I think I can see what the author was attempting with satirizing tropes and having the misogyny be done by the villain characters/forces, thus not necessarily endorsing it. I think I can also see that the author is critiquing it. He is trying something and… I think he is failing miserably (hyperbolically).
I have often seen people argue that Carl is a great dude and that it is the AI that is evil and makes all these cringy dude-bro jokes, and that it is supposed to be understood that Carl doesn‘t agree. The thing is… imo that‘s not entirely accurate?
For example, the foot fetish thing clearly bothered Carl, he reflects on it and it is brought up again (even if jokingly) and he even states how he is uncomfortable. He does that with nothing else. Like the jokes about bonging women on the head to assault them, and other childish/offensive jokes, which almost always make women the butt of the joke. I don‘t remember Carl in any way responding to that, which 1. allows the reader to laugh without shame when it is pointed out how fucked up that is, and 2. means Carl doesn‘t HAVE to comment on it and make up his mind, so sexist incels can enjoy these jokes unironically & without shame, and prevents him from being seen as misogynistic if he did agree/was amused by them. Kind of a “friend of many” situation.
The book so far has extremely little introspection and reflection, and Carl is, so far, a very passive character with very little agency. I‘m familiar with storytelling conventions, so I know that is likely going to change, but so far it just seems like the author is taking the responsibility for the reddit humor off Carl and even off himself by making the villain make these jokes, but (for me) the effect is failing.
Saying the book isn‘t being misogynistic because it is the AI that says these things reminds me of Big bang Theory, where a character will (for example) say something racist, then acknowledge that it is racist, so you “can‘t critique it.“ Being self-aware about your behaviour being shitty does not make the behaviour less shitty. And being aware that you are writing a sexist trope does not make it not-sexist, unless you intentionally frame it that way.
TLDR: I feel like the author is trying to satirize sexist and misogynistic tropes, but it is also frankly cheap humor for easy laughs, meaning he leans into these tropes so far that rather than satirize, he perpetuates them.
(Note: I also think a huge issue in this is just inexperience from the author‘s side and I am open to seeing it develop later on, I just think when a male author tries to tackle such themes, maaaaybe he should try and put good effort into making sure his way of doing that actually works)
Super curious where the book goes from here. Knowing my luck the next line I read is probably a feminist manifesto, and I wrote all this for nothing haha
bexfiles commented...
it’s an incredibly difficult tightrope he’s trying to walk because it’s a bit of a “write for the audience you’ll have” situation with litrpg and so it couldn’t be too woke or risk losing the intended audience. But now this broke containment and has a completely different audience with completely different social understandings than the previously typical “litrpg reader”. I’ve caught up on the series so now in hindsight I view these first couple books like a pot of water and the “incel litrpg reader” as a frog. The water is heating up but they feel comfortable enough to stick around and by the later books the water boils and there’s a distinctly different tone and expectation of the writing and the reader.