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The Incomparable

66: Regular People Like Us

 

00:00:00   the incomparable contest number 66 [TS]

00:00:06   November 2011 [TS]

00:00:10   welcome back to being comfortable [TS]

00:00:12   podcast i'm dan moore and sitting in for [TS]

00:00:14   Jason Snell we are convening once again [TS]

00:00:17   our book club this week we're discussing [TS]

00:00:20   ready player one by Ernest Cline and [TS]

00:00:23   with me i have an elite group of [TS]

00:00:26   panelists i am joined by scott McNulty [TS]

00:00:30   hello dad [TS]

00:00:31   insert random eighties reference here I [TS]

00:00:35   I see you came prepared [TS]

00:00:36   I did in addition we are joined by John [TS]

00:00:39   siracusa hi John little bit sleepy [TS]

00:00:42   tonight Dan but maybe my anger or wake [TS]

00:00:43   me up [TS]

00:00:46   we are also have Monty Ashley hi Monty [TS]

00:00:50   hello [TS]

00:00:51   intruder alert is that a video game that [TS]

00:00:53   was in this book if not it's the only [TS]

00:00:56   one that wasn't you could have just said [TS]

00:00:57   video game in this book and then we will [TS]

00:00:59   with laughed knowingly haha [TS]

00:01:02   and of course serenity Caldwell Iran hi [TS]

00:01:06   our topic tonight as i mentioned ready [TS]

00:01:08   player one by Ernest Cline this is I i [TS]

00:01:12   think this may be his first book but he [TS]

00:01:15   is a screenwriter I believe he wrote a [TS]

00:01:17   movie fan boys as i recall which [TS]

00:01:21   surprisingly enough is about science [TS]

00:01:24   fiction and geeks who would have seen it [TS]

00:01:26   coming but ready player one is a scifi [TS]

00:01:30   books said in the i guess you could say [TS]

00:01:32   the near future [TS]

00:01:33   it seems to borrow from pretty much [TS]

00:01:36   every property if you're within the age [TS]

00:01:38   of what say 2240 maybe like every single [TS]

00:01:42   thing that you grew up with seems to [TS]

00:01:44   have found its way into this book [TS]

00:01:46   somehow does that make it a good book [TS]

00:01:48   doesn't make it a band does it just make [TS]

00:01:50   it a book i guess we'll see [TS]

00:01:52   so to start off I thought we talked a [TS]

00:01:54   little bit about the story of the book [TS]

00:01:56   itself and then we can we can delve a [TS]

00:01:58   little more into the the numerous [TS]

00:02:01   limoges but the story sort of follows [TS]

00:02:05   this this young guy [TS]

00:02:07   Wade we learn about him through this [TS]

00:02:10   massively multiplayer online game [TS]

00:02:13   that he plays which may sound like other [TS]

00:02:16   massively multiplayer online games but [TS]

00:02:18   there seemed to be a it seems to be one [TS]

00:02:22   big metaverse style world in the in the [TS]

00:02:24   in the ways of william gibson and neal [TS]

00:02:27   stephenson and I i will start off by [TS]

00:02:29   saying that I thought the the [TS]

00:02:31   introduction part of this book where [TS]

00:02:32   that story is laid out for us was [TS]

00:02:35   somewhat horrific and almost made me put [TS]

00:02:37   the book down horrific and waterway dan [TS]

00:02:41   I think it was I think they'd be the [TS]

00:02:43   information dump aspect of it not the [TS]

00:02:45   ideas the ideas were fine i mean the [TS]

00:02:46   ideas we seem like science fiction the [TS]

00:02:48   kind of stuff that were used to but it [TS]

00:02:49   was all shoveled at you so quickly that [TS]

00:02:53   I got bored because i felt like i was [TS]

00:02:55   reading you know like a history book for [TS]

00:02:57   something that never happened [TS]

00:02:58   well you know he just wanted to get all [TS]

00:03:00   that information out of the way so we [TS]

00:03:01   could delve really into his characters [TS]

00:03:03   and tell us about their backstories and [TS]

00:03:06   yeah I asking inside their head exactly [TS]

00:03:09   richly paint them or just reference [TS]

00:03:11   eighties movies a lot you so I'm I'm [TS]

00:03:14   getting the feeling that you guys feel [TS]

00:03:15   similarly about so at you know as [TS]

00:03:18   someone who has never written any real [TS]

00:03:20   fiction and doesn't write anything I [TS]

00:03:21   think there's something that everybody [TS]

00:03:23   knows about the craft of writing fiction [TS]

00:03:25   even if you've never written any fiction [TS]

00:03:27   i never tried to write infections like [TS]

00:03:29   one rule that people know and this book [TS]

00:03:31   dances on its little gray from what is [TS]

00:03:33   that rule show don't tell [TS]

00:03:36   for the love of God people this book is [TS]

00:03:39   like a giant exercise and what not to do [TS]

00:03:42   and did the first little part the damage [TS]

00:03:44   talking about what did you do [TS]

00:03:45   he tells you a bunch of stuff it's like [TS]

00:03:47   I don't I don't want you to tell me show [TS]

00:03:50   me show me this cool world that you have [TS]

00:03:51   don't tell me everything about it and it [TS]

00:03:53   just never stops [TS]

00:03:54   I would have really loved if there had [TS]

00:03:56   been a way to just frame it so that the [TS]

00:03:58   entire story is just holidays video the [TS]

00:04:01   prelude and then we have to get the [TS]

00:04:03   information from there instead it's [TS]

00:04:04   holidays video along with oh let me tell [TS]

00:04:07   you all the backstory about holidays [TS]

00:04:09   video let me tell you about holiday [TS]

00:04:11   oh let me also tell you about the world [TS]

00:04:13   it just doesn't quite work the way you [TS]

00:04:15   wanted to a lot of telling it reads [TS]

00:04:18   original I mean of course client like I [TS]

00:04:20   said you know he was a screenwriter and [TS]

00:04:21   i think it is summer reads not so much [TS]

00:04:23   like a screen look like a synopsis right [TS]

00:04:25   like the premise like [TS]

00:04:26   right so here's my concept it's a world [TS]

00:04:28   where there's a big video game and [TS]

00:04:30   everybody's looking for this one [TS]

00:04:31   easter egg that's inside the video game [TS]

00:04:33   how and then it's like it's got like the [TS]

00:04:35   end is like he wrote the entire [TS]

00:04:36   wikipedia like or it's a bad voiceover [TS]

00:04:39   in a world where voiceover the trailer [TS]

00:04:43   voiceover for the first scene of the [TS]

00:04:45   movie before you get to the actual movie [TS]

00:04:46   but nothing that is really the point of [TS]

00:04:48   the book the idea is to get into a world [TS]

00:04:51   where you're obsessive memorization of [TS]

00:04:53   Monty Python actually matters all geeked [TS]

00:04:57   streams yeah we basically all kind of [TS]

00:05:00   hope right that all this random data [TS]

00:05:02   that we've acquired over the many many [TS]

00:05:04   years that we've been alive will come in [TS]

00:05:06   handy someday somehow and in this world [TS]

00:05:09   in some ways the geeks you know are the [TS]

00:05:13   ultimate class because they are the ones [TS]

00:05:15   who have all this esoteric knowledge [TS]

00:05:18   yeah practicing joust for hours and [TS]

00:05:21   learning how to get through store in 15 [TS]

00:05:23   minutes [TS]

00:05:23   that was an important skill that's gonna [TS]

00:05:25   pay off at some point it's it's this [TS]

00:05:28   book reads a little bit like like like [TS]

00:05:30   cognitive dissonance reduction or [TS]

00:05:32   something like this like I didn't waste [TS]

00:05:34   my childhood these skills have used see [TS]

00:05:39   mom I could be a I could be a superhero [TS]

00:05:42   it would be getting out the geek mine [TS]

00:05:44   repels repels of the idea that they need [TS]

00:05:47   this such a vast world of things that [TS]

00:05:49   geeks do that this book in this contest [TS]

00:05:52   can necessarily only include tiny subset [TS]

00:05:54   of them and the odds of that subset [TS]

00:05:55   exactly overlapping with your particular [TS]

00:05:57   subset of basically zero so the only [TS]

00:06:00   thing that's believe bonus is that the [TS]

00:06:01   Sixers could have a vast network of [TS]

00:06:04   highly paid people who cumulatively [TS]

00:06:06   could have these skills and they didn't [TS]

00:06:08   waste their sales but individually the [TS]

00:06:10   odds of any individual one person having [TS]

00:06:12   the scales let alone like the three or [TS]

00:06:14   four good guys all knowing exactly these [TS]

00:06:15   specific things that human brain can't [TS]

00:06:17   hold that much information you know well [TS]

00:06:19   the the point of the whole beginning [TS]

00:06:21   prologue right is that they they [TS]

00:06:23   obsessively study what holiday they [TS]

00:06:26   study but you can't you just can't this [TS]

00:06:27   too much you just can't study that [TS]

00:06:29   matter is it's it's the there there are [TS]

00:06:31   the script they are led by the script to [TS]

00:06:33   have memorize these particular movies [TS]

00:06:35   news but not actually they've memorized [TS]

00:06:36   every moving it is also a photographic [TS]

00:06:38   memories it's you know [TS]

00:06:39   so in the future yes I've nearly spent [TS]

00:06:42   my life learning exactly what these [TS]

00:06:44   characters have learned but I can't go [TS]

00:06:46   play pac-man and get a perfect score [TS]

00:06:48   just because I on your first try [TS]

00:06:51   yeah but well that's because you're not [TS]

00:06:52   trying hard enough ah well that's [TS]

00:06:55   because that's because you're not [TS]

00:06:57   trapped in the story where every single [TS]

00:06:58   thing that happens has happened for an [TS]

00:07:00   obvious reason its television stars like [TS]

00:07:02   I wonder why this packing able that be [TS]

00:07:04   important now certainly not rule I i [TS]

00:07:08   have to say remind me a little bit i was [TS]

00:07:10   watching at a friend's house a kung fu [TS]

00:07:11   movie the other night and this is a this [TS]

00:07:13   come from movie from the seventies it [TS]

00:07:15   was awesome and by awesome i mean [TS]

00:07:17   terrible but the end up the the moral of [TS]

00:07:20   the story ended up being that this this [TS]

00:07:22   random sort of chinese kung foo kid this [TS]

00:07:25   cube and studying it like under his [TS]

00:07:26   father accidentally challenges like all [TS]

00:07:29   the greatest masters of Japanese kungfu [TS]

00:07:31   and like all the great masters of [TS]

00:07:33   Japanese kungfu show up and somehow this [TS]

00:07:35   random kid beats all of them with in all [TS]

00:07:38   their various disciplines it was the [TS]

00:07:40   main character you see that's how it [TS]

00:07:41   works the more the camera points that [TS]

00:07:43   you the more powerful you are [TS]

00:07:45   it should have been obvious to me so to [TS]

00:07:48   develop the plot a little bit so those [TS]

00:07:51   who are falling on haven't read the book [TS]

00:07:52   and who may now never read i liked it i [TS]

