Here is a quote from the Wikipedia entry on Ender Wiggin. This refers to Ender finding the larval Formic Queen on the planet on which he was the leader, but it made me think back to earlier in the series.
"Through rudimentary telepathic communication with the Queen, he learned what he had begun to suspect before the war's end: that the entire conflict had been a mistake, the result of lack of communication between the two warring species."
So, looking back earlier in the first book, while Ender is concentrating on, is obsessed with, the Buggers, studying their every move, I find myself wondering if they weren't in touch with his mind to some degree. I wonder if there weren't a limited telepathic link between Ender and the buggers that allowed him to understand them in ways that others could not.
Now, if I remember correctly, the Formics went looking for some link to Ender, but the only entity that they found that they thought they had some similarities with or ability to communicate with was 'Jane', though at that time she/it had not evolved into Jane just yet.
It seems most of there influence on Ender was through the 'Mind Game', though exactly what they were trying to communicate to him, I'm not sure. Though perhaps it was more about observation than communication.
Still, near the end, Ender seems to have a stronger intuitive sense about who the buggers are and how they will act and react, and he seems to apply that knowledge to his battles.
So, the basic question is, do you think the Formic has made some, probably, limited primitive contact directly to Ender's mind during those last stages of the conflict?
Just curious.
Steve/bluewizard
Posted by Xann. (Member # 11482) on :
I had always took his obsession of the buggers as a resilt from thier trying to contact them, also his intense nightmares.
Because he seemed to be having mental problems that were...outsidely intensified (no idea how to put it) by something. Late i learned that it was the buggers.
Posted by JLGpepe (Member # 9680) on :
Yes it's explained in one of the speaker sequels. jane is actuallu "auia" that was pulled in from the "outside". She was the Philotic connection between the queens and Ender. That is why he had the dreams. They originally found him through the computer game they played in battle school. which s how they knew to make the structures on the planet to lead ender to the cocoon. that connection was then left in the mind game and later evolved into jane
Posted by BlueWizard (Member # 9389) on :
The reason I ask this question is that whatever connection is there directly between Ender and the Formic is very subtle in the first book. And as a side note: I have read the entire series several times.
In the first book, we later find that the Formic call forth an 'auia', as you explain, and that gives life to Jane. But, the Formic are connected to Jane (the Mind Game) and the Mind Game (Jane) is connected to Ender.
But Ender has such deep insight into the Formics, I can't help but wonder if there is a very subtle and limited direct Formic-Ender connection. Neither party realizing the connection or how to use it because they are so vastly different.
While I feel intuitively that the direct connection is there at this early time, there just doesn't seem to be enough in the books to confirm it.
Certainly, later when Ender connects with the Formic Egg, they have a very real connection, and later when more Formics are born, the connection is very strong. Still, as I have already said, at this very early stage in the original "Ender's Game', I believe the connection is there and is influencing things, but that the connection is so poorly realized and so poorly understood that neither party can access it directly. The result is nothing more than an intuitive sense of each other, but with limited understanding and access.
Just a few thoughts.
Steve/bluewizard
Posted by la.SOMA (Member # 10608) on :
i agree, steve. communication was strongly limited, though. mostly because there wasnt any. ender couldnt conceive of their form of communication nor could the hive queen find a way to communicate with him until jane was brought into existence. if i remember correctly, doesn't the hive queen eventually describe ender "reaching" out toward her?
where ender's attempts to communicate with her can be considered "reaching" (with philotic connection?) then the hive queens attempt to communicate could be conceived as a feeling to ender - may it be sorrow, nightmares, or just a gut instinct about an attempt to communicate.
i could only really conclude that any influence that existed was very slight but SOMETHING was there.
Posted by Steve_G (Member # 10101) on :
The idea of Ender reaching out to the Hive Queen is very interesting. Like its something humans don't know how to do, but their auia's can at a sublevel even below subconscience. The bugger's can do it, but can't explain how, they simply do it. Within the endervese, human intuition could be explained as this auia reaching out to auia, though in most cases its a human reaching out to a human. (or for the LDS among us, spirit communicating with spirit.)
Taking this one step further, could Bean's sensitivity to his and other auias be so intense (though he doesn't know it) that he can detect betrayel by those around him so intensely that he knows to act even before his senses are able to detect trouble? This would act as a sort of subsense, that intuition that you know something is afoot, even when your 5 senses are telling you is that everything is normal.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
the way I see it, the way that Ender reached out was by investing himself entirely in understanding the Formics. By immersing himself in their behavior, he may have arranged his consciousness in a way that echoed patterns in the Formics' communication. The concepts, as developed in later books, of the auia and philotic connections do suggest that humans would have latent access to the medium of mental-philotic communication, but their equipment isn't tuned correctly. Perhaps signals are going out, but not consciously. Ender might have unconciously tuned his mind to Formic frequencies and the Hive Queen picked up the signal.
Posted by Steve_G (Member # 10101) on :
Scifibum, that's an excellent way of putting it. It parallels my thinking, but put much more elegantly.
Posted by la.SOMA (Member # 10608) on :
i've been thinkign about this a bit more and i feel like all of this unaware "reaching" just added a heavy connotation to ender's outlook on what he was being trained to do.
i think the better question might be if the events would have unfolded the same had ender not "reached" to begin with.