posted
ok so not to sound like some random idiot fan but you have been the author of 16 of the last 20 books i have read. You draw me in like no other author i have found. I first found you're writing from a book i borrowed from a friend like six years ago. It was The Memory of Earth and i got so tired of him reading the next book so i could borrow it that i went out and bought the whole series. From there i found Ender's game and fell in love with you words all over again. After i read your novel "Pastwatch" I took a break from reading for a while then one day cleaning a closet out I found my Ender series and read it all over again, then passed it onto a new Card fan. Then someone had the good graces to leave the first four books of the Maker series in my lap and I just bought Heartfire three days ago, and I'm starting The Crystal City after i finish this little letter of thanks.(btw I have passed Alvin on and she wants more) So i guess in all of this babbling i am letting you know you have shown me (and obviously by the look of this site millions) what good writing can be. So whether or not this actually gets read by you I finally found an outlet that is could come and give my praise to you and say thank you very much and good luck with all of your future ventures.
- A Life Long Fan Nelson
Posts: 9 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
And I thank YOU - for passing on my books to find even more readers. Part of my nefarious plot to infest everyone's minds with my lies <nya-ha-ha!>
I'm glad you started with Memory of Earth - because that series is finished, it doesn't get mentioned much - no new books coming out to spur sales - and sometimes I think it's flat out forgotten. But it isn't! Thank you!
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
I loved the Memory of Earth series. It's one of the few of which I own the entire series. That sentence doesn't feel grammatically sound. Oh well.
In fact, I'm surprised that people can read series like that and be surprised when the author places a high value on the role marriage plays in society. I really enjoyed the part about how the laws regarding marriage, sex, and adultery had to change when the little group was travelling and not in the big city anymore. Well, I don't want to spoil it for anyone--if you read it, you probably know what I'm talking about.
I grew up as a moral person anyway, but stories like that one and snippets from Enchantment and Pastwatch played a large role in giving me a reason to abstain past "just because its wrong" and the fear of STDs. More of these confused kids should read those books if only to really understand the emotional reasons why sleeping around isn't a good idea.
(I'm referring to Diko's telling Hunupuh (sp?) why she can't marry him in Pastwatch, and Ivan's musings in Enchantment.)
Just thought I'd share... Mentioning Memory of Earth reminded me.
Another thing about Memory of Earth--while I was reading it I was noticing a lot of parallels to Bible stories, especially Saul on the road to Tarsus. I found out later that it is based on the Book of Mormon--well, that's what I heard anyway. I haven't read the Book of Mormon, so I can't verify that myself. Some LDS missionaries came to our house once, though, and showed a video. The entire time I was comparing it to the Memory of Earth books in my head.
posted
I just ordered the Memory of Earth series, (I was told I shouldn't start with one book unless I was prepared to read all the others in immediate succession). Can't wait to read them but they're taking aaages to arrive. I've been re-reading the Ender and the Shadow series to keep myself going until the books turn up.
Posts: 77 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I just wish that people who are currently using marriage as a political football (rather the way that memo suggests politicians were using Terri Schiavo's tragic legal murder) would remember that institutions and practices that are nearly universal through the human race are probably serving an important function, and a society messes with it at their peril. The law of unintended consequences is bound to apply - as it has already devastatingly applied to our drastic easing of (one might say ENCOURAGEMENT of) divorce, which did not do anywhere near the good that its proponents expected, and did vast harm they did not expect (and which they largely try to ignore or excuse or paint pretty trompe-l'oeil pictures on).
I don't know what the "best" form of marriage is. But I do know that in history, marriage patterns in successful societies make certain changes depending on the needs of the society - because marriage laws and customs have specific consequences that either promote or fail to promote societal survival.
Where we CHOOSE to go is a matter for political and moral and religious opinion. But what needs serious study - and is barely getting any, the science is so poisoned by political agendas - is to measure what marriage actually does, whom it serves, what its advantages are, and what our meddling with it for the last fifty years is actually doing to us as a civilization (the Western one, not the American one particularly).
