Why do we hate it again?

It's a modern day Divine Comedy

I was in this /tv/ thread...

Bump

> The hardcover looks worse than the paperback

How did they manage to do this?

Cmon, somebody post the juicy parts.

Post some excerpts you fags

>deal with it, kid

Someone post the "poem" written by the author

That's actually pretty amusing

It's the American Psycho of 90's techno-nostalgia fetishism

Some readers might identify with the (caricature) protagonist, but that is the case for many works. I couldn't finish it, it was too grotesque and accurate, reminding me of so much of current internet mono culture that has grown out of a previous generation's "counter culture". Ernest Cline has done an excellent job in that regard.

Yeah, it's actually misunderstood work of a genius. A great satire on a modern society.

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literally kill me

How is this even readable

widespread literacy was a mistake

literally not any different than people on Veeky Forums obsessing over "the canon" and collecting useless tidbits of fictional trivia just because a book is old and famous

When I first read this I thought it was Ernest Cline talking about his research for writing the novel

>literally not any different
it is literally very different

>the greatest works of literature ever produced are on par with videogames

This is just a list of random shit. :/

HOW? Joyce and Pynchon namedrop all the chic authors you're supposed to like and that's somehow deep? And most "classic" authors today were low-brow trash in their time, but now you say "omg soo deep old knowledge wow." This is why no one reads anymore, there's nothing to be found but stuffy pretentiousness

>discussing the works of the canon is literally the same as making a list of 80s kids shows crap

I'll admit Bleeding Edge came close at times

Most of these "greatest works of literature" have nothing to say so they hide behind the false idols of obscurantism. If you can't convey your ideas clearly and concisely, you aren't worth listening to

GUIS you are discussing this piece of shit book. For shame. Now hide this thread and go read.

Mention specific examples of these books that have "nothing to say."

Pop culture is more relevant to the lives of people today than the endless droning of some long dead, aristocratic white men

A piece of literature isn't just a vehicle for an idea, it's an aesthetic work in and of itself

Popularity and quality aren't the same. Being discerning is a good thing.

When it came to my research, I never took any shortcuts. Over the past forty years, I'd worked my way down the entire western canon. Plato. Aristotle. Cicero. Livy. Herodotus. Augustine. Aquinas. Dante. Did I mention the Sumerians? I read every novel in order to be on Shakespeare's plateau, though I'm fully self-aware insofar as Shakespeare's genius being a shade of mystery.

And but so I didn't stop there.

I also read ever single book throughout every archaic library I could find. If it might have made me the greatest writer since Shakespeare, something like Yeats's Collected Poems, Goethe's ouvre, Plutarch, re-reading Aristotle for the fiftieth time because of my Jesuit education, then I re-read it until I knew every line by heart.

I devoured each of what is genuinely referred to as a canonical book: Gilgamesh (in the original Sumerian), The New Testament, Hesiod, the Greek tragedians, and Aristophanes (in The Frogs he preferred to pretend that Euripides wasn't a good a playwright as Aeschylus or Sophocles. I tended to agree [by the way: kekekek!])

I also absorbed the complete collections of every great author before my time. Ovid, Homer, Virgil, Martial, Seneca, Marlowe, Petrarch, Kyd, Hobbes. And, of course, Kevin Smith.

I spent three months studying every book of the Old Testament and memorizing all the times a female character might have shit her pants.

"Genesis 25:1 - Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah."

You could say I covered all the bases.

its p kino senpai, defo reccomend. i saw the movie so i decided i would read the book, really good stuff

are you the retard who says capeshit is modern mithology on par with the iliad?

They are.

People would unironically praise Joyce for this

wtf why i cannot write senpai lol

If this was in the middle of a novel it would also be retarded. The problem isn't just the subject of the author's obsession, but his autistic writing too.

This is acceptable though lmao

you prole fucks will literally argue about anything. this stinky turd for boomers really riled your jimmies.

kekekekek

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>50 responses later
>not a single valid criticism other than muh 80s references
I knew it, Veeky Forums is still king of keeping up appearances. All talk and no substance

It being a self-insert fantasy about video games isn't enough? The premise itself doesn't scream "this is trash" loudly enough already?

Wait so its unironically about a guy getting stuck in a videogame?
That’s literal fanfiction tier.

Meme YA SJW cat scratch.

Plato literally wrote fanfiction about his senpai and you people treat him like a god

>I'm mildly familiar with pop culture

KEK. This is how deluded people today are about their "knowledge" of trivial shit

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oh GOD is this true?

Just read the first few chapters and stop if you don't like it.
It's an easy read so those chapters will fly by and you won't waste too much time if you don't like it. Personally I think it gets way too much shit thrown its way but the book definitely falls apart at the end.