00:07:55   I you know that i enjoyed as well but [TS]

00:07:57   the to sort of spell of the world [TS]

00:07:59   basically there's this massively [TS]

00:08:00   multiplayer online game in which the [TS]

00:08:03   Creator james halliday has hidden [TS]

00:08:06   various easter eggs that will sort of [TS]

00:08:09   lead people on this treasure hunt at the [TS]

00:08:12   end of which they'll come into [TS]

00:08:13   unimaginable power of course and of [TS]

00:08:14   course everything is locked into all [TS]

00:08:17   these geek culture references movies TV [TS]

00:08:19   shows video games from the eighties [TS]

00:08:21   because that's the time when the [TS]

00:08:22   inventor grew up so our main character [TS]

00:08:25   is a huge geek who is really into all [TS]

00:08:28   these subject areas and is trained and [TS]

00:08:30   you'll memorize all this in the hopes [TS]

00:08:32   that he can find this easter egg which [TS]

00:08:34   of course he never does in the book is [TS]

00:08:36   really boring and ends [TS]

00:08:37   wait no that's not this book okay that [TS]

00:08:41   would have been too sad i'm curious as [TS]

00:08:44   to what you guys thought about the sort [TS]

00:08:45   of the moments that we spend outside of [TS]

00:08:48   the game in this future which looks [TS]

00:08:51   pretty grim [TS]

00:08:52   talk of her moment about the stacks [TS]

00:08:54   because trying to imagine that visually [TS]

00:08:57   gives me a son can you can you explain [TS]

00:08:59   what that yeah so the stacks it there [TS]

00:09:02   are is where our main character grows up [TS]

00:09:04   and it's basically from what I can [TS]

00:09:06   gather it's that the the cities of the [TS]

00:09:10   United States and of the world are still [TS]

00:09:12   you know fairly five functioning things [TS]

00:09:15   however power and and various other you [TS]

00:09:19   know important livelihood type things [TS]

00:09:22   have basically died out everywhere [TS]

00:09:23   that's not a major city so people drove [TS]

00:09:26   their RVs and their mobile homes and [TS]

00:09:28   their trailers in an attempt to try and [TS]

00:09:30   get near the big cities and then failed [TS]

00:09:32   and so they decided to stack their [TS]

00:09:34   mobile homes on top of each other and [TS]

00:09:35   create virtual apartments and it [TS]

00:09:40   it all sounds very dangerous and very I [TS]

00:09:43   every time there's a couple chapters [TS]

00:09:45   where we're in the stacks and every time [TS]

00:09:47   i'm reading about the stacks I feel like [TS]

00:09:49   I'm about to step on something with [TS]

00:09:50   tetanus and it [TS]

00:09:52   that's what I felt like in their heat [TS]

00:09:54   our main character has a place to sort [TS]

00:09:56   of hide away thats in this junkyard in [TS]

00:09:58   this old van that's like half crushed [TS]

00:10:00   and that's what I kept thinking was you [TS]

00:10:03   know the same the same idea of this [TS]

00:10:05   seems really really dangerous and [TS]

00:10:06   alternatively also reminded me of [TS]

00:10:08   anybody who ever read The Three [TS]

00:10:09   Investigators they had a trailer that [TS]

00:10:11   was buried in a junkyard which was [TS]

00:10:13   awesome I totally won i remember that i [TS]

00:10:15   decide you just activated a memory [TS]

00:10:17   achievement unlocked they had a [TS]

00:10:22   chauffeur that drove them everywhere all [TS]

00:10:24   the trailers are all stacked up there [TS]

00:10:25   the better to blow up my dear [TS]

00:10:27   yes true because what wouldn't be [TS]

00:10:30   complete with a giant evil corporation [TS]

00:10:32   blowing stuff up by topic like dominoes [TS]

00:10:35   in the movie adaptation just wait [TS]

00:10:37   they are so essentially yes oh so our [TS]

00:10:40   hero does manage to sort of be the first [TS]

00:10:43   one who unlocks it part of this this [TS]

00:10:45   mystery and he comes across up against [TS]

00:10:47   this major corporation that is as John [TS]

00:10:49   was talking about earlier that sort of [TS]

00:10:50   assembled all this raw talent to try and [TS]

00:10:54   you know cheat the system or less and [TS]

00:10:56   they essentially blow up his home with [TS]

00:10:58   his family for remote remains of his [TS]

00:11:01   family in it but that's okay because we [TS]

00:11:03   didn't really like them anyway we did [TS]

00:11:05   like the downstairs neighbor in that one [TS]

00:11:06   yeah we felt bad for her for about the [TS]

00:11:08   page and a half [TS]

00:11:09   that was a weird I mean even even the [TS]

00:11:11   thing with like the well the answer is [TS]

00:11:13   really awful the Anthony lives with is [TS]

00:11:15   really awful that's still it was such a [TS]

00:11:19   bizarre choice to be like I'm just gonna [TS]

00:11:21   kill these people often really no [TS]

00:11:23   conscious yet they went right from like [TS]

00:11:26   from future world video game into murder [TS]

00:11:28   like that transition was not smooth [TS]

00:11:30   I think that's still just pure geek [TS]

00:11:33   wish-fulfillment though because they [TS]

00:11:34   stole his computer wouldn't let him go [TS]

00:11:36   online so naturally they must die [TS]

00:11:40   I wish our corporation would blow to my [TS]

00:11:41   mom up about my trouble since Cinderella [TS]

00:11:46   would have done the same thing they took [TS]

00:11:47   her laptop that's always been so then we [TS]

00:11:50   enter into this strange period where our [TS]

00:11:52   character sort of goes on the run but [TS]

00:11:55   he's much more well outfitted now [TS]

00:11:58   because he's become this at least in the [TS]

00:12:00   virtual world the celebrity so he sold [TS]

00:12:03   himself out to sponsorships [TS]

00:12:05   I mean that sounds like the future to me [TS]

00:12:07   that that whole thing especially right [TS]

00:12:09   after he finds the first key and then he [TS]

00:12:11   gets the opportunity from the big giant [TS]

00:12:13   corporation to come join them and be [TS]

00:12:16   their head and he tells them to screw [TS]

00:12:18   off and then they blow up his trailer [TS]

00:12:20   and then go to survive he sells himself [TS]

00:12:23   to all kinds of companies and it just it [TS]

00:12:27   it felt a little i mean i understand why [TS]

00:12:30   it's necessary and context of the book [TS]

00:12:32   but it felt very much like yes I am I am [TS]

00:12:36   totally badass i'm going to be on a [TS]

00:12:38   sneaker company and a milk carton now [TS]

00:12:41   and I'm totally above light [TS]

00:12:44   I'm above retribution and I'm above you [TS]

00:12:47   know finger-pointing with it with a [TS]

00:12:50   sneaker company and the milk carton [TS]

00:12:51   different things because like milk [TS]

00:12:53   cartons because he's like missing and [TS]

00:12:54   it's not him it's his avatar and you [TS]

00:12:56   know you know and have a target never be [TS]

00:12:58   copied because there's no way to copy [TS]

00:13:00   the amount of the American avatar know [TS]

00:13:02   whatever do that would've been more [TS]

00:13:03   realistic they all agreed to pay him but [TS]

00:13:05   that is paypal account got frozen for [TS]

00:13:06   fraud and he was never get there we'll [TS]

00:13:08   get any money because he couldn't get [TS]

00:13:09   through human to do the resolution it's [TS]

00:13:12   also extremely convenient that the first [TS]

00:13:14   key that he goes looking for happens to [TS]

00:13:15   be on the only planet that he can [TS]

00:13:17   actually get to [TS]

00:13:18   justify that in my head I figured out [TS]

00:13:20   that naturally the keys would have to be [TS]

00:13:23   on a planet that holiday had created so [TS]

00:13:27   naturally it's not going to be on one of [TS]

00:13:28   these far-flung new plan well they did [TS]

00:13:30   they justified like crazy in the book [TS]

00:13:32   they were like kinda makes sense you see [TS]

00:13:33   because it's gonna be that's a near [TS]

00:13:35   school and have to be someplace because [TS]

00:13:36   you wanted two kids find it was a kid [TS]

00:13:38   like it they went they bent over [TS]

00:13:39   backwards to justify that was the least [TS]

00:13:41   of his first key it doesn't bother me [TS]

00:13:43   because again we are reading a book [TS]

00:13:45   where presumably things happen and for [TS]

00:13:47   the main character you know presumably [TS]

00:13:50   there's a reason why we're following [TS]

00:13:51   this kid so I can it's like charlie and [TS]

00:13:54   the chocolate factory right once to get [TS]

00:13:56   into the world of crazy solving puzzles [TS]

00:14:00   i have no problem with whatever deus ex [TS]

00:14:03   machina you want to invent so all right [TS]

00:14:05   he finds the key because it's the only [TS]

00:14:06   plan to visit great he lived he goes to [TS]

00:14:08   a perfect school because no one can [TS]

00:14:10   bully him because he's in virtual world [TS]

00:14:12   fine that that all works for me it's its [TS]

00:14:15   subsequent layers that where things [TS]

00:14:17   begin a little interesting interesting [TS]

00:14:19   is one way of putting it i think so did [TS]

00:14:23   it did anyone else find it like speaking [TS]

00:14:24   of the other keys it's not the first the [TS]

00:14:26   second or third key they made a lot of [TS]

00:14:28   especially the first key but even the [TS]

00:14:29   second one a lot of like all these these [TS]

00:14:31   experts especially the Sixers and [TS]

00:14:33   everything racking their brains trying [TS]

00:14:35   to figure out like they just can't get a [TS]

00:14:36   foothold they don't even know where to [TS]

00:14:37   begin they're just making not making any [TS]

00:14:38   progress every one of them if you knew [TS]

00:14:40   any part of the reference you're like oh [TS]

00:14:43   yeah I think that's probably the you [TS]

00:14:44   know something to do with the name of [TS]

00:14:46   the DNG module and you know i got the [TS]

00:14:48   first one the two before yeah [TS]

00:14:49   and-and-and suppose the second one again [TS]

00:14:51   I forgotten already [TS]

00:14:52   I think the second one was or yes the [TS]

00:14:55   second one also was like you know I'd [TS]

00:14:57   not that I'm saying I solved me that I [TS]

00:14:59   knew exactly what it was because he [TS]

00:15:00   couldn't there was enough information [TS]

00:15:01   that really but I I had an inkling I [TS]

00:15:03   knew what I know what references they [TS]

00:15:04   were making and how it manifests right [TS]

00:15:06   and it's hard to believe how hard to [TS]

00:15:08   believe that these super experts would [TS]

00:15:09   just be totally stumped and not know [TS]

00:15:11   where to go and be missing the obvious [TS]

00:15:12   well not just that but I mean you see [TS]

00:15:14   how many people you know today come up [TS]

00:15:16   with the you know tell in document every [TS]

00:15:19   possible little obscure thing in the [TS]

00:15:21   world right just type the closing to [TS]

00:15:23   google and he'll get how there's no [TS]

00:15:26   google in the future John yeah right [TS]

