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Universal Studio's new film in November: Ender's Game
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i'm dying squirtle
I ain't gonna talk shit about a thing unless I know it pretty well and can back up my opinions.
Plus, reading is, like, really easy. It ain't an arduous, herculean task to read a book.
Steam
a sort of do I drop it and spend the time reading another book
or do I finish it so I can talk about how crappy it was
Words
1. get a thesaurus
2. look up a word
3. replace it with the longest word the thesaurus gives
4. repeat steps 2 and 3 for every word you write
I once dated a girl whose uncle is no shit Terry Goodkind.
I told her I hated her uncle's books and she was totally okay with that.
A miserable little pile of sec- no, wait
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no shit Terry Goodkind?
Isn't that the mirror universe version of regular Terry Goodkind? Despite the name, I assume his books are also pretty bad.
Maybe it's a multiversal constant that all Terry Goodkinds in every dimension write shit books.
5. take 'dis nerdo's lunch money.
(i'm just having fun now)
but i'm pretty sure the whole concept of "white knighting" the dead, individual or cultures, is a rather limiting and limited view of Speaker for the Dead. maybe it is because i am not white, nor male, and was only middle class for the earlier half of my childhood, but despite those traits, i somehow found value in both EG and SftD. possibly more relevant, i'm an Army brat.
moreover, it is requested as part of the funeral arrangements, not some weirdo butting in unasked and uninformed. in the books, there's a drawn-out process akin to a research project, because the Speaking is supposed to be a synopsis of that person's life and their intentions. more along the lines of a good biography than a fanfiction, with both the objectionable and the admirable. we cannot live in each other's heads, but the philosophical goal in a Speaking is to know someone fully, and i find that to be a sweet concept -- a profound acceptance.
regarding Card himself:
and now i'm getting contemplative on how craft can symbolize a person's apparent ideology in whole or degrees, and is that a more true representation of that person than something diametrically opposed to their stated views. well, no. being is a verb, not a fixed state. so OSC being a total jerk in his free time, but having created this character who
EG/SotD spoilers
but the idea that a monster might be misunderstood, in the sense that none of us is the villain of our own story, those are not themes that are out of place in literature aimed at any age. the buggers were misinterpreted, and only at the end of the novel is it made clear to Ender, who despises what he has done, while being celebrated for it by the planet; when he becomes Speaker for the Dead, those interpretations are externalized, with the Hive Queen the sympathetic character to the public, and the Xenocide a monster. again, our and others' perspectives are limited.
violence may not be the best solution, but we have certainly shown it to be effective for certain problems. i don't think the book takes the stance of portraying it as anything less than brutal and stemming from Ender's (or the adult commanders', regarding the 'sims' and the entire Battle School program) sense of safety/necessity; Ender may be unaware of the consequences, but the reader is not.
you may derive some satisfaction from the angsty genius kid overcoming obstacles, but Ender's Game is a tragedy, especially apparent in the final chapters. Ender is not a hero in the sense that he is someone to be admired for being smart or capable or lethal, he is a compelling protagonist because a smart, damaged, manipulated kid isn't all that rare -- and he is a survivor. kids especially don't have much conviction that they can choose their paths, because they are rarely allowed to do for themselves; i don't think it's at all encouraging a 'might makes right' message, but that it's empowering in the sense that those choices are there to be made, and even adults don't always choose best. even happy, well-adjusted kids feel powerless in a lot of ways.
those last chapters are all about how exhausted the battleschool kids are, and lost in the dark for the point of it all, and when they finally think they're done training, the revelation that the simulations were real isn't joyful. the war that they've been preparing for is over, and they don't even get to process their shock and relief before the planet erupts in its own wars again. they're going to continue being used, but now by their respective countries. Ender can't even return to Earth.
now, he had a miserable home life and disconnect in some ways, but being unable to return home would still be rough; even with agency and choice, you can't 'go home' -- it's an emotional truth, especially relevant for the elementary/middle school age group of the main characters.
this goodreads review gets at what i'm saying, as well. lot of thoughts for a book i haven't read in years. but i think this is easily a baby/bathwater situation, so thought i'd put my litcrit hat on for a bit, crooked and dusty it may be.
Yer next, poindexter.
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel:
Maledictions: The Offering.
Now in Paperback!
Women always lament with excellent style and word choice.
You said it much better than I could have, which is why I didn't try. I had some similar feelings about the books.
looking at some shelves I put up the year before I moved out, which have been filled with stuff that my mother has found in the process of a few years of cleaning and organizing the house
I see my own copy of ender's game
worn, ragged at the edges, crumpled and twisted, practically falling out of its binding I had read it so much
flick through the yellowed pages
on the last, right before the back cover, I find something I had written there in grade eight
"note to self: best book ever!"
and I had signed my name
kill me
eugh I do not think I want to remember too much of that battle circle one
uh
i'm sure the star trek paperbacks weren't all bad
and congo had some okay bits in it
goddamn
It literally fell apart at the binding and I had to get a new copy
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also the deaths in that book were brutal as hell
by that point in my youth I had gotten wise to the tricks of fantasy novels and thus only picked up things that were standalone or part one of etc. so I knew the whole story
except I get dropped into this one and it spends like half of its length bringing up and reflecting on really cool-sounding shit that happened in other books and in short I think it sufficiently betrayed me such that it struck a mortal blow to my once-vigorous love of reading
Wait, that's not the key to good prose, that's the key to wasting time on a computer when the only program you have is Microsoft Word.
also the Cleric Quintet which was all about guys look at this cleric he is wicked cool and good at everything
my parents like, bought cheap versions of those LITERARY CLASSICS books so I had Call of the Wild and Tom Sawyer in addition to all the dumb star wars books I wouldn't stop reading
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I really loved the Phantom Tollbooth movie and it was weird reading the book because I was confused as to where all the extra stuff came from
I love the book though
Also fuck yeah Tom Swift!
I am not proud.
Steam: cristke
like, there is an actual devil on the cover