Let's talk about immortality for a minute. In a video game, you have an infinite amount of lives and do-overs. In real life, you have one chance and when it's your time to go then you're just gone. But, are we really gone? Some people will argue that if a person is physically not here on this earth, then they are gone. Others know that a person can live on through their memories of the people that they left behind. This is exactly what we are doing now and what Halliday, and every other famous person, does before they kick their metaphorical bucket. Halliday programmed his own avatar, Anorak, to continue to live in the OASIS even after he died. You may just think this means nothing because he is still dead in reality. Well, the reality is that everybody spends just about every minute of their reality in the virtual reality that this dead man created. I believe if people still continue to speak of your legacy you after you pass on, you are, in a way, immortal. Halliday programmed his own avatar, Anorak, to continue to live in the OASIS even after he died. "For years gunters had speculated that Anorak still roamed the OASIS, now as an autonomous NPC. Halliday's ghost in the machine." (p.84) Usually, people who are famous, immortalize themselves in their work. Halliday wasn't any different. He even created an entire competition to pass on his legacy. This is specifically how Halliday achieved immortality. In what way could Wade achieve immortality?

    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is definitely a novel for sci-fi lovers. As a person who tolerates sci-fi, it was really hard to tear through the pages like I had originally planned to. In the prologue, us readers got a background of what is going on in the book. I am eternally grateful for the information because without it, I would be so lost.

    While reading I couldn't help but think about the saying, "Art mimics reality." This book is an exaggerated example of what the real world is coming to. Cline created a story that showed how people used virtual reality to escape their real world problems. "The ongoing energy crisis. Catastrophic climate change. Widespread famine, poverty, and disease. Half a dozen wars." (p.1, paragraph 2)  In real life we use our smartphones to do everything. I can't recall how many times I've heard the phrase, "I hate talking to people in person, I'd rather text." It has gotten so bad that people, including myself, will use smartphones as a way to avoid conversations. Phones were invented to have communication, not avoid it. Cline did a great job using a seemingly off-topic concept to explain something bigger.