Ready Player One Read-Through: Chapter 33

Content warning: sexism, misogyny, racism, references to online abuse and offline abuse, harassment, toxic masculinity, homophobia, stalking, male entitlement.



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I... really don't want to do this.

This is going to make my previous rants look like trips to Disney World.

Let's get it over and done with, and tomorrow I can feel proud of myself, as if I'd conquered Mount Everest.

Morrow's avatar can access anything and go anywhere in the OASIS, as he's its co-creator. Why has he not been helping out with the egg hunt then? Or trying to stop his dead ex-friend's madness from the beginning, which he'd hinted at before that he knew was unhealthy and wrong? It's never explained.

What is explained is that it was Morrow/Og who knocked over the stack of comic books back in chapter 15, a forever ago. He only decides to help now because he'd previously didn't want "to ruin all the fun". He is protecting the "spirit and integrity" of Halliday's contest, at his old pal's request.

PEOPLE HAVE DIED! YOU'VE JUST PROVEN YOURSELF TO BE AS BAD AS HALLIDAY, MORROW!

AND I ONCE LIKED YOU! I THOUGHT YOU KNEW BETTER!

Spirit and integrity, my arse!

Before he died, Halliday had asked Morrow to monitor and look over the contest and its events. Morrow has decided that the time to intervene has come. Again, people have died because of this contest, and he thinks that now he should step in and offer a helping hand. When the surviving High Five have just reached a breakthrough and Wade is doing fine on his own.

Technically, Ogden Morrow is an accessory to murder. He let these terrible things go on in his stride, never calling the authorities (he's rich! He's famous! He owns the tech! He would have had proof to incriminate IOI and the Sixers!), or altering the OASIS, or anything. All for the sake of a stupid game. And enabling his dead friend, whom he hadn't spoke to in a decade, in his godlike delusions.

Can Morrow be trusted? He can do anything in the OASIS. He's rich, smart (common sense notwithstanding), and he has done nothing to try to stop the Sixers until now.

The starstruck kids immediately put their lives in his hands, unquestioning, never thinking about what his intentions - his ulterior motives - could be. They choose to risk their lives for a creepy old man who has been spying on them for about a year.

Ogden Morrow is the worst wiseman ever.

Poor Daito must be Hulking out in his grave right now.

Morrow has already made arrangements for everyone to seek refuge in his home in Oregon for safety, and for continuing the last stage of the OASIS quest.

Shoto bows to him, and when Art3mis receives good news from the man:


For a second I thought Art3mis might bow too. But then she ran over and threw her arms around Og in a bear hug. "Thank you, Og," she said. "Thank you, thank you, thank, you!" (Page 315)


The hug is unearned. He let things go too far, when he didn't need to. He chose to allow every bad thing in Ready Player One to happen. He is a rich bastard.

He arranges limos to pick up both Art3mis and Shoto at their respective airports, and Wade and Aech will share Aech's RV, to then travel to Oregon on a freaking jet. Easy!

Wade and Aech bicker and whine affectionately and pointlessly about travelling together (come on, you'll be flying on a jet!) - in real life, for the first time ever.


"This is gonna be interesting," I said, stealing a quick glance at Art3mis. "The four of us are finally going to meet in person."
    "It will be an honor," Shoto said. "I'm looking forward to it."
    "Yeah," Art3mis said, locking eyes with me. "I can't wait." (Page 316)


The only thing that will make me forgive everything in this book is if Art3mis were planning Wade's murder. Or she's a Sixer spy, after all. What can be interpreted by her locking eyes with him, at the prospect of meeting him for the first time? Nervousness? Annoyance? It's pretty bloody clear to her by now that he is her stalker. She should be scared of meeting him in person.

Shoto remains a token stereotype from beginning to end. He has no character; unless you count bowing and saying "honor" as a catchphrase to be character traits. His revenge plan from chapter 25 doesn't come up again.

