/lit/ - Literature

I did. I quite liked it, actually. It was like a popcorn flick in book form. I had a good laugh at the ludicrously emo setting and the fact that the bad guys are so inept they might as well literally be storm troopers. Still, it's nice to see a book with characters who have actual depth beyond "I want to fuck a vampire," and this coming from a book that was basically made from the tissue paper after a great big nostalgia wank.

>>5417

OP here. I admit I enjoyed parts of it (otherwise I wouldn't have read the whole thing) but the monologues about atheism, how great the 80's were, and masturbation were too much to handle when combined with the massive plot holes and sloppy writing. It had some great world-building, though.

About two words before I deemed it too dangerous for my brain cells.

Damn, I feel like I was spoiled reading that Harold Bloom short story collection growing up. I'm horrified that kids are reading Throne of Glass, Angelfall, Maze Runner, Fault of Our Stars (affluent white kids dying, oh the humanity!), and Divergent (WORST of them all), and calling these books the *best* writing they've ever read. If I'm ever going to write a book, I am definitely going to make it a YA novel, if only to show all the failures writing under the classification what a quality story for teens is.

I dunno about you guys, but I'm up for a thread where we castigate these rags to hell. I wish the Drunk YA Review guys were still blogging, perhaps I can take up their mantle some time.

>>5424

>two words

It gets much, much worse as you read more. Here's an example:

“I would argue that masturbation is the human animal's most important adaptation. The very cornerstone of our technological civilization. Our hands evolved to grip tools, all right—including our own. You see, thinkers, inventors, and scientists are usually geeks, and geeks have a harder time getting laid than anyone. Without the built-in sexual release valve provided by masturbation, it's doubtful that early humans would have ever mastered the secrets of fire or discovered the wheel. And you can bet that Galileo, Newton, and Einstein never would have made their discoveries if they hadn't first been able to clear their heads by slapping the salami (or 'knocking a few protons off the old hydrogen atom'). The same goes for Marie Curie. Before she discovered radium, you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe.”

~Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

>>5426

Two rhetorical questions to set up my observations, although I do have a real question at the end of all this. So, who is speaking here? Is that the voice of the author?

If Cline is pulling a Randian polemic by overrunning the voice of the character that's one thing. I admit this kind of writing can be heady for the YA market, being the first time they run into these opinions. It's still worthy of being castigated though, not for content but for poor technique.

Even a writer of Vidal's caliber can have problems doing this. At least Vidal recognized it in himself and toned things down, left it out of the story entirely for a later essay, or at least approached such writerly self seductions with greater artistry.

It's the technique of characterization, of authorial self-insert stomping the character, not the content of the argument that I'm taking issue with.

Is Cline doing this? Does he do this often?

>>5418

That one overly long monologue about atheism and global warming very nearly forced me to close the book in disgust. Literally the only reason I kept going was to see if the main character actually gets a grip and develops in any way, and to his credit he kind of does, but in the most cliché'd way imaginable. Just once I want to read a young adults' book where a male lead character finds purpose in life in something other than a woman, because it's producing a generation of teenagers who think that getting laid (and then suing for alimony and being set up for life) is the greatest accomplishment they can aspire to.

>>5427

That one monologue quoted would be the voice of the narrator, who is the main character. It's in a scene which drags on far too long in which the lead invests in a virtual reality sex doll so he can fuck in-game characters and then throws it away in disgust. Fortunately, that's not Cline's author-insertion character. That would be the billionaire game developer and his omnipotent in-game avatar.

>>5426

I must have skimmed that. Bravo Cline!

>>5434

Most of it was about skimming to the action, but the end was awful in every way.

>>5418

>great world-building

>>5434

Lul, that's a selling point of the manuscript I work on in my spare time.

Prob is, will publishers accept it?

I listened to the audiobook read by Will Weaton.

I'm glad I didn't spend real reading time on it because it truly is a pile of shit.

>>5469

>Wil Wheaton

I knew the book was bad, but not *that* bad.

>>5413

Yup; "for grown-ups", but not for adults.

Eh, its about as far as a cuck should get with writing. Plot details aren't fully explained and the pacing is schizophrenic and even still that's not the biggest issue along with the tacked on Disney love story. It has some SJW moments too.

>>5413

I thought it was good, and then I came to this thread. Now my fond memory of a story with a decent plot is ruined

Thanks 8ch

>>5617

Why are you so fickle?

>>5592

>SJW moments

Like when the character who was a skinny straight white male in-game turned out to be a fat gay black woman? I can't remember any moments besides that.

