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0caa8a4
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Getting outside is highly overrated.
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Ernest Cline |
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35f0cf4
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You know: "dogs and cats living together ... mass hysteria!"
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Ernest Cline |
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e0d9ccb
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The hour draws near!
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Ernest Cline |
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cb76786
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To be honest, the future doesn't look too bright. You were born at a pretty crappy time in history. And it looks like things are only gonna get worse from here on out. Human civilization is in 'decline.' Some people even say it's 'collapsing.
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Ernest Cline |
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0c004a8
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It was still pretty dark down here, so I took out my flashlight and headed east, weaving my way through the dark maze, doing my best to remain unseen while being careful to avoid tripping over a shopping cart, engine block, or one of the other pieces of junk littering the narrow alleys between the stacks.
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Ernest Cline |
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1af1adc
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I preferred to crash in the laundry room anyway. It was warm, it afforded me a limited amount of privacy, and the wireless reception wasn't too bad. And, as an added bonus, the room smelled like liquid detergent and fabric softener. The rest of the trailer reeked of cat piss and abject poverty.
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Ernest Cline |
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f49c581
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She used to have to force me to log out every night, because I never wanted to return to the real world. Because the real world sucked.
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Ernest Cline |
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cac45c0
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For me, school had been a Darwinian exercise. A daily gauntlet of ridicule, abuse, and isolation.
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Ernest Cline |
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fd6ce3d
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You had to be careful whenever you entered a new zone or sector. You had to be prepared. But like I said, I didn't have that problem. I was stuck at school.
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Ernest Cline |
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07abe5f
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Ne vazhno, kakaia partiia tam u rulia - eti liudi vsio ravno zanimaiutsia perestanovkoi shezlongov na palube "Titanika", i vse eto prekrasno osoznaiut."
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Ernest Cline |
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c29bd2f
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We'd connected on a purely mental level.
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Ernest Cline |
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498ffee
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I wasn't some dilettante.
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Ernest Cline |
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3629b1a
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Aquello me hizo preguntarme si Hawking tambien habria participado en la gran mentira de la ADT. ?Y Neil deGrasse Tyson? Si Carl Sagan estaba metido en el ajo, era probable que otros cientificos importantes tambien.
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Ernest Cline |
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9d5063f
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a fascist corporate theme park where the few people who can still afford the price of admission no longer have an ounce of freedom.
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Ernest Cline |
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1dfb40a
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I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?
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Ernest Cline |
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430124d
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I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?
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Ernest Cline |
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cfddf19
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Normally, the newsfeeds didn't interrupt everyone's interactive sitcoms and soap operas unless something really major had happened. Like the outbreak of some new killer virus, or another major city vanishing in a mushroom cloud. Big stuff like that.
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Ernest Cline |
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36bd9a3
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Capitalism would inch forward, without my actually having to interact face-to-face with another human being. Which was exactly how I preferred it, thank you.
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Ernest Cline |
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4c5e712
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AA 241:87--I would argue that masturbation is the human animal's most important adaptation. The very cornerstone of our technological civilization.
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Ernest Cline |
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76a5afd
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On the day the Hunt began, the day I'd decided to become a gunter, I'd renamed my avatar Parzival, after the knight of Arthurian legend who had found the Holy Grail.
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Ernest Cline |
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b5ff5d7
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Our hands evolved to grip tools, all right--including our own. You see, thinkers, inventors, and scientists are usually geeks, and geeks have a harder time getting laid than anyone. Without the built-in sexual release valve provided by masturbation, it's doubtful that early humans would have ever mastered the secrets of fire or discovered the wheel. And you can bet that Galileo, Newton, and Einstein never would have made their discoveries i..
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Ernest Cline |
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3369e7f
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I learned the name of every last goddamn Gobot and Transformer. Land of the Lost, Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man, Schoolhouse Rock!, G.I. Joe--I knew them all. Because knowing is half the battle.
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Ernest Cline |
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a133718
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In the OASIS, you could become whomever and whatever you wanted to be, without ever revealing your true identity, because your anonymity was guaranteed.
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Ernest Cline |
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ee0c39b
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as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real.
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Ernest Cline |
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9743442
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At the center of all that gear was the opening DJ, R2-D2, hard at work, using his various robotic arms to work the turntables.
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Ernest Cline |
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676f881
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That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness.
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Ernest Cline |
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b376ea3
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tried to keep my cool. I tried to remain skeptical. I reminded myself that I was a man of science, even if I did usually get a C in it.
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Ernest Cline |
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df53756
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The first caller's avatar appeared in front of me in my support chat room. His name and stats also appeared, floating in the air above him. He had the astoundingly clever name of "HotCock007." I could see that it was going to be another fabulous day. HotCock007 was a hulking bald barbarian with studded black leather armor and lots of demon tattoos covering his arms and face. He was holding a gigantic bastard sword nearly twice as long as hi..
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Ernest Cline |
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2bb7c0e
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flash of silver as the craft streaked laterally
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Ernest Cline |
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d94d4b5
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The sorts of movies my late father had been nuts about.
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Ernest Cline |
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2fe3bb4
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Cats with a serious marble deficiency.
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Ernest Cline |
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13a9eb8
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Glaives
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Ernest Cline |
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be375e9
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I'd only just learned the term "gallows humor" a few months earlier, from a book we'd been assigned in American Literature about the Civil War. At the time, it wasn't a type of humor I thought I would ever be in a position to experience. But now, as hearing Chen belt out Roddy Piper's battle cry from They Live in Chinese struck me as one of the funniest things I'd ever heard in my life, I understood the concept perfectly."
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Ernest Cline |
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476f462
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All I'd eaten that morning was a raw strawberry Pop-Tart I'd wolfed down in my car on the way to school--and
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Ernest Cline |
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f45d6aa
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I unclenched them. Then I glanced back at Ellen, to see if she was watching all of this. She was staring at Casey with a helpless expression, and her eyes were filled with pity.
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Ernest Cline |
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432679c
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CHRONOLOGY
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Ernest Cline |
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5b998bd
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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. Besides, now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities
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Ernest Cline |
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1765ac5
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Now it's time to take off every zig for great justice.
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Ernest Cline |
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f291a00
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He chuckled softly. I wanted to sock him in the face.
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Ernest Cline |
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24e2384
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The guy had no sense of decorum.
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Ernest Cline |
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112ad5b
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stood frozen as the robots lumbered by, joints clanking and servos whining.
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Ernest Cline |
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25886c2
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Admittedly, all the time I'd had to devote to the game had shaved a full point off my grade average, and it had probably cost me my relationship with Ellen, too.
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Ernest Cline |
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95a4ec9
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Instead, he picked up his bass guitar, and, in what seemed like an odd coincidence, he began to play a solo version of "One of These Days" while staring up at the stars projected on the dome over our heads. Then I noticed a practice set list taped to the floor in front of him, and saw that several of the songs listed there were tracks I knew from my father's old mixtapes."
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Ernest Cline |
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5390ae9
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Then she snapped her fingers and we were standing on Europa, discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life beneath the moon's icy crust. I
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Ernest Cline |