posted
In the Enders Game series, are some of the charicters names derived from real people?
I saw in the dictionary a little while ago a philosopher who had a name really close to; Mazer Rackham. But I forgot his name :/. But, according to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazer_Rackham his name is from some other guy.
what do you guys know? -drag0
Posts: 3 | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, Ender's father's name is John Paul, after John Paul II. The names of the Chinese in Xenocide are also of historical origin (well, Si Wang-mu is the name of a great goddess ). Han Fei-tzu was a philosopher who taught that you should obey your ruler no matter what (in short ), and Qing-jao is one of the most famous Chinese poets from the Tang dynasty (about IX, X century). She became famous thanks to her poems describing her pain after her husband's death (if I remember rightly). That's all I know. (Well, except Locke and Demosthenes, of course, but that's obvious. I must say every time that I notice some historical references in OSC's books it makes me want to know something more about it Posts: 218 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, Ender's father's name is John Paul, after John Paul II. The names of the Chinese in Xenocide are also of historical origin (well, Si Wang-mu is the name of a great goddess ). Han Fei-tzu was a philosopher who taught that you should obey your ruler no matter what (in short ), and Qing-jao is one of the most famous Chinese poets from the Tang dynasty (about IX, X century). She became famous thanks to her poems describing her pain after her husband's death (if I remember rightly). That's all I know. (Well, except Locke and Demosthenes, of course, but that's obvious. I must say every time that I notice some historical references in OSC's books it makes me want to know something more about it Posts: 218 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sorry, there was something wrong with my computer for a while (that's why you got twice as much of everything), I hope in future I'll be able to keep the smiles' level at bay.
quote:His name comes from Karl G. Maeser, who was the first superintendent of Brigham Young University.
That's from the wikipedia article. I read somewhere that Card grew up in Provo, Utah. This stuck in my mind because my friend moved there to attend BYU, where Card could have attended, given where he grew up.
Posts: 8 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
In the Shadow books, Major Uphanad is from India. In Hinduism, the Upanishads- are a mystical document found at the end of each of the Vedas(religious text)...
Posts: 31 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:His name comes from Karl G. Maeser, who was the first superintendent of Brigham Young University.
That's from the wikipedia article. I read somewhere that Card grew up in Provo, Utah. This stuck in my mind because my friend moved there to attend BYU, where Card could have attended, given where he grew up.
If you click on the "About OSC" thing at the top of the page, then click the "More About OSC" link at the bottom of the short bio, you'll see that OSC did, in fact, attend BYU. Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I took "Rackham" from Arthur Rackham, whose work I had only recently discovered. I took "Maesr" (original spelling in the short story) from the Maeser Building on the BYU campus, named for Karl G. Maeser.
I took "Wiggin" from a missionary companion I once had, who made fun of me after we were no longer companions - a sad thing for him to do, but he had a cool last name, so I used it.
"Ender" simply came from wanting to refer to the Endgame in chess. It was only much later, in writing the novel, that I felt a need to create a REAL first name for him, of which "Ender" would be just a childish corruption.
I knew a woman named Ann Graff at BYU in the theatre department; Hiram/Hyrum is both biblical and Mormon and I just felt like it.
I thought of "Hot Soup" first and then thought of the plausible Chinese syllables that would produce that nickname. Ironically, I later learned that Han Fei-Tzu was a great Chinese thinker, and used his name in Xenocide - having COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN that this was also the real name of Hot Soup. No plan, believe me.
In other words, these names have no "meaning" or referent in the real world that has signification in the world of the story. I was just coming up with names. This was, after all, one of my first stories, and I hadn't yet learned much about the importance of naming. I was stuck with those names, though, when the story turned out to be my most popular, and I expanded it to a novel.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
OSC, you really didn't mean for hot-soup and the later Han FeiTzu to be the same? Oh well, there goes another one of my consperacy theories about your writting..... not that I don't still have more. Posts: 1941 | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well... just because it wasn't the original plan, couldn't they still turn out to be related, at least? It makes sense that the original Hot Soup was named for the great thinker, was the original governor of the colony of Path, and has had several generations of his descendants named after him. What do you think?
Posts: 99 | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Time period doesnt match well. Han-Tsu (Hot soups) leaves earth around 2100 AD, path is founded in something like 4,900 AD
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Arthur Rackham? I always wondered, and doubted. Cool. His Lamb illustrations are my fave. There was also a pirate called Rackham and I always assumed this swashbuckle reference was the go. So happy to find it's a link to some of my clearest childhood images. Oh the Peter Pan illustrations too, just magic. Cool name whatever the case.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
I know it couldn't actually be him, since Han Fei-Tzu was presumably born on Path since he has the artificially introduced genetic changes that make him "godspoken," and presumably his generation was not the first. But couldn't he be a direct descendant of Hot Soup, having been named after him (and the ancient philosopher, who Hot Soup was presumably named after)?
Posts: 99 | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Another matter is that people of Path had "ancestors of heart" or however was it called, so their names are _consciously_ taken after important Chinese figures. If Han Fei-Tzu was named after the real Han AND he was the descendant of Hot Soup, and Hot Soup was named after him as well, then... well, that's a nice loop that we have here
But the problem with the Chinese names is also that they only have so many second names, and many many people are (and probably would be) surnamed Han, so the 'purposefulness' of names can only be applied to first names. And the 'Fei-tzu' doesn't even have to mean the same (different characters for the same sounds).
Mmmm, I think I'm just trying trying to say that Mateo's idea is imho slightly too subtle Although I personally like it very much.
Posts: 218 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Path couldn't have been the planet Han Tzu settled because it was only a couple-of-hundred-years-old colony at the time of CotM. Xenocide (pb) pg. 230 or thereabouts, I think.
Posts: 973 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by oolung: Well, Ender's father's name is John Paul, after John Paul II.
Not to mention that his mother is named Theresa. Mother... Theresa... Sure the spelling is slightly different, but I suspect it's not a coincidence.
Posts: 1569 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
The names of the Chinese in Xenocide are also of historical origin (well, Si Wang-mu is the name of a great goddess 
