In her article “Playing the Game of Literature: Ready Player One, the Ludic Novel, and the Geeky ‘Canon’ of White Masculinity” (which you will read next week), Megan Amber Condis writes: “To read, according to Cline, is to ‘play through’ the text as one would play through a video game entering into the protagonist role, walking through the textual world as that character, and seeing the world as he sees it (3).
In this assignment, we will create a class wiki page. In this way, we will be participating by “entering into the protagonist role” while “walking through the textual world” and interacting with the text and the other readers (or players).
A wiki, as you probably know, is a resource that is typically open to the public. Our wiki will only be open to other members of this class. Like other wikis, any member of the class has the ability to add to , or edit, any wiki page.
Goals:
- Situate the novel in relevant social, historical, or pop-culture context
- Conduct Internet or Library Research to locate relevant secondary sources of information and cite the sources properly in APA sytle
- Discuss the novel and secondary sources with clarity and detail
- Gain experience with a wiki and collaborate with classmates
- Practice writing constructive and critical comments in a digital writing forum
For this wiki, absolutely any material in the book Ready Player One is available as material for a post. Your posts should be comprehensive (250-350 words, 1-2 developed paragraphs). You can include pictures and you must include appropriate citations. You may engage in a literary discussion or you may choose to inform your audience about an aspect in the book; such as, defining key terms, biographical or historical context, maps or images. You may use outside research or information in class articles/videos. You should write in a neutral tone. Do not focus on personal opinions. Provide context for your sources and explain how they help us to participate in the novel. How do we better understand Ready Player One or the Geeky Canon that it creates from reading/viewing the text alongside this post? In addition, you will make commentary posts on information already posted by classmates.