00:15:28   google [TS]

00:15:29   Scott there's only oasis I mean I work [TS]

00:15:32   at the company that makes dnd and i [TS]

00:15:33   still play text adventures so those [TS]

00:15:35   Clues didn't even read as close to me [TS]

00:15:38   was oh tomb of horrors [TS]

00:15:39   oh dork i know that's that's something [TS]

00:15:41   like that they're trying to balance it [TS]

00:15:43   when you're writing the book you don't [TS]

00:15:44   want it to be so obscure that the [TS]

00:15:45   average reader is gonna be like no human [TS]

00:15:46   could have gotten that but on the other [TS]

00:15:48   hand you don't have to be super easy and [TS]

00:15:49   I felt like if this book is aimed the [TS]

00:15:50   geeks every gig had some piece of [TS]

00:15:53   knowledge they're like well that seems [TS]

00:15:55   like it's going to be this thing it's [TS]

00:15:57   the thing that makes it hard to set up [TS]

00:15:59   right because the idea is supposed to be [TS]

00:16:00   bye-bye premise alone right [TS]

00:16:02   he's were locked into a world where [TS]

00:16:04   nobody has found this thing yet right so [TS]

00:16:07   I I think we're kind of stuck in that [TS]

00:16:09   regard so it's really hard to pass that [TS]

00:16:12   bar as the author and be like here's why [TS]

00:16:14   it's so hard you know in a brainteaser [TS]

00:16:17   fashion for everybody to have figured it [TS]

00:16:19   out maybe they should just put a lot of [TS]

00:16:21   guns around it or something it's kind of [TS]

00:16:23   like scripting comedy show right where [TS]

00:16:25   your show it like twice the joke why [TS]

00:16:27   studio 60 failed is that the comedy on [TS]

00:16:30   the behind-the-scenes comedy show wasn't [TS]

00:16:32   actually funny it's the same basic [TS]

00:16:34   principle we're all right i need these [TS]

00:16:36   clues to be hard but at the same time [TS]

00:16:38   they need to be brilliant and there's a [TS]

00:16:41   certain level where the clues are fun [TS]

00:16:43   but they're not they're not you know the [TS]

00:16:45   hardest cryptography or puzzle that I've [TS]

00:16:48   ever come across and that's maybe where [TS]

00:16:51   we run into trouble that's the danger [TS]

00:16:52   with using real information because had [TS]

00:16:54   had this all been synthetic you know [TS]

00:16:56   total fantasy world no relation to our [TS]

00:16:58   own then you can make very clever [TS]

00:17:00   puzzles you don't have to account for [TS]

00:17:02   you don't you don't have to account for [TS]

00:17:04   the varying levels of knowledge in the [TS]

00:17:05   reader because all your readers have [TS]

00:17:06   zero knowledge about your new world but [TS]

00:17:08   if it's like yeah that's what's our [TS]

00:17:09   world but I really now you're kind of [TS]

00:17:11   screwed but as it is I jump right past [TS]

00:17:14   our brilliant protagonist say Oh tomb of [TS]

00:17:15   horrors and then I get mad because to [TS]

00:17:17   move forward was actually reprinted in [TS]

00:17:19   different editions for 2nd edition D&D [TS]

00:17:21   and 3.5 with which version is it so what [TS]

00:17:26   you're saying is the books not geeky and [TS]

00:17:28   now [TS]

00:17:28   not to mention that likes of the rules [TS]

00:17:30   of Oasis are probably not you know [TS]

00:17:31   standard D&D rules if you're going to [TS]

00:17:33   open the door to super geeky stuff you [TS]

00:17:37   absolutely have to get it right you [TS]

00:17:39   better know it's going to come in [TS]

00:17:40   otherwise you're asking for this kind of [TS]

00:17:42   complaint it is true now I knew I was in [TS]

00:17:45   trouble with the first clue when I knew [TS]

00:17:47   the answer and I thought okay so he's [TS]

00:17:49   written this book about really geeky [TS]

00:17:51   things so that geeks like me will buy it [TS]

00:17:53   and then he wrote this clue so that [TS]

00:17:55   geeks like me could solve it easily so [TS]

00:17:57   we would feel special and he's pandering [TS]

00:17:59   to me and now I hate him [TS]

00:18:02   it's just a it's just a set of dominoes [TS]

00:18:06   not going over right there it's true and [TS]

00:18:08   then I I didn't like the book from them [TS]

00:18:09   because every reference I thought more [TS]

00:18:14   pandering I hate this guy but I think [TS]

00:18:17   Jason made this a comment and I'll often [TS]

00:18:19   for him he was like the pandering it's [TS]

00:18:21   it annoyed me to the same reasons and [TS]

00:18:24   Scott but the thing about it is and I [TS]

00:18:26   didn't think this would happen to me but [TS]

00:18:27   it did like three quarters with a bucket [TS]

00:18:29   like an hour and reference reference [TS]

00:18:30   reference reference reference what [TS]

00:18:33   they're trying to do is like the night [TS]

00:18:35   and when you see an interesting [TS]

00:18:36   references like oh wow you know I didn't [TS]

00:18:38   think anyone knew their reverence with [TS]

00:18:39   me but these were so common like who [TS]

00:18:40   doesn't know all these things like first [TS]

00:18:42   bueller's day off thats obscure right [TS]

00:18:43   our John Hughes movies or whatever herbs [TS]

00:18:45   here in the dark future jail [TS]

00:18:47   well you know i know they didn't talk [TS]

00:18:49   about pandering to the readers but then [TS]

00:18:51   finally towards the end he threw in a [TS]

00:18:52   reference in like hey I didn't think [TS]

00:18:55   other people knew about that like he got [TS]

00:18:57   me with one out and soon as i read my [TS]

00:19:00   damn you know 8950 references later one [TS]

00:19:05   of them finally lands that I don't [TS]

00:19:06   discount the rest of you Father and [TS]

00:19:08   right into my trap and it was a it was [TS]

00:19:11   black tiger the arcade game that I [TS]

00:19:13   played way too much of that very few [TS]

00:19:15   other people at least in my group of [TS]

00:19:18   friends even knew the game existed miss [TS]

00:19:19   this game only existed in the lobby [TS]

00:19:21   outside modells it wasn't even in it [TS]

00:19:24   wasn't even that in the actual video [TS]

00:19:26   okay that I used to go to go to Modell's [TS]

00:19:28   just play black tiger as you can see i [TS]

00:19:30   enjoyed having a barrage of references [TS]

00:19:32   all things that i love and then I got [TS]

00:19:34   mad when i got to the chapter about rush [TS]

00:19:36   because i don't like ride [TS]

00:19:39   I don't recognize this at all something [TS]

00:19:41   went wrong with my book [TS]

00:19:43   yes and then he plays an interlude on a [TS]

00:19:47   different if you had an older brother [TS]

00:19:48   who was born in 10 years earlier than [TS]

00:19:51   you you know if you shake the book a few [TS]

00:19:53   times this little shuffle it up for you [TS]

00:19:56   get sticks why wasn't it dr. Demento [TS]

00:19:59   song definite you know I agree with [TS]

00:20:02   Monty I i mean i have my criticisms of [TS]

00:20:05   the book and I have places like one [TS]

00:20:07   looking back on it I'm like a but the [TS]

00:20:09   first I want to say the first love the [TS]

00:20:12   books broken up into levels the first [TS]

00:20:13   level i could not stop grinning because [TS]

00:20:16   as absurd as it was and all of the [TS]

00:20:19   references and although so it's [TS]

00:20:21   post-apocalyptic world and there and yet [TS]

00:20:24   they can all play this crazy video game [TS]

00:20:26   in and final time into it [TS]

00:20:28   all that aside it's really fun [TS]

00:20:32   it's it's the kind of book where you [TS]

00:20:34   don't have to concentrate a whole lot to [TS]

00:20:36   figure out what's going on so you can [TS]

00:20:38   bring it really fast and just be like oh [TS]

00:20:40   yeah playing video games i feel like i'm [TS]

00:20:43   12 again and that kind of highest kinda [TS]

00:20:46   is fun it's not necessarily world [TS]

00:20:49   literature but it was still a lot of [TS]

00:20:51   know or you could just play a video game [TS]

00:20:54   I wanted to say something about one of [TS]

00:20:56   the parts of the book that I actually [TS]

00:20:57   kind of liked which is so about midway [TS]

00:21:00   through are our hero has removed himself [TS]

00:21:02   to its cleveland right [TS]

00:21:05   yes yeah mm-hmm this is how you can tell [TS]

00:21:08   this book is fiction because cleveland [TS]

00:21:10   is important well it was known as a [TS]

00:21:12   holidays hometown that's why it wasn't [TS]

00:21:13   there yes yes yeah well that's that's [TS]

00:21:15   where their company that's where they [TS]

00:21:17   help the company and that's where he [TS]

00:21:19   goes so we can power and is good [TS]

00:21:21   internet good internet yeah that's how [TS]

00:21:23   you know he's not just Lord British and [TS]

00:21:27   so he realizes at a certain point that [TS]

00:21:30   he's going to be sort of stymied unless [TS]

00:21:31   he can get in [TS]

00:21:34   inside this corporation that is that is [TS]

00:21:37   his main antagonist and so he sets up [TS]

00:21:40   kind of up you know a scenario in which [TS]

00:21:42   he ends up having to infiltrate them [TS]

00:21:45   from the inside and get some information [TS]

00:21:48   and get out and I kind of found that to [TS]

00:21:51   be that might have been my [TS]

00:21:52   my top five favorite part of the book [TS]

00:21:54   with that I i really enjoyed those [TS]

00:21:56   scenes that were you know because i felt [TS]

00:21:59   like it took a little bit of a leap from [TS]

00:22:01   the you know we were outside of the the [TS]

00:22:04   game and we get a little more picture of [TS]

00:22:06   this world that he lives in and [TS]

00:22:08   particularly this this company and I [TS]

00:22:10   thought that was really interesting [TS]

00:22:12   I was just gonna say it reminds me of a [TS]

00:22:13   terry gilliam's Brazil yes where you [TS]

00:22:17   know they knocked on the door and take [TS]

00:22:18   away because he is out of he's bankrupt [TS]

00:22:22   or something and that he needs to enter [TS]

00:22:24   into indentured servitude so he can [TS]

00:22:25   repay his debt to his corporation and [TS]

00:22:29   then he uses his mad hacker skills to [TS]

00:22:32   figure out what's going on [TS]

00:22:34   I love the idea by the way of indentured [TS]

00:22:37   servitude due to credit card debt and [TS]

00:22:39   I'm surprised that no major credit card [TS]

00:22:41   corporation has figured out a way to do [TS]

00:22:43   it yes this is not a political podcast [TS]

00:22:46   no politics now I'm just amused by the [TS]

00:22:50   idea as in science fiction book know as [TS]

00:22:52   a science which ensure i mean you know [TS]

00:22:54   it's not necessarily particularly [TS]

00:22:56   original and so on right either but a it [TS]

00:22:58   at least that was the part of which I [TS]

00:23:00   felt from a plot perspective I actually [TS]

