tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post8510387516296779508..comments2023-11-05T04:09:53.857-05:00Comments on Something Short and Snappy: Speaker for the Dead, chapter seventeen, part one, in which Ender is more equal than everyoneErika The Over Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649072707709302370noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-88237129658378683282014-06-14T21:01:55.305-04:002014-06-14T21:01:55.305-04:00a hundred times the responsibility of Peter the He...a hundred times the responsibility of Peter the Hegemon and about a tenth of his power<br />So can we take it that there really are only about a hundred inhabited worlds?Steve Morrisonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-83708507875614242032014-06-14T11:25:34.526-04:002014-06-14T11:25:34.526-04:00Word getting out might have been referring to juni...Word getting out might have been referring to junior officers, who might have Opinions about the use of a planet-killer in this way. Dissention in the ranks would not be something to encourage or tolerate. In any case, there still seems to be an awful lot of power vested in the chair.Silver Adeptnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-37721747564805637162014-06-13T19:11:31.732-04:002014-06-13T19:11:31.732-04:00that the democratic process is, at best, for show....that the democratic process is, at best, for show.<br /><br />You would think, but the chairman is currently losing her shit over "how word got out," so apparently there is still some sort of Public whose Opinion is Relevant to her. Maybe she's worried that the hevolts will revolt and her space-chamber pot will go unemptied, I dunno.<br /><br />I imagine all the authority figures in this universe engaged in a hushed, horrified colloquy over how they can possibly reveal to the resentful masses that the supreme being is <i>Orson Scott Card</i>. It's not their fault! They didn't choose to be written by him! They're trying to go meta but there's just no scrap of characterization to work with here!<br /><br />That's the sort of cosmic revelation that would make Lovecraft start crying for his aunts.Anton_Matesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-40128496467900693412014-06-13T16:20:50.494-04:002014-06-13T16:20:50.494-04:00UghUghchromesthesianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-72514609437613940772014-06-11T17:48:41.430-04:002014-06-11T17:48:41.430-04:00"We'll trepan anything, no questions aske..."We'll trepan <i>anything</i>, no questions asked"Anton_Matesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-34426304943059837832014-06-11T16:50:56.241-04:002014-06-11T16:50:56.241-04:00That explains rather a lot.That explains rather a lot.depizannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-54524240029858026972014-06-11T16:04:38.864-04:002014-06-11T16:04:38.864-04:00Presumably he was also taught by one or both of hi...Presumably he was also taught by one or both of his parents, original colonists and members of good standing in the Guild of Bevellers and Neurosurgeons.Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-64299529849165800102014-06-11T15:51:49.870-04:002014-06-11T15:51:49.870-04:00I don't know if Card realized this, but since ...I don't know if Card realized this, but since the doctor's a native-born Lusitanian, it's pretty much impossible for him to have <i>gone</i> to medical school. At best, he took some kind of online correspondence course--probably didn't even involve realtime video chat with the instructor, given the inexplicable expense of ansible communication.<br /><br />So what the doctor <i>means</i> is "Spinal injuries and electrocution weren't mentioned on that one webpage I had to read, before printing out my degree from the DeVry School of Future Medicine, Chiropractic and Bonsai Gardening."Anton_Matesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-32359694597651633822014-06-11T08:38:45.497-04:002014-06-11T08:38:45.497-04:00It follows that if the humans had established thei...It follows that if the humans had established their colony on the coast,<br /> or on a natural or artificial island, then they'd have a much greater <br />diversity of native life forms to exploit, and they'd be less likely to run into the Little Ones while doing so.<br /><br />Hey, maybe that's why the scout ship didn't detect the Little Ones--they were the only vaguely sensible people in this universe and stuck around the coastlines, especially after they realized that's where all the life was.lexicologynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-51116491817585320292014-06-10T22:35:38.344-04:002014-06-10T22:35:38.344-04:00only a handful of species out of a whole planet di...only a handful of species out of a whole planet did survive<br /><br />On land. Apparently lots more aquatic critters survived. Because...Descolada can't cross running water? It's made of tiny vampires? Mad science, I dunno.