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I chose Ender's Game for my book club to read this month. We're a relatively eclectic group, though most of the others have read little science fiction. This, I thought, would be a good place for those not used to reading science fiction to start. We'll find out on Saturday if I was right.
I've got a few ideas for discussion questions, but I was hoping the community here could give me a few more. If you were hosting a discussion of Ender's Game, especially including people who are not typical science fiction readers, what would you talk about? What questions would you ask?
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Well, it's been many moons since last I read Ender's Game, and I don't know if these question ideas of mine will be good or not (you should post what ideas you already have, but here goes):
If Ender's Game was made into a movie, who would you cast as characters and why (Orson Scott Card actually has suggested this as a good essay question for books before)?
Do you think Peter is being genuine when he apologizes with Ender at the beginning and tell hims he knows what it's like?
Was it truly necessary for the military leaders to push Ender as far as they did?
Do you think alien attacks really would unite the entire human race?
How effective do you think the story would be if it didn't involve such young children as the protagonists?
Do you agree with the military leaders' decision to wipe out the other alien race when they didn't know for sure if they'd attack again?
I don't know; just some ideas.
Posts: 132 | Registered: Feb 2009
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In the Research Area of Hatrack, under the Teachers section on the right there is a link to a list of discussion questions prepared by the publisher. They might be helpful.
Posts: 780 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I would talk about how EG adheres to the motif of the Hero's Journey, popularized by Joseph Campbell; how each of the steps is manifested in the narrative; or even if all the steps are manifested. Since you say they are not typical science fiction readers, perhaps this is something that might allow an appreciation for it as literature, if the reader is likely to view SF with some literary scorn.
Posts: 1080 | Registered: Apr 2006
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Thanks, everyone! Those are some great ideas -- and the study guide had lots of very well-thought out questions. Most of the things I'd been considering, in fact.
I was largely going to talk about xenocide, whether it was ever justified, the role of children in the story and in the world, the idea of the sentient alien race too different from our own to get along with, birth restrictions, etc. I was also going to talk about the literary vs. genre novel, if I have time. With this list of questions, I'm feeling more confident that I won't have trouble filling time.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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Well, I did get a sneak peak today from one of the girls who said briefly that she liked it a lot and would go into detail tomorrow.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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I finally got my mom to read Ender's Game after about a decade of recommending it. Actually, I got my sister to read it first, and then when my mom had two children telling her to read it, she did.
I'm not sure either of them had ever read sci-fi, but they both told me they really enjoyed it without giving me much detail.
Posts: 11 | Registered: Jun 2009
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Well, my non sci-fi book clubers liked it a lot! One of the questions I brought up was why they thought it appealed to both sci-fi and non sci-fi readers and they said it was just a good story with a character they really cared about, which is what I figured they would say. I told them that I think sci-fi gets a bad rep because people think of hard core, impersonal stuff, or else Star Trek. I told them that good sci-fi is some of the best literature out there, but that they couldn't just start browsing the shelves at the library at random because they'd run into a lot of bad stuff.
Which reminded me that I still have a lot of good sci-fi to sift out of the bad. Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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