This isn’t a whoosh? It reads like ham-fisted sarcasm that’s trying to achieve parody status. It seriously sounds like one of SNL’s old Baghdad Bob skits.
WOW.
Well, then, by his own argument any soldier who decides that being stuck in Iraq sucks has an absolute right to get put on the next transport home, no questions asked.
What a poltroon.
Wow. I had no idea, and, like Frank, I wish I still hadn’t. I really admired him as a writer, even though the only books I’ve read are Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow. How disappointing.
The guy wrote one good-not-great fantasy book and has been coasting on it for twenty years. Why should anyone have thought he was all that bright?
A while ago, I coined the term Card’s Syndrome (over that gay marriage article, in fact) in reference to OSC and a few others. Card’s Syndrome is a mental illness that affects fiction writers and storytellers, especially those who write in some version of the Real World. In short, they spend so much time writing stories that they forget that reality is not subject to their narratives. They get an idea, they write it down, it appears in print, and it is therefore true.
Card has it bad, as you all are seeing. There’s a reason I named it after him. He tells himself a story, and mistakes it for reality.
Frankly, if I could pull that off, I’d consider myself exceptionally bright.
I rather enjoyed Card’s first short stories in Analog and his first few novels based on them. About the same time I was (unsuccessfully) proselytized by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. Knowing Card was a Mormon, I was surprised by some of the progressive and definitely un-Mormon themes in his stories. However, after about the third book, I started noticing a between-the-lines form of seriously heavy moralizing. I now think of Card’s books as stealth Chick tracts. Apparently, he saves the sublety for his works of fiction.
Card’s political view matter because…I got nothing. Why do they matter?
I think Miller nails it – it’s one thing to come to a different conclusion; it’s quite another to use arguments that are palpably stupid.
They matter inasmuch he’s a public person who is admired in some circles for his intellectual heft. You know, like Patricia Heaton from Everybody loves Raymond is who you should go to for news and views about stem cell research.
I can understand being disappointed with the current crop of politicians, but anyone who thinks Bush and co. have any plan except giving the enemy an overseas target is delusional.
I don’t admire him for his intellectual heft. I like some of his books, am ambivalent about a few of his books, and downright dislike a few of them. He strikes me as a writer who is sometimes good at writing and sometimes not.
Because he’s promoting ignorance and bigotry, and actively working against my civil rights. That’s why they matter.
Thanks. But why does anyone listen to him instead of someone who actually knows what he’s talking about? Oh, yeah–same reason they listen to tv & movie stars instead of doctors, etc.
Just the other day a gaggle of homosexuals bayoneted my marriage license and threw grenades at my marriage album. War is hell.
Marc
I’ve decided to stop buying anything Card writes now that I know the depth of his idiocy.
Fortunately, Card has decided to meet me halfway by refusing to write anything worth purchasing.
But I wanted to buy Ender’s Game for my son.
My statement was a joke. I actually enjoyed Ender’s Game, but I think the quality dropped off quite a bit in the sequels and especially the later prequels. I’ve never read any of his fantasy so I won’t comment on it, except to say that his Alvin Maker novels are generally given good reviews.
Because he has a bully pulpit. As I noted above, he spouts his nonsense once a week in a local neo-con publication. He is the upper middle class’ Rush Limbaugh, and his adherents are every bit the dittoheads. Plus, he always has the last word. Whenever someone challenges him via a letter to the editor, he is given as much space as he wants to respond, and then the matter is closed.
He needs to be shouted down early and often. That’s why it matters.
Geez, Card must think that those people are stupid – they keep buying electrical devices even though they don’t have any power to run them. :rolleyes: