Ready Player One Read-Through: Chapter 30

Content warning: sexism, stalking, cyber stalking.



Wade escapes.

I should just end it there, and spare you the tedious and infuriating details.

But apparently I'm a masochist, and there isn't much joy in being me.

Let's continue:

Wade is put on twelve-hour shifts in his cubicle, advising OASIS users on how to solve their problems. He begrudgingly helps an avatar called "HotCock007". Names like that do exist on the internet in the future, then.

Social commentary that I highly doubt Cline intended to include: How men, based on what usernames they give themselves on the internet, are obsessed with their genitals, like women aren't, apparently. Or women aren't supposed to be - sexually-inclined, that is.

Wade is moaning about having a real job. Again.


During each shift, I was given three five-minute restroom breaks. Lunch was thirty minutes. I usually ate in my cubicle instead of the cafeteria, so I wouldn't have to listen to the other tech reps bitch about their calls or boast about how many perk points they're earned. I'd grown to despise the other indents almost as much as the customers. (Page 265-266)


*&&^"T^%W^"%^&"^*&!^("*!^"&%£&*^"£(")*)"_)£_!*)£(*"&£^£%!£!%"%!£r^£!^%%!!!%!!!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gods, Wade is an irredeemable ass to other indents - other prisoners, who are just trying to survive in an impossible situation - to people who are no different than him. People who are trying to be friendly and hold on to any shred of humanity and individuality they have left.

Have I made it clear yet that I hate this selfish, thoughtless, entitled whiner?!

He doesn't try to free them later, either. He ends up escaping and gives no thought to - no fucks about - his fellow prisoners of a corrupt system. We don't even get to meet any of them, find out what they are really like and what their backstories are.

WADE. DOESN'T. CARE.

OUR. FUCK-MY-LIFE. HERO!

(There is also a line about Wade being issued "two little red pills each day" to help with his narcolepsy. Like with his antianxiety pills in chapter 28, it is not referred to again and is completely inconsequential. The only thing worth noting about it is that it might be another The Matrix reference.)

What proceeds is a long, boring, lucky, inane escape plan. Wade uses illegal and bloody lucky means to bullshit his way into IOI's files, totally undetected.

He is the greatest, luckiest hacker ever! Edward from Cowboy Bebop, Barbara Gordon, Lisbeth Salander, Mac from Veronica Mars, and Rihanna from Ocean's 8 combined couldn't have pulled this off - not as quickly as Wade does, at any rate!

He manages to access every single one of IOI's top secret, confidential files from his sleeping pod. Including their research on everything to do with Halliday, and files on himself and his avatar, and on Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto. Daito's file has a giant red X on it. Conveniently, Wade's current whereabouts are unknown to the Sixers; they'd lost track of him after they blew up his aunt's trailer.

The plot is extremely kind to him.


I closed the window, took a deep breath, and opened the file on Art3mis. (Page 291)


Creeper looks up Art3mis's file - all of her private details are in there - with no thought, no prompting, no crisis of conscience whatsoever.

He doesn't need to do this. Seriously, he doesn't. Time is of the essence and he is trying to escape from his imprisonment. He could be detected at any moment.

As with everything else, his top priority is listening to his erection.

Wade Watts is, always has been, and unfortunately always will be, a stalker.


At the very top was a school photo of a young girl with a distinctly sad smile. To my surprise, she looked almost identical to her avatar. The same dark hair, the same hazel eyes, and the same beautiful face I knew so well--with one small difference. Most of the left half of her face was covered with a reddish-purple birthmark. I would later learn that these types of birthmark were sometimes referred to as "port wine stains." In the photo, she wore a sweep of her dark hair down over her left eye to try to conceal the mark as much as possible. (Page 291)


...

...

...


Is it too late to quit? Right now?

Because holy fuck, this is stupid!





Rant time:

Art3mis is still pretty! Of course she would look exactly the same as her avatar! Not like she could have used her imagination to look like anyone or anything else in the OASIS! Lucky for Wade that he wasn't pining over a complete fantasy like a pathetic basement dweller who never goes outside and never talks to any real girls after all!

