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6e5a7dd
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My haptic suit did its best to simulate the sensation of torrents of falling water striking my body, but it felt more like someone pounding on my head, shoulders, and back with a bundle of sticks.
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Ernest Cline |
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e1600d2
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Few young men know the Oedipal torment of growing up with an insanely hot, perpetually single mom.
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ernest-cline
wtf
incest
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Ernest Cline |
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84102c6
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And, of course, Kevin Smith.
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Ernest Cline |
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6b04794
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with humanity? If this was how we treated each other, how much kindness could we possibly show to some race of bug-eyed beings from beyond?
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Ernest Cline |
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4fb6978
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The once-great country into which I'd been born now resembled its former self in name only. It didn't matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it.
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Ernest Cline |
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f52a3c5
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I also absorbed the complete filmographies of each of his favorite directors. Cameron, Gilliam, Jackson, Fincher, Kubrick, Lucas, Spielberg, Del Toro, Tarantino. And, of course, Kevin Smith.
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Ernest Cline |
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1a2e6d0
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He was dressed in a plaid bathrobe and bunny slippers
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Ernest Cline |
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a2a790b
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Someone had keyed my car.
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Ernest Cline |
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e7bd15b
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Because there is no map for where we are going...
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Ernest Cline |
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a9e7822
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Their avatars all sat motionless, with their eyes closed. This was a signal that they were "engaged," meaning they were currently on phone calls, browsing the Web, or logged into chat rooms. It was poor OASIS etiquette to try to talk to an engaged avatar. They usually just ignored you, and you'd get an automated message telling you to piss off. I took a seat at my desk and tapped the Engage icon at the edge of my display. My own avatar's ey..
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Ernest Cline |
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7fe087f
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Rush had been Halliday's favorite band, from his teens onward. He'd once revealed in an interview that he'd coded every single one of his videogames (including the OASIS) while listening exclusively to Rush albums. He often referred to Rush's three members--Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson, and Geddy Lee--as "the Holy Trinity" or "the Gods of the North."
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Ernest Cline |
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9767479
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When my ship reached Syrinx, I saw the twin moons, By-Tor and Snow Dog, that orbited the planet. Their names were taken from another classic Rush song.
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Ernest Cline |
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62aefe4
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Users could now teleport back and forth between their favorite fictional worlds. Middle Earth. Vulcan. Pern. Arrakis. Magrathea. Discworld, Mid-World, Riverworld, Ringworld. Worlds upon worlds.
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Ernest Cline |
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224d075
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later, appearing simultaneously at the top of the basement staircase. Daito was the taller of the two, and appeared to be in his late teens. Shoto was
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Ernest Cline |
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9b2ca7e
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Any business that wanted to set up shop inside the OASIS had to rent or purchase virtual real estate (which Morrow dubbed "surreal estate") from GSS."
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Ernest Cline |
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4931915
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No," Daito said. "We're not. You're all strangers to us. For all we know, any one of you could be a Sixer spy."
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Ernest Cline |
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e9f7481
|
OASIS. The Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation
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Ernest Cline |
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010d40b
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come to see my rig for what it was: an elaborate contraption for deceiving my senses, to allow me to live in a world that didn't exist. Each component of my rig was a bar in the cell where I had willingly imprisoned myself.
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Ernest Cline |
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17a31e6
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one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.
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Ernest Cline |
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337350f
|
his obsessive adherence to routine and preoccupation with a few obscure areas of interest led many psychologists to conclude that Halliday had suffered from Asperger's syndrome, or from some other form of high-functioning autism.)
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Ernest Cline |
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947a5ee
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A dream worth chasing. For the last five years, the Hunt had given me a goal and purpose. A quest to fulfill. A reason to get up in the morning. Something to look forward to.
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Ernest Cline |
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8592b54
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I wanted to propose marriage.
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Ernest Cline |
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d0a991c
|
you'll be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong.
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Ernest Cline |
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b61f05c
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legalese,
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Ernest Cline |
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a8076e8
|
We blasted out of the crater and rocketed around the moon's opposite side, and the fragile Earth became visible to us once again, hovering in the blackness ahead. Over the comm channel, I heard my father gasp at the sight--one he hadn't seen with his own eyes in an entire lifetime. My lifetime. "There it is," he said softly. "Home sweet home. Man, I really missed it." I'd missed it, too, I realized. And I'd been gone less than a day. As our..
