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Author Topic: Ender in Exile: Continuity "Glitch"
neo-dragon
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I brought this up recently in the other "Ender in Exile" thread, and couldn't decide if it was worth making a whole new thread about. But then, the last time I did this it actually helped prevent a continuity error, so I thought I'd throw this out there.

First, listen to this: OSC reads from "Ender in Exile".

I noticed two things; first, isn't Peter supposed to be over 70 when he and Ender speak via ansible rather than "nearly 60"? Perhaps the line should be: "he's aged nearly 60 years" rather than he's "at nearly 60 years of age."

Second, SotG indicates that Graff has already died by the time Ender begins talking to Peter. In the email from Peter to Val at the start of the last chapter of SotG, Peter says, "I knew Hyrum Graff and Mazer Rackham very well before they died, and you treated them with absolute fairness."

So maybe there's still time for quick fixes? Or maybe these are too minor to bother with. [Dont Know]

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Catseye1979
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With the Hyrum Graff problem I noticed that, although I had pointed out before remembering the SotG reference that in the short story Golden Bug that Graff was still alive a few days before the coloney ship landed. That would've put Graff well over 100 unless he did some near lightspeed travling of his own.

It is very possible that in the year or two between the coloney ship arriving and the Email between Val and Peter, that Graff finnally died.

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neo-dragon
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That doesn't quite mesh though. Peter's email to Val in SotG which states that Graff is dead is sent before Ender begins interviewing Peter. In this E in E excerpt Ender is emailing Graff after he's interviewed Peter. I guess it's really not a big deal though. It only conflicts with one line in SotG. I guess you could call it a retcon.
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Mark
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This seems like a rather big mistake, but it sounds like it's not something that can be easily fixed, unless he wants to forget about the e-mail entirely. I hope he tries to fix it anyway.
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neo-dragon
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As I said, it only conflicts with one line. Most readers won't even notice either way. It's no bigger than Ender turning 20 in the Investment Councilor when Ender's Game says he was already over 20 by the time he left the first colony.

I like the email to Graff and I'd rather overlook the continuity error than have it removed. I'm trying to think of a way that it could make sense that doesn't involve an omission. It may very well be too late to change anything at this point anyway, so maybe I shouldn't have brought it up. [Blushing]

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mr_porteiro_head
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There are some times where you just have to say "These stories are not 100% internally self-consistent. Oh well."
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BlueWizard
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I think there is room for artistic license in literature. In my Harry Potter groups, we are obsessed with detail. If there was a full moon on a particular night, someone will have figured out what night that was and if there really was a full moon that night. If 'Mars is bright tonight', some one will have figured out if Mars really could be seen in that time and place. If the sun came up early or went down late, someone will have calculated the sunrise and sunset times in Scotland.

But sometimes when the author needs it to rain, it just rains, and sometimes when the author needs the moon to be full, it's just full, and sometimes when an author needs a dead person to be alive, they are just alive and that's it.

In 'First Meetings - The Investment Councilor' Card need Ender to be twenty, so he was twenty, that's just the story that needed to be told.

Still, I find it odd that he picked age 20? Why not 21? Or some other socially relevant age? Still, he picked 20, so 20 it is.

steve/bluewizard

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Orincoro
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No Steve, there is no artistic license in literature. And your pass is revoked.

Give me your keys. Don't make this ugly.

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Orson Scott Card
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Sometimes characters think that another character is dead because he's been gone so long and they just assume. You'll see. <grin>
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la.SOMA
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i think i'm just dying to get to see what comes of achilles II
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neo-dragon
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I got OSC to come out of hiding! I rock! [Big Grin]

And you guys don't have to tell me that stories aren't always totally consistent. I'm a fan of Star Wars and Star Trek. If I can accept Leia remembering her real mother who died seconds after her birth, or Khan and his genetically enhanced brethren ruling the world in the 1990s, no minor mistakes in the Enderverse are going to trouble me.

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Noemon
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Leia was just confused. What she thinks is a memory of her mother is actually a very hazy memory of the first time she met Pierre Trudeau.
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Orincoro
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Actually, the whole Bean Quartet is just a dream that Ender has has at the end of Ender's Game, which is just a memory that Jason Worthing extracts from the mind of Ender 10,000 years from now.

It all makes sense. :calculates:

Yes. It all makes perfect sense.

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SteveRogers
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quote:
Originally posted by Orson Scott Card:
Sometimes characters think that another character is dead because he's been gone so long and they just assume. You'll see. <grin>

Ah, now we have to wait two months to find out. I don't know if I can make it that long...
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rivka
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quote:
Originally posted by Noemon:
Leia was just confused. What she thinks is a memory of her mother is actually a very hazy memory of the first time she met Pierre Trudeau.

[ROFL]
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Nick
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quote:
Originally posted by Orson Scott Card:
Sometimes characters think that another character is dead because he's been gone so long and they just assume. You'll see. <grin>

I can just picture your smug grin, I have the book pre-ordered, but it still can't come soon enough. [Frown] [Razz]
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Catseye1979
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Well....Maybe Graff "died" just so he could finnally retire.

If I'd been working past 100 years old and the people at work had become so dependent on my that they wouldn't let me retire then I might "Die" and hide away at a cabin with a lake and a raft drifting in the lake and send emails to someone on a different world who gave him permission to use the cabin.

Just an idea. After all they lied about Mazer flying the coloney ship...why not this.


And yes waiting for the book to come out is very hard.....it's like waiting for my birthday to come....wait...the book comes out on my birthday.....guess it is exactly like waiting for my B-day. [ROFL]

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