Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ender's Game Revised

Ender Wiggin is the hero the world has been waiting for. He is smart, hurting, a Third, and a leader. And the world needs a hero: the aliens, called buggers, are preparing for the Third Invasion, and to stop them they must be completely annihilated. Ender is sent to the Battle School when he is six, where he trains with other children. They live to fight. When he is twelve, he is sent to Command School. He thinks he is merely playing games on the simulator, but what he is really doing is fighting the buggers.

Ender is a very interesting character. He used to be afraid and lonely, but they turned the fear into hatred. He turned into Peter. But is this good or bad? The world doesn't mind; he killed the buggers, but the buggers were never the enemy. Possible Hypothesis #1- the buggers are simply weak antagonists. #2- Ender is his own enemy. #3- Card didn't like the social system and wanted it to be communist. #2 is most likely in my mind. Perhaps the ending is his trying to redeem himself- he certainly didn't like being tricked into killing the buggers.
Please help me out on this. I'm confused. It seemed like such a simple story.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender Wiggin has been destined since birth to go to the Battle School, where an army of children prepares to fight the buggers. Six years old when he arrives, he is quickly moved up with older and older boys, always fighting, training. He becomes a killer machine that will defeat the buggers once and for all.

Very violent, but interesting at the same time. Demosthenes and Locke were amazing, but the buggers weren't good bad guys. It seemed like they were suppposed to be the enemy, but sometimes Ender himself was. His own worst enemy. I couldn't figure it out.

...I just think of these things, and then I don't feel so bad!

  • Barnes and Noble (and books in general)
  • birthday parties
  • friends
  • fun words (like effervescent and uber)
  • knitting
  • learning languages
  • RUF
  • Scrabble...and other word games
  • skiing
  • sleep-overs
  • swimming
  • tea
  • traveling (not the car part, so much!)
  • weddings
  • writing fantasy stories