<br /><br />(It follows that if the humans had established their colony on the coast, or on a natural or artificial island, then they'd have a much greater diversity of native life forms to exploit, <i>and</i> they'd be less likely to run into the Little Ones while doing so. Why didn't they? I dunno.)Anton_Matesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-28301752862239199552014-06-10T22:26:26.723-04:002014-06-10T22:26:26.723-04:00The part for Ouanda "it also made her more vu...The part for Ouanda "it also made her more vulnerable to the discovery of cruel, bestial behaviours among her friends," that's from Ender's perspective, right? So all he really knows is that she is upset. I will choose to believe that she is upset because the "cruel, bestial behavious among her friends" is that Ender thinks non-reproducing women are worthless. She is faced with the unavoidable truth that this person with a great deal of power is very clearly not going to support women in any way that does not directly benefit him. I can see how that would be upsetting.boutetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-87754918768060756772014-06-10T17:46:20.415-04:002014-06-10T17:46:20.415-04:00Man, can you imagine how confused the Lusitanian w...<i>Man, can you imagine how confused the Lusitanian wildlife must have been after the Descolada scrambled their reproductive patterns?</i><br /><br /><br /><br />This seems like a major problem with the Descolada. It's movie mad science, only it's a virus. The more one tries to figure out <i>how</i> the species of Lusitania work, the more it just all seems somewhere between staggeringly unlikely and impossible that anything survived. (Granted, only a handful of species out of a whole planet did survive, so maybe that's about right. But the how of their survival still makes my brain hurt.)depizannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-41027732953815836342014-06-10T14:39:42.006-04:002014-06-10T14:39:42.006-04:00That'd make some kinda adaptive sense...if not...<i>That'd make some kinda adaptive sense...if not for the fact that the males are bipedal and have hands. The mothers don't need to hang precariously from their nipples. The males can just carry them wherever they need to go, far more safely. Evolutionary theory is weeping into its drink at the end of the bar at this point.</i><br /><br /><br />I'm trying desperately-but-reluctantly to imagine how Little Ones reproduced pre-Descolada. I was going to say that maybe the EZ-Grip Nipples were an evolutionary advantage back when there were predators on Lusitania, and the males would need their hands free to climb between trees to transport the mothers, except that they wouldn't have been carrying them to trees back then because the trees were a separate species. If they didn't have trees to pollinate them, they must have fertilised females in some other way, but none of them have genitalia now, and if they had it before, why in the world would the females <i>lose their birth canal</i> in response to merging with trees? So pre-Descolada maybe the mothers clung to the nipples and that was how they picked up 'pollen' from the males, and it was a prolonged process so it was best if the males had their hands free? (But then we have to address why the males lost their ability to fertilise mothers before growing into trees, which also sounds like an evolutionary loss.) All of this seems to point to the idea that the Little Ones always have had some kind of 'third life' stage in which males reached sexual maturity, and the only difference that Descolada introduced was that they became trees instead of meat.<br /><br /><br />What a gong show this is.<br /><br /><i>Heck, forget weapons; if the Park shift accelerates objects to near-lightspeed and grants them the appropriate kinetic energy and momentum, you don't need the plural. A single Park-shifted hamster could kill a world.</i><br /><br />I don't think it's quite that bad; by my math, 100g travelling near lightspeed would be about 4.4 petajoules, which is still a couple orders of magnitude below Tsar Bomba.Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-80534072986367690212014-06-10T14:16:12.699-04:002014-06-10T14:16:12.699-04:00I love basically everything about this comment, an...I love basically everything about this comment, and have little to add.<br /><br /><i>Or is Card also arguing for the uselessness of any impotent man?</i><br /><br /><br /><br />Not quite--for humans, he allows the possibility that we can contribute to future generations without reproducing as long as we otherwise improve them and possibly own some indirectly. We've seen the COTMOCs, and when we get to Ender's Shadow, we'll meet the gay scientist who figured out how to genetically engineer min-maxed infant supergeniuses like Bean. (Said gay scientist ends up marrying a woman, not because he's bi or has any secret desire to sleep with her, but because they get along well and he has at last been struck with the Innate Human Need For Grandchildren.)Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-89872903991237378392014-06-10T13:58:36.192-04:002014-06-10T13:58:36.192-04:00How can the *military* not know who Demosthenes is...How can the *military* not know who Demosthenes is? She exists because they commissioned her, and her brother, to destroy their last alien problem. The High Command in Ender's training days received a direct report on Locke and Demosthenes, their identities, goals and capabilities. And this Demosthenes has been writing such fruitful and insightful studies on each planet they have visited that their terminology is now the universal framework in approaching alien species by academics and lay-people everywhere. And they *forgot who she was*? Really? Three thousand years later or not, that is some sloppy-ass intelligence work. I remember thinking the very first time I read Ender's Game at about age 15 that it was patently idiotic that the military sought out and commissioned three genius-level intellect children to kill an entire species, and just let the first two go off into gen-pop when they weren't precisely what was wanted. The first was ineligible *because* he was such a sadistic killer (who never actually killed *anyone*)! Any responsible intelligence service would have kept those kids under *very close observation*, especially an intelligence service of a government so powerful they can compel their citizens to reproduce and confiscate their children for military training.