tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post3286887006831253052..comments2023-11-05T04:09:53.857-05:00Comments on Something Short and Snappy: Ender's Shadow, chapters twenty-one and twenty-two, in which Bean is not the smartest personErika The Over Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649072707709302370noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-76351887709615590012014-10-07T09:23:28.290-04:002014-10-07T09:23:28.290-04:00But that wouldn't put the full burden of genoc...But that wouldn't put the full burden of genocide on Mary-Sue Ender's shoulders alone. As I've observed before, Ender's Game is all about getting the bestest human being ever Ender Wiggins to commit an innocent genocide, and Card didn't let any amount of absurdity, illogical, or inconsistency get in his way.GeniusLemurnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-15520687213962988162014-10-07T05:39:30.249-04:002014-10-07T05:39:30.249-04:00I still don't know why they have a single drea...I still don't know why they <i>have</i> a single dream team. If Bean and Ender are both crazy awesome, why don't they <i>both</i> command part of the invasion fleet?<br /><br />Shit, why not train up a couple thousand brilliant kids and give them each a few ships to play with, or rotate them between battles so the enemy can never anticipate their tactics? This whole "find the one smartest commander in the world and make everyone else slavishly obey him" deal is stupid; the Formics are already better at fighting that way than humanity could ever be. We, on the other hand, have several billion <i>independent</i> minds to draw on; you'd think they'd make use of that.<br /><br />I mean, Mazer Rackham was just a random pilot who happened to come up with a really good tactic. You'd think the moral would be that even ordinary people can have brilliant ideas sometimes. Instead, they seem to have decided that Rackham was King Smart, the only person who could ever have figured out how to beat the Formics, and the next commander has to think <i>exactly like him</i> only better. Silliness.Anton_Matesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-35837373576974705082014-10-06T20:12:09.284-04:002014-10-06T20:12:09.284-04:00I agree that this world doesn't feel very terr...I agree that this world doesn't feel very terrified.<br /><br /><br />On the other hand, the political maneuvering is one of the most believable parts of this book to me. Likely because I am fairly pessimistic and cynical when it comes to politicians ( I live in Chicago, which may have something to do with that). I look at some of the things going on politically during WWII, when a lot of people did have a strong fear of destruction. It didn't stop some from doing everything they could to maintain and improve their own position. <br /><br /> Also, the level of denial leading up to that war and the early parts of that war about what was going on in Germany are decent examples of why I can believe Card's characterization of his politicians, at least everyone but the Chinese. The horrible stuff really did happen mostly to the Chinese at least in terms of loss of population, destruction of property, etc.: for everyone else, it happened mostly to the Chinese (who I believe Card certainly sees a a foreign other with everything that comes with that type of world view). Human beings are amazingly capable of believing the horrible bad stuff isn't really happening and if it is, it won't really happen to me. <br /><br /> It would be a lot easier to plan out how to use grade school children in a war to rule the world if you don't really believe the bad will happen and if it does, let's not have any regrets about not becoming the supreme ruler of Earth while we could.Kaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-4958175253855955952014-10-06T17:25:59.367-04:002014-10-06T17:25:59.367-04:00A lot of Bean's super-duper-intelligence comes...A lot of Bean's super-duper-intelligence comes from having read ahead in<br /> <i>Ender's Game</i>. Stuff that came as a surprise to the <br />first-time reader of EG, Bean figures out effortlessly in ES. From what <br />little I remember of the later Shadow books, Bean gets fooled on several<br /> occasions when a genre-savvy (or at least halfway-intelligent) person wouldn't.<br /><br />For a good example of how to write about beings that are incredibly more intelligent than humans, I recommend Peter Watts's <i>Echopraxia<i>. One of the (regular human) characters compares it to chimps considering humans: "If those hairless guys are so smart, how come they aren't flinging ten times the dung that we are?"</i></i>JReynoldsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-34085793739204213952014-10-06T15:27:23.356-04:002014-10-06T15:27:23.356-04:00Right:
1. "Competence in the abstract is of...Right:<br /><br />1. "Competence in the abstract is of the utmost importance, so competence! competence!! compentence!!! Win win win!!!! You must demonstrate to us that you've got a better head for strategy than the next person and that you're unfettered by human considerations, or we'll send you floating home slowly like a piece of freeze-dried fruit. (The airlock is a wonderful invention: we call it our 'vacuum cleaner.' Hee hee hee!!)"<br /><br />2. "But personal relationships rule, don't they? Especially personal relationships with wonder boys. So the way you'll know that the crap's really about to come down is when we throw the meritocratic crap out the window (or we would if we had one) and just pick the kids our favorite sons like best. Hey, it's easier that way!! It's just like being left out of the basketball games our nerd platoons would have been left out of if only they'd gone to school. Hey, what do you want from us!! The tried and true favoritisms are the best!! <i>You</i> try to win a war against a bunch of giant ants!!"bekabotnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-29797044507737596882014-10-06T10:49:51.499-04:002014-10-06T10:49:51.499-04:00"How the hell should I know? Well... Bean, h..."How the hell should I know? Well... Bean, him for sure. And the <br />nine others that you think would work best with either Bean or Ender in <br />command, whichever one it turns out to be."<br />So after "we carefully track every single candidate in the world" and all the battle school screening and careful psychological manipulation and all the rest, this is how they put together their dream team? What the hell? Was that Card admitting, "the others aren't Mary Sue Ender or Almost Mary-Sue Bean, so they don't matter, or at least I don't give a shit about them."GeniusLemurnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-71100027340642132442014-10-05T23:43:40.046-04:002014-10-05T23:43:40.046-04:00or before, if they thought it was to their advanta...<i>or before, if they thought it was to their advantage</i><br /><br />Yay! We can be the supreme rulers of Earth right up until the Formic extermination fleet gets here and destroys us all! *happy dance*<br /><br />Yes, I realize that real world leaders can and do act like that, but I'm going to facepalm over it anyway. I suppose its that all of the political power playing the various governments of Earth are doing make me think that no one actually believes the Formics are a threat. The presentation is just wrong for a world supposedly terrified of destruction at the hands of a mysterious enemy. It felt off in Ender's Game and it feels even more off here.<br /><br /><i>He is also the one to call for the Battle/Tactical/Command School kids to be sent home immediately after victory, so they won't be captured by the Russians "or kept in ineffectual isolation by the I.F."</i><br /><br />What part of what the kids have learned would be of use in an Earth war? I know we've skipped most of their training, but I fail to see what good space laser tag skills or even space fleet strategies are going to be if it's a single planet war. And what would this war be fought with, exactly? There's a No You Don't shield against missiles, right? Are the various governments limited to land and sea warfare? Because I'm pretty sure the strategies there are not going to be very compatible with space war strategies.<br /><br /><i>they don't have enough respect for her to believe she didn't just screw up.</i><br /><br />So...is this a retcon that it's Bean's fault that Petra is the only one to fail in the final battle? Because he destroyed her confidence before it?<br /><br /><i>Bean insists that if he knows anything, it's obviously not affecting his performance. Graff laughs, turns off the recorder, and tells Bean</i><br /><br /><br /><br />Graff really is a supervillain. Right down to the overwhelming need to blab everything.<br /><br /><br />Is ANY reason given for his sudden decision to infodump? And why in any universe would "Well, if I know anything, it's not affecting my performance." be an acceptable answer to "Where are you getting your secret information and do you know The Terrible Truth?"<br /><br /><br />Urgh. I'm going to start saying bad fanfic reads like Card.depizannoreply@blogger.com