00:23:02   felt there was some tension in this book [TS]

00:23:04   well yeah because I mean you have him [TS]

00:23:06   throwing basically throwing himself into [TS]

00:23:08   a really sketchy situation whereas [TS]

00:23:10   before it's like oh my virtual [TS]

00:23:12   characters at stake but that's okay [TS]

00:23:14   because I'm locked in this high tech [TS]

00:23:16   room where everybody brings me my food [TS]

00:23:18   and I have a virtual butler to make sure [TS]

00:23:19   that i'm running and fit never used it [TS]

00:23:21   really buff now [TS]

00:23:23   yeah they're nerd fantasy right finally [TS]

00:23:26   they'll find a fun way to get fit in in [TS]

00:23:28   that world it's really it's very sterile [TS]

00:23:31   and you and you do you step away from [TS]

00:23:33   the game world so you're not being [TS]

00:23:35   bashed with references every 10 minutes [TS]

00:23:37   and I feel like it actually gives [TS]

00:23:38   earnest clients writing a bit of a [TS]

00:23:40   chance to breathe it's you know you're [TS]

00:23:43   you're playing with actual plot [TS]

00:23:45   developments here not just I missed a [TS]

00:23:48   couple of references on top of each [TS]

00:23:49   other and try and morph it into oh we're [TS]

00:23:52   going forward he didn't necessarily have [TS]

00:23:54   the crutch to lean on of the game and [TS]

00:23:56   all the the 0 Maj but and like I said I [TS]

00:24:01   felt like there was actually some [TS]

00:24:02   tension here as opposed to like run was [TS]

00:24:03   saying in in the game world where it [TS]

00:24:05   seems like [TS]

00:24:06   is the the what's at stake feels very [TS]

00:24:10   vague in some way so if the bad guys get [TS]

00:24:13   this will suck because they'll take over [TS]

00:24:15   the game and I make everybody pay for it [TS]

00:24:17   and capitalism is bad it's very very [TS]

00:24:20   confusing what's at stake for about a [TS]

00:24:22   hundred pages his life's in danger until [TS]

00:24:24   the literal deus ex machina other [TS]

00:24:27   founder of the company shows up and says [TS]

00:24:29   you can all come to my super secure [TS]

00:24:31   fortress [TS]

00:24:32   it'll be fine hey guys its cool fly on [TS]

00:24:36   my private too [TS]

00:24:37   did anyone else picture him as he was [TS]

00:24:39   the okay good thank you thank you [TS]

00:24:40   because that's exactly what I imagined i [TS]

00:24:42   read this book right after Steve Jobs [TS]

00:24:44   died it was impossible not to think of [TS]

00:24:46   that well let's let's a detour first [TS]

00:24:50   going to talk about some of the other [TS]

00:24:52   characters in the book since you brought [TS]

00:24:54   up the great and powerful log but we we [TS]

00:24:58   do have you know the character Wade is [TS]

00:25:02   not easy he's got a couple friends who [TS]

00:25:04   are helping out with this we have h [TS]

00:25:07   who's his sort of only friend [TS]

00:25:11   great you know is supposed to be his [TS]

00:25:13   sort of kindred spirit and then we have [TS]

00:25:16   Artemis was another hunter who is a a [TS]

00:25:19   basically our love interest they don't [TS]

00:25:22   get much more three dimensional that and [TS]

00:25:26   that is about all those two japanese [TS]

00:25:27   guys is actually kinda like I actually [TS]

00:25:30   kind of like those guys even if they are [TS]

00:25:32   kind of ridiculous and stereotypical I [TS]

00:25:35   thought the interesting part of these [TS]

00:25:37   other two hunters Amy to he assumes are [TS]

00:25:39   brothers for the longest time of these [TS]

00:25:41   two japanese hunters and I think you [TS]

00:25:45   know I guess I was more interested when [TS]

00:25:47   I found out like more about them you [TS]

00:25:49   know the people who are playing their [TS]

00:25:52   characters when that twister comes up [TS]

00:25:54   later in the book that these two people [TS]

00:25:56   had like never met in real life despite [TS]

00:25:58   going around basically pretending to be [TS]

00:26:00   brothers and this online world it that [TS]

00:26:03   was more of an interesting dynamic to me [TS]

00:26:05   but you know we don't spend a lot of [TS]

00:26:08   time with them because they're kind of [TS]

00:26:09   secondary did you guys have like it was [TS]

00:26:11   there any characters that you felt that [TS]

00:26:13   we were particularly liked or felt were [TS]

00:26:15   well thought-out and well-drawn I like [TS]

00:26:19   startimus before she got introduced as [TS]

00:26:21   the love interest when she's talked [TS]

00:26:22   about more as oh there's this really [TS]

00:26:25   badass girl who is right you know who is [TS]

00:26:29   writing all about this in her in her web [TS]

00:26:31   blog and keeping updates and and so [TS]

00:26:34   she's great until she cums on screen [TS]

00:26:36   until when she comes on screen then it [TS]

00:26:38   becomes I mean I don't get me wrong I [TS]

00:26:40   enjoy coming some of the banter between [TS]

00:26:42   her and the lead character and and she [TS]

00:26:44   has a couple of nice moments but once it [TS]

00:26:46   gets into the no we can't be together [TS]

00:26:48   because what if we what if we don't find [TS]

00:26:51   it before the Sixers do it's our oh I'm [TS]

00:26:56   not as pretty and realize you don't know [TS]

00:26:58   what i look like and what what's the [TS]

00:27:00   reality she's exactly is pretty issues [TS]

00:27:02   in real life she just has a scar or some [TS]

00:27:04   kind of like birthday yeah birthmark but [TS]

00:27:07   still those those are hideous [TS]

00:27:09   yes yeah i think with was it that with h [TS]

00:27:13   AI right kind of story that was going [TS]

00:27:16   but I felt there was even a bigger cheat [TS]

00:27:18   too just like it it's just I where I [TS]

00:27:22   thought it was going to go on it was [TS]

00:27:23   gonna be like well that she's real is as [TS]

00:27:25   a girl obviously and it seems logically [TS]

00:27:28   logical that should be in love with the [TS]

00:27:29   main character but I don't know we don't [TS]

00:27:31   want to have that kind of conflict so [TS]

00:27:32   let's just make her lesbian [TS]

00:27:33   it's like you dodged that bullet [TS]

00:27:37   well and they they kind of they kind of [TS]

00:27:39   sock away any chance of actually making [TS]

00:27:41   that interesting if you know if they [TS]

00:27:44   were actually wanted to make a one [TS]

00:27:45   triangle with her an artifact bigger the [TS]

00:27:47   inmate would make perfect sense that [TS]

00:27:49   should be a girl masquerading as a guy [TS]

00:27:50   to you know be friends with this person [TS]

00:27:52   but that she would be you know that it [TS]

00:27:54   would be a triangle situation but not [TS]

00:27:56   United interest she just bout just past [TS]

00:27:58   the newbie don't wanna i unduly burden [TS]

00:28:00   weighed with any sophisticated [TS]

00:28:01   complicated emotional situations [TS]

00:28:04   well let's be fair we don't wanna we [TS]

00:28:06   don't want to love triangle in this book [TS]

00:28:08   anyway I we're talking about please [TS]

00:28:10   assist the silly infatuation triangle [TS]

00:28:13   whatever I still say Artemis has more [TS]

00:28:14   dimension than most of the female [TS]

00:28:16   characters in The Wise Man's Fear [TS]

00:28:18   because she does have skills of her own [TS]

00:28:20   she's cheap she makes choices on her are [TS]

00:28:22   you socially disengages for silly [TS]

00:28:24   romantic reasons it's because she wants [TS]

00:28:25   to more or less concentrated on her work [TS]

00:28:27   which is [TS]

00:28:28   noble I'm sorry honey I have to [TS]

00:28:31   concentrate on my blog [TS]

00:28:33   well you know i just showed she's not [TS]

00:28:36   just like a no I'm not sick and I shan't [TS]

00:28:38   Emma center and she's like I've got work [TS]

00:28:40   to do she's not she's not pine and she [TS]

00:28:41   and she does stuff on her own she didn't [TS]

00:28:43   need to be rescued in the NHL she finds [TS]

00:28:45   the second key before anybody else know [TS]

00:28:48   mhm no I mean they're they're definitely [TS]

00:28:50   things about her character that I like I [TS]

00:28:52   the interaction between the two main [TS]

00:28:55   characters just kind of like yeah but [TS]

00:28:57   she has she has good qualities [TS]

00:28:59   h-has interesting qualities even though [TS]

00:29:01   we they're all they're all very tertiary [TS]

00:29:04   if the problem is is you you get these [TS]

00:29:06   hints that these characters could [TS]

00:29:07   actually be really really interesting [TS]

00:29:09   but because the book is so very Wade [TS]

00:29:12   focused you don't get much more than [TS]

00:29:14   that [TS]

00:29:14   well we're in his head so you like that [TS]

00:29:16   regard we are sort of walked into him [TS]

00:29:19   what about the the antagonists who the [TS]

00:29:22   Sixers cardboard cutout uh so [TS]

00:29:25   two-dimensional nothing going on but [TS]

00:29:28   it's not literally [TS]

00:29:29   yeah it's come on their the evil [TS]

00:29:31   corporation and what did they do to show [TS]

00:29:33   their evil they blow up a stack of [TS]

00:29:36   trailers and they cheat in a game and [TS]

00:29:38   they do everything possible to win [TS]

00:29:39   unfairly Bob ya ever so not today all [TS]

00:29:42   dress alike they have caring avatars [TS]

00:29:46   it's true that's just offensive from [TS]

00:29:49   this you know purely aesthetic you know [TS]

00:29:51   they're evil their Stormtroopers they [TS]

00:29:54   are ya era counts man you just don't [TS]

00:29:56   know you don't know where that accounts [TS]

00:29:59   been anything that's unsanitary true [TS]

00:30:02   they have a starship so don't think [TS]

00:30:03   writing so that's kind of cool end up [TS]

00:30:05   planning they like a rude everybody gets [TS]

00:30:07   a robot later on which is pretty awesome [TS]

00:30:09   and so there are benefits to be evil but [TS]

00:30:12   I wondered about the today or else what [TS]

00:30:14   about the intellectual property is yes I [TS]

00:30:16   was just going to say well that was [TS]

00:30:19   exciting but there's obviously a movie [TS]

00:30:21   adaptation of this coming and this is [TS]

00:30:23   gonna be a nightmare from licensing [TS]

00:30:24   perspective I think they'll just have [TS]

00:30:26   everything from one property rights to [TS]

00:30:29   do and I love you can keep making a [TS]

00:30:31   movie yeah i don't know like GE and NBC [TS]

00:30:35   owned enough things that surely you can [TS]

00:30:37   just that's not our wizards of the coast [TS]

00:30:41   not yet i mean you can write you can [TS]

00:30:45   write a decent amount off on parody but [TS]

00:30:49   that being said it's something its [TS]

00:30:51   entirety when you're mouthing the words [TS]

