Assignment
Response to Ready Player One
Instructions: Answer the following questions to the best of your ability while drawing direct evidence from the text. That means talking about specific scenes or characters, and/or pulling quotations from the book.
1. How does the book depict fandom? What specific type of fandom does it promote? Why make this type of fandom the key to victory and empowerment?
2. Does the race, gender, and sexuality of Parzival matter in both the context of the story and in determining its meaning? Why or why not?
3. How does the book depict the purpose of games and play in a dystopian society? How does it merge the boundaries of real and artificial worlds? Should Parzival push the button at the end?
4. Why do you think the book is so nostalgic for 80s popular culture? Why might this resonate with certain audiences today?