Life moves pretty fast

I should start this blog with a caution. This post contains extraordinary amounts of geekiness that the average muggle may not be used to. If you find you are affected by any of the nerdy issues raised within this blog, please seek help from a local desktop gaming group, live action role playing society, sci-fi book club, any online video game parties via your console or Alienware PC, or get yourself to a Comic-Con or other fan convention as soon as you feel able to leave the building!

I shall be at the Comic-Con in London in October, if you can wait that long.

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“I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.” – Groucho Marx

(Quoted by James Halliday in Ready Player One by Ernest Cline).

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For what I think is the fourth time in my life, I have just finished listening to the audiobook version of the novel Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by my favourite nerd champion, Wil Wheaton.

You can guess from the fact that this is a multiple listen of something covering near sixteen hours and that I have run through it in about four days, that I kind of like this book! (I like the sequel Ready Player Two as well, but like many, not quite as much.)

In fact, I can say that Ready Player One has had a profound effect on me since I first heard it in 2018 and has become an important part of my persona as something of a self-professed geek.

If you are unfamiliar with this book, here is the, slightly augmented, summary from Wikipedia – “The story, set in a dystopia in 2044, follows protagonist Wade Watts (Parzival) on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game (the OASIS), the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator’s fortune.” (To add, if you are unfamiliar with the term Easter egg in this context, it refers to a hidden prize.)

The book is heavily based upon geek culture, tabletop and video gaming culture, 1980’s nostalgia and looks at the dynamics of each of these reflecting their place in contemporary life.

It explores escapism, teen romance and insecurity, the great challenges of the modern age – the environment, energy security and the global wealth gap – and ultimately is a balance of nostalgia for the average Gen X/old Millennial and a reminder that life must be lived in the real world.

The book can be said to be influenced by classic cyberpunk ideas as seen in the movies Blade Runner & Johnny Mnemonic, the novels Neuromancer by Willam Gibson and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and The Wachowski’s The Matrix franchise.

It has been highly successful in its own right, having also been made into a film by Steven Spielberg, and has a strong following in the geek community. It can also be said to be pre-cursor to the 80s nostalgia as epitomised in the massively popular TV show Stranger Things.

I highly recommend all of these by the way having, unsurprisingly, read and seen them all!

“That’s all very interesting”, I can hear you say, “but one, why are you telling me all this, two what has this got to do with a sabbatical and three, is there a point coming up or, as Bill Bailey once said, is this a long walk along a windy beach to a café that is closed?!”

Ok – fair challenge. Bear with me if you will.

What this blog is really about is understanding my current reality and also, to my earlier point on personas, where does my avatar end and the real me begin?

To use a video gaming analogy, I am reaching the “final boss” of my sabbatical. Of course, this is not my own Donkey Kong or Dr. Robotnik super villain to be defeated, rather I must begin to assess what happens next. I’ve gained a lot of experience points, or XPs, the question is how to deploy them.

Here I must begin to consider what I want to make up the components of my life going forward.

This is the ultimate point of the story of Ready Player One. The game may be played by Wade’s avatar Parzival, but when it comes to it, he must decide on real world consequences for any prize money and his relationship, not with the avatar Art3mis, (pronounced Artemis), but with Samantha, the girl behind the pixels.

Here I think it is worth just exploring the idea of an avatar. An avatar in the modern context is a fictional profile often used in role playing gaming and online.

My Xbox avatar is shown in the header of this blog post, as is my online name, “Trelvis Gresley”. The origin of that name comes from a friend once saying my hair at school, due to a lot of gel, (think Ross in Friends), looked part Elvis, part Trev and thus Trelvis. Gresley is a play on Presley of course, and is in honour of Sir Nigel Gresley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and designer of the famous locomotives, Flying Scotsman and Mallard.

I have even explored what my Ready Player One OASIS avatar would look like in a conversation on Reddit a few years ago. Me being me, I also have a mood board I put together as I was thinking about it which is below, (or on Pinterest).

