‘Ready Player Two’ author sees dark side of technology
Ernest Cline’s sequel to his 2011 debut novel is even more ‘a cautionary tale’
Ernest Cline’s 2011 debut novel, “Ready Player One,” a kind ofWillyWonkameets-“Tron” adventure story, validated the digital diversions of gamers and 1980s enthusiasts alike with its arcade in-jokes and allusions to JohnHughes movies.
With the release of “Ready PlayerTwo,” the Austin, Texas-based author tweaks the expectations of his ownbrand of nostalgic escapism with an Easter egg of ambivalence regarding the addictive nature of the very internet-based obsessions that initially inspired him. “Well, yeah, you know, Iam10 years older thanwhenIwrote the first book, and 20 years older than whenI started the first book,” Cline says. “I’ve matured, andmy life has changed a lot.”
Cline, whois married to poetCristin O’KeefeAptowicz and has two daughters, says he actually has a love/ hate relationship with the internet and its corresponding technology. Regarding thewarnings of toomuchsocial media and screen time that seem sewn into his sequel, Cline says: “I try to showthe good side and the bad side of technology, but this one is definitely more of a cautionary tale.”
In “Ready PlayerTwo,” our heroWadeWatts, who has gone fromliving the life of a poor gamer to winning control of the virtual reality systemOASIS, finds out about a technology calledONIthat has been kept fromthe public. This suppressed technology enables users to experience OASIS with all five senses, to record and even upload real-life experiences.
ONIis a highly addictive, potentially brain-damaging simulation that will change theworld forever. “That’s the end point in the evolution of video games and virtual reality,” Cline says. “Whenit becomes indistinguishable fromreality. Then it becomes like you can’t tell the difference or feel the difference or smell or hear the difference. Then itwould feel the same as reality and become highly addictive— especially since itwould be a reality that you could have control over.”
Cline, whoadmits that his own addiction to games in his 20s inspired his first novel, is not sure howhe would take to the kind of virtual reality temptations he details in hisnewbook.
“Iamglad that technology does not exist yet so I don’t have to find out,” he says, adding: “Once this technology becomes a mind-altering substance, then it, too, will have to be regulated like a narcotic.”
ForCline, whowas born the same year that “Pong” appeared in arcades, pop culture is an inescapable component ofwhohe is and howhe reaches his readers.
“I reference pop culture more than most writers because Imake pop culture like a central element of the story somehow,” he says, adding: “I love pop culture; it’s beenmy culture. I have been exposed to high culture, but it does not resonate withme— or with most people— theway that pop culture does. And what I love about pop culture is it creates connections between peoplewhohave never met. Forme, it’s just another paint onmy palette that I could use to connect with the reader and let them knowthat these characters that they read about exist in the same universe that they do.”
The massive success of “Ready Player One” (along with the 2018 Steven Spielberg film that followed)
created an interesting fictional problem for this writerwho based his speculativework, set in 2045, on a very real-world pop culture. “‘Ready Player One’ nowhas to take place in an alternate universe different fromthe one that it references where Steven Spielberg has a different filmography,” Cline marvels.
If Cline is ambivalent about the technology he writes about, he is also unsettled about howthe more dystopian aspects of his first novel (such as realityTVstars entering politics and the havoc caused by aworldwide pandemic) have become real.
“Itwas strange to see so muchof the story come
true just in nine years,” Cline says. “I set it 25 years in the future when itwas published. Alot of it, especially the virtual reality aspects of it, came true. And a lot of its dystopian elements— you know, some of themwhere Iwas being playful or suggesting that realityTVstarswould be elected to public office — thatwas something that I just threwin there that Iwas not thinkingwould come true, muchless in less than a decade.”
Regarding the uncanny way elements of the “Ready PlayerOne” universe have linedupwith the realworld, Cline says: “Iworry sometimes that the only thing you need to be prescient is to be pessimistic.”