posted
I was just rereading Ender's Shadow, and I read the part where Carlotta discovers that Bean is Nikolai's twin, only with Anton's key turned. It says:
"Of course any true sibling of Bean's would have exactly the abilities that would bring the attention of the I.F. Anton's key made the child into a savant in general...the allteration merely allowed him to bring a far sharper intelligence to bear on abilities he already had." (page 356 in my copy)
This made me wonder: Is this really true? (Basically the old nature/nurture argument) but my real question is:
What would Ender have been like with Anton's key? Would a vastly superior intellect have changed his personality? How would it have affected his interactions with Peter and Valentine? Would he be better or worse for the change?
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posted
It's a loaded question, Hank. Ender wasn't exactly a genetic accident either, considering that John Paul and Teresa were hand-picked and carefully selected to become the parents of a genius (see "First Meetings in Enderverse"). Would a superior intellect affect his interactions with siblings? At first I thought it would definitely have made things easier for him, but then I realized that Bean, despite his "vastly superior intellect" still had relationship issues with Achilles, Poke, other street kids, and majority of the Battle School.
I believe it is a generally accepted concept that Ender was better than Bean at relating to people, at understanding them, and consequently leading them. Would the change be for better or worse? It could have made him quicker and stronger, but I think it would have also robbed him of his ability to LOVE his enemy the way he did. That said, I'm not by any means saying that Bean was deprived of emotion or ability to love. For instance, the brilliant scene when Bean realizes that he's the only one who knows that real men are about to die during the last battle, and he acknowledges them and tells them of Absalom, shows the greatest traits of his character.
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Well, remember that Bean was raised on the streets. There may be some ambiguity about nature vs. nurture, but one thing is certain: starving alone in a mean city as a toddler is going to warp you.
Besides that, when it talkds about the "abilities" that Nicholai and Bean shared, they weren't really referring to their intelligence at all. They were talking about being competitive, loyal, analytic, good leaders, things like that.
However, since Bean and Ender grew up in completely different environments (remember, we're not just talking rich vs poor here, we're talking a two parent home and two siblings vs. alone and starving) it's impossible to tell exactly how much simply turning Ender's Anton's key would have done. Afterall, the ways that Bean differed from Nicholai seemed much more about trust than anything else.
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Nikolai thought of some things that Bean didn't. Though I guess the one about bureaucrats never throwing anything away was based on his "nurture" as you call it. It's hard to know if Anthon's key was just academic-type intelligence or if it could have included emotional development if Bean hadn't had such emotional trauma as a toddler. The idea of Anthon's key was that the brain could keep making connections. I suppose it comes down to how much of a person's character happens in their brain, as opposed to elsewhere in their being.
I actually think a fair amount happens in the gut, since it uses more of some Neurotransmitters than the brain. There is also a supersystem of nerves connecting the heart, brain, and vitals. You know, how those swamis in the Eastern lore can stop their hearts and metabolisms and such.
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It's exactly this gut-reaction thing that makes me wonder how Ender's relationship might have changed with Peter and Valentine.
Later in his life, Ender realizes that Peter isn't really the monster that he appeared to be when he was torturing his younger siblings. And in Children of the Mind, we realize that Valentine as Ender connected to her as a child is not the same 3 dimensional person as the real Valentine.
So if Ender had a vastly superior intellect, I think it would have allowed Ender to relate to Peter and Valentine as they actually were, instead of as the Villain and saint that his gut told him they were.
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Do you think so? I'm not so sure. That's one of the things I loved best about OSC's writing. Kids were still kids, even the geniuses. Noticing multi-emotional levels in people is a different development than intellectual development. If you notice, Bean isn't always particularly good at this either. He's taught an awful lot by Theresa Wiggin.
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I think alot of Ender's relationships with his siblings happened on an id level, but maybe it was more intelectual...hmm...
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well if thats a facinating thing to think about think about this...lets say Bean was never starved as a child. Some brain damage had to have occured in him. If he was brought up and nurtured as a well off child would he have been smarter? Would he have been the Ender or Peter Wiggin given the circumstances? And if so, how would that have effected Nicholai's stance in battle school? Would Bean be as rugged while being so tender if his enviroment wasn't set up for survivial to the fitest? Or what if he was raised by people who were desprate to hold him back? So many what ifs about Bean's gifts.
I'd say from personal expierence that rasing Savants isn't a science but an act of intricate nurture. I often wonder if circumstances were different would my son have been as smart as he is. So is being savant a born trait or something one aquires from circumstance.
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posted
It's an interesting question. I had always just assumed that whatever damage happened to Bean mentally or physically, he eventually "caught up" since, unlike most children, his rate of growth is steady. If you don't comprehend language until you're 16 years old, then you probably will be retarded in that area for the rest of your life. Bean, however, never "grew up" mentally. He is described as having the mental growth capacities of an infant for the rest of his life.
So the real damage was to his emotional abilites, I -thought- but how closely are our emotions tied to our mental processes? What's the relationship?
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I don't see how Bean's and Ender's developments were that different. You aren't supposed to.
Ender was not raised or loved by his parents the way a normal kid would be. They kept him at a distance and didn't connect with him. In that case, he turned to Valentine for love. His great nemesis, of course, being Peter.
Bean, too, had a limited experience of being loved and raised by the janitor who found him, but he, too, found somebody to love and protect him - Poke. Later, his nemesis was filled by the position of Achilles.
The difference between Bean and Ender is not Bean and Ender, but there childhood enemy.
The situations are slightly different, but the effect is the same.
Bean was able to make up his education loss's quickly because of his hyper-intellect. Any damage he might have experienced on the street would be fixed by his brains continued growth. Keep in mind that Ender didn't have a rosy childhood, either. Every day he came home from school to threats of murder from his brother.
The difference is Bean was small and resented by his larger peers. He was also cocky because he was so sure of his intelligence.
Ender, on the other hand, was patient and didn't flaunt his intelligence (as much.)
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For the most part, I agree, Tommy, but what do you mean by "flaunt"? When did Bean Flaunt his intelligence on the streets?
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