Discussing Book to Movie Conversions (Specifically Ready Player One)

Recently I watched Ready Player One (2018), a movie adaptation of a book I reviewed back in December 2017. Based on the trailers I knew that the character designs had been revised, and suspected that much of the character journeys would also be truncated. I knew that, much like Lord of the Rings, and other book to movie conversions, they would have to cut or condense many things to tell a story in the time they had.

(Warning, the rest of this post may contain specific references to both the book and the movie, so if you are not familiar with either, and you care about spoilers, you may want to refrain.)

ReadyPlayerOneMovie

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Enemy

At first it was only a whistle, some bird calling in the night. Then I saw a flicker of light, and answered with my own. Sparks leapt up, revealing his face, the hungry grin that mirrored my own. With each stroke the hours fell away, the words that seemed so important, once, but not anymore. My sword in my hand, my enemy before me, and a smile upon my lips.

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Discussing Why We Like Stories #AuthorToolbox (Part 1, The Unconscious)

Storytelling is a lifelong journey, full of unexpected detours; learning subjects that can include psychology, philosophy, history, and various scientific disciplines. We point to specific examples of stories and marvel at how they “do it”. Funny or sad, light-hearted or serious, simple or complex, but they’re all stories, which means on some level they share certain basic attributes. One of those attributes is what they do for the audience. I’d like to propose that all stories represent different ways of satisfying two basic desires: the desire to feel, and the desire to think.

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