The Homecoming books address the little we know of marriage as a functioning part of different social patterns. Thank you for taking it that way, instead of thinking that I'm trying to advocate certain outcomes in our present society. So many readers and reviewers can't get past their own presentism to get a view of the story that is closer to it, but farther from the present.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
Well, you're welcome. That's basically how I read. It always annoyed me in my English and History courses when other students would apply modern-day ideas to past events.
For example, when I was a senior in college, I got stuck in a mostly freshman world history course. For one assignment, we read an old code of law, I don't remember which one, where the penalty for nearly everything was death. The other students in the class were appalled and shocked at something so clearly barbaric. I didn't speak up, perhaps I should have, but I wanted to point out that the civilization didn't have the practical means for prisons--and what else were they supposed to do with violent criminals? In our civilization, we can afford to abolish the death penalty--they couldn't. I was annoyed that the teacher didn't point that fact out.
Well anyway... The Neverending Story is playing here and distracting me...
posted
Plus, having the death penalty on the books didn't mean it was always applied. For instance, the law that "the son who strikes his father will be put to death" was probably applied very, very rarely ... because how many fathers, even in unhappy families, are eager to kill their own child? And undoubtedly the father who DID have his son prosecuted (it's not as if there were any district attorneys to take it out of his hands) was so thoroughly censured by his peers that he could hardly feel vindicated (or they knew the son and agreed he was dangerous).
But your point about prisons was a key one. At least they only executed people who were guilty of something, instead of just killing people as human sacrifices. Another alternative was to put them into slavery. One speculation in Pastwatch was that slavery was a more humane alternative than human sacrifice.
It's important to judge people by the culture they lived in. BY THEIR UNDERSTANDING, were they good people or bad ones?
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
hey jane the part about reading them all in sucsession is true with one exception after reading earth fall wait two weeks before you read earthborn. I flew through the first four in like two weeks total nd then tried to read the fifth and i was jsut confused sinc eit is SO different> (not to give anything away) i don't know if anyone else sees it that way but jsut some friendly advice, (side note, you've gotta be kidding me that i signed on to this web site by chance from finding the address in the foreward of crystal city and within a day Orson Scott Card himself has written me back, if i were 12 or female or even really tired i would probably squeal)
Posts: 9 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote: One speculation in Pastwatch was that slavery was a more humane alternative than human sacrifice.
Pastwatch has gotten me into trouble before. I like your version of history so much that I want to believe that is it completely true! I actually referred to the Mexica in a paper for that history course. (Well, either that course or one like it.) The professor put question marks next to it...I guess he was not familiar with that name. (I am assuming it was taken from history, though.) But specifically, the speculation that slavery was a humane alternative to human sacrifice is a good one, I think. It makes perfect sense and colors early slavery in a completely different light. Not that I'm advocating slavery, of course, but the progression is understandable and even positive. It also follows that eventually it would be outlawed, too. (Notice how I have to put a disclaimer that of course I don't think slavery is wrong? How PC of me--stating the obvious.)
Eh. Well, I'm rambling now. Gotta get back to work.
Oh, another Pastwatch experience--one that I am not fond of looking back on. I attempted once to teach it during a summer course for an Upward Bound program. I worked hard on my lesson plans, but none of them worked out! It was horrible! The students weren't excited about reading so much a night and the subject matter was just too complicated for them. I think I managed to get a few good conversations out of them, but I had to completely change my plans halfway through. But then, it was the first time I had ever taught a class without a practiced teacher's guidance. A real learning experience. I think I would love to teach it again, though, but only with the right level of student. I comfort myself that some of those students (less than 15) stowed the book in a corner somewhere and came back years later to read it and finally appreciate it. It is a shameful memory of a failed teaching experience.
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Pastwatch has gotten me into trouble before. I like your version of history so much that I want to believe that is it completely true! I actually referred to the Mexica in a paper for that history course. (Well, either that course or one like it.) The professor put question marks next to it...I guess he was not familiar with that name. (I am assuming it was taken from history, though.) But specifically, the speculation that slavery was a humane alternative to human sacrifice is a good one, I think. It makes perfect sense and colors early slavery in a completely different light. Not that I'm advocating slavery, of course, but the progression is understandable and even positive. It also follows that eventually it would be outlawed, too. (Notice how I have to put a disclaimer that of course I don't think slavery is wrong? How PC of me--stating the obvious.)
