I’m willing to give him credit for inching away from bigotry. Until I got to this:
That’s just vile.
But don’t you see calling for people not to give is OSC money is so much more hateful than OSC calling for gay people to be put in jail. After all, increasing a rich white man’s wealth is a much more righteous cause than equality.
The more I read about him the more I wish I had been planning to see the movie so that I could boycott it. Apparently “gays are that way cause they’re molested” is a recurring theme in both his fiction and non-fiction.
A recurring theme in his fiction is that molestation causes gays to wish they could boycott movies?!
( part corrected by yours truly, because based on the rest of the post Fenris miscounted sons).
One thing I’d already noticed with the Ender books and confirmed with Alvin Maker is that his series get progressively worse with time. It’s like he goes from “this could produce some interesting debate-chat-discussion at the book club” to “ok, what flavor of kool-aid has he been drinking?”
And that was even before 9-11.
I disagree with Card’s current stated beliefs. I also enjoyed most of his books when I read them (which was usually around the time they came out) though I never read Lovelock or Children of the Mind or some of the other above-criticized ones.
There isn’t a problem with giving him money. From what I can see, him having a bigger voice to express his unpersuasive and off-putting, unpopular views on same sex marriage and related issues will only help - anyone on the fence, reading that awful stuff, will probaby end up anti-persuaded. I don’t feel at all bad about my intentions to buy tickets to the movie.
And he definitely wrote Ender’s Game. I read the short version before it was novelized, he has a detailed back story to how he came to write it, and it was a breakthrough for him as a young author.
Most of Card’s early work is about how sacrificing parts of one’s human rights make people able to achieve greatness - at great cost to themselves, and usually unwillingly. I would not be surprised if he was actually writing about his own experience on some level, or that of peers or someone close to him perhaps.
Not just Ender’s Game elucidates this theme; many of his early short stories, one was about a child who grew up not permitted to listen to music because he seemed like a gifted musician and this would enable him to be truly original, for example, were on this topic.
A transformation into a bitter old man who wants to commit the same crimes on the later generations is tragic, but somewhat predictable, for someone who went through that and dealth with it by buying more and more deeply into his religion that pushed such as a net benefit onto him.
Perhaps it’s best if you like to think of his “nonfiction” as the outcome of a single point of disconnect between his world and our world. He’s stuck there, and that’s enough punishment, not to mention it’s an example others can see as why not to choose to live there.
Is it possible to read Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead and be unaware of his views on Homosexuality?
Has there been a boycott like this for a film about an author’s views since the 1950s?
“Boycott” is a bit strong. The movie will have viewers, but Card’s views almost certainly hurt the bottom line. And it’s known he’s been more than “just the author” but contributed a bit to the process, including working for the better part of 2 decades to get the movie made at all.
But it does happen. Mel Gibson ran into a bit of this with “The Passion”. His odd personal beliefs and known predilection for anti-Semitism did him no favors among certain crowds. Michael Moore runs into it, too, to an extent.
Of course, it also meant a lot of people went out of their way to watch the movie, just as I’m sure some homophobes will make a point to watch “Ender’s Game” in some bizarre show of solidarity and just like we have this bizarre cadre of Paula Deen supporters.
It’s strange. I have heard of the theory that OSC promoted fascism in Ender’s Game (like, he was literally a nazi) and read some long rambling piece about the clues he gave, but they never presented a single shred of evidence. Then now I’m hearing that he didn’t write Ender’s Game? What evidence of that is there? It is strange all these conspiracy theories exist when it’s much simpler that a cookie mormon who is semi-off his rocker wrote a couple good books and a couple really bad ones.
The biggest red flag that made me think OSC was a closet case wasn’t from any of his stories, but some anecdote he relayed where he said “OH NO SIR YOU ARE SO CONFUSED I’M NOT INTO ANY OF THAT WEIRD STUFF LIKE HOMOSEXUALITY!!!” I wish I could remember where that was, I think it was in an afterward to one of his short stories. As a firmly straight man it rang incredibly untrue to me, my response would be something like “Nah, I’m not gay.” and that would be the end of it.
My speculation:
From what I gather, some church organizations are telling their flock that if gay marriage passes, their church will be forced by the government (wearing jackboots, no doubt) to hold same-sex marriage ceremonies. Maybe he had this in mind while writing your quoted statement.
David Gerrold, a gay sf writer (famous for “The Trouble with Tribbles”) suggests a compromise: see the movie, and then donate an equal amount to a gay-friendly legal defense fund.
'Tis a pity the movie’s success may not be defined in its own merits, but it’s self-inflicted damage.
Y’know, this could be a bit of a reverse-psych gambit on the part of OSC to generate some sympathy-publicity among the righties.
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Maybe Gay Marriage was not an immediate issue but the rights of the gay community were a debate that existed and were in the public discourse. That *Ender’s Game *itself was not written with those issues in mind is a different argument.
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“What can I do, the Court has spoken” doesn’t cut it when you were advocating civil revolt over the issue. Call back when you are ready to say “I was **wrong **about this”.
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See Anaamika’s and RNATB’s prior comments.
These are all designed for the RW’s to look at it and say “see how gracious and reasonable he is, those godless heathens just will not give him a chance, let’s go and show our support”.
