Ready Prayer One
In today’s Musings Monday, we’re looking at the incredibly popular 2011 book Ready Player One. Striking a chord with geeks everywhere, the book and its nostalgic reference-filled plot resonated with enough readers to make it a near-instant bestseller. If you hadn’t heard of the book, you likely still saw movie trailers for the 2018 film adaptation. If you saw the big screen geek-fest but didn’t read the book, you may not be surprised to learn that the movie is very different. What might be more surprising is that the book is much, much nerdier.
But I’m not going to talk about the book compared to the movie.
I’m not going to talk about how the book’s nerdy-ness eclipsed my own. I’m don’t care to focus on the fact that the book was centered on eighties nostalgia, and as a sheltered 90’s kid, I actually didn’t personally relate to a lot of it. I don’t even want to talk about the book’s flaws (of which it had several, despite being a narrative love letter to all geekdom). I’m not even going to talked about why I enjoyed the book in spite of its many flaws.
I am going to talk about my favorite aspect of the book.
This is something subtle, something I feel may have been missed by most readers. Yet, especially if the author Ernest Cline did this on purpose, this subtle detail gives the novel much more depth than people give it credit for.
I’m talking about Ready Player One’s ironic relationship with religion.
Ready “Prayer” One
For the first section of the book, the novel’s hero Wade Watts lives in The Stacks, a poor neighborhood comprised of stacked mobile-homes. He lives with his dysfunctional aunt and her boyfriend and spends most of his time on the OASIS. He even has a secret spot in the close-by junkyard, a sort of away-from-home, an OASIS oasis. As he goes from home to his hideout or to school or wherever else, Wade also interacts with his neighbor, Mrs. Gilmore.
Mrs. Gilmore, the one Christian in the whole book.
Wade describes her as “super-religious”. He talks about how she spends her time on the OASIS in virtual reality mega-churches. He fixed her OASIS console from time to time, and she gave him bits of 80’s trivia from her childhood—apparently her most endearing quality.
He goes on to say, “She was always praying for me too. Trying her hardest to save my soul. I never had the heart to tell her that I thought organized religion was a total crock. It was a pleasant fantasy that gave her hope and kept her going—which was exactly what the Hunt was for me.” [speaking of the hunt…]
After this scene, we don’t hear much more about Mrs. Gilmore. Her being a friend and motherly-figure to Wade helped increase the emotional impact when (SPOILER ALERT) his house and that entire stack are bombed by the IOI villains, killing both Gilmore and Wade’s aunt in the process.
To be fair to Wade, in the aforementioned quote he does admit that Halliday’s Egg Hunt is kind of like religion to him. But as the story progresses and the tension heightens and the Hunt is in full swing, all thoughts of religion are forgotten and the existence of Mrs. Gilmore becomes almost a non-factor.
And the more serious the story gets, the more I wanted to laugh at Wade’s arrogance. He thinks he’s self-aware about the Hunt being like a religion, but even so he casts judgement on Mrs. Gilmore.
Sure, he doesn’t mistreat her, but he doesn’t truly respect her either. He doesn’t see her as wise. He views her more like a misguided old lady than an elder with more life experience. Instead of respect, his attitude is that of pity and arrogance.
An attitude basically says, Poor misguided woman. If only she knew religion is a scam. But I won’t burst her bubble. I’m too kind to ruin her delusion. After all, she’s happy in her ignorance. But I’m too smart to fall for those lies.
Wade is too prideful to understand the truth: He’s the most ridiculous, closed-minded, obsessive religious zealot of the entire book.
What? No, of course not! He hates religion, remember? He’s just a geeky boy in a dystopian world with a VR helmet.
No, he’s definitely a religious extremist. I’ll prove it to you.
Exhibit A—Wade Reads and Memorizes Scripture
Two words: Anorak’s Almanac.
Throughout the novel, Wade references and quotes Halliday’s book. He’s read it so much that he basically has it memorized. Through the book, he has obsessively detailed insight into James Halliday’s life, his likes and dislikes, anything tangentially related to the Egg Hunt.
