Number one would have to be politics. I find I am almost directly opposite on most issues, even though I relate very strongly to many of his characters and story lines and find them nearly perfectly written to my taste (lol-even Ender's vile wife.)
I have noticed many real life political representations are present in some of my best loved books, though. There is autocracy and theocracy (rarely good things in real life), there are shades of aristocracy and militarism (we the elite and we the military know what is good for people, where they, the poor sots, know not..), and there is secrecy and suppression of information for the good of the people, etc.
I also read in a sort of elevation of irrationality - characters who are resistant to self-reflection (or learning) because of emotional damage seem to be put in an exempt and elevated category; as if one should tolerate hideous behaviors (not the actual person) in honor of the emotional handicap, and make others (support people) responsible for the actions of the "actors-out". It seems that if you have a good excuse and can rationalize your personalization of events and paranoia's, you get to wallow in your pain and throw it on everyone else and be honored for it. Very true to life, but kind of funny how the most balanced characters promote protecting the illness, not the person with the illness.
There also seems to be two themes regarding emotion at play, one for males and one for females. Males seem to come to grips and learn from errors and tragedy, where females more frequently remain victims for life and become resistent to sense. The characters who do not represent affliction seem evenly written (any characteristics can be applied to any gender), just seems to me to be regarding damage.
These are only passive observations, and completely opinions without merit or a fact base. Fiction is art for me, and OSC's is the top of my list for the wonderful conflicts and realisms (as above) he puts in. I fear we should not sip tea together at a political gathering, however.
Posts: 49 | Registered: Apr 2006
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