>Only the meek get punched. The bold survive
THE WEAK SHOULD FEAR THE STRONG

That aside, nice list of good stuff, bad stuff and average stuff. Imagine getting paid for writing that.

The difference is that I don't publish my dairy. Desu.

jésus how pseud can one get

No. They're either trolling or retarded.
It doesn't critique the MC at all, he succeeds in everything. Ernest Cline himself is also a cringeworthy, obnoxious fuck that's exactly the kind of person you would expect to write this shit book.

This
Check yourselves

I don't, I think Plato's a faggot

Yes, don't listen to the other guy. It uses Brechtian framing techniques to criticize the video game consumer culture. It's probably the greatest book in the western canon too.

Why do science fiction authors and "normal" ones differ in their formatting so much?
Looking at the size of the pharagraphs in and

Compare the protagonist of Ready Player One's self-awareness to Dostoyevsky's Underground Man or Ignatius from Confederacy of Dunces Were you to post in a subredidit or /co/ or /tv/ you could find this type of person, and interact with them. They don't (overtly, consciously) critique themselves but exist as useful caricatures of a type of person the author was intently fixated upon exploring.

> I
> I
> I
> I

I find it difficult to believe an author could write a narrator this way without it being an obvious foil, but it is entirely possible. Without Cline's intent, (but knowing he is aware of and possibly enjoyed all the 80s and 90s media listed in the passage), the mere repetition of the narrator-as-subject appears comically absurd.

Did Cline intend to write a plucky and autistic self-insert (can you imagine how much more ham-fisted this appeal to millennials would be if it were written post-election 2016?) or a caricature of a specific undercurrent of the 21st century ego, fed a steady diet of commodified nostalgia, starring in it's own linear hero's journey?
Does it matter, when the former could be used to explain and attempt to deal with the latter?

Personally I hope that Cline hates the protagonist and everything it stands for, and is fully aware that those in his audience who resonate with the protagonist (who he effectively lampoons) will sail him into retirement by buying the book, the video game, the t shirt, tickets to the movie, and so on, and so on.

It's only appeal is coming across some reference to some 80s memorabilia and going Ooo ooo ooo! I know that!

The premise is absurd,and how this schlock caught Spielberg's eye baffles me. A lich playing Joust ? Mske THAT cinematic significant, sunshine.

Because it's a book and Veeky Forums needs something to hate.

Big if true

whol up, you sayin some kind of mummy be flyin around on an ostrich and shit trying to avoid pterodactyls and knock some other fool off his big bird? might be good

I see your point. It's like how Rick & Morty fans sperged out over McDonald's szechuan sauce because, the writers made it Rick's motivation, but it was really an absurdist jab on why he went on adventures. It went completely over heads of the fans, and the "You have to have a high IQ to enjoy Rick & Morty" meme is the icing on the cake. Nerds are fucking retarded.

You wish it was that interesting.

The lich and the protagonist play 2 player on an arcade console. And the lich should be only a skull with gems that devour your soul. It's from a ADnD module called Tomb of Horrors, which I played a thousand years ago. The author should know their source material if they want to write about such things.

yeah I have a passing knowledge of the tomb of horrors, it was a dungeon purposely made to troll the pcs. sucks. I'm not saying I want one, but I am pretty sure I need a live action adaptation of Joust now ala Battleship, but ya know with competent casting and a sense of humor

>Stephenson
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

God, I hate that asshole.

My radio frequency teacher really likes this book, and says the movie is gonna be good. Isn't the book just fan fiction though?

Isn't the Divine Comedy just fanfiction? :O

DELET

Literally a self-insert male power fantasy

>s-shakespeare was lowbrow!

stop spreading this meme. playwrights were no lowbrow.

I watched part of that episode (it was on when Samurai Jack was supposed to air), and I interpreted it as a ridiculous throwaway gag by using an obscure one-shot fast food item.

aw man i feel bad for the girl in that picture

well now at least she can learn to put down the wizard books and pick up the cookbooks to make satisfying meals for her male provider and family

Agreed, spaghetti sauce is hard to wash out of clothes.

And even if Shakespeare were lowbrow that would be an extremely clear indication that the "lowbrow" of the 16th century surpasses the "highbrow" of today

I remember reading this during my "nerdy" years and I fucking hated this part.
And when he talked about religion and shit like that

He's just a faggot, you're overthrowing this. A faggot for 80s nostalgia. Yawn inducing.

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This is the most reddit cringe inducing try hard pleb garbage I have ever read. Worse than fifty shades of grey I'm not fucking kidding