I started reading Ender’s World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender’s Game with high hopes. I love the Ender’s Game series. I thought it was one of the more original science fiction series of the last couple of decades. I like the characters. I especially like that Orson Scott Card didn’t baby his readers. When times got hard, his characters suffered. They grew, they learned to deal with the fallout from their wrong decisions, society’s wrong-headedness and other peoples’ bad choices. They dealt with unfairness, misjudgment by themselves and others.
They felt the pain of love that is not returned, of exile that is undeserved. Bad people transformed into much better people over time. Good people lost their edge. I read every book in the series including books that were not directly in the same timeline but concerned characters who formed the original groups at Battle School.
Ender’s Game and the books that follow are thought-provoking and on many levels disturbing. It questions our fundamental views on children, right and wrong. Our beliefs that “our species first” and by inference, “our country first” is the moral choice.
I consider myself an intelligent reader and I have a strong interest in philosophy and ethics. What’s more, I believe that the science fiction reading audience is probably as a group, the smartest, best educated, eclectic group of readers you will ever find. So when offered the opportunity to read Ender’s World, a book that isn’t part of the actual Ender’s Game series but is an analysis of the series and the issues it raises, I jumped at the chance. Oops.
Cover of Ender’s Game (Ender Quartet)
By the time I was half way through the book, I wished I’d never started. I felt like I was back in high school or college lit class, over analyzingMoby Dick until I didn’t know a whale from a guppy … or care. Nothing spoils a good story for me faster than picking at its carcass.
This is a book that takes a great science fiction series and with the best of intentions, squeezes the fun out of it. It removes any sense of wonder you might have remaining, eliminates any potential surprises. It makes you feel your own thoughts are uneducated and insufficiently intellectual.
To say I didn’t enjoy the book doesn’t go quite far enough. I am certain somewhere out there in the big world of books there are those who enjoy this sort of thing. I am not one of them. Minute analyses of fictional material is a kind of dying of the light for me.
Read Ender’s Game. Read the sequels. When you are finished, if you really and truly have nothing else on your plate and want to hear what a bunch of dry academics can do to a great story and characters, read this. Otherwise, skip it.
The ultimate question about this series and every other book or series I read is twofold: did it entertain me? Did it leaving me thinking about it and wanting more? If so, the book has done it’s job and fulfilled its purpose. It’s one thing to talk about a book you love with people who love it too. It’s another thing to pick it apart until you no longer recognize it.
As long as I can remember, I have hated watching people make fools of themselves. I was probably no more than 6 when I found myself running from the room at one of many episodes of “Lucy” in which she does something humiliating.
Rather than finding it funny, I find myself identifying with the embarrassment. I can’t help but think how awful I would feel if it were me. Humiliation is a horrible feeling, often impossible to forget no matter how many years pass.
Humor that depends on embarrassing or making fun of people does not make me laugh. I love witty dialogue, literary allusion, puns. I love parody and all kinds of cleverness, but with the exception of villainous bad guys who more than deserve whatever they get, I never want to see anyone embarrassed. I hate cruelty, mental or physical and cannot watch it, even when I know it’s fake.
Not surprisingly, I was one of the kids who got teased and bullied. Way too sensitive. It’s 60 years later; I’m still too sensitive.
This is my fifth Versatile Blogger award. It definitely grants me “award-winning site” status and actually, as one of the awards that is highly appropriate to my site — I’m nothing if not versatile — makes me feel appreciated. Special even. I realize I will never be everyone’s favorite cuppa tea, but there are a few deranged people out there that do seem to like me. Perhaps because they are equally deranged?
I think one has to be a bit mad to persist at the whole blogging thing. We don’t make money and whatever fame and glory we garner is fleeting and limited to a community of other crazy people who do the same thing. I could say we each do it for our own reasons, but that’s not entirely true. We do what we do in our way, each of us focused on what most interests us … or, as do Mike and I, focus on whatever has grabbed our attention now.
But that’s what we do, not why we do it. It certainly doesn’t explain why we continue to work at it when we are sick, tired and would just as soon go shopping. What drives all of us is a kind of internal prod. It makes us return to the keyboard, the camera, both, or whatever. We do what we do because we need to do it. Despite rumors to the contrary, ambition isn’t a big prod in the blogging world. Big numbers are a bit of validation and may indicate you’ve become a moderately well-known blogger … but really, we are equal in this world.