Everybody logs out of the Basement accept for Aech and Wade. Aech warns our hero that he doesn't look anything like his avatar in real life. And he means it.

He will pick up Wade in his RV.


Despite what I'd said to Aech, knowing that I was about to meet him in person after all these years made me more nervous than I wanted to admit. But it was nothing compared to the apprehension I already felt building inside me at the prospect of meeting Art3mis once we reached Oregon. Trying to picture the actual moment filled me with a mixture of excitement and abject terror. What would she be like in person? Was the photo I'd seen in her file actually a fake? Did I still have any kind of chance with her at all? (Page 316)


PRIORITIES!

Art3mis. Is. Not. A. Prize. Dipshit!

But in Ready Player One's world, she is.

Wade finds out that newfeeds all over know about the Sixers' crimes and the gunters' war plan. He waits for Aech's RV outside the Plug.

The RV arrives, and it is very small, and very old.

Okay, here it is: the "twist". Wade, and the readers, are finally going to meet Aech in person. Who has been Wade's barely-there, kind-of-supportive-in-small-doses, obnoxious, obsessive, pop-culture dictator best friend this whole time?


A heavyset African American girl sat in the RV's driver seat, clutching the wheel tightly and staring straight ahead. She was about my age, with short, kinky hair and chocolate-colored skin that appeared iridescent in the soft glow of the dashboard indicators. She was wearing a vintage Rush 2112 concert T-shirt, and the numbers were warped around her large bosom. She also had on faded black jeans and a pair of studded combat boots. She appeared to be shivering, even though it was nice and warm in the cab. (Page 318)


What a twist!

The closest thing the book has to a "twist", in fact!

And Wade seriously did not just describe her hair as "kinky", and her skin as "chocolate-colored". And he had thought it necessary to draw attention to her "large bosom". He has actually seen his friend of over five years for the first time, and he is already viewing her as exotic, and is objectifying her.

A black woman: who are known to be fetishized by white men for their "big parts", ever since slavery began.

Stay classy, Cline.

Wade feels "betrayal"and "anger" at his virtual friend's "deception", at first. How is being black and female a betrayal to you? Do you care to examine why you feel this way?

You shocked? Uh, yeah, she did warn you, idiot. And it's not her fault you're so narrow-minded and prejudiced. But then he quickly laughs it off.

Because the plot deems it, Aech laughs with Wade. They talk. They hug.


I let go of her and stepped back. "Christ, Aech," I said, smiling. "I knew you were hiding something. But I never imagined..."
    "What?" she said, a bit defensively. "You never imagined what?"
    "That the famous Aech, renowned gunter and the most feared and ruthless arena combatant in the entire OASIS, was, in reality, a..."
    "A fat black chick?"
    "I was going to say 'young African American woman.'"
    Her expression darkened. "There's a reason why I never told you, you know."
    "And I'm sure it's a good one," I said. "But it really doesn't matter."
    " It doesn't?"
    "Of course not. You're my best friend, Aech. My only friend, to be honest."
    "Well, I still want to explain."
    "OK. But can it wait until we're in the air?" I said. "We've got a long way to travel. And I'll feel a lot safer once we've left this city in the dust."
    "We're on our way, amigo," she said, putting the RV in gear. (Page 319


Uh, no.

Let her explain, you white arsehole! Let. Her. Speak. You don't control how and when she gets to use her voice.

Do you realize how insensitive, racist and sexist you're being, by implying that a world famous and beloved gunter couldn't possibly be a black woman? Because they're not good for anything! - that's the microaggression there. That's the subtext.

Wade never apologizes to Aech for anything, BTW.

But that's nowhere near the worst part of this chapter - this whole book.

Buckle up. Things are going down.

Once on the freaking jet and in the air - the first that either of them had ever flown - Aech explains to Wade (with his permission, of course) her reason for passing off as a white boy in the OASIS.

Her real name is Helen Harris. Her mother, Marie, was a big influence on her life. One reason why?

