Somehow I never "saw" this in the dozen or so times I've read Ender's Game but it popped right out in listening to the book on CD. On the other hand, I don't know which page it is on because it was an audiobook. It's the part where Graff talks to Ender alone about going off to Battle School.
Now I have that weird feeling that this is common knowledge and someone has already posted about this and I'm going to look like a dullard.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 233) on :
So is L or M our "seventh"? Or neither, since they aren't sons? Whatever, I think that Decimus et Ultimus is pretty happy with his position, and I've never much cared.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
If we are counting nine it would be L. Boy I heard something yesterday that I thought was cool and now I can't remember what it was. So frustrating.
Today I heard the passage on fairy land and how he had been a rodent with fine, articulated hands, and the first creature that greets him in fairly land is a bat. It's a dream from the keeper! Of course, the bat/vole pairing came from Isaiah originally.
Posted by BandoCommando (Member # 7746) on :
I must be stupid or something because, while I understand Pooka's reference to the Homecoming trilogy, I don't understand what Survivor is trying to say. Is this some reference that I don't get to another piece of literature? If so, please let me know what it is!
Posted by Steve_G (Member # 10101) on :
I'm lost as well.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
quote:Is this some reference that I don't get to another piece of literature?
My autobiography, I suppose.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 233) on :
"Decimus et Ultimus" is a reference to our own brave army of one, L and M are non-sons , and it probably doesn't matter much if nobody else got what I was talking about, since even I didn't care.
Posted by Shawshank (Member # 8453) on :
I guess that Star Trek: Voyager doesn't count as literature. That's the only reference I got- and that just came from the title.
Posted by Flaming Toad on a Stick (Member # 9302) on :
Alvin Maker is a seventh son...
Posted by Ecthalion (Member # 8825) on :
eh... i thought of seven of nine as well so... cant blame you there
Posted by vonk (Member # 9027) on :
Yeah, everytime I see this thread title I picture Seven of Nine, so I'm not complaining at all.
Holler!
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
The original post was about Seven of Nine on Voyager, and how it was amusing to me that I hadn't picked up on Ender's father being seventh of nine until this last reading. Then we got talking about the nine children in our family, except there's actually ten.
Though now that I'm thinking about it, when M was born, she would have been 7th of 9 total, while when D et U was born it made L 7th of 9 living (which the Alvin Maker series put more weight on). And, if you're not related to me, this paragraph won't make sense.
Posted by jeeshkid (Member # 9885) on :
Isn't the fact that John Paul is seventh of nine in the first story in the book of Enders Game short stories (the name is blanking), the one where he is three and refuses to go into space so they put him into school in the United States?
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Yeah, but my surpise came at it having been in Ender's Game all along and me not having noticed it. I read Ender's game in 1988 and a couple more times before Voyager introduced a character named 7 of 9 in 1997 or 8, and the Polish Boy came out circa 2000. I'm sure it's just a weird coincidence. So weird no one else finds it amusing, apparently.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
, and it probably doesn't matter much if nobody else got what I was talking about, since even I didn't care.