Hatrack River Forum: Nine Babies

This is topic Nine Babies in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by deathstarclock (Member # 9891) on :

Hey. At first I wasn't sure where I could find a community to discuss the Ender's Game series. Then I recalled OSC thanking members of this site for their input in his acknowledgements page, so I thought I'd take a shot in the dark.

After rereading Shadow Puppets and SoTG I was curious, Volescu creates nine embryos for Bean and Petra. I also recalled a conversation between John Paul and Theresa about how they name their children. It brings me to these questions: what influenced OSC to choose the names he chose for the characters, and why did OSC choose nine as the number of embryos created?

Posted by jeeshkid (Member # 9885) on :

nine is a fairy tale number along with three and seven... at least acording to my english teacher

Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :

Focus groups and market research.

Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :

maybe because no one has ever had nine live babies before...

Posted by B34N (Member # 9597) on :

He is a huge fan of "The Natural"!

[ROFL]

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

Were there 12 and 3 got disposed of? Or were there always 9?

Acutally, I was reading about Catch-22 the other day and there was quite an arduous process in arriving at 22 cited on wiki. Don't know if it is worth the paper it's printed on [Wink]

But it was interesting. 18 and 11 were taken, and 14 was "not a funny number".

Posted by talsmitde (Member # 9780) on :

<slight spoiler>

There were always nine (three with Bean, five with Petra, one . . . somewhere.

I think it's OSC's way of showing that Petra and Bean (like many others) were only too glad to see the population restrictions end. [Smile]

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

Yeah, because 9 is, like, 3 times 3.

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

REALLY? Wow, that's deep, pooka! [ROFL]

Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :

I don't think I've been eating enough protein. [Wink]

Posted by JonHecht (Member # 9712) on :

Seriously though, that was Valentine Michael Smith deep.

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

*nods* I grok.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Does this thread title sound like a Terry Gilliam movie to anyone else?

Posted by I Am The War Chief (Member # 9266) on :

The wiggin family had 3 kids, pooka may have been on to something. . . Third by third makes for a brilliant Nine [Razz]

Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :

is that like seven by seven makes for magic??? oh wait!

Posted by B34N (Member # 9597) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dagonee:
Does this thread title sound like a Terry Gilliam movie to anyone else?

Yes!

Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :

Nine babies because you can physically control 8 with two parents and two nannies, but with 9 you need a third nanny, but the third nanny just ends up seeming embarrassingly gratuitous since she only gets one kid, so it's a really awfully awkward number of kids to have.

Posted by DDDaysh (Member # 9499) on :

I've always felt really bad for the parents with quintuplets...

I mean, with quadruplets at least you have a hand for every bottle...