Ladies and gentlemen and everybody else - everybody with a pulse - I present to you, one of the worst quotes in the history of literature:


In Marie's opinion, the OASIS was the best thing that had ever happened to both women and people of color. From the very start, Marie had used a white male avatar to conduct all of her online business, because of the marked difference it made in how she was treated and the opportunities she was given. (Page 320)


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(=screams uncontrollably=)
(=throws the paperback at the wall again and again, then feeds it to a pack of feral dogs=)
(=screams into the sky until it is night, and joins the wolves in throwing their hoarse voices at the moon until their throats are like sandpaper=)
(=proceeds to find every copy of Ready Player One around, then burns them all in a bonfire in a purifying garden, dancing around it, naked and screeching and laughing=)
(=climbs Mount Everest, because it is a lot easier than dealing with Ready Player One=)










(=comes back=)





RIGHT. RANT TIME:





YOU KNEW, CLINE!

You knew all about the prejudices, the bigotry, the abuse, harassment, and other bullshit that happens to women, people of colour, and other "minorities" who are not straight, white and male, like you. Online and offline. You knew all about the current state of our inequality in society and culture.

AND YOUR GREAT CONTRIBUTION TO IT IS TO PLACE THE RESPONSIBILITY ON THE VICTIMS?

THAT IT IS A PROBLEM THAT THEY NEED TO FIX?

THAT IT IS THEM WHO NEED TO CHANGE, NOT THEIR OPPRESSORS?

THAT IN A PERFECT WORLD THEY SIMPLY NEED TO CHANGE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEMSELVES IN ORDER TO FIT IN? IN ORDER TO BE SEEN AS EQUAL HUMAN BEINGS?

SO THEY HAVE TO NO LONGER EXIST AT ALL? AS THEMSELVES? THUS RACISM AND SEXISM ARE SOLVED!!!!!!!!!!??????????????

Just like the racist in-real-life-he's-an-Inuit-woman-teacher line in chapter 4, this is complacency in bigotry. The privileged view that it is just a fact of life and there is nothing we can do about it. Equality is idealism; an illusion; a pipe dream. So there's no point in trying to better ourselves. Because everybody is inherently racist and sexist, and it sucks to be the "other".

So the "other" should just erase themselves. Mold themselves into the systematically-privileged - to deny their roots, deny their history, deny their culture, deny their families, deny who they are altogether, in order to survive in our terrible society.

And the OASIS is seen as a "paradise", and better than real life.

This is cutting it close to genocide.

This also totally contradicts what was said about the OASIS before - that it is a place where anyone can be anything they want to be, without fear, and be able to express themselves however they want.

The OASIS is just another tool to further the agenda of the white male default and white supremacy. Both Halliday and Morrow gave no thought whatsoever to the implications of how their virtual worlds could be corrupted; and abused, and turned into a toxic environment. Exactly like what has happened to our real life internet.

Worse, Cline is using the voice of a black woman for this complacency-in-racism bullshit. He/Wade the white male hero don't allow her to speak unless he tells her to, and when she does, it's about protecting his own privileges in a society that favours him as a straight white American man. Nothing is challenged, nothing is changed, real black women's experiences are erased - and, in the face of prejudice, are shrugged off and justified - and two fictional black women, created by a white man, are content and happy to be Uncle Tom.

It's like Cline is saying: "Yeah, that stuff about online abuse, workplace abuse, racism, sexism, misogyny, harassment, harassment campaigns, hate groups, and all those women and people of colour who are not given the chance to shine, to contribute to society, to be taken seriously, to be seen, sometimes risking their own lives just for wanting to be treated as human beings? All the bigotry that is linked together in our system of inequality? It sucks, but what can you do? It's their own fault for not being born straight, white, male, able-bodied, and awesome like me. In a perfect virtual reality, there is no bigotry, because everyone will be white and male! There, problem solved! To try anything else, to examine our own prejudices and end them by the root once and for all, is too hard. Better and easier to just stick to the status quo. Better and easier for me, that is. In my future paradise of the 2040s! Where everyone is welcome!"