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Ernest Cline |
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2a18532
|
Standing there, under the bleak fluorescents of my tiny one-room apartment, there was no escaping the truth. In real life, I was nothing but an antisocial hermit. A recluse. A pale-skinned pop culture-obsessed geek. An agoraphobic shut-in, with no real friends, family, or genuine human contact. I was just another sad, lost, lonely soul, wasting his life on a glorified videogame.
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Ernest Cline |
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b2ac4f4
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The sight suddenly drove home the fantastic isolation of the place.
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Ernest Cline |
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4268e96
|
I took control of a Happy Helpdesk avatar, a cookie-cutter Ken doll that I used to take tech-support calls. This avatar appeared inside a huge virtual call center, inside a virtual cubicle, sitting at a virtual desk, in front of a virtual computer, wearing a virtual phone headset. I thought of this place as my own private virtual hell.
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Ernest Cline |
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4e31c83
|
As we pulled into the Columbus bus terminal, my OASIS connection cut out. As I pulled off my visor and filed off the bus with the other passengers, the reality of my situation finally began to hit home. I was now a fugitive, living under an assumed name. Powerful people were out looking for me. People who wanted me dead. As I stepped off the bus,
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Ernest Cline |
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b51ea17
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Everything about our online personas is filtered through our avatars, which allows us to control how we look and sound to others. The OASIS lets you be whoever you want to be. That's why everyone is addicted to it.
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Ernest Cline |
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9c7de5e
|
You're just dead, your brain stops working, and then you're not around to ask annoying questions anymore.
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Ernest Cline |
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1260055
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The prize for the Earthworld contest was the Talisman of Penultimate Truth.
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Ernest Cline |
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b83559d
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These "wise men" apparently thought setting up a small shop in the middle of a monster-infested dungeon was a fine idea.)"
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Ernest Cline |
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ef5ac03
|
Eu nao sabia como me relacionar com as pessoas. Senti Medo durante toda a minha vida. Ate eu saber que estava terminando. Foi quando eu percebi que, por mais assustadora e dolorosa a realidade possa ser, e tambem o unico lugar onde se pode encontrar felicidade de verdade. Porque a realidade e real.
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Ernest Cline |
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3d7830d
|
I found myself wondering how the Empire had the technology to make long-distance holographic phone calls between planets light-years apart, and yet no one had figured out how to make a remote-controlled TIE Fighter or X-Wing yet.
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Ernest Cline |
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5539699
|
What happens when you die? Well, we're not completely sure. But the evidence seems to suggest that nothing happens. You're just dead, your brain stops working, and then you're not around to ask annoying questions anymore
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Ernest Cline |
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91b1def
|
Las unicas armas eran las palabras, por lo que no tarde en aprender a blandirlas con mucha habilidad.
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Ernest Cline |
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eaf5f22
|
Era el nacimiento de una nueva era, una era en la que casi toda la humanidad pasaba la mayor parte de su tiempo libre dentro de un videojuego.
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Ernest Cline |
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042c17e
|
That story you heard? About how we were all created by a super-powerful dude named God who lives up in the sky? Total bullshit. The whole God thing is actually an ancient fairy tale that people have been telling one another for thousands of years. We made it all up. Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. "Oh, and by the way ... there's no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. Also bullshit. Sorry, kid. Deal with it."
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Ernest Cline |
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5736e64
|
Leeroy Jenkins!
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Ernest Cline |
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1427412
|
El gobierno nos ha espiado toda la vida, pero al menos tenemos nuestras chucherias favoritas. Algo es algo.
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Ernest Cline |
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8f5991d
|
I watched every episode of The Greatest American Hero, Airwolf, The A-Team, Knight Rider, Misfits of Science, and The Muppet Show.
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Ernest Cline |
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4fd6696
|
Star Trek? Oh, I did my homework. TOS, TNG, DS9. Even Voyager and Enterprise. I watched them all in chronological order. The movies, too. Phasers locked on target.
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Ernest Cline |
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72ef4cb
|
Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Pink Floyd.
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Ernest Cline |