How It All Goes Down
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- Back in the real world, Wade takes us through his daily outside-the-OASIS routine.
- He's outside-proofed his apartment, ordering all his food online, replacing his door with an impenetrable airlock, and spray-painting the windows black to keep the sunlight out.
- For companionship, he's purchased a life-sized UberBetty doll, with "all of the attendant appendages and orifices one would imagine" (19.15). His pleasure with it is short-lived.
- After giving us a run-down of his opinion on masturbation (he's for it), he introduces us to Max, his system agent software, which is kind of like a digital butler.
- It's modeled after Max Headroom.
- Each morning, Wade goes through a work-out routine including sit-ups, crunches, push-ups, the works, because he had grown too fat to fit into his haptic suit, a full-body suit that lets its user feel the OASIS.
- During his workout, he sings a variety of '80s songs, saying "having the right '80s song lyric memorized might save my avatar's life someday" (19.45). A bit of foreshadowing, perhaps?
- To help the suit fit better, Wade's removed all his body hair. Even his eyebrows. Who knew the ideal of beauty in 2045 would be Whoopi Goldberg?