FUCK. RIGHT. OFF. YOU. LAZY.  SELFISH. THOUGHTLESS. UNEMPHATIC. OVERPRIVILEGED. SELF-CONGRATULATORY. SELF-RIGHTEOUS. ENABLING. ARSEHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



"In Marie's opinion, the OASIS was the best thing that had ever happened to both women and people of color. From the very start, Marie had used a white male avatar to conduct all of her online business, because of the marked difference it made in how she was treated and the opportunities she was given." - Never, ever have I read two such contradictory paragraphs put together IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Pretending to be white and male does not solve racism and sexism! Pretending to be your oppressors is not the best thing that can happen to women and people of colour! It is the white male oppressors and the system that need to change, NOT THE SUFFERING VICTIMS OF AN UNFAIR, BIASED, PREJUDICED SYSTEM!

THIS IS THE MESSAGE YOU CHOSE TO PUT IN YOUR YA BOOK, CLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 2040s, everyone! Feminism can't do shit! The patriarchy is forever! White supremacy rules! And there's nothing you can do about it.

"What can you do?" - said by Art3mis, a young white woman, in chapter 12, shrugging in the face of white male bias and outdated prejudice.



But I guess we're not suppose to like Marie, since Helen then says that her mother kicked her out of her life for coming out as gay.


As Aech explained all of this, I could tell she was studying my reaction. I wasn't all that surprised, really. Over the past few years, Aech and I had discussed our mutual admiration for the female form on numerous occasions. I was actually relieved to know that Aech hadn't been deceiving me, at least not on that account. (Page 321)


Yey, you're both pervs. Friendship saved! Sexism solved!

Wait, Helen/Aech has been expressing internalized misogyny the whole book, then. With the way she'd treated Art3mis, and her use of misogynistic language in chapter 3, like "pussy", to fit into a toxic, entitled, white frat boy's club.

She also called Wade a "god" and a "legend" in chapter 12.

The 2040s, everyone!

I think there is a "no homo" vibe going on, as well.

Though, there's an impression in the above quote that they'd masturbated together... no, that is one area I will not go to.

Helen mentions Marie's "own set of deep-seated prejudices", revealed when she wouldn't accept her daughter's sexuality. She was already prejudiced! She expressed internalized racism and misogyny! She was an Uncle Tom, happily passing off as a white man in a virtual reality land in order to get a job!

Are we meant to be agreeing with Marie, or not? MAKE UP YOUR MIND, BOOK!


As we continued to talk, going through the motions of getting to know each other, I realized that we already did know each other, as well as any two people could. We'd known each other for years, in the most intimate way possible. We'd connected on a purely mental level. I understood her, trusted her, and loved her as a dear friend. None of that had changed, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation. (Page 321)


"I'm not sexist or racist or homophobic because this friend of mine who I'd thought was male and white and straight for so many years - turns out not to be! All women, POC, POC women, and all queer people should pretend to be like me for years, so that I will bother to get to know them in the first place, before they reveal their true selves to me. Thus, no big deal anymore! I now see them as fully human beings, capable of being white and male and deserving of respect like me!"

Fuck you, Wade.

You too, Cline, and your hypocrisy. The above quote, I'm sure, intends to convey the message that looks and superficial differences don't matter. When one page ago you said that they do; that women and people of colour essentially have to pretend to be white and male in order to work in the OASIS, maintaining a white default, patriarchal, het cis status quo; thus they are set for life.

They arrive at Ogden's house at night, no problem (FYI, Wade and the rest of the gunters never meet Sorrento or any of the Sixers in real life. Talk about a wasted opportunity). It's a very nice, big house. There's a little tour. Art3mis and Shoto had apparently already arrived and are linked to the OASIS in one of Morrow's immersion rooms. He shows Wade and Helen their own bays.