00:30:52   to Ferris Bueller it's not happening [TS]

00:30:54   yeah that's seen it's gonna be hard to [TS]

00:30:56   do but because we're gonna have to watch [TS]

00:30:59   the entirety of Ferris Bueller inside [TS]

00:31:01   its entirety of ready player one this [TS]

00:31:03   movie's gonna be like eight hours long [TS]

00:31:05   they do have that as a game now on [TS]

00:31:06   connect it's just I just a scene and [TS]

00:31:10   apparently it's really annoying to play [TS]

00:31:11   more than once but I wondered how this [TS]

00:31:13   actually worked in the world of the game [TS]

00:31:15   because they have all these like they [TS]

00:31:17   have the spaceships from like Firefly [TS]

00:31:19   and Star Wars and Star Trek and it's [TS]

00:31:21   like oh yeah intellectual property [TS]

00:31:23   seized to exist for the same [TS]

00:31:24   inexplicable reasons that all other [TS]

00:31:26   values that we have today or disappeared [TS]

00:31:28   once they ran out of gasoline [TS]

00:31:31   I mean look at look at the mud that [TS]

00:31:33   popped up in the eighties and the [TS]

00:31:34   brushes I mean no one had the rights to [TS]

00:31:36   create a star wars much for a cowboy [TS]

00:31:39   bebop yes but that was text but I'm [TS]

00:31:41   still saying it's the same its well but [TS]

00:31:44   this this game is free to play this is [TS]

00:31:46   this is a world-spanning right but it's [TS]

00:31:48   the world it's the world but branching [TS]

00:31:50   out of our world right look at city of [TS]

00:31:52   heroes [TS]

00:31:53   you can't even have a character named [TS]

00:31:54   wolf are keen but doesn't he mentioned [TS]

00:31:59   in the book that so everyone gets an [TS]

00:32:01   oasis free oasis account right and then [TS]

00:32:03   you your avatars kind of playing and you [TS]

00:32:06   have to pay to get other cool stuff so [TS]

00:32:09   one imagines if everyone in the world is [TS]

00:32:12   playing oasis all these companies would [TS]

00:32:14   license their property so that you know [TS]

00:32:17   players could buy you know you know an [TS]

00:32:20   enterprise for you know whatever a [TS]

00:32:21   hundred bucks and then paramount get a [TS]

00:32:23   hundred dollars or you know probably [TS]

00:32:25   thirty percent or whatever would be so [TS]

00:32:29   kind of I mean I don't know if he went [TS]

00:32:31   into that detail in his head but i will [TS]

00:32:33   assume he did and that is how it [TS]

00:32:35   explains all of those things in the [TS]

00:32:36   oasis [TS]

00:32:37   I guess it's just a good thing that [TS]

00:32:39   everyone of holidays childhood [TS]

00:32:40   obsessions was owned by somebody who is [TS]

00:32:43   willing to sign a license fee to this [TS]

00:32:45   exactly i also thought it was strange [TS]

00:32:47   that the most powerful person you know [TS]

00:32:50   that we have this character holiday and [TS]

00:32:52   I also thought it was weird that his his [TS]

00:32:55   character in the game is named after [TS]

00:32:57   like a jacket yeah and in some ways this [TS]

00:33:02   whole week when I mean everything about [TS]

00:33:04   this book is is basically a trope right [TS]

00:33:06   like the plot the characters and the [TS]

00:33:10   amaj and I guess you know it seems like [TS]

00:33:13   it's one of those situations that should [TS]

00:33:15   be a perfect storm of things that people [TS]

00:33:20   like and yet it doesn't quite seem to [TS]

00:33:22   succeed just community it doesn't have [TS]

00:33:24   that one thing that people like which is [TS]

00:33:26   a story is a story that keeps them [TS]

00:33:28   guessing and I mean like with fine [TS]

00:33:30   pandered to whatever but you want to you [TS]

00:33:33   want to be kept like I'm i was going [TS]

00:33:35   through the story but it was just you [TS]

00:33:37   just saw where was going in there wasn't [TS]

00:33:39   much surprised that's why the pacman [TS]

00:33:41   steam so it out so much because there [TS]

00:33:42   was so little in this thing that you [TS]

00:33:44   knew kind of like in a movie that you [TS]

00:33:46   know anything they show you it's like a [TS]

00:33:48   wall you know that's gonna be [TS]

00:33:48   significant is probably gonna save them [TS]

00:33:50   in the end and because no one else is [TS]

00:33:51   doing it like there wasn't enough stuff [TS]

00:33:53   for you because it like a good mystery [TS]

00:33:55   even a short little mystery although I [TS]

00:33:56   mean enough stuff going on that you can [TS]

00:33:58   immediately pick out a hobby when that [TS]

00:34:00   guy came into the room put that thing [TS]

00:34:01   down that was important because so much [TS]

00:34:02   other stuff happens in the story and you [TS]

00:34:04   wrapped up in the people in this thing [TS]

00:34:05   it was just everything was just poking [TS]

00:34:07   up out of the the ground really tall [TS]

00:34:09   like here's this tower which is this [TS]

00:34:11   plot point this power which is this plot [TS]

00:34:12   point and it wasn't any meat on the [TS]

00:34:14   bones you know you can't blame part of [TS]

00:34:16   that on again [TS]

00:34:17   ernest cline being a screenwriter first [TS]

00:34:19   and foremost but I think also it reflect [TS]

00:34:22   its kind of a microcosm of the eighties [TS]

00:34:24   culture that represents because I feel [TS]

00:34:25   reading the book I feel like it's going [TS]

00:34:28   and watching like an eighties movie and [TS]

00:34:30   it's necessary you know watching war [TS]

00:34:32   games where war games isn't higher and a [TS]

00:34:35   lot of its predictable but it's still [TS]

00:34:36   careful careful youyou've anger John [TS]

00:34:39   siracusa hear you [TS]

00:34:41   hey war games is one of my favorite [TS]

00:34:43   eighties movies it's a it's a two-hour [TS]

00:34:45   movie you know it's it like this yes is [TS]

00:34:48   a much longer than a screenplay but [TS]

00:34:49   isn't much of it is a much longer book [TS]

00:34:52   but i'd say it reads it reads like a [TS]

00:34:54   two-hour movie for better or for well [TS]

00:34:57   that's because it is a two hour [TS]

00:34:58   will be and it's you know it's not the [TS]

00:34:59   film has already been options so it's [TS]

00:35:02   clear that he broke this and he is a [TS]

00:35:03   screenwriter right so he wrote a screen [TS]

00:35:06   play in book form and now it's going to [TS]

00:35:08   be a movie and the movie is going to [TS]

00:35:10   know and maybe even more so just out of [TS]

00:35:12   curiosity debut seen fanboys yes i have [TS]

00:35:15   some stories just to share of fanboys [TS]

00:35:17   please Marty okay actually I want to [TS]

00:35:20   tell a quick story about Ernie clients [TS]

00:35:22   first screenplay which was a fan written [TS]

00:35:25   script for the theoretical buckaroo [TS]

00:35:28   banzai against the world crime Lee ok so [TS]

00:35:30   this is not his first half at writing [TS]

00:35:33   something full of fan references [TS]

00:35:34   somewhere in the early nineties he got [TS]

00:35:37   impatient because buckaroo banzai is a [TS]

00:35:40   great movie and it claimed to have a [TS]

00:35:41   sequel and it wasn't happening so he [TS]

00:35:43   wrote one that kind of mash it together [TS]

00:35:46   with big trouble in little china as you [TS]

00:35:47   do and it's pretty fun I actually [TS]

00:35:51   contacted them back then emailed him and [TS]

00:35:53   told him I liked it [TS]

00:35:54   a friend of mine did too and he put her [TS]

00:35:56   hong kong couple your character into his [TS]

00:35:58   script but not you [TS]

00:36:00   now not you I'm sorry much he didn't [TS]

00:36:02   like my uncle your character as much i [TS]

00:36:05   maintain the name platinum cowboy is [TS]

00:36:07   totally buckaroo banzai appropriate [TS]

00:36:09   anyway for fanboys I don't know if [TS]

00:36:14   people know this but the basic plot of [TS]

00:36:16   fanboys is that people want to go see [TS]

00:36:19   the phantom menace before it comes out [TS]

00:36:20   because that's when people thought [TS]

00:36:23   Phantom Menace was going to be a good [TS]

00:36:24   movie [TS]

00:36:25   so these band of geeks getting a van [TS]

00:36:27   they go cross-country and they break [TS]

00:36:29   into Lucasfilm and I think they get [TS]

00:36:31   caught and they see the movie what's [TS]

00:36:33   weird is that the movie as made cuts out [TS]

00:36:36   an essential plot element which is that [TS]

00:36:38   one of them is dying of cancer [TS]

00:36:40   yeah I've heard the story at us well and [TS]

00:36:43   that's that was actually that actually [TS]

00:36:45   is [TS]

00:36:45   I i would call that being in the version [TS]

00:36:47   that i saw i thought they put that back [TS]

00:36:50   i thought he basically held out until [TS]

00:36:51   they put it back in because it was it [TS]

00:36:54   was a big deal like i remember them [TS]

00:36:55   going back and forth about like whether [TS]

00:36:57   or not to take out this plot because i [TS]

00:36:59   remember seeing it with some friends and [TS]

00:37:01   like saying like telling the Masters [TS]

00:37:02   like oh yeah they wanted to cut that [TS]

00:37:03   whole thing out there like that makes no [TS]

00:37:05   sense without like the movie has no plot [TS]

00:37:07   without without that but when i saw it [TS]

00:37:10   didn't have that in [TS]

00:37:11   I may have to go back and watch it again [TS]

00:37:12   as the version i saw was just people [TS]

00:37:15   decide to go break in and see the movie [TS]

00:37:17   a week early for no reason which seemed [TS]

00:37:19   odd [TS]

00:37:19   yeah which is which is a week a week 1 [TS]

00:37:21   this little bit anyway what's especially [TS]

00:37:24   odd about the movie is that these sound [TS]

00:37:27   was done by THX sound so Ernie actually [TS]

00:37:32   got to go to Skywalker Ranch where THX [TS]

00:37:35   sound is located in a giant barn and he [TS]

00:37:38   was walked very carefully because [TS]

00:37:40   apparently somebody who's written a [TS]

00:37:41   script about people breaking into [TS]

00:37:42   Lucasfilm is not entirely trusted while [TS]

00:37:45   walking around loose on Skywalker Ranch [TS]

00:37:47   I'm going to call his star wars [TS]

00:37:49   credentials into question that always [TS]

00:37:50   the events section where he talked about [TS]

00:37:53   that he had gone through all the Holy [TS]

00:37:55   trilogy with Lord of the Rings the [TS]

00:37:57   matrix and stuff like that all the one [TS]

00:37:58   of the ones listed with Star Wars and he [TS]

00:38:00   says you're supposed to watch the [TS]

00:38:01   original and prequel trilogy in that [TS]

00:38:03   order and the fact that he telling you [TS]

00:38:04   to watch the prequels at all [TS]

00:38:06   Matt right now now I i actually just [TS]

