Bizarre. At its core its a refutation of the 'accidental' nature of the genocide in Ender's Game - people can't commit genocide without intent. In reality, yes, at least to this date. I have no idea why people refute the concepts of science fiction and fantasy by saying the premise of the story itself can't be real. Yes. That's kind of the point, isn't it? The glory of speculative fiction is we can look at these things if they are real, and decide on their merits on those points. Ender is the ultimate Mary Sue, but it's a book about specifically that construct, and saying he's morally responsible for an act that he doesn't believe is real is missing the point. I don't believe that it's a great work (though good), but I have to make moral judgments based on the premises presented in the work itself. It makes that case well, while certainly not abrogating the sense of guilt Ender feels over the act. Indeed, not only did Ender not realize what he was doing was real, he took the actions he did in order to refute the notion that he should ever be placed in charge of a battle fleet - that he was simply too ruthless to be ever chosen for that role, in the hopes that would free him from Battle school. It's an interesting moral question based on the assumptions speculated by the formation of the plot elements - the fact that the author of the critique chose to write an essay on it means that it succeeded in its first objective, to make you think about something that can't exist within our normal boundaries. The fact that the critic chooses to reject that is unfortunate - it's a far more interesting question to ask whether someone who commits a genocide without intent is morally at fault than it is to say such a thing can't happen, and therefore the book teaches some 'evil' because there's no real world corollary where genocide can be accidental. Same idiocy of the people who applied real world standard to Lord of the Rings because their political mantras can't be coerced to fit in something where their base values aren't correct.
I don't think Ender did anything wrong. He was a child without the maturity or judgement or even knowledge of what he was doing. The entire moral weight of the story is on the three men who ran Battle School. But the movie can't really equal the book. The book features Ender, a child BEATING TWO OTHER CHILDREN TO DEATH. Deliberately, because he wants to "not only win the fight, but win all the future ones as well". Now, Ender doesn't necessarily INTEND to kill them outright, but he strongly suspects that is what happened. I doubt that the movie will have Ender beating two other children to death and then trying to get the audience to root for him.
Having tried to read Enders Game and being bored with it and tossing it I don't believe Ender is responsible for the extinction of another species. After all he's under the impression that its just simulation training. But expand on the Lord of the Rings for me. Another boring series that I've not bothered to finish. Sounds like someone we all know who views topics as a battlefield and is determined to win the debate no matter what with his postings. I can't quite remember his name........
Actually, the irony of that book is that the author only wrote it so he could write the sequels. Oh, that and he wrote about a bunch of young boys spending most of their free time naked in close quarters, then went on to push Prop 8. I thought it was an okay book, but I'm not attached to it, so I don't feel very strongly about news of it being made into a movie. Given the current trend in movies and movie adaptations in particular, I doubt it'll be very good, but there's always the off chance that it might be. Guess we'll see when it comes out.
Oh hell no. Though I think Enders Game to overrated, and not deserving of winning the Hugo and Nebula awards, it was still a good read. The other books were awful.
I read Ender's Game in high school, so I'm sure that colored my affection for it, I enjoyed Speaker For The Dead, even though it took another direction. I never read the book after Xenocide, the ending was too much for me. From what I read of OSC's parallel books he's suffering from the same affliction as George Lucas, constant meddling with their defining artistic output, which they both created when they were much younger and in their prime. Here's hoping that Ridley Scott's journey back to the Alien universe avoids such pitfalls. (It will because Scott is brilliant and Prometheus is gonna be fucking EPIC!!!!!!!!!!! [/fanboy] ) BTW I've read that the studio sees Ender as a Harry Potter like franchise. Ender is not Harry fucking Potter.
Lots of British academics have attacked the series for what they perceive is it's inherent racism, and of course in the fantasy world of Tolkein race does matter - there aren't any 'good' orcs, for example. The High Elves are simply better, the dwarves are all greedy, the white skinned humans are good, the dark skin ones work for the Evil Lord. The critics say that this is unrealistic and teaches us that it's OK to hate those who are different. Of course Tolkein wasn't a racist, was outspoken against Apartheid before it became a cause celebre, and was personally offended by Naziism. His reply over the matter of whether he (Tolkein being a Germanic name) was a good Aryan was classic: Of course, success of Tolkein's magnitude always draws arrows, and he's been attacked for any number of reasons - Epic Pooh was Michael Moorcock's critique, Shapiro wrote of the racism with the release and acclaim of the movies, etc etc. Pullman's His Dark Materials was in many ways his reaction to the concept of hierarchial knowledge in Tolkein - that 'the Wise' are to be trusted and are doing what is best for us. Of course, even Tolkein didn't truly include that in his writings, but Pullman felt like he did. A lot of it has to do with getting your name in the media, though much of the critique is heartfelt. It generally has more to do with a political POV or ethos than what's actually in the book, IMO.
Not really following you on that. Personally, I first read the short story "Ender's Game" as part of the "There Will Be War" Anthology series. For those familar with the "There Will Be War" series of anthologies, they take a distinctly right wing view of war and geopolitics. One reason I like them. Another is that the "There Will Be War" series helped me get over the marriage of a girl I really cared about to another man. But that is another story. My take is that "Ender's Game" is an outstanding short story. "Ender's Game" is an above average novel. Do we really want an Ender with angst and self doubt? Part of the idea behind the original was that children were chosen to lead the fleets because they didn't experience self doubts. The later Enderverse novels? Meh! The ones with a grown up Ender are like books about Alexander the Great if he had lived into his 70s and moved into a retirement village (or something equivalent). Completely anticlimatic. The books about the battle school children returning to Earth was way to much "turning back the clock". Just more of the "brilliant children being used by adults with evil purposes". Still, good movies have been made out of worse material.
I think you're missing the point. Nowhere did I see it say that at all. It's saying that not only is Ender not responsible,...but his handlers and abusers vicariously aren't responsible.
Yep. Cuz It's human. People who don't have those things, in my experience, are (so far) without exception, indoctrinated idiots, or psychopaths, or both.
Wasn't part of the underlying implications in "Ender's Game" the idea that genetic engineering and the brutal training methods at Battle School had in fact turned Ender into a "psychopath"?
In the novel "Ender's Game" the idea was heavily pushed that Ender's brother Peter was in fact a complete psychopath but that Ender was a "psychopath with a heart". That is Ender had just enough humanity left after the genetic engineering and training to instill loyalty and even love in his subordinates. One thing that was better in the novel than the short story was Ender's breakdown beginning just before climatic events of the Bugger War.
Like Bin Laden. How admirable. I also get a laugh at how the bad guys are "the buggers", and Card has made no secret IRL of his homophobia. Yeah, fire away with this one, Hollywood.
Yeah I think it will suck. I just don't see the studio taking a 6 year old and making that dark of a movie. It was selective breeding, not engineering IIRC. Ender wasn't portrayed as a psychopath. He was portrayed as the balance between his sensitive, compassionate sister and psychotic, brutal brother. Ender resisted being turned into a psychopath all along. If he were a psychopath, then at the end of the book he would have revelled in what he had accomplished rather than be horrified at how he was manipulated and what he had done.