With the Almanac, Wade knew his hero intimately, which takes us to the next reason…
Exhibit B—Wade’s Entire Personality Revolves Around His Deity
Literally everything in Wade’s life is somehow inspired by his hero, James Halliday. Beyond his obsession with the Almanac, Wade also is obsessed with knowing and liking everything Halliday ever referenced or came into contact with.
Wade barely has a personality because literally everything he does is filtered through his Halliday fixation. He not only loves and uses the OASIS, Halliday’s grand invention, but Wade also loves all the entertainment Halliday claimed to enjoy.
Wade memorized the 1983 movie WarGames. He directly quotes from dozens of movies and television shows. He also plays Dungeons and Dragons. Wade’s also freakishly good at video games. He plays Joust and Adventure, and nearly every other game Cline could’ve name-dropped. Not to mention Wade’s perfect game of Pac-Man.
How the crap can you have so many movies memorized AND achieve stupidly high scores AND know 80’s music trivia all while dedicating time to the Egg Hunt while also going to school and later holding down a full time job??
Not to mention, he’s living several decades after the 1980’s.
Wade didn’t grow up in the 80’s; Halliday did. Wade has absolutely NOTHING to be nostalgic about. Ready Player One may be nostalgic for certain readers, but it definitely isn’t nostalgic for Wade. If anything, he’s channelling Halliday’s nostalgia.
There’s no reason for Wade to care about the 80’s except in reference to Halliday. His obsession with his idol locked him and thousands of gunters to the twentieth century, and Wade never really seems to care or question it. But…
News Flash: The 80’s Aren’t That Great
Yes, I said it. Unpopular opinion, I know. I’m not saying everything in the 80’s are bad; I’m just saying there’s no convincing argument to suggest that this decade is objectively better than the 90’s, 00’s, or even the 10’s.
Wade and his peers shouldn’t be fixated on the 80’s, especially when there’s plenty of other media content in the following five decades leading up to the film’s setting to entertain OASIS users.
Wade claims to like everything Halliday likes, but I’m not buying it. He likes it because Halliday likes it. Without Halliday, Wade would have no reason to memorize WarGames or beat arcade games. A kid in Wade’s generation has NO REASON to have an intelligent conversation about LadyHawke or Family Ties or Black Tiger or literally anything else he seems to be an expert on.
It’s a life devoted to 80’s pop culture and geek culture, and the depths of this devotion is actually more sad than impressive.
It’s sad because…
Exhibit C—Wade Never Acknowledges the Futility of His Obsession
He can’t seriously look down on Mrs. Gilmore as if she’s deceived by organized religion. Not while being submerged in the religion of James Halliday and useless nerd trivia and arcade skills.
(A side-note: If I’m in a fully-immersive, state-of-the-art virtual reality social network video game, I’m not going to use my avatar to play arcade games. Can I do a first-person, three-dimensional Legend of Zelda game instead?)
Wade takes himself and Halliday far too seriously. Just a little acknowledgement of the ridiculousness of the Egg Hunt would go a long way.
You can’t act like religion is a fantasy when you’re shamelessly devoted to a dead nerd’s nostalgia. Everything about Halliday’s Egg Hunt is man-made. It’s entertaining, yes. It’s also of arbitrary value and means absolutely nothing in the real world, let alone in light of eternity.
Final Thoughts
The lesson? Even non-religious people tend to be religious about something. Wade’s accidental hypocrisy says a lot about the human condition. He’s critical of others who value something he’s unfamiliar with, but he’s completely blind to his hypocrisy, deluded to the depths of his own sacred obsession.
You can argue that it’s foolish to worship a God you can’t see, but who’s the greater fool? The one who trusts in the God higher than oneself, or the mere mortal worshipping another mortal?
When man worships man, man simply worships self. But without God, self-worth is arbitrary at best. It doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire with several successful businesses or an artist with an impressive portfolio, or anything else. Without God, you’ll always be nothing more than a pathetic teen, good at arcade games and knowledgable in culture, but worthless in scope of eternity.
~~~~~~~~
Okay, I realize that’s a really dark ending. I actually really liked Ready Player One. It’s a fun reading experience, and probably best when you don’t overthink it. You can check it out for yourself here on Amazon. [Full disclosure: This is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.]