00:38:10   consult wikipedia tour by myself and i [TS]

00:38:12   did now i recall this so basically the [TS]

00:38:16   director [TS]

00:38:17   they took my cancer story line out and [TS]

00:38:20   then before they released it they gave [TS]

00:38:23   the director 36 hours to react it back [TS]

00:38:26   in which he did and it was released with [TS]

00:38:30   that in a release there was a release [TS]

00:38:32   with it [TS]

00:38:33   oh my it was it's it's not it's it's [TS]

00:38:36   actually a pretty good movie I i would I [TS]

00:38:38   thought it's pretty entertaining I mean [TS]

00:38:39   clearly it's from a guy's huge stars [TS]

00:38:41   heard it also has one of the best ending [TS]

00:38:43   lines of any movie so I each clearly [TS]

00:38:48   this is you know he this is a guy with a [TS]

00:38:50   lot of appreciation for for pop culture [TS]

00:38:53   I guess what get stabbed me in the end [TS]

00:38:54   is the the curiosity of whether he has [TS]

00:38:57   anything sort of his own to say because [TS]

00:39:01   I feel like everything he does [TS]

00:39:03   piggybacks on this and if you strip away [TS]

00:39:05   all those so much like another another [TS]

00:39:07   series III really love that that is big [TS]

00:39:10   on the lodges is spaced which is a show [TS]

00:39:13   that it is a sitcom which is slightly [TS]

00:39:15   different but there's a lot of a margin [TS]

00:39:17   there but it it somehow is only adds to [TS]

00:39:20   its in service of its own story that's [TS]

00:39:23   telling about people [TS]

00:39:24   I I mean there's there's if you clip [TS]

00:39:26   that out it would the story would still [TS]

00:39:28   hold on that's more like it's part of [TS]

00:39:30   the character of a space use references [TS]

00:39:32   the same way like regular people like us [TS]

00:39:34   to use references and then it's part of [TS]

00:39:36   our life but it doesn't define our [TS]

00:39:38   flyers you know it will be older and [TS]

00:39:40   used them to illuminate a situation you [TS]

00:39:42   find yourself in the situation itself is [TS]

00:39:44   not directly related to some sort of [TS]

00:39:46   fire pop culture thing you know I guess [TS]

00:39:48   what i like about Ernest Cline is that I [TS]

00:39:50   believe his obsessions are sincerely [TS]

00:39:53   felt it's not like he went IMDb and said [TS]

00:39:57   I'm going to make reference to the top [TS]

00:39:59   five science fiction movies I are you [TS]

00:40:02   sure about that because that's one of [TS]

00:40:03   the that's one of my complaints like I [TS]

00:40:04   have some of them i can say are [TS]

00:40:06   sincerely felt but in one particular [TS]

00:40:08   aspect which is very essential to this [TS]

00:40:10   book had me questioning whether he [TS]

00:40:12   actually plays modern video games and [TS]

00:40:15   the most in particular I think it's easy [TS]

00:40:18   to like pac-man fine we all this not you [TS]

00:40:20   don't need to be like into pacman to [TS]

00:40:22   understand the concept of the perfect [TS]

00:40:24   game and stuff like that but the way his [TS]

00:40:26   game world works makes me think and the [TS]

00:40:28   way he describes technology in general [TS]

00:40:29   makes like is maybe he's not like maybe [TS]

00:40:31   he doesn't play modern video games maybe [TS]

00:40:33   he's not really that into technology you [TS]

00:40:35   know well yeah I think his future world [TS]

00:40:37   is not so much based on a logical [TS]

00:40:39   expansion of mmos so much as reading [TS]

00:40:43   snow crash I did the things he didn't [TS]

00:40:46   put it's far enough in the future you [TS]

00:40:48   know I had like I have a whole bunch of [TS]

00:40:51   the whole list of quibbles and notes [TS]

00:40:53   maybe i'll save them for the end more in [TS]

00:40:55   style but a lot of the stuff in the book [TS]

00:40:56   easy made me think that just gave me [TS]

00:41:01   hints that like if you set your thing [TS]

00:41:02   really far in the future i'll give it to [TS]

00:41:04   compare with another sci-fi author who i [TS]

00:41:07   like but who just makes up ridiculous [TS]

00:41:08   like vintage vintage make his technology [TS]

00:41:10   of engine makes up to just nonsensical [TS]

00:41:12   but it's so far in the future and so [TS]

00:41:13   distant we have that as long as a sort [TS]

00:41:16   of internally consistent you go along [TS]

00:41:17   with it and i found vintage stuff more [TS]

00:41:19   believable than this even though this [TS]

00:41:21   was like ninety-eight percent the same [TS]

00:41:23   as our technology just you know a little [TS]

00:41:25   bit extrapolated but then he messes it [TS]

00:41:26   up i think the problem is if you set [TS]

00:41:28   this book 200 years in the future [TS]

00:41:30   you've got people living in a weird [TS]

00:41:31   cargo cult obsessively redoing things [TS]

00:41:35   from [TS]

00:41:36   really long will you joke about [TS]

00:41:38   everybody's remaking movies over and [TS]

00:41:41   over and over again and soon we won't [TS]

00:41:42   have any movies left to remake I feel [TS]

00:41:44   like yeah that runs out after about 40 [TS]

00:41:47   or 50 years [TS]

00:41:48   well I think that be an interesting book [TS]

00:41:49   do that but it rate over that for a [TS]

00:41:52   thousand years and showed me that book [TS]

00:41:53   is habits have been less recognizable [TS]

00:41:55   but then eventually realize way i figure [TS]

00:41:57   i see what's going on here there you [TS]

00:41:59   know this is what John Hughes movies are [TS]

00:42:01   like in the future you mentioned the [TS]

00:42:06   cargo cultures may be compared this even [TS]

00:42:07   more to snow crash [TS]

00:42:09   yeah which I which i think is you know [TS]

00:42:12   obviously one of the sort of seminal [TS]

00:42:14   metaverse style you know pieces and I I [TS]

00:42:19   feel like it kept crashing up against [TS]

00:42:22   this in some ways and yet at no crashes [TS]

00:42:24   for me on arguably a better book but it [TS]

00:42:28   doesn't quite have the same links into [TS]

00:42:30   popular culture i guess but i guess [TS]

00:42:32   maybe they're also just very different [TS]

00:42:33   things [TS]

00:42:34   did you have any of you guys find [TS]

00:42:35   anything in particular that you felt [TS]

00:42:36   like stood out from this is a book [TS]

00:42:38   because I heard that was talking to a [TS]

00:42:40   friend about ready player one the other [TS]

00:42:42   day and he said you know there's been a [TS]

00:42:46   lot of people saying that this is you [TS]

00:42:47   know this is a nerd classic and we [TS]

00:42:49   should replace you know [TS]

00:42:50   ender's game with ready player one and i [TS]

00:42:53   just both of us were sitting there going [TS]

00:42:54   how working do you think this book will [TS]

00:42:57   last is that backlash against orson [TS]

00:43:00   scott card now [TS]

00:43:01   well I mean and that's one thing like [TS]

00:43:02   you know that's a whole separate issue [TS]

00:43:04   but i think i would say ender's game is [TS]

00:43:06   a vastly better book than this I me and [TS]

00:43:08   it's just [TS]

00:43:09   or perhaps that is suggested by people [TS]

00:43:11   who have not read ender's game and this [TS]

00:43:13   is the only science fiction book they [TS]

00:43:15   have ever read what i like is this a [TS]

00:43:17   game is this a game is a book and this [TS]

00:43:19   is a game specifically a real and it's [TS]

00:43:22   hardly has a book that has any longevity [TS]

00:43:24   to it or you know now this book has an [TS]

00:43:27   expired eight and it is like six months [TS]

00:43:29   ago [TS]

00:43:30   yeah I feel like it has to be read by [TS]

00:43:31   somebody exactly my age with exactly my [TS]

00:43:34   background somebody 10 years younger [TS]

00:43:36   isn't gonna care about half of it [TS]

00:43:39   I mean speaking as the 10 years younger [TS]

00:43:41   contingent you're probably more than [TS]

00:43:43   that I think I have to interrupt this in [TS]

00:43:45   every show you know [TS]

00:43:46   no I only because you all make me [TS]

00:43:48   speaking as someone who's young and hip [TS]

00:43:51   this is jive turkeys it's something that [TS]

00:43:54   I was kind of considering was reading [TS]

00:43:56   the book and then also afterwards I for [TS]

00:43:59   some reason after i finished reading and [TS]

00:44:01   I was contemplating the idea of a [TS]

00:44:02   language built up entirely of pop [TS]

00:44:04   culture references because i feel like [TS]

00:44:06   and not to go all high and mighty [TS]

00:44:08   judging society here but why not do it [TS]

00:44:11   go take it society we're about 50 [TS]

00:44:14   minutes in the podcast so decide no [TS]

00:44:17   younger younger children I kind of feel [TS]

00:44:19   like on the whole a lot of the big [TS]

00:44:22   things in the the big important stuff [TS]

00:44:25   that were into is all it's all older [TS]

00:44:27   culture like it's cool and hip for a 13 [TS]

00:44:31   or 14 year-old to like nineteen eighties [TS]

00:44:33   movies right now it's cool and hip to [TS]

00:44:36   dress in 1980 styles [TS]

00:44:38   there's not really a defining you know [TS]

00:44:41   dammit only missed it by 25 years [TS]

00:44:44   yeah i was so close so close but it's [TS]

00:44:48   it's strange and what the people who are [TS]

00:44:52   saying ready player one is going to be a [TS]

00:44:54   seminal classic I kind of wonder if [TS]

00:44:56   that's not based on the the trend of [TS]

00:44:59   culture right now which is basically [TS]

00:45:01   regurgitating old things [TS]

00:45:03   well what goes in cycles i remember [TS]

00:45:05   american graffiti was not released in [TS]

00:45:07   the time when people were dressing like [TS]

00:45:08   that but there was a nostalgia for that [TS]

00:45:10   period and there was kind of that that [TS]

00:45:12   craze of bringing back that thing but [TS]

00:45:13   that you know that past you know did we [TS]

00:45:15   ever bring back the sixties and we [TS]

00:45:16   brought back the fifties for a long time [TS]

00:45:18   still do that you get the fifties diner [TS]

00:45:19   sixties totally I mean you know i think [TS]

00:45:21   when i was growing up in like the [TS]

00:45:23   nineties when I was a teenager like [TS]

00:45:24   there were a lot of people were very [TS]

00:45:26   into the hippie culture that was clearly [TS]

00:45:29   a big part of the 60 silent mode when I [TS]

00:45:31   grew up in the eighties you know I [TS]

00:45:32   listen to the beatles a lot when I was a [TS]

00:45:33   little kid and you know i think that at [TS]

00:45:36   that point you know that band had been [TS]

00:45:38   broken up for over a decade [TS]

00:45:40   so you know we always look back to the [TS]

00:45:42   but the Beatles it's the Beatles is a [TS]

00:45:44   good example something like long-lasting [TS]

