Post 10: Ender's Game

This is my personal feelings on the subject of Orson Scott Card and Ender's Game, after reading this article:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9909314/ender-game-controversial-author-very-personal-history

I have mixed feelings on boycotts.  I personally boycotted Fox for several years after Firefly was cancelled, because I was tired of losing great shows science fiction shows after too few episodes.  My boycott made zero financial impact and I didn't rally anyone to the cause, which is fine with me.  My reason for the boycott was to avoid future disappointment.   

I understand and empathize with those who feel they must boycott "Ender's Game."  Public intolerance is offensive to more than just those who are the object of the intolerance.   I used to read Orson Scott Card's column titled "Uncle Orson Reviews Everything," in which he would share his opinions on books and movies and brands of socks and ice cream.  I found it after his rave review of the movie "Serenity," and it was entertaining and engaging.  Over time I started noticing some presumptuous and arrogant-sounding diatribes, and eventually stopped reading it when he suggested that Harry Potter was likely inspired by (and somewhat a rip-off of) Ender's Game, as if he alone had invented the archetypal hero.  Campbell published The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1949!  The hubris was galling, so my interest in Card waned and I avoided his personal writing.  I avoided it thoroughly enough that I didn't even know about his political and anti-gay writing until the past few months, and I deeply disagree with him.   

This is what it boils down to for me: Ender's Game is a beautiful book about war, tolerance, love, the nature of mankind, isolation, empathy, and truly understanding and loving those you once feared or hated.  The author can spout off on things I find crazy, but the art touches me.   When I read Ender's Game for the first time over the past week I was transported, humbled, inspired, deeply touched, and introspective.  That has value to me, no matter the views of the author.  Even though the movie necessarily simplifies the themes, it was engaging and fun and poignant (even though all movies from books cut out at least one element that maddens me).  I'm choosing to separate the art from the artist – especially because a movie is a collaboration between hundreds or even thousands of people.  So I went to see it last night, and I'm going again tonight.  It's a great story with a message which could teach us all -- hopefully, even the author of the book.

I'm going to try to keep writing again.  Thanks for reading.