As we all remember that in Enders Game, the Wiggins Family moved to Greensboro, and that Valentine was worried that Ender might not know where to find them when he came home. But this has been bothering me for a couple years, right before Bean first meets Theresa Wiggins (in Shadow of the Hegemon I believe), he takes a bus ride around Greensboro and talks to himself about how Ender grew up there. My problem is that in Enders Shadow, Bean had free access to almost any file he wanted and he was obsessed with Ender, so therein, how is it that Bean was mistaken on where Ender Grew up when he had to have read the report on Ender killing his bully in elementary school?
Posted by BlueWizard (Member # 9389) on :
Indeed Bean did have access to Ender's files, but those files probably reported that Ender's Families current residence was in Greensboro. So, in a way, this was Ender's childhood home even if it wasn't.
Remember the file was about Ender has his performance and evaluations at Battle School. They weren't that interested in Ender's home history. So, they had the basic outline of the rest of Ender's family, but probably not a lot of details. Though current address would certainly be there.
Also, in the moment Bean was a little up set and distracted. His first meeting with Peter hadn't gone as well has he had hoped, so I can forgive him the merging of history in his thoughts. In any case, I think partly he was talking himself in to going to Ender's house, even though Ender had never lived there. Unless I'm mistaken when Ender's Mother comes out of the house to talk to Bean, she actually mentions that Ender never lived there, so that is not really a detail that Card forgot.
So, overal, I think we are seeing a situation where Bean has merged a lot of general history that leads him to fulfilling a subconscious plan that his conscious mind hasn't quite caught up with yet. If that makes sense.
Steve/BlueWizard
Posted by JonHecht (Member # 9712) on :
That is a very interesting observation, BlueWizard, but I think I have a better explanation. It was an error on the part of OSC and he has corrected it in an errata.
I can never end a sentence with a preposition!
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Huh. I never knew those errata's existed. Now I need to print them out and put them in my books...
Posted by Luet13 (Member # 9274) on :
Thanks for the link Jon. That's something that's bugged me everytime I've reread those books.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Turns out my copy of Hegemon already had the changes (probably because I have a paperback version -- still trying to get that one in original hardback).
Posted by AJFleckenstein (Member # 10912) on :
Thank you Jon! that mix-up has litterally been annoying me for years.