posted
Well, today I first saw Orson Scott Card. (can't say I met him or talked to him yet, but for that I have tomorrow)
He came to Israel as a guest of the annual Israeli convention of SF & Fantasy. (And he's the only reason I bother to go to this convention this year).
He first talked a little in the opening of the convention. He said that when he was first interested in Israel, he was 10 years old. He started reading a book about the rise and fall of the third reich. (a book about world war II) It wasn't a book fit for a 10 year old, but his older sister was studying it and he was interested. When he got to the terrible parts (about the Holocaust) he asked his Mom was happened to the Jews. She told him that many of them died, but the rest got a state of their own. That knowledge made his reading the rest of the book bearable. He said that the fact that the state of Israel still exists says something good about the world, and if it ceased to exist it would say something bad about the world.
The main OSC event today was his lecture about leadership. The title connected Ender to this lecture, but right at the beginning he said that he would not talk about his books (he saved that to the questions in the end). It was quite a seious lecture about bad and good leadership. I was quite amused by the fact that the guy who was sitting beside me was taking notes (like he was planning to take over the world or something ). There were even some guys who tried to record the lecture with a mini disk recorder. Some people are strange. I won't say much about this lecture. It was quite interesting, but quite unrelated to his books, so I'm not sure you'll be interested.
As an example of bad leadership he said that he once worked with a film director that was a bad leader. Everybody hated working with this director. When the matter of the Ender's Game film came up, the first candidate to direct the film was that director, but Card refused. He didn't want the making of the film to be a bad experience to the people involved. He said that if he hadn't refused, the film may have been done by now.
The more interesting part was when he started answering questions. I don't remember most of the questions (since I didn't take notes), but here are a few of them, in no particular order. Some of this questions were probably asked and answered on previous occasions, so they may not be new to you.
Someone asked him how Peter, who seemed like a very bad leader in Ender's Game, would become a great leader. He said that he still has to write it (in Shadow of the Giant), and then everybody asked when that would be. He said that he'll write it when he stops going to conventions in distant countries Then he returned to the original question and said that in the end of Shadow Puppets Peter was still not a good leader, but he was starting to learn from his mistakes.
Someone asked him if Peter was going to marry someone like Wang Mu (like the 2nd Peter did). He said this wouldn't happen because the 2nd Peter is not really Peter (he's Ender). Then he said who Peter was going to marry in the next Shadow book. I was quite surprised that he was giving away spoilers about the next book. He said it wasn't a real spoiler because it happens in the beginning of the book. He also said that he's been saying this for years, so maybe you already know that. If you don't know, I'll put it at the end of the post (in case somebody doesn't want to know).
Someone asked him if there was an analogy between Ender and Moses. He denied it, and talked about how he treats religion in his books. He said that he is doing his best to avoid religion and preaching in his books, but he may be doing it unconciously. He then made a remark about the Alvin Maker series. He admitted that the Alvin character was loosly based on Joseph Smith (the founder of the Mormons), but that was just for the skleton of the story. He said that Mormon readers are his worst readers of the Alvin Maker series, because they see this connection and think they understand everything about the series. He said the real story in this series is the history of America. (and then he quickly said that this was also not really true, and he mentioned a reader who told him something like - 'I didn't know that George Washington was beheaded')
The guy who made the connection between Ender and Moses started giving some analogies. When he said that both Ender and Moses were 3rd sons (with an elder brother and sister), Card immediately replied that he was accused that Ender was connected to Hitler (who was also a 3rd son), and concluded by saying that Ender was a 3rd son simply because he (Card) was.
He was asked about the connection that he made between science and religion in Xenocide (the whole aiuwa stuff, however you spell it). He said that religion and science are the same. If a hypothesis works, you keep it, if not, you find another one. If a religion works (which by Card means that it makes the lives of its followers better), you keep it, and if not, it will lose its followers. He gave Islam as an example of a religion that doesn't work, because it keeps its followers down. He then said that only when the Muslims accept the existance of Israel among them (and benefit from it), they would return to their golden days.
I can't remember anything else right now.
To be continued tomorrow ... (Book signing + a discussion about the books of OSC) Maybe I should buy a film for my Camera ...
And as for the little spoiler I promised ...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the beginning of Shadow of a Giant Peter is going to marry Petra. This, of course, will happen after Bean dies.
Posts: 28 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I'm been saying that SPOILER should've happened for ever - I mean, Marriage is 'two becoming one' - and they already both have the same name. The Two Rocks )
Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Doh! Why did I have to look?!? Maybe it was common knowledge to everyone else, but I honestly had no idea what was going to happen in the next book. I hope that it's not true. Out of all the characters in all the books I've ever read, Bean is the one I could most relate to. His silent study of his surroundings, and his knack at understanding motives is something that I relate to. It would be a shame for him to die. Maybe I won't read it...who am I kidding?
Posts: 15 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Well, bugger me! This is the exact reason I don't hold much hope for me being "Spoiler Free for Episode III" - I couldn't help myself looking at the top of this page.
(Though, on an unrelated note, I am thus far spoiler free)
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
Been's death is not the spoiler here. We knew he was going to die young. I was sure he was going to die in Saddow Puppets, and was surprised when he didn't. (When I was reading Shadow Puppets I was sure he was going to die in some heroic way to save the world from Achiles).
As for doubting the real spoiler, maybe it's right to doubt it. Before Shadow Puppets was published I read somewhere on this site that OSC said Bean would die on it, and he didn't. Could it be that Card gives away false spoilers ? Posts: 28 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Maybe he was kidding. Way back at the beginning of Shadow of the Hegemon this occured to me, but I can't imagine it happening for love at this point. It seems also that it would have more impact for Ender once he got to the next planet and learned of it. Or when he writes "The Hegemon".
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Maybe it was common knowledge to everyone else, but I honestly had no idea what was going to happen in the next book. I hope that it's not true. Out of all the characters in all the books I've ever read, Bean is the one I could most relate to. His silent study of his surroundings, and his knack at understanding motives is something that I relate to. It would be a shame for him to die. Maybe I won't read it...who am I kidding?
