Ender's Game
It is almost 11 this evening and I have worked on writing, work, and doctoral studies literally since 8:00 this morning. But I wanted to go ahead and post this, a few thoughts.
I finished this book last night. I was reading it because it was the book of choice for a reading club I (occasionally) attend at the college. I rarely read or watch science fiction, but some of it goes beyond the stereotypical scyfy and this book, of course, is one of them. So I read it, although I didn't finish for the discussion last week, and I more or less knew the end--but not really.
While I did get bogged down sometimes, it is, to start, a great read. i won't recommend a book that isn't, that doesn't make you want to get back to it, to forgo the sleep you need in order to get up at 6:00 the next morning, to keep reading one more chapter. In a sense, it's a mystery--what are they doing to this child, when will he find out, how will he respond? It creates a future world where all of the Earth is united in a tentative "peace" in order to fight an alien race, whom we never really read much description of, that has made first contact and plans to make it the last contact. Or so we think.
Second, it causes one to consider a number of ethical and philosophical questions and dilemnas. Is it wrong to manipulate children, or anyone, for the greater good? What is the greater good? Who is our enemy? What is communication? Is Ender really guilty of anything in the end? How do we speak for the dead|?
Of course, some of it pushes the limit of credulity, especially that a six-year-old would be that smart (or his siblings), but as I said in the discussion, it creates a dream and doesn't break the dream, to use John Gardiner's terminology (The Art of Fiction, which I am due to read again soon. Great book.) Ender's Game has its own inner consistency. Its prose is beautiful and clean as well.
Of course, a lot has been said about Orson Scott Card's opposition to gay marriage. That in itself doesn't bother me, since I am opposed to calling a "partnership" of two homosexual people "marriage." He is pretty vituperative in his comments, and may have made racist ones, too, and hateful comments about gays. So I am not going to defend him, nor am I going to feel guilty for reading his book, and I am less concerned about whether I would go to the movie. At some level art has to speak for itself. I think Woody Allen has made some great movies (and some stupid ones) but I think he is a perverted little moron.
Card is a Mormon, and I have always says it takes both a lot of faith and a lot of imagination to be a Mormon; he seems to be blessed with a great deal of imagination to construct the battle games and the bugger civilization, and most of all the exquisite ending. I was very moved at the end when Ender confronts the "leftovers" of the bugger world, or what they have left for him. It's the kind of book that, after I read it, I feel like I don't have any business writing fiction.
I finished this book last night. I was reading it because it was the book of choice for a reading club I (occasionally) attend at the college. I rarely read or watch science fiction, but some of it goes beyond the stereotypical scyfy and this book, of course, is one of them. So I read it, although I didn't finish for the discussion last week, and I more or less knew the end--but not really.
While I did get bogged down sometimes, it is, to start, a great read. i won't recommend a book that isn't, that doesn't make you want to get back to it, to forgo the sleep you need in order to get up at 6:00 the next morning, to keep reading one more chapter. In a sense, it's a mystery--what are they doing to this child, when will he find out, how will he respond? It creates a future world where all of the Earth is united in a tentative "peace" in order to fight an alien race, whom we never really read much description of, that has made first contact and plans to make it the last contact. Or so we think.
Second, it causes one to consider a number of ethical and philosophical questions and dilemnas. Is it wrong to manipulate children, or anyone, for the greater good? What is the greater good? Who is our enemy? What is communication? Is Ender really guilty of anything in the end? How do we speak for the dead|?
Of course, some of it pushes the limit of credulity, especially that a six-year-old would be that smart (or his siblings), but as I said in the discussion, it creates a dream and doesn't break the dream, to use John Gardiner's terminology (The Art of Fiction, which I am due to read again soon. Great book.) Ender's Game has its own inner consistency. Its prose is beautiful and clean as well.
Of course, a lot has been said about Orson Scott Card's opposition to gay marriage. That in itself doesn't bother me, since I am opposed to calling a "partnership" of two homosexual people "marriage." He is pretty vituperative in his comments, and may have made racist ones, too, and hateful comments about gays. So I am not going to defend him, nor am I going to feel guilty for reading his book, and I am less concerned about whether I would go to the movie. At some level art has to speak for itself. I think Woody Allen has made some great movies (and some stupid ones) but I think he is a perverted little moron.
Card is a Mormon, and I have always says it takes both a lot of faith and a lot of imagination to be a Mormon; he seems to be blessed with a great deal of imagination to construct the battle games and the bugger civilization, and most of all the exquisite ending. I was very moved at the end when Ender confronts the "leftovers" of the bugger world, or what they have left for him. It's the kind of book that, after I read it, I feel like I don't have any business writing fiction.
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