<br /><br /><br />Also, Card really doesn't seem to get that evolution is evolution of *groups*, not individuals. Non-reproductive members of species are seen all across our biome, most notably in hive species like ants and bees. The sterile worker drones are not disposable because they cannot reproduce, they are *essential* to the survival of the species. If the Wives are non-reproductive female Little Ones, they clearly have (or had) some evolutionary function, or there wouldn't be a class of them, rather than one or two outliers. Admittedly genetically functionally sterile individuals a la worker bees are not seen in primates, but, for example, there is some evidence that human female family members of gay males are more fecund, implying some kind of evolutionary benefit from having gay family members, tho the link is not well understood. And, as EdinburghEye noted, a sterile period is built in to female humans later in life, again for reasons not totally understood, but by Card's logic, all menopausal women are a waste of space and resources. (Unlike those virile males, who can reproduce throughout their lifespan for the most part. Or is Card also arguing for the uselessness of any impotent man?)Kesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-75049106939989777852014-06-10T11:37:00.568-04:002014-06-10T11:37:00.568-04:00Yeah, weird as it is in the book for them not to k...Yeah, weird as it is in the book for them not to know how to treat agony field injuries, in the graphic novel, he's electrocuted and falls off the fence. Actually, it's not even clear it's electrocution - he's all "Argh the pain is too much" (or words to that effect - I didn't bring it with me to work) and just freezes at the top. I <i>think</i> we're supposed to infer he's stuck due to the electricity (muscle contractions)...though that raises the question of why it isn't a problem for the Little Ones. But maybe their physiology is just <i>that</i> different. Or maybe his clothes are supposed to have caught - there is a panel of his pants leg ripping when the Little Ones tip him off the fence. (And he appears to land so that he might have gotten spinal injuries...but if it's supposed to be that, then being hauled over the fence by Ender later seems wildly irresponsible of Ender.)<br /><br /><br />But a doctor shouldn't be all "nobody covered this in medical school" about either spinal injuries or electrocution. Especially not three thousand years in the future. (I think that lines a left over from the book, but it didn't make a hell of a lot of sense there, either.)depizannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-58626601089585889912014-06-10T11:04:04.686-04:002014-06-10T11:04:04.686-04:00The wall/fence thing is labeled an electric fence,...<i>The wall/fence thing is labeled an electric fence, though the pain factor gets mentioned a couple of times.</i><br /><br />Awesome. So it's arguably not even some kind of high-tech agony field any more, and there's zero explanation for Miro's very specific kind of irreparable neural damage. (Three thousand years' advancement has also passed medicine right by.)<br /><br /><i>Ender's jackassery of being an ambassador is toned down and his actions are stated to be to get a treaty between the Little Ones and Milagre to protect everyone.</i><br /><br />He'll be doing that shortly in the book as well, after he's finished his one-step program for civilising savage primitives.Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-87849368325834287142014-06-10T10:48:27.451-04:002014-06-10T10:48:27.451-04:00The mayor is black, and there are a few people in ...The mayor is black, and there are a few people in crowd scenes. Other people colored (slightly) darker than Ender: Pipo and Dr. Navio. So much for Ender standing out because of his pasty whiteness.<br /><br /><br />I mean, at least it makes the mayor seem a reasonable person, so it's not all racism. Just... enough of it. And in clarifying and condensing the story, it really underlines how messed up everything is.<br /><br /><br />The wall/fence thing is labeled an electric fence, though the pain factor gets mentioned a couple of times. It is drawn as a chainlink fence and two to three people high, yet Pipo and Libo still have a conversation about "oh noes, the Little Ones saw a shuttle." The word "duh" comes to mind. Not to mention all this talk about not revealing any science or technology to the Little Ones is just patently absurd when there's a frickin' city behind the "wall" (complete with cars and, in some shots, skyscrapers) and the xenologers wear clothes and the frickin' wall itself (never mind that they've taught the Little Ones a language). Some of that might slide by in a book, but when you can <i>see</i> it?<br /><br /><br />Other things even more ridiculous in the graphic novel: Pipo, the xenologer, takes one look at Novinha's DNA images and instantly figures out the "mystery". Despite the fact that, you know, she's the xeno<i>biologist</i>.