I find the HP books fascinating even though I usually end up hating most of the message of them. It's because JKR's intentional and non-intentional morality is so complicated and interesting. And usually pretty fucked up.
Yet I'm still stuck on Card. I really wish I had that essay in my hands 10 years ago, when all of my friends were reading him and loved him. I liked the books, too--they are very well written and interesting. But by the end I was annoyed and dissatisfied. I disliked the way Ender always knew what to do, the way he always could pick apart the motives of others and know them better than they knew themselves. It started to piss me off and sounded false. But I didn't have the tools at the time to realize I was being horribly manipulated by the author into accepting false situations. I'm still here cheering that essay because I couldn't have put it into words as well.
Yet I never felt quite the same about Ender's Game. I guess the moral lessons of that book were also pretty screwed up but I had just been watching it from Ender's point of view. I don't think he was a perfect being, the way the book insisted. But I think he was as good as he could be. I think he did the best he could with what he was given.
Hmm you haven't read these so I won't go on and on. I will endeavor to stop now. :)
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Date: 2006-11-30 09:21 pm (UTC)Yet I'm still stuck on Card. I really wish I had that essay in my hands 10 years ago, when all of my friends were reading him and loved him. I liked the books, too--they are very well written and interesting. But by the end I was annoyed and dissatisfied. I disliked the way Ender always knew what to do, the way he always could pick apart the motives of others and know them better than they knew themselves. It started to piss me off and sounded false. But I didn't have the tools at the time to realize I was being horribly manipulated by the author into accepting false situations. I'm still here cheering that essay because I couldn't have put it into words as well.
Yet I never felt quite the same about Ender's Game. I guess the moral lessons of that book were also pretty screwed up but I had just been watching it from Ender's point of view. I don't think he was a perfect being, the way the book insisted. But I think he was as good as he could be. I think he did the best he could with what he was given.
Hmm you haven't read these so I won't go on and on. I will endeavor to stop now. :)