You know, that whole thing about being 3000 years old? It always bugged me. Ender's subjective timeline (and I'm sure it's been discussed to death here) was really only 30-40 years (through Children of the Mind), so to keep referring to the immense span of human history which he had witnessed, as meaning that he had lived all that time, always seemed like a bit of a cheap trick.
But just this morning I was thinking about my own history as the child of parents in international business (sort of like being an army brat) -- and the fact that I'd lived in seven countries by the time I was 15 -- and was remembering how it felt to be uprooted every 9-18 months, leaving a school, a neighborhood, friends, a culture, almost all of it never to be seen again....
It really is as if I have left multiple entire lives in my own wake, just as Ender knew as he blasted away from a star system at relativistic speeds that he would never know those people again.
My empathetic response to this helps me "get" what OSC was conveying -- it's not the exact arithmetic of the passage of time that matters -- it is Ender's perception of the passage of ages, as he touched down here and there, doing his work as Speaker. In a very real sense, his chronological age encapsulates all those wearying centuries, lost lifespans, mourned friends....
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Card's early book Capitol examines that idea in depth. It's a great read, and I heartily reccomend it.
Posted by John Van Pelt (Member # 5767) on :
Thanks, I'll check it out. Posted by Frisco (Member # 3765) on :
The entire Worthing Saga, in which that story is included, is worth reading, too.
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
I'd look specifically for the story "Skipping Stones" in that regard. It is in the much older collection Capitol, but you'd probably find The Worthing Saga more easily, and it's in there, too. Many of the short stories touch on the concept, though, so you needn't limit yourself to just the one.
--Pop
[Edit -- dangit, Frisco! Making me look bad, or at least slow....]
[ January 21, 2004, 01:31 PM: Message edited by: Papa Moose ]
Posted by Poseidon (Member # 5862) on :
i know what it means to... to be leaving old lives behind every time you move. i used to lay in bed at night and imagine that i was lying in every bed in every room in every house i've ever lived in, one after the other. it really made me feel like i was living an entirely different life from the one i was living when i was, say, five years old, before i ever moved.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)