Essentially what all this is, is a summary of various parts of my personality that I want to project outwards. It is also why my ratings for every book I have read can be seen on Goodreads, as are the corresponding ones for every film, tv show and video game I can remember having seen or played on iMDb. My Linktree contains even more of this stuff.

Those things are all very unlikely to change. The lists will get longer of course, and undoubtedly I will be influenced by many more stories and so they may expand but in the end, that isn’t “me”. It is merely a summary of some my interests and experiences.

There are in fact two very important things that can be seen in the context of whether this “Player One”, is in fact ready for what comes after this sabbatical. The first is how much I am now myself and the second is how does this work in the context of no longer having my Art3mis with me?

Interestingly, the first part of that relates to my gaming nights I have with my good friends Paul and Alex.

We have played all sorts of video games together for many years, often on a Monday night. (We are currently going through a Fortnite phase in which my avatar is currently based upon Gambit from X-Men!) These are guys who I have known for so long that the number of years is immaterial, and I think we can tell instantly whether we are ok or not. This is our virtual pub, bearing in mind we live many miles from each other.

Jen asked them just before she passed, to keep our gaming nights going as she knew it would do me enormous good. I want to thank them both via this blog for doing just that. I could not have laughed more or healed as much as I have without the silliness and fun of our gaming nights. That has nothing to do with fake personalities. It is about true friends being there for a mate who needed them. Cheers fellas.

As to my Art3mis, my Jen, my mind immediately goes to a song. That song is called Art3mis & Parzival! It is based upon the Ready Player One story and is by modern synthwave group Gunship. I introduced this to Jen and she absolutely loved the song which she said was a little representation of the strength of our relationship and how we faced the challenges of her illness together.

Since she passed, I have become even more fond of it. It had led me into discovering modern synthwave music, (my playlist), and I have seen two of my favourites synthwave groups, Ladytron and The Midnight, live during my sabbatical. Not forgetting the godfathers of synth, the Pet Shop Boys.

This song, and the story that it is based upon, reminds me that there will always be battles and challenges but, even though Jen isn’t physically in the room with me anymore, I can call on all the things I learned from our life together through good and bad times and they will give me strength.

That is the real me. The person lucky enough to have had that unquestioning support from someone who loved me and still walks with me each day. If I tap into that and my own determination to play the game of life as best I can, I can move through into what comes next, knowing that being the real version of myself, with all its crazy geekiness, is all I need.

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As I have done before I offer you a link at this point to take a listen to Art3mis & Parzival – It has an amazing video by the way: YouTube

Art3mis & Parzival by Gunship & Stella Le Page.

Lights go out over my town
Back to the midnight oasis with you
Saving the world that’s tough but let’s give it a shot
‘Til you tell me game over
Feel this chaotic connection with you

The world outside is overrated
Better hanging with you all night
When we’re fighting the same fight
Dreaming the same dreams tonight
You know I won’t go letting you down

There’s a mountain of fire
I will meet you there
Into the dark I’m coming home
Through the mountain of fire
With glass eyes and digital water
Through the shadows I’m coming home

We’re all gonna die that’s just how it is
There’s no escaping the future
Nobody gets what they want in this world
Even for you and me
Never felt at home in reality
Always hide behind avatars
But we’re fighting the same fight
Dreaming the same dreams tonight
And you see I won’t be letting you down

There’s a mountain of fire
I will meet you there
Into the dark I’m coming home
Through the mountain of fire
With glass eyes and digital water
Through the shadows I’m coming home

Where did the time go
It’s light at my window
What we did with it who knows
Guess the time flies when we spend each night together
Guess the time flies when we spend each night together

There’s a mountain of fire
I will meet you there
Into the dark I’m coming home
Through the mountain of fire
With glass eyes and digital water
Through the shadows I’m coming home

We’ll float all the way
We’ll burn it all way
We’ll float all the way
Through the shadows I’m coming home

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Alexander Westaway / Daniel Haigh / Stella Page / Alexander Gingell

Art3mis & Parzival lyrics © Horsie In The Hedge Music