>Software Junior Warriors

>>5426

This is some real garbage.

>>5426

This is some cringe-inducing bullshit right there.

I read Ready Player One and it was good for the nostalgia factor but the female "romance" was too contrived for me.

He just released a new one, Armada, and I read a review of it who put it perfectly by saying that Cline is great at quoting other stuff but he never seems to create something worth quoting.

>>5426

>'knocking a few protons off the old hydrogen atom'

That's the dumbest line I've read all week.

>>5699

Loved this review.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/07/armada_by_ernest_cline_follow_up_to_ready_player_one_reviewed.single.html

>It's a valuable question for gaming culture—and “nerd culture” more generally—to ask itself: Do we want to tell stories that make sense of the things we used to love, that help us remember the reasons we were so drawn to them, and create new works that inspire that level of devotion? Or do we simply want to hear the litany of our childhood repeated back to us like an endless lullaby for the rest of our lives?

>Armada is for everyone who wants the latter, a book-length love letter of cultural hyperlinks that refer you elsewhere but contain no meaningful content themselves.

>>5715

That's not the review I read but I like that one better. I'm glad more than one source has called Cline out on his writing in opposition to the mindless rave reviews who think he's the best thing ever. Just, no. I could write a novel in a couple of weeks that's basically just maymays and nerdy inside jokes coupled with deus ex machina and convenienty placed female love interests.

I'm not saying I mind pop-culture references - I didn't even mind Stephen King referencing The Shining film multiple times in the second Dark Tower novel. But when that's all a book is…fucking spare me.

Rant over. I've held that in for a while, having been so weirdly disappointed in Ready Player One and not quite able to figure out why until now.

>>5715

Never read Armada, but this quote is awesome. Totally agree with it.

>>5716

>Borderlands 2

Pure Nerdsploitation

>>5715

>On more than one occasion, soldiers salute each other en route to world-ending battles by solemnly swearing that “the Force” will be with them, and one character flies to his supposedly tragic and moving death while screaming quotes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This is a book that ends with someone unironically quoting Yoda.

Hahahaha.

>>5426

>>5732

MOAR

>>5716

pop-culture references are great, but not if they are limited to such a little cultural context, that's pathetic and probably meant for people who don't know anything outside of that one

http://deadline.com/2015/03/ready-player-one-movie-steven-spielberg-ernest-cline-warner-bros-1201398299/

FOR WHAT PURPOSE

>>5756

>And of course Kevin Smith

where were you when pleb culture officially became "nerd culture"?

>>5417

Exactly. Same reason why I loved the hell out of this book and Armada. It doesn't need to be an instant classic to be a good, enjoyable book. People really need to stop being soulless snobs.

>>5756

They're going to have to pretty much cut out everything. As much as I love RP1, I can't see it surviving a transition to film. IP holders won't allow it.

Armada can pull it off, though.

I never got around to it before I noticed everyone I hated raved about the book. That's usually a good sign that it's garbage. Turns out the heuristic worked.

>>5426

I was thinking about picking this book up.

Thanks for saving me money.

>>5831

Get it. I loved it.

Although idk how good my taste is in literature. I'm very mainstream, apparently. I loved loved the Martian and this book, both of which received poor critical acclaim.

So who knows

Hello fellow readers! First time here, but I had to put this up.

>>6219

>discussing the book with someone who doesn't care about it

>asking about a specific plot point at the very end

>not asking their favourite parts are

>not pretending the questions are serious until they answer

I'm in the middle of reading it. I feel like it would have been a heck of a lot better if it were a lot shorter.

The good parts get diluted by the droning on and padding and completely unnecessary parts.

>>5763

I am highly suspicious of anything called "Nerd Culture", it tends to mean "Big-Bang-Theory-enthusiast Culture"

>>6238

Whatever you do don't try reading it a second time. The first time around, you might get kind of swept along by the story and the setting, but the second time, since you know where everything is going, you see nothing but the book's faults.

>>5426

Christ that's autistic. And here I wanted to read that book.

>>5424

I didn't mind Divergent too much. My brother made me read it. Yeah it wasn't that good, but it wasn't offensively bad. I dunno.

>>5413

To sum up the book

"Muh 80s nerd culture is the best and I know everything about it so I'm the best. Oh. And spontaneous obligatory romance sub plot between characters with no chemistry."

>>5417

Seriously? It read more like a shitty Sword Art Online/Neuromancer crossover fic.