tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post6522135861006395780..comments2023-11-05T04:09:53.857-05:00Comments on Something Short and Snappy: Ender's Shadow, chapter two, in which Bean is a singing muppetErika The Over Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649072707709302370noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-26874858423907471912014-08-29T21:50:09.275-04:002014-08-29T21:50:09.275-04:00Of course, if I recall correctly (it's been a ...Of course, if I recall correctly (it's been a while since I read Shadow), there's literally nothing Ender actually does in the actual war that Bean could not also have done. His vaunted empathy leads him to sacrifice all of his men in order to blow up a planet, because he loves buggers. (Phrasing!)Drew Humberdnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-46941339271881195722014-08-29T21:46:47.369-04:002014-08-29T21:46:47.369-04:00Uh, this is Card. Poke is definitely "too com...Uh, this is Card. Poke is definitely "too compassionate" for Battle School, in that she is literally just a Valentine analog who serves to contrast the "Ender" of Bean and the "Peter" of Achilles. OSC has about three characters in his head.Drew Humberdnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-82295566196384350582014-08-17T01:51:51.058-04:002014-08-17T01:51:51.058-04:00I have a vague memory of Card explaining, somewhat...I have a vague memory of Card explaining, somewhat apologetically, that his future Rotterdam bears no resemblance to real present-day Rotterdam.cinderkeysnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-17451945212829623652014-08-12T18:06:12.994-04:002014-08-12T18:06:12.994-04:00To be sure, Bean is meant to be even more strategi...To be sure, Bean is meant to be even more strategic than Ender but lack empathy, thus helping to show how important empathy is for the perfect general. But Bean's character growth is also supposed to directly address that, as he slowly learns how to people and understands that he does in fact have feelings, despite his reluctance. He keeps thinking about Poke over the course of the next decade and a half, even once he's married and he's grappling with a level of empathy and emotionally-driven responses that he could never have imagined before, and Poke never gets any deeper consideration. If this were setting Bean up as foolish now in order to make for a better payoff later, I would agree with you, but I don't think that Poke gets to be part of that growth.Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-58584164544994447232014-08-12T16:45:11.644-04:002014-08-12T16:45:11.644-04:00"This is the only time he considers this; for..."This is the only time he considers this; forevermore he will think of poor sweet stupid Poke who was kind instead of smart."<br /><br />My sense reading this book was that it was written because OSC decided that it was a mistake for Ender to not be smart enough to see that the Third fleet was en route already. OSC couldn't change that, so he made a new protagonist who would be that ominscent. But he couldn't allow Bean to be better than Ender, and Ender's genius was always tied to his supposed empathy, so voila: make Bean super-strategic, but emotionally stunted and blind.<br /><br />So it seems to me that you are writing as if it is the author's mistake to have Bean not understand what Poke is doing and why, but I think that might be deliberate.swbarnes2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-12521107301686361102014-08-12T10:43:27.266-04:002014-08-12T10:43:27.266-04:00Not sure if this is spelled out anywhere in the bo...Not sure if this is spelled out anywhere in the books or if it's my fix canon but I had always thought the reason there were specifically so many orphan children on the streets of Rotterdam had to do with the population control rules. Families are punished for having more than two children and I have trouble believing that any government written by Card could be all that good at providing comprehensive reproductive healthcare to its less wealthy citizens. Ergo, the one place that can't turn them away fills up with homeless children. <br /><br /><br />"Are you telling me that in a world where people are only allowed to one child per adult, there isn't a thriving foster care and adoption system so people who want one can have a bigger family?"<br />This only works if you assume that every unwanted child corresponds to a childless adult. That's unlikely to be the case and is probably often unverifiable anyway. If population control is the goal, allowing people to adopt over the limit seems like a bad idea.Number 27noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-67903951085886048152014-08-12T08:10:59.721-04:002014-08-12T08:10:59.721-04:00Really good point about the one child thing. It&#...Really good point about the one child thing. It's as if Card conveniently forgot all about the "world building" in his other books because he wanted to set Bean up properly in this book.Noranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-31049825755744292712014-08-11T23:12:15.511-04:002014-08-11T23:12:15.511-04:00They're in the International Territory (former...They're in the International Territory (formerly The Netherlands), which we don't hear much about except that it's the world's refugee haven--they're literally not allowed to turn you away. But yeah, the idea of child-only kitchens confuses me as well. (Helga's kitchen is explicitly run off local donations, not government funding, which raises further questions.)Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-32449502628088995052014-08-11T22:39:16.804-04:002014-08-11T22:39:16.804-04:00I wish I knew more about charitable organizations ...I wish I knew more about charitable organizations in 3rd world countries because they might be radically different from what I've experienced working in shelters in Chicago (they don't regularly serve very young, unaccompanied minor children off the street, they call DCFS). <br /><br /><br />Plus, aren't they in Belgium? Last I checked, Belgium is a 1st world country bearing fairly little resemblance to the slums of Brasil. Why didn't Card set this in a 3rd world nation? This doesn't make any sense set in western Europe. Are you telling me that in a world where people are only allowed to one child per adult, there isn't a thriving foster care and adoption system so people who want one can have a bigger family?Kaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-43855100227619510662014-08-11T21:12:57.224-04:002014-08-11T21:12:57.224-04:00Card certainly seems to have a thing for creating ...Card certainly seems to have a thing for creating competent female characters and then promptly putting them in the fridge or otherwise keeping them out of the narrative. It seems worse than leaving then off entirely, because we now know he can, but chooses not to, rather than just being unable to do it at all.Silver Adeptnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-31157294006140593792014-08-11T20:05:45.360-04:002014-08-11T20:05:45.360-04:00I feel that an important goal for you, as a blogge...I feel that an important goal for you, as a blogger, is to increase the number of posts in the muppets tag.<br /><br />I hated this book so much. It was partly because I was stupid and still liked Ender's Game. Smart kid revenge fantasies full of problems that didn't effect me/were the unnoticed background radiation of my life, were right up my alley.<br /><br />I still think it seems like gross cashing in to publish a retelling of a book you already wrote and make that book look significantly less awesome, by making an even more ridiculously genius pov character who makes your original ridiculously genius pov character look like a potato. Maybe more so if they are both clearly potatoes for any reader critical enough to not take the narration at its word (not me).<br /><br />Card only ever had one good idea. But laser tag in space is pretty awesome, you can coast on that for quite a long time I guess.Tanzenlichtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-58496234128098173302014-08-11T11:03:45.107-04:002014-08-11T11:03:45.107-04:00"She knew, without knowing how, that it was n..."She knew, without knowing how, that it was not Achilles at all, that <br />it was this little one that God had brought her here to find."<br />Guess Card thought the "chosen one" shit with Ender was too subtle.GeniusLemurnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-89580688427921033222014-08-11T03:17:08.885-04:002014-08-11T03:17:08.885-04:00Recap looks right to me.
FWIW, the other way in w...Recap looks right to me.<br /><br />FWIW, the other way in which I think Card was modeling this off Brazil is that *all* of his homeless people are children. But the reason there are so many homeless street children in Brazilian cities is because of the extreme income inequalities in Brazil - a tiny proportion living in huge wealth, middle classes struggling desperately to stay out of the slums, and huge numbers living in extreme poverty and deprivation. It's as if Card wanted to have Bean experience the worst situation for a child that Card himself had ever perceived, without having to deal with any of the social issues that come with poverty and wealth. <br /><br />Poke gets killed in part because Card wanted to be clear that Achilles is *evil*. After all, for Achilles to kill another bully in the queue outside the soup kitchen in order to accomplish a desired goal, is pretty much like Ender's killing Stilson. But Ender isn't Evil, he is Good, right? <br /><br />Another thing which I hadn't noticed til this recap: Poke "just happens" to pick Bean for her crew because she's impressed by his idea of getting a bully protector. Poke "just happens" to pick Achilles as their bully-protector.. Both her picks end up in Battle School (spoiler!) giving her a track record proportionally better than Sister Carlota's. What if Poke had survived and Sister Carlota had been interested in *her*?EdinburghEyenoreply@blogger.com