"Good luck, Aech," I said.
"Good luck, Z," she replied. Then she turned to Og and said, "Thanks again, Og." Before he could respond, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. Then she disappeared through the door to bay four and it hissed shut behind her. (Page 324)


There is something unsettling about the image of a young black lesbian kissing an old straight white man, even if it is on the cheek, and it is an expression of gratitude. There's historical context to this. But I'd already used up all of my rage.

Also, Wade keeps referring to Helen as Aech - in his narration and his speech. Why? I thought he'd accepted everything about her as a real person. Consistency is all I ask for.

Wade, out of nowhere, after Morrow says, "the whole world is rooting for the four of you" (he means only Wade, as he's talking to him), asks his 300-pages-in mentor:


I shook my head. "No, that's not it. I wanted to ask what it was that ended your friendship with Halliday. In all the research I've done, I've never been able to find out. What happened?"  (Page 325)


Priorities, Wade!

WE KNOW! We know why Halliday and Morrow fell out! It was practically told to us in chapter 12! The reason is as obvious as knowing how to breathe! Why can't the super-smart, fucked-over-the-entire-IOI-in-less-than-a-week Wade figure it out himself?

Well, Morrow decides to tell the stupid kid, anyway. This moment is treated like some gigantic revelation; another one after the revelation of Helen's true identity. Morrow is acting like he is releasing decades-old secret demons in telling Wade, and it is killing him inside.


"It was because of Kira. My wife." (Page 325)


(=slams the book shut, hurls it to the floor, paces the room, picks up the book and tosses it at the severely-dented and almost-destroyed wall from earlier. Again and again=)





(=comes back, steaming=)










OF FUCKING COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S ALWAYS A WOMAN, ISN'T IT!?

ALWAYS A WOMAN! TO CAUSE MAN PAIN! AND COME BETWEEN DUDE-BROS!

A DEAD WOMAN, TOO!



Huh, looks like I do have some capacity for rage left.



This book is pouring out cliches like a trash compactor!

Morrow explains that Halliday must have "harbored some fantasy of stealing her away from me."; and she "was the only woman he ever loved."; and the cherry picker on top of the trash heap: "Kira was very special. It was impossible not to fall in love with her."

Kira is - was - not a possession! Women are not possessions!

Morrow's dialogue is so cliched, so unnatural, and it only serves to paint Halliday in an even worse light than before, if he'd supposedly wanted to fling Kira over his shoulder like a caveman and kidnap her in his van!

"very special", how? Because she was a pretty geek girl? Because she was not like other girls? She was one in a million geek girls?

FUCK. YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





(=breathes deeply=)





ANYWAY:

Morrow wishes Wade good luck for the final battle in the OASIS.


"What are you going to do?" I asked. "During the fight?"
    "Sit back and watch, of course!" he said. "This looks to be the most epic battle in videogame history." he grinned at me one last time, then stepped through the door and was gone, leaving me alone in the dimply-lit hallway. (Page 325)


WORST. MENTOR. EVER!

He only chooses to help others when it suits him. Or when he can be bothered to.

As a rich old bastard, he can afford not to!

There's being relaxed and childlike, and then there's being an irresponsible, smug jackass! He is putting the lives of young people on the line!

Ogden Morrow is an enabler of a toxic culture, and an accessory to mass murder. And he doesn't care. He doesn't try to make things better, even when he easily can.

Much like a certain author.

There's a spirit all right: the spirit of James Halliday, and it is alive and well inside Morrow.

Wade logs into the OASIS in small, spherical immersion bay with state-of-the-art technology.

THE. END!





I'm throwing out all pretense to be professional to the wind. Ready Player One doesn't deserve it:

I. HATE. THIS.

FUCK THIS BOOK.

FUCK THIS SHIT.

Fuck this racist, sexist book. And shame on anyone who ever said that it's diverse and original.





There. Thus concludes my longest post/rant ever.

I'm exhausted. How can I recover from this? In time for chapter 34?

Let's see how I am next time. I take comfort in that it can't possibly get any worse than this.


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Can it?