The world Wade lives in is a mess. You could say it reminds me of the real world in the matrix. The difference is that while most people in the Matrix don't know the truth Wade and others like him log onto the Oasis just escape reality. The world is a disaster with people struggling to survive. In the Oasis you can be whoever you want to be. Everybody know the truth but prefer to hide in a virtual world. They have no other way of making their lives bearable.
The whole quest for the Easter egg is collective attempt by those who participate in it to escape their real lives. The older generations lives in the 'Good old days' when everything was plentiful and life wasn't a struggle for survival. Maybe some people just wanted to live in the world that had been. Wade like the gamer Adam from Alone Together, does not want to face the reality of his situation. the Oasis then becomes a means of escape for all those who do not want to face the problems of everyday life. You could say that they are collectively taking the 'blue pill' on a daily basis. They know the truth but do not ant to deal with it.
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There have always been ways to escape reality for those who looked for it. Books, movies and video games are all media through which people try to forget about their troubles and live in another world. The Oasis offers users a chance to be whatever want. How may people in today's world would opt to spend all their time logged on? How many already do? When does a game go from entertainment to addiction or need? One thing I believe that the book made clear was the worsening energy problems and social conditions added to the allure of the artificial world. How can we avoid this? Do we have to?
Cline points out the threats of face-to-face communication, anonymity and isolation while increasing virtual connection. Although author aims to say we have to face reality but not to hide into the virtual world, I think the online class in OASIS is so fascinating. Those simulated learning programs are actually advanced and applicable in the future. Teachers could take their students on a virtual field trip to learn courses more vividly. For example, as book mentioned, in biology class, they could travel through a human heart and watched it pumping from the inside. (Cline 48) This will be an unprecedented improvement in education system that provides students different perspectives of learning and thinking.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Wade. He lost both of his parents, his aunt uses him for money and food, he was bullied by kids when he was in middle school, and he’s not content with the way he looks. He isn’t completely responsible for what has happened to him. So it seems reasonable for him to escape into the OASIS. He’s only 18 and he has no control over the energy crisis or anything else that is going on around him. On the other hand, Adam from Alone Together probably could change the way he lives and become a better person rather than escape reality and play Second Life. However, I don’t think Wade has much of a choice. Besides, it seems like he’s getting a good education that’s free. The real world at this time is depressing and what else is there to do to be happy and sane?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. Books, movies, comics all were attempts to escape into a different world. When discussing why one enjoys reading books in middle school, my teacher would often tell us that it provides us to travel to destinations that are otherwise impossible to travel to. Over the years, the ‘drug’ has changed but the ‘addiction’ has stayed there. First it was comic books, action figures and legos, now its is facebook, youtube and online gaming.
ReplyDeleteThe underlying arc of the story is very typical of a hero's journey, where the main character starts from nothing, overcomes obstacles, and eventually achieves them, but the thing that sets this story apart is the cyberpunk landscape and the caveat of global warming that seems to be a theme in all dystopian literature. The clear issue of a need for a better solution to energy and its consumption is explored in this book, and they’re not painting a pretty picture. Its true, we need to turn to alternative fuel sources, and I like that this book helps paint a picture of what that would be like, because for some people its hard to imagine what living without would be like. Sometimes we need a little reminder that fossil fuels are far from everlasting.
ReplyDeleteLeah's got it! Cline's reference includes Star Wars, and as noted in class, George Lucas was heavily influenced by Joseph Campbell's excellent work of cultural history Hero With a Thousand Faces. Campbell and Lucas even collaborated much later on a book published by The Smithsonian.
ReplyDeleteCline's book follows lots of the tropes from Cyberpunk: decayed real world, hacker-as-hero, evil mega-corporations, femme fatale in Art3mis. He invokes a fuel shortage in the near future as MacGuffin--it's less a real-life warning than a means to get everyone to use OASIS. If you could power the Internet with alternative energy, you could keep civilization going while travel became a rarity.
That's a clever plot-point for Cline. Otherwise, even with such a realistic simulation, there would be more hold-outs from OASIS.
I think it's interesting that the OASIS serves as an outlet to completely forget the negative aspects of reality. It provides people with a vivid enough getaway that the state of the "real" world is no longer an issue. Things such as overpopulation and pollution become less of a concern when your mind isn't in the real world anyway. The OASIS becomes reality and therefore the state of the "real" surroundings are a nonissue, until perhaps the world becomes incapable of sustaining life.
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