The birthmark on her face - it changes nothing. It means nothing. It is not a big deal. Are you telling me that a mark that is inherent, that could easily be covered up with make-up or anything else, is the only thing that makes Art3mis imperfect-looking by Wade's standards? That is the reason for her insecurities about her looks? In a 2040s society? Her self-esteem is affected not because she might have acne, or is overweight, like Wade used to be, or she might be deformed in any way? Not because she has a disability?

No. Art3mis's reason for her low self-esteem and low self-respect, is because she does not fit perfectly into the mold of western culture's standards of impossible-to-achieve feminine beauty. All her life she was made to feel bad about herself, because she isn't considered pretty enough to be important or worth paying attention to in a backwards, sexist society and culture. In the 2040s.

ARE WE SERIOUSLY MEANT TO BE CONGRATULATING WADE FOR STILL LOVING A WOMAN WHO DOES NOT LOOK 100% SUPERMODEL PERFECT!?

ARE WE MEANT TO GIVE HIM BROWNIE POINTS JUST FOR THIS!?

"Repulsed" (Page 186) - MY. ARSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The birthmark is a cowardly cop out, nothing more. Cline could have took a real risk here. He could have used this opportunity to actually subvert a trope - have a female love interest who is in fact considered unattractive to the straight white male gaze; giving it and beauty standards a giant fuck-you.

But he chose not to. His straight white male power fantasy wouldn't allow it. As a result, Art3mis is no better than the tiny-pink-sunburned Therru from the only universally-viewed bad Studio Ghibli movie, Tales from Earthsea.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ready Player One is not realistic. No basis in reality is presented when it comes to the straight white male gaze and default.


Art3mis had led me to believe that in reality she was somehow hideous, but now I saw that nothing could have been further from the truth. To my eyes, the birthmark did absolutely nothing to diminish her beauty. If anything, the face I saw in the photo seemed even more beautiful to me than that of her avatar, because I knew this one was real. (Page 292)


Well aren't you a fucking noble prince, Wade!

Looks still matter, here. "Beauty" - that is the exact word used - is still considered a positive and vital trait in a woman. Wade is still a shallow prick.

I know I'm all over the place about this, but it just makes me so angry. I can't believe I've been going on about it for this long!

Wade learns Art3mis's real name (Samantha Evelyn Cook), plus her age (twenty), and that she's Canadian. Also her height, weight, school transcripts going back to kindergarten, blood type, and her fucking address in the real world.

STALKER! STALKER! THIS IS SLASHER KILLER TERRITORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of this snooping is done behind Art3mis's back. It is beyond creepy. Wade is a potential horror movie villain.

He finds out about how IOI have been spying on her for the past five months. He does not see the absolute irony of this situation.

Everybody is stalking Art3mis, the only female lead in the story so far. Nobody cares, because Cline doesn't see anything wrong with this setup.

I should be past disgusted at this point, but I'm not.

There are eighty-pages left of this crap to go.

Afterwards Wade skims over Aech's and Shoto's files. As opposed to Art3mis's whole page worth of info, they get one paragraph dedicated to their real life details. However, Aech is seemingly always on the move, therefore the Sixers know the least about him and his whereabouts. His name is also listed as "Henry Swanson" - which Wade knows is fake because it is a reference to Big Trouble in Little China. Between this and Wade's own Bryce Lynch fake alias, the Sixers really suck at spotting '80s references; when the plot needs them to, of course.

Wade then opens Daito's file - for evidence, I guess. The Sixers were stupid enough to film themselves murdering Daito/Toshiro. Why? It's incriminating evidence!

Yes, Wade will use the video against them near the end, exposing their evil plans to the public! He copies this, along with the files and Sorrento's directive memo, to his flash drive. A memo about abducting and then "disposing of" the High Five on the Scoreboard.

It is the only decent thing Wade has done so far in the chapter - perhaps in the whole damn book.

The cartoonishly evil IOI corporation is plotting murder all over the place. Wade still looks no better.

For the sake of a ticking clock to save his friends, Wade changes his plan. Before, he'd set up a timed funds transfer to his IOI credit account, paying off his entire debt, so they will have to release him within five days. That wouldn't have looked suspicious!

But he needs to escape the next day now.

Wade Watts is acting genuinely heroic for the first time in the book. It only took him 294 pages. It doesn't make up for his lecherous stalking and selfish inconsideration for other indents at IOI.

End of chapter 30.