things about the long game that makes my blood boil, part 1:
Ilya glanced at the end of the table, where Shane was sitting. As Ilya had suspected, Shane looked confused and uncomfortable. Hockey had never made Shane sad for a minute of his life.
Ilya couldn’t pretend to know how it felt to be let down by the game he loved—not in the way Max or Ryan had been—but he was more aware of hockey’s flaws than Shane was. He’d been paying more attention, over the past few years, to the darker side of his sport.
how the fuck did someone read this and think, oh yes, that makes complete sense. Shane, an Asian man, playing on the highest level of professional ice hockey, one of the whitest most racist sports, has never gotten sad because of hockey? Shane, a gay man, playing on the highest level of professional ice hockey, an extremely homophobic sport, isn’t aware of hockey’s flaws? Shane, a gay Asian man, has never been let down by the sport he loves?
I’d say he’s been let down by the sport he loves since the moment he started loving hockey. And he continued to be let down by it every single day, and it’ll be like that maybe for the rest of his life. Every day he’s probably reminded about how he doesn’t fit in, how he’s not perfect.
Shane, who has had to work twice as hard to get to where he is. Shane, who has heard every slur there is said by his teammates and competitors. Shane, who pays twice as much for his mistakes as his white teammates. Shane, who has to carry the pressure of being a role model for minorities. That person has never gotten sad bc of hockey, hasn’t been let down by hockey, isn’t aware of hockey’s flaws? Yeah no, I don’t believe that for a second. And I’m so mad that Reid wrote it, how the fuck did this manage to get through? Because even if we add a layer of unreliable narrator, it still doesn’t make sense. How can she have Ilya sit there and think he knows more about hockey’s dark sides than Shane? Just how? It does so much damage to both characters