Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)

by Ernest Cline

[clementine]

I will note that I am neither a gamer nor particularly into nerd culture. This undoubtedly influences my opinion on this book.

You know those people who use their extensive knowledge of pop culture as a substitute for a real personality? This is the literary equivalent of that. I'm not against a book whose primary function is spectacle over substance; sometimes you just want to be dazzled as a reader. It's like the cinema of attractions in book form. That's cool. It's just that this wasn't a spectacle that I particularly enjoyed.

First of all, the writing was clunky. Again, this book clearly isn't here to be a marvel of technical ability; the point isn't to immerse readers in beautiful prose but to entertain with a fast-paced story. But I want to be clear that the writing is far from spectacular. The dialogue was often stilted. The use of phrases like "L33t Hax0rz Warezhaus" was beyond cringey - that reads as dated in 2018; there's no way l33t sp34k will survive to 2045. I also got the idea that the author thought his readers were quite slow - surely nobody needs to be told that the abbreviation IOI is pronounced "eye-oh-eye". Sure, explanations of the more esoteric aspects of gaming culture are welcome - but I know how to read, you know? I'm an adult human. I can pronounce the letters of the alphabet.

But lack of incredible writing chops does not necessarily deter me from enjoying a book. A formulaic, predictable plot does, though. Watery social commentary that any half-sentient sixteen-year-old could come up with does. A novel that is packed full of pop culture references but completely lacking in any indication that the author has heard of a single woman in his life does. For the majority of the novel (barring a surprise reveal which I will get to in a moment), there is a singular female character who is not functionally differentiated from the male characters at all except for through some primitive stabs at feminist consciousness when she admits that she isn't taken seriously as a woman. (Oh really? Female gamers aren't taken seriously? That's some classified information!) Art3mis is afforded the wonderful plot of "Is she hot in real life and will she sleep with our protagonist?" She's a blatant male fantasy: chock full of all the requisite masculine nerd culture references but a curvy, pretty woman instead of a basement-dwelling man. Wonderful! Emailing Art3mis to warn of imminent danger, Wade charmingly adds "PS - I think you look even more beautiful in real life," because every intelligent, accomplished woman wants unsolicited, condescending affirmations about her appearance when she's being hunted down by an evil corporation.

As for the character of Aech, who turns out to be "a heavyset African American girl" - and a lesbian no less - I can't help but find the revelation of her true self underwhelming. The author almost gets at a sad truth when he writes that the OASIS "was the best thing that had ever happened to both women and people of color" because they could pretend to be white men in the world of VR. Of course, having to assimilate to the dominant culture to get ahead is not a good thing at all; it is a marker of our lack of progress. I want to give Cline the benefit of the doubt and say that he realizes this, that his future has purposefully stunted social progress. Maybe this is so. But then it's so easy for him to have Wade decide that race, gender, and sexuality don't matter at all when one is in the company of a true friend. This colourblind attitude is bizarre and at odds with what could otherwise be incisive social critique about the homogenizing dominance of white supremacist patriarchy. In the end, Cline can't get credit for one of his characters being a fat Black lesbian if she's presented as a white man for literally 85% of the novel, and when little regard is paid to the differences in her life experience as compared to our white male protagonist.

Ready Player One depicts a bleak future, but it doesn't draw any attention to one of its most disturbing elements: the lack of female influence on the cultural, social, and political landscape. This book is a celebration of a male-dominated nerd canon disguised as an adventure novel slash social critique. If you're into the male-dominated nerd canon, you might enjoy its spectacle. Clearly, I did not.