And hey, outside written-SF fandom how well known is Ender’s Game and how anticipated is the movie coming up? Even with Ford’s and Kingsley’s names in it, without a well-executed publicity/media campaign it could do a *John Carter *at the box office and I’d imagine that Orson’s beginning to smell of albatross to Lions Gate.
Y’know, all else aside by now I’ve come to the point that with any creative artist or entertainer I have to walk in already divorcing the human from the work. Saves me heartache later.
I’ve known several people who weren’t really science fiction fans but enjoyed Ender’s Game, so there may be more than the usual suspects interested in the movie version. But as you say, it could flop anyway.
Speaking for myself, just a few days ago I was thinking that I surely would have seen an Ender’s Game movie had it been released before I was aware of Card’s views on gay rights, that Card had already been paid for the movie rights, lots of other people were involved in making this film, etc., and was generally feeling that if the movie was well-reviewed I’d see it. But Card’s unapology is causing me to reconsider. Maybe I’ll still see the movie anyway, but his statement indicates that he’d take this as a show of respect for his views. It’s a little harder for me to separate the man from the movie now.
That said, it did make me happy to see that Lionsgate has issued a statement saying they disagree with Card’s views and are longtime supporters of LGBT rights.
Lots of the more extreme conservative Christian churches have totalitarian mindsets, i.e. “Everything not forbidden is compulsory”.
So, we’re going to take teenage girls, get them pregnant, force them to have abortions, during which they’ll be forced to marry each other. And then make them marry goats, because slippery slope. Or something like that.
I’m pretty sure that’s what they’ll think will happen.
If you want to read something sad and awful, check out “Fat Farm” by OSC. I read it as an adolescent, back when I would scan through my brother’s OMNI magazines for any mention of nudity or sex. Knowing what I know now, it’s a disturbingly clear case of self-loathing. (And that’s being charitable; it is of course entirely possible that he doesn’t have any latent homosexuality, he just really really hates gays and fat people).
And I’m all for a boycott of Ender’s Game, for the record. The “I’ve learned to separate the art from the artist” defense just seems hypocritical in regards to living artists. It’s not as if there’s any shortage of good science fiction from people who aren’t hateful assholes, so continuing to support the ones who are just seems to me to be furthering the idea that our words & actions don’t have consequence.
And as to whether a boycott hurts the target, that seems to me to be completely irrelevant. It’s always used as an argument to make people feel powerless, I think – well, he gets paid either way, so there’s nothing I can do, so why not go ahead and pay $15 to watch spaceships? But the boycott is more for my benefit than to punish anyone else. My not spending the 15 bucks means a lot more to me than it does to them.
Strangely, despite being a big fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy literature I’ve never read a single OSC book and doubt I will unless someone really compellingly pitches them to me.
But I do question deciding to boycott things of artistic or creative nature based on the politics of the creator. I think there’s actually a lot of value in reading things even written by people who are vile. If not for the fact that it is tedious and poorly written, I’d argue there is some value in reading Mein Kampf. I’ve read about it, and read a few passages, but I’ve never read the whole book because it’s just not readable or enjoyable to read at all. But I think it’s good that there are people who have read it and provided analysis of it so I can come to an understanding of what was in the book.
I guess I’d also differentiate the movie and the book. I don’t know how the financing of the movie is going, but I know Card is a producer. If he actually is a producer in that he gets a portion of the movie’s money I can “understand” not wanting to prop up his entertain revenue. But I don’t know of many authors that get a take of movie gross, I think most sell their movie rights for lump sums prior to production.
But you could read his books at a library or something and not be directly giving him any money.
At the same time, the movie has a lot of producers and actors affiliated with it who probably stand to make much more money from the movie than Card, who are outspokenly big advocates of gay rights. Most of them probably were not really aware of Card’s history when they signed on the the project, and it is questionable if you’re helping things or hurting them by boycotting their movie. Hollywood isn’t the NSA, and I don’t know that actors/directors should be expected to do a background check on the author of the book a movie is based on just to make sure he isn’t an offensive person.
I remember reading an article by him, years ago, where he talks about enjoying Playboy, but finding Hustler’s vaginal close-up shots to be somewhat nauseating.
Now that’s a gay man.
“The things that make babies are so ugly that, were it not for pretty faces, the human race would die out.”
– Leonardo da Vinci (either gay or asexual)
That’s likely true - however, if the movie is successful, there’s a good chance that studios will option Card’s other works. So even if he’s not getting a cent more from this movie at this point, a boycott can still affect him.
Some of that value is undermined when one is reading solely for pleasure. I can read stuff by the vilest of the vile, if I’m trying to learn from it. But if I’m just out to have some fun, there are some writers (and, with movies, some actors) who are just such stinkards that the pleasure is much reduced.
Also, of course, there are politics and there are politics. We’d all pretty much laugh at someone who refused to read any book written by any Republican or by any Democrat. The difference is that Card went out of his way to express an opinion that was deeply hateful, hurtful, and offensive, an opinion that directly attacks the personhood of people I know and love.
It’s a little like when Rush Limbaugh crossed the line, and called a woman a slut. He lost a great many listeners over that.