Dystopia Land discussion
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Ready Player One
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Ready Player One
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For those of you who have read it, do you think it is a dystopia?
Hi Ellie, I recently finished reading 'Ready Player One' and found the dystopia elements of the book a little lacking. While there was some discussion of the dystopian setting in the 'real world', it was never the core focus of the book and was never really challenged by the protagonist. I think the latter point is the most critical when defining a dystopia - the dystopian setting must in some way drive the protagonist and present the main challenge/conflict. Instead, Ready Player One, was more of a sci-fi adventure with dominant quest characteristics. Having said that, I do think it picked up a core theme/archetype of dystopian literature - the High Tech Utopia vs the Savage Natural World . I have been exploring this theme/archetype in my blog, using Ready Player One, Under the Never Sky and Brave New World as examples. Let me know what you think!
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Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "Hi. You have posted two links in your blog URL, so I'll allow myself to post the correct link: https://bit.ly/Ninz58"Thanks Ellie!
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(last edited Mar 10, 2014 04:47AM)
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I guess I can't see the Oasis as the enemy, since no one is forced to use it, it is their own choices the people have to battle - to use it or not. I understand that most will opt in for the free education and work provided there, but again. The Oasis doesn't seem lie a conspiracy but asserted(?) by the users
I agree - I think the 'real world' was the dystopia and OASIS the purported 'utopia'. There are definitely dystopian elements in the real world - environmental destruction, urban overcrowding and unsafe slum quarters, economic disparity, etc - and it was nice that the powerful overlord was a commercial entity, instead of the ubiquitous totalitarian government, but the dominant setting within OASIS and the goal of finding the objects (and getting the fortune), moved it away from the dystopian genre. (view spoiler)
Great discussion. My bar for a story being dystopian is pretty low - is it better than our current world? Is it a future in which I would like to live? For the real world in Ready Player One, the answer is no. The OASIS sounds great, but it's also a money trap and look what it does to people, makes them lonely hermits or turns them into indentured slaves in some cases. Not a very utopian outlook either. I've always viewed dystopians as character-driven stories, where the world is just another character. Challenging the world order is not that important to me as a reader.I loved the book, though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone not inclined towards video games or that didn't grow up in the 70s or 80s. A lot of the name-dropping and references went right over my head, and I consider myself nerdier than most!
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I didn't grow up in the 80s, but 90s. I think a lot of younger people are also reading it. Although I can imagine that knowing what is he talking about is a bonus, the book is still readable if you don't know a thing.
I feel like I am too strict about the genres. For example, I didn't think a post-apocalyptic book is a dystopian genre, but I am beginning to understand why people see it that way. I always thought a dystopia must be imposed by people and have some kind of organization. That it affects society. And what society is there in "The Road" for example.
Those are some really interesting insights. What a makes a book a dystopian? A lot of dystopians would indeed fit your definition, as lots of them involve totalitarian governments, but is it possible there could be a world that is dystopian without government of some sort? Lots of books also combine the two. Atwood's Oryx and Crake comes to mind. A dystopian society becomes a post-apocalyptic survivor society. I'm not sure because of the cataclysmic event the world is not still dystopian. I guess I always viewed the post-apocalyptic genre as a subgenre of dystopians, as still being a commentary on where the world is headed and how our humanity will survive.
There is one aspect in that book, that i myself found a little bit disturbing and that may make it a little bite more dystopian: the 80's. Just think about that: you have this future world which is not very nice, so everybody is escaping into the OASIS... but event that is not a nice place, because of all that nostalgic garbage stuff of which it is full. A virtual World where people still play Pac Man? A generation of teenagers who watch Monty Pytons Movies for 150 times? Listen to WHAM songs around the clock?
What kind of (virtuell) world is that? I dont want to live there.
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(last edited Mar 20, 2014 07:46AM)
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Just think about that: you have this future world which ..."
Hah, I get you and I agree with you. But what is most disturbing, well apart from the 80s is the cult toward Anorak.
Edit: Welcome to the group Klaus
Rating: 4.29
Genre: YA Dystopia
Blurb: It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?