Robert De Niro was once asked about his acting and where he got all his inspirations from. His reply was, as I remember it: "I steal. All the time. I see a bit of great acting, I take it."
Mar 25, 2023·edited Mar 25, 2023Liked by Daniel Martin Eckhart
The homage can work very well in satires and I think that Everything, Everywhere All At Once did a great job of paying homage to some great moments in sci-fi film and at the same time making it an own thing.
But you’re absolutely right with your advice to avoid homage. One of the most annoying reads of my life was the novel Ready Player One on which the film with the same name is based. I have to say that Spielberg changed many parts of the story to make it work as brilliantly as it did for screen. But the novel itself was so obnoxious with its homage to ‘80s pop culture trivia that I wanted to just throw it at the wall in frustration. (It didn't help that I was reading it on Kindle.) Also, the three game challenges through which the main character goes are actually all the same, an Atari game. I applaud Spielberg for seeing potential in the story and turning the shapeless bohemian crystal into a true diamond. Now that’s some storytelling talent. And his homage to’80s pop culture works.
Ha, I love strong opinions! I wish I had written Ready Player One because, heck, bestseller! I entirely agree with you, it panders by pushing button after button to get readers be hooked into the story via whatever 80s pop culture reference flows into the story. While greatly manipulative, I thought it was doing the manipulating quite well - but yes, kudos to Spielberg for further developing it ... would I be right in assuming that you have not read Ready Player Two? Well, neither have I. Just not interested.
I didn't know there's a Ready Player Two but I am willing to read it. I bet the author had help from editors this time around and the book is written much better than the first one.
Don't read it - if you didn't like the first, based on reviews I've seen, you'll hate the second one even more - had pretty bad reviews. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_Two
“Don’t borrow; steal.”
__Dave Hickey, Art Professor at UNLV (advice to me when I was in grad school…1992 or so)
The homage can work very well in satires and I think that Everything, Everywhere All At Once did a great job of paying homage to some great moments in sci-fi film and at the same time making it an own thing.
But you’re absolutely right with your advice to avoid homage. One of the most annoying reads of my life was the novel Ready Player One on which the film with the same name is based. I have to say that Spielberg changed many parts of the story to make it work as brilliantly as it did for screen. But the novel itself was so obnoxious with its homage to ‘80s pop culture trivia that I wanted to just throw it at the wall in frustration. (It didn't help that I was reading it on Kindle.) Also, the three game challenges through which the main character goes are actually all the same, an Atari game. I applaud Spielberg for seeing potential in the story and turning the shapeless bohemian crystal into a true diamond. Now that’s some storytelling talent. And his homage to’80s pop culture works.
Ha, I love strong opinions! I wish I had written Ready Player One because, heck, bestseller! I entirely agree with you, it panders by pushing button after button to get readers be hooked into the story via whatever 80s pop culture reference flows into the story. While greatly manipulative, I thought it was doing the manipulating quite well - but yes, kudos to Spielberg for further developing it ... would I be right in assuming that you have not read Ready Player Two? Well, neither have I. Just not interested.
I didn't know there's a Ready Player Two but I am willing to read it. I bet the author had help from editors this time around and the book is written much better than the first one.
Don't read it - if you didn't like the first, based on reviews I've seen, you'll hate the second one even more - had pretty bad reviews. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_Two