Links for 2011-09-05

"From the Ghostbusters quote that opens the first chapter onward, hardly a page gets turned that doesn't include at least one 80s-themed Easter Egg. Cline takes some of the fun out of this by not letting us pick up the references on our own. He drops them whole into sentences and announces what they are right away. There are few "Oh, I get it" moments for us. It's like playing Trivial Pursuit the Eighties Edition with someone calling out the answers before you've finished listening to the question. Still, if you're a Gen Xer and were a kid and young teenager in the 1980s and your fondest memories are of watching Family Ties and plugging your Atari into to the TV, Ready Player One is a giddy, high-speed, 372-page nostalgia trip.

If you're a little older, a late Boomer, and the 1980s are when you entered adulthood, Ready Player One may have another, less emotionally exhilarating effect,...'

"Who are the most ruthless capitalists in the Western world? Whose monopolistic practices makes WalMart look like a corner shop and Rupert Murdoch look like a socialist? You won't guess the answer in a month of Sundays. While there are plenty of candidates, my vote goes not to the banks, the oil companies or the health insurers, but - wait for it - to academic publishers. Theirs might sound like a fusty and insignificant sector. It is anything but. Of all corporate scams, the racket they run is most urgently in need of referral to the competition authorities."