In one of my literature classes the teacher is having us write a paper on an author of our choice and that there must be something that stands out about him. I mainly just want to write a paper on OSC, because he's by far my favorite author.
Best I can come up with is one of the things I read in his awsome Maps in a Mirror collection.(Which I treasure) Where he writes, "I believe that speculative fiction - science fiction in particular - is the last American refuge of religious literature." That essay fascinated me alot.
Does anyone have any ideas of a paper I can write on OSC using the teacher's topic? Any links would also be helpful.
If you see this Mr. Card, and you have any ideas that would be very awsome. Especially if you're an alien or time traveler, or time traveling alien.
Posted by FormerlyEmpty (Member # 7717) on :
Well he's a mormon right? So that's a minority in America and could be seen as special. I don't know maybe he eats worms on his free time or something but I would think the fact that his books have won so many awards would be enough.
Posted by kacard (Member # 200) on :
Make sure you check the research area of this website -- there might be some ideas there.
[ April 05, 2005, 04:14 PM: Message edited by: kacard ]
Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 7695) on :
Research Area? oh right cough. Well what do you know. Thanks Posted by Verai (Member # 7507) on :
You'd blow away the other essays if you got a comment from OSC himself
"And in conclusion, Mr. Card said that he hopes I get an 'A'"
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Boy, I sure hope you get an A.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
You might also check out the OSC Library, my essay on "Fantasy and the Believing Reader."
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
How come best-selling authors never wish me luck?
Oh and- I'm taking an online class and the first thing I did was ask the teacher if one of the short stories we could read would be Ender's Game . She hadn't heard of it, so she said no. But at least I tried, right?
Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 7695) on :
Thanks Mr. Card! I'm deffintly going to put that in my paper. This really does make my day.
I better gear up and go exploring through this website. If I'm not back in a few days, I'll be lost forever.
Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 7695) on :
I'm embarresed to say that my literature teacher didn't know who OSC is. (and embarresed that I probably didn't spell embarresed right). And Fortunatlly she said I could still write it, and that'd I'd just have to let her borrow the stories that I use in my paper. She's a super cool teacher. Hopefully reading some of the stuff will turn her from the darkside of Classical American lit and bring her to the good side of Card. Posted by Jonathan K. (Member # 7720) on :
Orson Scott Card's pretty famous. I've met plenty of people who know him. (besides here, obviously.)
Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 7695) on :
Yeah, all of my friends and my brothers know who he is. About the millonth time I heard about my friends talking about some book called, "Ender's Game" I finally decided to give it a chance, and I was blown away. I remember when I checked it out the librarian said, "Ah, that's the book all the smart kids read."
Posted by Verai (Member # 7507) on :
I've entertained the thought that Mr. Card was some magical connection manipulator. He just used his books and communities to bind people together with those soul threads present in some of his works.
Posted by Jonathan K. (Member # 7720) on :
Is orson online right now I haven't been a part of a discussion where he's is posting yet.
Posted by Verai (Member # 7507) on :
He popped in a little while ago but seems to have vanished.
The only time to catch him again is probobly about 2 am eastern.
seriously Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Until he gets over his insomnia/jet lag. Poor guy. Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Good luck, SteveRogers!
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Literature teachers were once literature students in college, and literature students in college are actively taught to despise science fiction more than any other genre. The surprise is when you find a literature teacher who HAS read Ender's Game. Or anything of mine, for that matter.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
I'm writing my grad. paper this semester on Enchantment. I was considering going on to be an English professor--but I probably won't do that now. Not sure. But I do know one thing, I want to be part of the movement that finally gets Sci-Fi and Fantasy the respect it deserves.
And my teacher is very supportive of me in this. The class is actually called History and Theory of the Novel. We're not reading anything "recent" at all.
But of course, this is me... and I wrote a grad. paper on Buffy my first semester in graduate school.
Edit: Oh, and in ENGL 102 (1102 equivalent), I wrote a paper on Ender's Game. Actually, I was comparing the heroes in three books. I was a college freshman, so it wasn't that GOOD, but I still wrote it. -Katarain
[ April 08, 2005, 09:14 AM: Message edited by: Katarain ]
Posted by beatnix19 (Member # 5836) on :
I've mentioned this before but it's one of my few fond memories of high school, as far as classes go. We had an elective called "Science fiction and Fantasy" It was a reading calss and duh... we read nothing but FS & Fantasy. Ender's Game was the first book she made us read. I had already read it about a dozen times by then but it was awesome that she held it in such high regard. I actually ran across the book report I wrote on the book the other day when cleaning up some boxes in my basement. I got an A. This class was definately the coolest thing my HS ever made available.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
My HS lit teacher had not only readEnder's Game, she gave me a copy of it, and Speaker after it.
Yep, it's all her fault that y'all can't get rid of me. Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
My 10th grade HS English teacher-- the one with a Master's degree from Brown, whom I didn't like very much-- had never heard of OSC.
My 9th grade teacher, whom I loved to pieces, who was also the Speech and Debate coach, had us spend every Friday free reading because she thought we deserved a break and some time to do pleasure reading once a week. (And we still did more meaningful work and cooler projects and learned more than in any of my other English classes!) We had to read a certain number of pages every quarter to pass, and when we were done reading a book, she came around during the reading time and asked us questions about the books so she could satisfy herself that we had read them. When I brought in the latest Card book I was reading, she always showed an incredible interest and asked more meaningful questions than about many of the other books. When I asked her why once, she said, "I'm a huge Card fan, I've read all these books many times!" I was thrilled. Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 7695) on :
My Lit teacher really likes death in stories. This is cool, but it scares me, so I gave her a copy of "A Thousand Deaths" and "Mortal Gods", so I hope that will be the start of her looking more into OSC. She's said many times in the class that you can't judge a writer by who is from what he writes, so I'm not worrying about her thinking Mr. Card is "dark and disturbed."
Posted by Avicus (Member # 7652) on :
The funny thing is that I had to read Ender's Game for English lit when I was in middle school. I figured it would be like any other school book. Turned out to be my favorite book ever written. The teacher made us have discussions about it everyday and she never had a problem with someone not reading the material they were supposed to read the prior night. More often then not she had to keep the conversations focused because people had read ahead and were discussing things that were going to be talked about the following class. I also later learned that my father's DI when he was in boot camp required everyone to read Ender's Game. My father hating sci fi and anything ever written on paper in general (nuckle dragger to say the least) refused to read it and got punished. The DI in my opinion was right on target in having his troops read the book. Those that read it undoubtedly benefited from it.
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