<br /><br /><br />Also, Novhina's freak out is unintentionally hilarious - she goes from "noes, if I marry Libo, he can access my files" to "how do I get a Speaker for the Dead?" <i>on the same page</i>.<br /><br /><br />Likewise, the Hive Queen (in a dream) tells Ender that Lusitania is perfect: "Room to flourish. Safe from human beings." With a backdrop of the city of Milagre.<br /><br /><br />The mayor outright says that Congress will destroy them because of the Descolada, but "severing" the Ansible, even though it's an act of war, is treated as protecting the colony. (Because Ender and all will have time to figure out the Descolada before action can be taken against them.) And the final decision to do so is based on saving Miro. <br /><br /><br />Ender's jackassery of being an ambassador is toned down and his actions are stated to be to get a treaty between the Little Ones and Milagre to protect everyone. Also, no mention is made of helping the Mothers to live. (Though Ela just sciences without equipment, which is remarkable.)<br /><br /><br />The characters are more likable in the graphic novel, but it doesn't take much to improve on the book there. Everything else is just condensed WTF.depizannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-71282604792579183712014-06-10T09:06:13.063-04:002014-06-10T09:06:13.063-04:00Oh my god, Novinha gets to be a pasty ginger and M...Oh my god, Novinha gets to be a pasty ginger and Marcos gets to be the blackest man on the planet? That's even more outstanding than I expected. (Is Libo black? What about their kids?) It's like someone decided to address the implicit racism in the books by not making Lusitania an all-black planet that needs to be saved by Ender, but then decided there still needed to be <i>some</i> black people, so they left the ones they didn't like. How spectacularly appalling.Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-63851296523795407432014-06-10T00:35:26.529-04:002014-06-10T00:35:26.529-04:00The graphic novel condenses the story, which spare...The graphic novel condenses the story, which spares us Trondheim. But other changes are odd, like calling Milagre a village, but showing a city. And, of course, seeing some things - like the wall, make their ludicrousness blatantly obvious. (Also, it isn't clear what harms Miro - the doctor says that "nobody covered this in medical school," which seems to eliminate electrocution and falling off the fence, so I think the graphic novel is implying that it was the grass? I don't know.) It also drops Jane informing on the colony.<br /><br />It also does some weird stuff with apparent ethnicity. I'd call it whitewashing, except that real Brazilians come in all colors. But the vast majority of characters appear white - no darker than Ender, and with no other hints at any different ethnicity. Then it gets really disturbing: Novinha is white - fair skin, reddish hair, green eyes. Marco...appears to be black - dark skin, short kinky hair, larger facial features.<br /><br />Over all, it replicates the incoherent mess that is the book. But you can give yourself brain cramp in half the time!depizannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-92172612684058148432014-06-09T21:43:30.858-04:002014-06-09T21:43:30.858-04:00I did not know, although I've seen the graphic...I did not know, although I've seen the graphic novel of Ender's Game, which completely omits the last chapter (and thus the condemnation of xenocide, the explanation of the formics' actions, and essentially all hope of redemption), so my expectations are low. Report back if you make it through unharmed.Will Wildmanhttp://somethingshortandsnappy.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-69874386048634005012014-06-09T21:12:37.783-04:002014-06-09T21:12:37.783-04:00Did you know there's a graphic novel of this b...Did you know there's a graphic novel of this book? I didn't either until it crossed my path tonight at the library. I am checking it out out of morbid curiousity. Will it be better (as the manga of Twilight marginally is)? Worse? I just have to find out.depizannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-48205857636079771842014-06-09T19:11:36.966-04:002014-06-09T19:11:36.966-04:00I suspect that the Starways Congress is actually s...I suspect that the Starways Congress is actually still the military dictatorship of Terra, just with a better title - the ability to add a world-destroyer, the reference to Peter, all of this seems to be pointing at the idea that the democratic process is, at best, for show.Silver Adeptnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-47017967570351783262014-06-09T18:46:55.966-04:002014-06-09T18:46:55.966-04:00Lusitania hadn't even rebelled when they gave ...<i>Lusitania hadn't even rebelled when they gave the order.</i><br /><br /><br /><br />Are we sure the chairman isn't related to Ender? Did Card forget his timeline (as well as travel times)? I'm not sure what we're supposed to make of this. Sure, Card threw it in to raise the stakes (OMG! They're gonna destroy the planet! ... In a decade. And Jane is sure to tell supergenius and author's pet Ender, who will undoubtedly invent the anti-Doctor. Yep, sure raised the stakes.)depizannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-30888356038515292902014-06-09T16:28:05.742-04:002014-06-09T16:28:05.742-04:00I imagine Jane informed Valentine.I imagine Jane informed Valentine.Steve Morrisonnoreply@blogger.com