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Lucky Wander Boy

Connections to other texts:

  • Ready Player One
    • Halliday and Pennyman don't seem to have spiritual faith, and perhaps use their virtual worlds as substitutes
      • Pennyman used Microsurgeon as a form of prayer or devotion to heal his dying grandmother
    • Halliday and Pennyman seem fixated on their respective childhoods
      • Halliday recreated his childhood home
      • Pennyman's catalogue captures experiences from his youth
  • Invokes religious texts (32, 132, 234) in places

The Catalogue:

  • The entries draw from Pennyman's personal experience
  • Clio says it has a "scholarly tone," but does it (118)?
    • Most of Pennyman's assertions are unsupported
      • The Double Dragon entry does reference Scott McCloud's work in Understanding Comics about abstract representation and identification

Language and structure:

  • Multiple formats
    • narrative, screenplay, catalogue entries
  • 1st person, focused on internal action
  • Invokes the biblical creation story when discussing the founding of Atari (132)
  • The multiple "replay" chapters at the end ambiguated the literal plot
    • How do these compare to the earlier fantasy about telling off Krickstein? 

Characterization:

  • Pennyman
    • Seems to have multiple life issues but is unwilling to address them through action
    • Clearly has a connection to video games in general, some in specific 
    • Appears to treat people poorly
      • neglects Anya
    • Seems to lie a lot 
    • Filters the rest of the world through the lens of video games 
    • He’s dedicated toward his goal 
      • But is he? He seems to shift projects and is aware of his own fickleness 
    • He’s protective of the catalogue and wary of sharing it with others
    • He has some solipcism
      • He writes himself into the entries 
    • He’s not combative/aggressive
    • Indecisive and hesitant like Hamlet
    • He seems aware of his shortcomings (134, 143)
      • Does that make it better or worse?
    • He's maybe showing change
      • sharing his passions with Clio
      • Wanting to share LWB with the world
    • How is Adam crazy?
      • He's compulsively engaged in activities he doesn't seem to enjoy
      • Focused on moving toward something rather than being something

  • Anya
    • striving for a goal
      • somewhat opposed to Adam
    • Forced to represent the childhood culture she left
      • Adam chooses to relive his constantly

  • Clio
    • Similar to Adam but more active and driven
    • Offers a kind of redemption, but he rejects it

  • Araki Itachi
    • something of a cipher, a symbol upon which Adam projects
    • Has the mystical aura the book grants to Japanese things

  • Tetsu Bush
    • Values real experiences
    • Has been Americanized
    • Is put into a stereotypical role

Themes:

  • search for meaning
    • LWB the game parallels a meaningless existence (or meaning is hidden or self-defined [existential])
    • foreign spaces and people have natural insight, connection to greater, mystical truth
    • Adam becomes the prophet of LWB, which is evidenced by the recurrent religious imagery and language
  • binary of real and vicarious (or emulated or virtual or cloned)
    • MAME doesn't lead to insight
    • Purchasing old consoles goes nowhere
    • LWB is being adapted into a movie
    • Leng Tch'e becomes a film based on a novel that was a partially released text based on a translation
  • productivity (doing/accomplishing something)
    • The company Adam works for produces nothing
    • Adam shifts from project to project
    • The weird references to masturbation suggest activities that aren't productive 
  • commercialization (commodification) of experience