00:45:46   that will go on for a long long time [TS]

00:45:47   because it was like you know the first [TS]

00:45:48   big important rock band stuff like that [TS]

00:45:50   but this is not the first big important [TS]

00:45:52   scifi books on the first big important [TS]

00:45:54   five book involving video games it's not [TS]

00:45:55   the principles first of anything early [TS]

00:45:57   well its most emphatically not the [TS]

00:45:59   first of anything that's the whole [TS]

00:46:00   planet and it's not even the first like [TS]

00:46:02   iteration on pop culture it's not for me [TS]

00:46:05   it's not even the first meta meta [TS]

00:46:07   science fiction now so I don't think [TS]

00:46:09   it's not sticking around to me know [TS]

00:46:12   yeah and if it is we will hunt it down [TS]

00:46:14   and kill it [TS]

00:46:16   it's a fun but i still liked it [TS]

00:46:19   oh alright so we have Monty and Ashley [TS]

00:46:22   on the side of its it's a fun book those [TS]

00:46:24   are both me you have Scott and John on [TS]

00:46:26   the side of the angels I mean on the [TS]

00:46:28   side of its terrible and i would [TS]

00:46:30   probably lean towards that side but I [TS]

00:46:32   mean I enter i enjoyed parts of it i [TS]

00:46:34   don't want to wipe it entirely from my [TS]

00:46:36   brain I guess which is which is a win [TS]

00:46:38   for a brother that was fun to read it [TS]

00:46:42   but I you so I read it [TS]

00:46:44   my uh well I turned against the author [TS]

00:46:46   partway through which is not good but [TS]

00:46:48   you chained up in your basement here I [TS]

00:46:51   don't have a basement so I killed him [TS]

00:46:54   the no place to put I I came through so [TS]

00:46:57   I would you know the height on this book [TS]

00:46:59   was like oh my god this is going to you [TS]

00:47:01   know redefine the field of science [TS]

00:47:03   fiction and you have to read this book [TS]

00:47:05   because it's gonna be super great so I [TS]

00:47:06   was like all right i'll read this book [TS]

00:47:07   it's gonna be super great those are all [TS]

00:47:09   people who have never played video games [TS]

00:47:10   are saying that apparently i wish i had [TS]

00:47:13   the copy I have which I got out of the [TS]

00:47:15   library because i read the if you read [TS]

00:47:17   the back the quotes they had on the back [TS]

00:47:19   I no quotes are the blurbs are terrible [TS]

00:47:21   because they're always you know people [TS]

00:47:23   pimping stuff but I went down the list [TS]

00:47:24   of the people like these are people i [TS]

00:47:26   really like and respect in these are [TS]

00:47:28   good people but they're all that [TS]

00:47:30   guarantee you they're all old [TS]

00:47:32   some of them are in that module here is [TS]

00:47:34   a list of names I have the book right no [TS]

00:47:35   thank you [TS]

00:47:36   top charlaine harris author of the [TS]

00:47:38   sookie stackhouse series although our [TS]

00:47:42   don't play video games i was there was a [TS]

00:47:44   older girls but I want to offend anybody [TS]

00:47:45   who ever to terry brooks author of these [TS]

00:47:49   genera series [TS]

00:47:50   nevermind i think back everything I said [TS]

00:47:52   operating now later on the ground [TS]

00:47:56   skullsy and patrick rothfuss yeah like [TS]

00:47:58   scalzi and I like rafas with but it's [TS]

00:48:01   weird that I mean scholars and brothels [TS]

00:48:03   like getting your friends though too [TS]

00:48:04   today bloggers book I mean it's like [TS]

00:48:06   it's like marketing that's like I mean [TS]

00:48:08   yeah those that's your crowd right like [TS]

00:48:09   your you figure this cross-promotional [TS]

00:48:11   marketing is my secret i guess that's [TS]

00:48:14   neither here nor there but it was I like [TS]

00:48:16   like Scott was saying about it being [TS]

00:48:17   hyped up was like wow that sounds pretty [TS]

00:48:19   cool and like the idea of it sounds cool [TS]

00:48:21   enough but yeah found the execution did [TS]

00:48:23   did fall kind of analyze and speaking of [TS]

00:48:26   execution of like some1 people [TS]

00:48:28   especially people on the show like Monty [TS]

00:48:30   or glad or whatever say they're like one [TS]

00:48:32   or two or three degrees separated from [TS]

00:48:34   the people who actually wrote the book [TS]

00:48:35   I've I start to feel bad about saying [TS]

00:48:38   bad things about them about the people [TS]

00:48:39   who wrote the book is like I don't want [TS]

00:48:40   to hurt people's feelings [TS]

00:48:42   wo you know Jason is best friend with [TS]

00:48:44   best friends with val kilmer oh and I'm [TS]

00:48:47   i find myself like censoring myself one [TS]

00:48:50   of the things i had in my notes here and [TS]

00:48:51   like and upsetting myself in this first [TS]

00:48:53   several reasons but i think i should [TS]

00:48:54   just say it and go against my better [TS]

00:48:56   instincts here was 12 it well i'll start [TS]

00:48:58   with our meetings this the central [TS]

00:49:00   question to me when I'm reading this [TS]

00:49:02   book at all [TS]

00:49:03   I've already like turn the Scott corner [TS]

00:49:05   and I'm like against it and you know I'm [TS]

00:49:07   fuming about various things for the [TS]

00:49:08   central question but I don't know if I [TS]

00:49:10   want that to be called the Scott move it [TS]

00:49:12   is a good corner he's got your name and [TS]

00:49:14   printed in the cement is is this book [TS]

00:49:18   supposed to be written at like it was [TS]

00:49:21   written by a teenage boy like it's his [TS]

00:49:22   journal or is it just supposed to be a [TS]

00:49:25   book from the perspective of a teenage [TS]

00:49:26   boy but written by professional writers [TS]

00:49:29   and I'm saying is when i read it reads [TS]

00:49:31   like if I was 13 years old and started [TS]

00:49:33   my little salt and pepper notebook to [TS]

00:49:34   write myself a novel about an idea of [TS]

00:49:36   this world and that sounds awful but but [TS]

00:49:38   like but then I stopped my supposed to [TS]

00:49:40   wait a second know what he's a [TS]

00:49:41   professional author like I maybe I don't [TS]

00:49:44   really know much about this guy maybe [TS]

00:49:45   he's trying to write it like it's that [TS]

00:49:48   thirteen-year-old busy really does read [TS]

00:49:49   like Wade the character in the book [TS]

00:49:51   wrote this book so what do you guys [TS]

00:49:54   think is it mi is he a genius and it's [TS]

00:49:57   supposed to written that way or is he [TS]

00:49:59   just a terrible writer don't give him [TS]

00:50:02   that is it's very much in Wade's voice [TS]

00:50:05   you can't deny that it's in in the 18 [TS]

00:50:08   year olds voice and they were in his [TS]

00:50:10   head [TS]

00:50:11   I think it I think it reads very much [TS]

00:50:13   like a screenwriter tried to write a [TS]

00:50:14   novel it's supposed to appeal to the [TS]

00:50:16   thirteen-year-old Deacon all of us [TS]

00:50:18   the question about it being written by [TS]

00:50:20   like Walt it's it's as if it's written [TS]

00:50:21   by weight is ok then can i write a book [TS]

00:50:24   that looks like a book written by [TS]

00:50:26   someone who has no idea how to write [TS]

00:50:28   fiction because i can write that book [TS]

00:50:29   right now because I have no idea how to [TS]

00:50:31   write fiction and when they say this is [TS]

00:50:32   a horrible box and no no you don't [TS]

00:50:33   understand its it's from the perspective [TS]

00:50:35   like this it's you know its first person [TS]

00:50:37   is from the perspective of a character [TS]

00:50:38   and the character in the book doesn't [TS]

00:50:40   know how to write fiction so this is his [TS]

00:50:42   journal and that's why i'd make all the [TS]

00:50:44   same mistakes that have you known him [TS]

00:50:46   saying I'm going crazy reading this book [TS]

00:50:48   Thinking is horrible writer i am I going [TS]

00:50:50   crazy [TS]

00:50:51   if you can do that and simultaneously [TS]

00:50:53   tell a good story than yes PG Woodhouse [TS]

00:50:56   created Bertie Wooster who's an idiot [TS]

00:50:57   but birdie as a protagonist and as the [TS]

00:51:01   narrator still manages to somehow convey [TS]

00:51:04   a complicated story that's what's it [TS]

00:51:06   like yeah they're there are books like [TS]

00:51:07   that where there will be written you [TS]

00:51:09   know its first person and the character [TS]

00:51:10   tells you everything and it's in the [TS]

00:51:12   voice of the character but the thing [TS]

00:51:14   that burns about this is that Bernie [TS]

00:51:15   doesn't come across as a if there's a [TS]

00:51:17   difference between the weights rewrite [TS]

00:51:19   it's not as if this comes across like [TS]

00:51:21   bad like not quite dramatically bad [TS]

00:51:23   writing because it's an automatically [TS]

00:51:25   bed but like the point of it's very it's [TS]

00:51:27   very simplistic writing like a lot of [TS]

00:51:30   sentences are like he did this and then [TS]

00:51:32   he did this I i pulled out i pulled out [TS]

00:51:34   a couple examples here okay so this is [TS]

00:51:38   all right so let's start with this one [TS]

00:51:40   this move was a shut your hole penis [TS]

00:51:43   ville IROC replied using his favorite [TS]

00:51:45   mispronunciation of my avatars name [TS]

00:51:47   using his favorite mispronunciation my [TS]

00:51:49   avatars name you don't write that like [TS]

00:51:51   you don't you don't expect we understand [TS]

00:51:54   that his name is possible you have the [TS]

00:51:55   guy say panvel you know it it's you [TS]

00:51:59   don't put confident it's your show not [TS]

00:52:01   it's your show Yeah right and you know [TS]

00:52:03   what what a pumpernickel this was a game [TS]

00:52:05   we played always called him by some [TS]

00:52:06   random h named Harry Hubert Hogan Knows [TS]

00:52:08   you Bob we will get if you just keep [TS]

00:52:10   calling major his name is H in the game [TS]

00:52:12   we're not idiots like but that's what [TS]

00:52:14   you would write if you were like if [TS]

00:52:16   you're 13 years old because you wanted [TS]

00:52:17   right out the part that says see how [TS]

00:52:18   clever it is i thought that they should [TS]

00:52:20   always be called my agent you know and [TS]

00:52:21   that stuff is what a kid would write in [TS]

00:52:25   his little notebook when he's writing a [TS]

00:52:27   story but it's not what Wade would think [TS]

00:52:29   you know it's [TS]

00:52:30   it's I don't know if I Drive myself [TS]

00:52:32   crazy when he would think but it's yeah [TS]

00:52:34   it's not something that should actually [TS]

00:52:36   be in the box yeah well it's something [TS]

00:52:38   you think when you're not feet because [TS]

00:52:39   when you think you don't filter your [TS]

00:52:41   thoughts right like they just all happen [TS]

00:52:42   whereas when you're writing stuff down [TS]

