinating tidbits a hypothetical Letters of Ernest Cline will give us a century from now.
I have a different (though equally likely to be looked upon as epochal) proposition, I beat EC to death with a copy of Finnigan's Wake
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Oh!
Oh fuck you
I’d recommended Ulysses. It is a bit thicker.
i told you
never ends, it just loops around, yeah but with Finnegan's Wake the beating
But then how will we read the posthumous letters addressed to his dirty little farting fuckbird?