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Today's Uncle Orson on the Fly is my favorite to date.
A few thoughts: 1. I greatly appreciated OSC's point about the quality of Science Fiction readers. Though I've never visited France and am in no way qualified to comment on or discuss the quality of that nation's readers, I am constantly shocked by how many American SciFi fans try to avoid philosophy or history despite being, as OSC points out, above average in intelligence and education. Science Fiction is, in my humble opinion, an ideal genre to express deep philosphical themes and explore new ideas. Sadly, I sense that the genre has moved away from the deep end of the pool in recent years (particularly in film). 2. I must visit France in the near future if for no other reason than the food! 3. OSC briefly discussed how people still respond to Ender's Game more than any other novel. I love Ender's Game, but I do not consider it the best thing OSC has written. I much prefer his short stories, but if I had to pick a novel, I'd go with Speaker for the Dead. I'd be curious to see what other regular readers think is his best work. 4. I suspect part of the reason people respond so well to Ender's Game is because of when they read it. I love to ask people what their favorite books are, and the overwhelming majority of people I've asked name books they read in adolescence. I suspect fans of OSC tend to have read Ender's Game as a teenager and then his other books as an adult, and they nostalgically remember Ender's Game as part of their youth. I also suspect they love the book because it was their first introduction to OSC.
I'd love to hear everybody else's thoughts, especially on whether I'm out in left field with the fourth point.
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OSC's thoughts on national scifi and literary taste is fascinating - I would love to find out what the pulse is there, and if there are any good novels I could maybe read in translation. Sadly, I get all nervous about translation, since Jules Verne was hard for me for years because of crummy translations. And, obviously, I don't read French nearly well enough to appreciate the awesomness of a space battle or philosophical discussion in the language.
The food is amazing. The bread, of course, but also the soups.
I tend to prefer Ender's Shadow to Ender's Game, mostly because I relate to Bean a lot more naturally than I do to Ender. And I think they are equally powerful in climax and resolution. I don't know if I think any of his other books are as powerful as either of them, though I do love pushing Enchantment on all my friends. But there's something about the depth of the world and characters of the Ender series that draws me to it - plus there's very few charcters I'll ever love as much as Bean and Jane.
I actually read almost all of the Ender series in a two-three year period in my teens, and didn't really hit any of the other stuff till I went to college. I do think that Ender's Game has a lot of nostalgia value, but I also think it's the book that manages to hit the accessible and the strange sides of OSC's oeuvre hardest without seeming incoherent. I tend to not really get into the Alvin series, or Magic Street (though I really enjoyed the experiment). Empire and Hidden Empire felt a bit too tame. As I say, Enchantment comes really close to capturing the same balance, but it's very different, and definitely not a book I'd hand to kids like I would with Ender's Game.
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As if I didn't already want to go to France.
I don't think you're out in left field at all, staredecisis. I think that a lot of times the books we read as we are emerging adults are one of the things that shape who we become. We're still in learning mode, but we're also adults capable of living on our own, establishing our personal world view.
quote:I also think it's the book that manages to hit the accessible and the strange sides of OSC's oeuvre hardest without seeming incoherent.
That's a really interesting observation. Cool! I've never thought of it that way. It hits the nail on the head.
Card is right about conventions though. I have only been to one or two good panels. One on artificial intelligence sticks out in my mind. Another on evil in fiction which evolved into how we acquire knowledge.
But you know, look at the Hatrack community he started... I bet, if there were a Card centered con, you could get those kinds of discussions.
I've got Ender's Game, Seventh Son, and Speaker for the Dead all jumbled up in memory, so I'm not sure if I read Seventh Son or Ender's Game first. I think it was Seventh Son, and Ender's Game was the book to get me through waiting for Red Prophet. They were all in the house I lived in until I turned 16.
Speaker for the Dead and its sequels has always been my favorite of the EG story lines. The relationships and sacrifices are more personal. The religion of truth that Ender accidentally founds. Does Jane have a soul? What are souls? The hierarchy of foreignness. What does it mean to be "human"?
I love the Alvin Maker books. Maybe, if Card could just divorce Joseph Smith's end from Alvin's end, he could end the series? Or maybe, just skip the Crystal City which gets destroyed and take it into our present. What would knacks and makers look like now? We can learn about the Crystal City from the history of those books. Have you caught on that I would love more books in this universe?
I also love Enchantment. That's the one I can get some of my non-genre liking female friends to read - as well as Women of Genesis.
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