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Personal reactions to stuff
Jun. 21st, 2010 04:46 pmI ran into an editorial about Orson Scott Card's homophobia today. I'd heard about the subject before, but I guess it hit me more this time. It just upsets me so much, not just because prejudice is always upsetting, but because Ender's Game meant so much to me. I loved that book; actually, I loved the whole series. I read all of it, both the original sequels and the Shadow books, several times. Children of the Mind made it hard to breathe several times, I was so involved in the story, and the imagination his version of the future drew me in, especially the bizarrely-possible insanity that was Lusitania. I loved the strategy of the politics and the space battles (I actually try to apply the principles Ender used to the space battles in Star Wars Battlefront. The game designers missed the memo, but a few things are still easier.) I loved the Ender's Shadow mind-games that make Light Yagami look like a total amateur. And - this is where it gets upsetting - a lot of the philosophical concepts about family, and what is and is not important, and what dying means, and how relationships affect people... well, all I can say is that they made an impact. A lot of it really kind of clicked with me, and it meant a rather odd amount to me. Hence, why I'm so distrubed now.
It's more than that, though. I mean, that's enough to get to me, but also those books were a pretty major influence as a writer. The editions I got always had long, long introductions or concluding authors' notes about how they came to be written, and the influences, and the research he did, and I read all of it. Devoured it, actually. It made me realize a lot of things about how to write believably, how to make characters make sense, the amount of research that's necessary even if you make up the world or the history or the technology, a whole ton of stuff. Actually, those sections are what taught me that classes like biology, history and economics are actually very valuable for a writer of fantasy or science fiction. So I'm not really sure what to think of all this, because although I'm horrified by Card's views, I still respect and admire him as a writer. I guess I should try and separate the man from his work, but of course that's one of those things that's far, far easier said than done.
It's more than that, though. I mean, that's enough to get to me, but also those books were a pretty major influence as a writer. The editions I got always had long, long introductions or concluding authors' notes about how they came to be written, and the influences, and the research he did, and I read all of it. Devoured it, actually. It made me realize a lot of things about how to write believably, how to make characters make sense, the amount of research that's necessary even if you make up the world or the history or the technology, a whole ton of stuff. Actually, those sections are what taught me that classes like biology, history and economics are actually very valuable for a writer of fantasy or science fiction. So I'm not really sure what to think of all this, because although I'm horrified by Card's views, I still respect and admire him as a writer. I guess I should try and separate the man from his work, but of course that's one of those things that's far, far easier said than done.