Whether we have 10 followers or thousands, our fame — notoriety? — whatever you want to call it, is ephemeral. If we stop publishing, we will be swallowed up by the cyberworld with the speed of a high-speed connection. Maybe some particularly close friends will remember us but as for the rest of the world? We will be no more remembered by the bigger world than is a pebble thrown into a pond once the ripples have disappeared. It’s a big world and ripples don’t remain long to trouble the surface of the pool.
If you have never visited Mike site, I urge you to visit. Despite the title of his site, it’s not all about movies. He talks about movies and does excellent reviews, but he also talks as much about books, life, and the meaning of everything. Setting titles aside, he is passionately eclectic, something to which I fully relate.
These awards are a great way to learn about new blogs and their writers. Each award is set up to allow the reader to learn more about the guy or gal who posts and, serves to drive “traffic” to that site. It helps turn a bunch of miscellaneous writers, photographers, movie lovers, pundits and Sunday philosophers into something like a cyber community. It makes a difference. Many of us count on our internet community for feedback and a hook to a larger world that we can access on our own.
Award rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Include a link to their blog.
3. Name the bloggers to whom you would like to pass the award and send them a link to tell them you’ve selected them.
4. Finally, tell the person who nominated you seven things about yourself.
Number’s one and two have been accomplished. I cross-reference Mike’s site on a daily basis. You can always find him in my blog roll, recent “likes” list, and frequent reblogs of his fine postings.
Nominees:
Now, for a few some nominees: Sharla at Catnip of Life. Sharla, I love you. I don’t expect you do deal with this until your life is a little less fraught. Just wanted to remind you that you are very far from forgotten! Sharla is the epitome of eclectic and versatile, manages to be an upbeat and wonderfully supportive friend to so many people. If you need a pep talk, drop by her site. There’s always something positive and encouraging.
My Beautiful Things, a woman who find beauty everywhere and in everything. In a world where so many people seem to be grumpy and discontented all the time, it’s a real pleasure to know someone who is exactly the opposite! Go and visit … and be inspired!
Vastly Curious is the perfect versatile blogger. She writes about every that interests her and her interests are many and varied. Her photography is top drawer and she writes beautiful. If you have been to visit, please do. Whatever interests you, she’s got it on her site!
I have gifted pretty much everyone else with at least one award recently, so I’m, going to quit while I’m ahead. I’ve got a lot of awards in my back pocket. If I accidentally missed you, if you let me know, I will instantly rectify the problem. I’m not sure how many awards I can heap on friends before I start being the (virtually) annoying friend who keeps dropping in around dinner time.
I can gift anyone with almost anything at any time, so beware! I’ve got YOU in my crosshairs!
And About Me:
I have a collection of hard plastic and composition dolls of the 1930 through 1950s. Although I’ve stopped adding more dolls, I still have a few hundred of them and their eyes follow me where I do.
ONE:
I used to collect very antique Chinese porcelain. I have a Tang horse (real, not reproduction), a Han pot, and many vases.
TWO:
Despite their antiquity, they look great with daffodils or roses. The Chinese really knew a thing or two about pottery and glazes.
THREE:
We have too many books, but we’ve read all of them.
FOUR:
We have too many movies, but we’ve seen all of them (and can do dialogue with most of them).
FIVE:
We have too many dogs, but we adore them and couldn’t live without them.
SIX:
My hair turned white over night when I was ill, just like in bad novels.
SEVEN:
The only time I’m not reading, writing, processing photographs or editing text, I’m at the doctor, eating, cooking or sleeping. It seems I don’t have a very eclectic life, just taste
We stopped at the pond yesterday and I was sad to see that the geese are still occupying the nesting area and the swans are still patrolling around it. The longer the stand-off continues, the less likely we are to have little swans this year. There is a lot of room for other nests, but swans apparently are very programmed and keep the same nests … and the same mates … till death do them part. In the meantime, they are still on the pond. Sooner or later, something will happen.
We both like to listen to Web radio while we work. We were particularly pleased to discover that Radio Classique, which we listen to in Paris (at call number 101.1) is available on the Internet. (Go to the site, click on “En direct” and then choose “Haut débit” or “Bas débit” and it will begin.) The music is enjoyable and you can practise your French comprehension by listening to the news broadcasts or the occasional interview.
Garry and I love "A Little Romance." I've always wondered why it's shown so rarely. It's a gem of a movie, one of Hill's best. The story is charming, the settings are deliciously romantic, Olivier is Olivier -- and the two kids will make you nostalgic about being young. This was Diane Lane's screen début, by the way. If you can, see this one!
With camera in hand, exploring European lands, cultures, food, and drink...mostly with a plan, but sometimes enjoying the adventure of just getting lost.
I started reading 
