Ready Player One Vol. 1
After reading the first section of “Ready Player One”, I believe it’s safe to say that living in a world like OASIS could be a great escape from reality, or the opposite. Characters in the book such as Wade, Art3tis, and everyone else living in the world, is using this as an escape from their reality. Living in a world that is virtually just an online game, can be really deceiving, especially when you’re all fighting for the same prize. It can be hard to work together on something that only one person can obtain in the end. You don’t know who to work with or who to trust, and you definitely have to watch out for people trying to steal the prize from you. This game is also sculpted and designed to distract people from reality, and to really get their brains turning. Halliday even says himself “The egg is well hidden. I didn’t just leave it lying under a rock somewhere.” He wants people to work, and even turn against each other and ignore their everyday lives to dedicate all this time to finding an egg that obtains all of Halliday’s fortune, which is a little obscene. In my opinion, OASIS is critically designed to distract people from the big picture: what’s happening to the real world that they’re living in. What if people are searching for an egg that doesn’t even exist, and is just a big game to distract people from a bigger picture? Even though Wade has the first key, what if he doesn’t obtain the rest, or what happens if multiple people gain multiple keys? This is exactly what the game is designed for, to get your brain working. Wade telling his story makes me feel almost as if I’m in OASIS myself, searching for fortune and fame which i could come to find out doesn’t even exist, and really is just one big game.
Your interpretation of the first hundred pages is amazing. I never though about the oasis being some scheme used to distract civilization. It's almost comedic, the thought that this entire thing may just be some ploy set up to distract the general populace from some overarching scheme. I wouldn't rule it out as a possible ending to the book. Taking in account everyone's sense of vision and hearing are hindered within the oasis as well, makes it all the more a solid concept.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with you that the OASIS is just one giant distraction for the entire population, I disagree with your statement saying that Halliday wants people to turn against each other to find the egg. My interpretation of Halliday was that he appreciated friendship, even as socially inept as he was. I remember reading that Halliday even left an entire collection of classic video games to his friend Morrow, even though they had a huge falling out and were no longer in touch. That leads me to believe that Halliday still appreciated his friend and valued what they once shared. However, it would make an incredible twist if Halliday wasn't this great hero that Wade makes him out to be!
ReplyDelete