00:52:44   your choosing right and that's what [TS]

00:52:45   makes it either a good writer better and [TS]

00:52:47   and the worst the worst thought I had [TS]

00:52:48   which is that when I reading this was [TS]

00:52:50   especially after I like all the reviews [TS]

00:52:51   it and all the things you're talking [TS]

00:52:52   about everyone saying this is the [TS]

00:52:53   greatest book ever and stuff like that [TS]

00:52:55   I i would I thought to myself and this [TS]

00:52:56   is not true but i actually have this [TS]

00:52:58   thought that I could write something [TS]

00:53:01   like this this is famous guys getting [TS]

00:53:03   famous i could write this which is not [TS]

00:53:05   true I totally cannot write i cannot [TS]

00:53:06   even right you know not even close right [TS]

00:53:08   but the fact that thought occurred to me [TS]

00:53:10   shows how angry I was at the the craft [TS]

00:53:12   of writing on this malay in this book it [TS]

00:53:15   is angered me huh [TS]

00:53:17   alright so for everybody listening out [TS]

00:53:20   there John syracuse a highly recommend [TS]

00:53:22   it and also claims that he can write a [TS]

00:53:24   better not [TS]

00:53:24   well I I think we're nanowrimo John [TS]

00:53:29   we're getting we're getting we're [TS]

00:53:30   getting your only eight days late get on [TS]

00:53:32   that [TS]

00:53:32   ya know I know I can't but the fact that [TS]

00:53:34   thought even entered my head to show us [TS]

00:53:36   how to better place this book romito [TS]

00:53:37   alright so we're getting close to really [TS]

00:53:40   be our allotted time here so I'm gonna [TS]

00:53:42   ask if anybody else wants to throw out [TS]

00:53:44   anything about this before we before we [TS]

00:53:46   wrap up the name by did I not hit [TS]

00:53:47   anything something on any of your lists [TS]

00:53:50   that i would say what I liked was the [TS]

00:53:52   references because they were directed at [TS]

00:53:55   me when I would be fascinated to read [TS]

00:53:57   the version of this book where all the [TS]

00:53:58   references are either imaginary or [TS]

00:54:01   things i didn't get and see what I [TS]

00:54:03   thought of it [TS]

00:54:04   mm so it's all a book entirely about [TS]

00:54:07   rush but haha the umberto eco book the [TS]

00:54:11   mystery of Queen Lana is also a burrata [TS]

00:54:15   preferences but it's a broader [TS]

00:54:16   references to umberto eco's childhood in [TS]

00:54:18   Italy and it makes no sense to me at all [TS]

00:54:21   there [TS]

00:54:22   I think this podcast maybe the only time [TS]

00:54:24   that this ernest cline will be compared [TS]

00:54:27   to PG Woodhouse and umberto eco [TS]

00:54:30   it's just let that go and open that echo [TS]

00:54:33   book is just a series of somebody saying [TS]

00:54:36   oh and then i'll pick up this book for [TS]

00:54:38   my childhood memory memory memory [TS]

00:54:40   oh and there's a picture i liked so it's [TS]

00:54:43   like a like a seven-year-old tell the [TS]

00:54:44   story [TS]

00:54:45   well no the sentences are a lot longer [TS]

00:54:47   marketplace because he's a freshman [TS]

00:54:49   semiotician like unless my favorite [TS]

00:54:51   thing from you think my favorite thing [TS]

00:54:53   about this book was is that you've it's [TS]

00:54:55   over you finished it was that a it has a [TS]

00:54:57   bright color on the cover to show [TS]

00:54:59   something that I said it shows something [TS]

00:55:00   that I suspected for a long time does [TS]

00:55:03   that you could make a good story about [TS]

00:55:06   the things that we enjoy about video [TS]

00:55:09   games like you know when you're playing [TS]

00:55:10   a video game and you get you know you [TS]

00:55:12   it's an enjoyable experience and it's [TS]

00:55:14   hard to relate let's relate that [TS]

00:55:15   experience to somebody who doesn't play [TS]

00:55:17   video games perhaps and I like to have [TS]

00:55:19   this this book even though it's kind of [TS]

00:55:21   just a minor aspect of it could show [TS]

00:55:23   like having this artificial rule the [TS]

00:55:25   world with this set of rules and the [TS]

00:55:27   things you can do it in the end exploits [TS]

00:55:29   that you have there can be fun and I [TS]

00:55:31   like the fact that it was it was so [TS]

00:55:32   close to modern MMOs that it wasn't like [TS]

00:55:35   like ender's game or some other fantasy [TS]

00:55:37   type thing where it's just so far in the [TS]

00:55:38   future it's like well we have nothing [TS]

00:55:39   like the now it's like we have things [TS]

00:55:41   like this now and people experience [TS]

00:55:43   without the trail blowing up part but [TS]

00:55:44   you know experience in games this type [TS]

00:55:46   of experience and see its kind of [TS]

00:55:48   exciting and I'll be interested to see [TS]

00:55:49   if they can make a movie out of it that [TS]

00:55:51   also expresses that you know this is the [TS]

00:55:53   fun that people have playing games and [TS]

00:55:55   here it is in the screen because [TS]

00:55:56   whenever they do it in movies it's [TS]

00:55:57   always so horrible and even this book I [TS]

00:55:59   was kind of stay at the end or like sea [TS]

00:56:01   and in the real world is the only place [TS]

00:56:02   where you can really have any fun know [TS]

00:56:03   the game is fun to you know that [TS]

00:56:06   moralizing at the end i just want to [TS]

00:56:07   punch him [TS]

00:56:08   it's like it Indian don't you know that [TS]

00:56:10   we have to like yes okay fine to have [TS]

00:56:12   actual sex instead of cyber sex that's [TS]

00:56:13   better I'm with you there but like video [TS]

00:56:15   games are fun too [TS]

00:56:16   that's real there's a real fun [TS]

00:56:18   experiences so that was my favorite part [TS]

00:56:20   of this book is it showed it can be done [TS]

00:56:22   and you don't have to pretend it's in [TS]

00:56:24   some fantasy world has no relation to [TS]

00:56:25   our own so maybe the movie of this won't [TS]

00:56:28   be good but the video game adaptation of [TS]

00:56:30   the movie will be a daunting want to [TS]

00:56:32   think about just like the matrix video [TS]

00:56:33   games are awesome and then the [TS]

00:56:35   novelization by umberto economical [TS]

00:56:37   quick little know-it-all comes around [TS]

00:56:41   and then the DNG module based on the [TS]

00:56:43   adaptation of the novel of the video [TS]

00:56:45   game of the movie of the book will be [TS]

00:56:48   available in stores all right i think [TS]

00:56:50   i'm going to leave their we're going to [TS]

00:56:52   come back next time on the book of and [TS]

00:56:54   talk about another book that also [TS]

00:56:56   strangely enough deals with multiplayer [TS]

00:56:58   online games although that it takes a [TS]

00:57:00   sharp left turn and that's Neal [TS]

00:57:02   Stephenson's Rudy it takes a sharp left [TS]

00:57:04   turn and then goes for six miles on foot [TS]

00:57:08   six you think it was just six anyways [TS]

00:57:12   that's for next time so I'd like to [TS]

00:57:13   thank all of my panelists can't make [TS]

00:57:16   Nothing though the pleasure was all mine [TS]

00:57:18   it really won't [TS]

00:57:20   John siracusa with pleasure [TS]

00:57:24   Monty action game over and serenity [TS]

00:57:27   cultural show so much fun [TS]

00:57:30   well thank all of you and for Jason's [TS]

00:57:33   now this is the uncomfortable [TS]

00:57:35   we'll see you next time [TS]

00:57:36   ok [TS]

00:57:48   [Music] [TS]

00:57:54   [Music] [TS]

00:57:59   oh you're on it you want me to go [TS]

00:58:01   through my my complaints on key is a [TS]

00:58:03   neck world-building alright so it's one [TS]

00:58:06   hit they rattle off that always can [TS]

00:58:07   handle up to 5 million simultaneous [TS]

00:58:09   users with no discernible agency and no [TS]

00:58:11   chance of a system crash that's like an [TS]

00:58:13   understand technology noticeable agency [TS]

00:58:15   so the speed of light is suspended now [TS]

00:58:16   you figure if they have a handle on the [TS]

00:58:18   speed of light their energy crisis would [TS]

00:58:19   also be solved [TS]

00:58:20   you know and no chance of a system crash [TS]

00:58:23   right whatever [TS]

00:58:24   it's a new overclock processor it's so [TS]

00:58:26   fast its cycle time Bourdon precognition [TS]

00:58:28   first of all overclocking that was like [TS]

00:58:30   so two decades ago and cycle time board [TS]

00:58:33   its original mission make no sense but [TS]

00:58:35   like I asked my mother to write a [TS]

00:58:36   sentence about how fast the cpu a 10-10 [TS]

00:58:39   zettabyte flash drive does anyone know [TS]

00:58:41   how big a zettabyte is anybody 10 [TS]

00:58:43   million terabytes you could give a one [TS]

00:58:46   terabyte hard drive to every man woman [TS]

00:58:47   and child on earth and still have to [TS]

00:58:49   like stacked you on their heads at and [TS]

00:58:51   then and then he he transfers 10 [TS]

00:58:53   zettabytes of data and in just over [TS]

00:58:54   three hours that's just that's just [TS]

00:58:56   sighs I if my math is right into the few [TS]

00:58:59   times i think that's 1 billion terabytes [TS]

00:59:01   per second [TS]

00:59:02   I don't know where they're getting that [TS]

00:59:03   kind of throughput it doesn't really [TS]

00:59:04   make much Leland [TS]

00:59:06   ya heard thunder you mentioned [TS]

00:59:08   Thunderbolts given pixel images that his [TS]

00:59:10   avatars killed you lose all his stuff [TS]

00:59:12   and the three levels he'd managed to [TS]

00:59:13   gain over the past few years what kind [TS]

00:59:15   of a memo has a thing where you pay for [TS]

00:59:16   a few years and your level 3 not a [TS]

00:59:18   successful in all that's what I you [TS]

00:59:21   don't have a sneak off to a 33 [TS]

00:59:23   dimensions that one of the guys i think [TS]

00:59:25   was arguing or something had had played [TS]

00:59:27   he played all those games he said they [TS]

00:59:28   were actually pretty good he was a [TS]

00:59:29   decent quarterback before he sold his [TS]

00:59:31   soul mate was talking about the 64 guy [TS]

00:59:32   he's a decent coder you have you don't [TS]

00:59:34   these days and any modern area you don't [TS]

00:59:36   make good games are being a decent coder [TS]

00:59:38   coders don't make the games it's the art [TS]

00:59:39   assets and the you know you need a huge [TS]

00:59:42   team of artists and writers to make a [TS]

00:59:44   game it's not coder I think that's the [TS]

00:59:48   standard my shortlist i compiled for [TS]

00:59:50   thing but just these technical yeah you [TS]

00:59:53   wait wait wait to hear my pockets and [TS]

00:59:54   steve jobs biopic on air more this year [TS]