Sometimes I indulge myself and imagine an alternate continuity where Valeri Gridenko meets Fyodor Alkaev, the whiz kid from Omsk, and things really are as they seem. Fyedya is completely human. His nervousness comes from being surrounded by scientific minds he sees as being so much more brilliant than himself, not from being terrified of not being able to keep his imaginary history in order. In this world, Valya can mentor Fyedya, and tease him as his boyish good looks fade (and they do fade, because he ages, and won't be twenty-six forever), and they are witnesses to history together as mankind advances into space. Their friendship is the kind of deep connection that you only find in scientists who recognize a likeminded thirst for knowledge in each other, and it lasts their entire lives.
But that's not the story I wrote, and it is far less interesting than the story I wrote, so it will only merit one paragraph while the story I wrote is 83 pages.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Complicated thoughts about Ender's Game
Okay, so, I have come to terms with the fact that Orson Scott Card is a complete bag of dicks and I'm just going to let him be what he's going to be - it doesn't change the fact that Ender's Game was a massive part of my childhood. Even if I've struck the rest of the series from my own personal continuity (yes, even Ender's Shadow, because let's be honest with ourselves - it's not that good, and Bean is a Sue if you take the Shadow series to be true, and I liked him so much better when he was just the runt of the litter on Ender's team of ragged misfits and not the goddamn Messiah-slash-chessmaster, because the EG universe already has three Christ Archetypes too many without Bean adding to the clusterfuck. Also? Bean/Petra is the worst 'ship ever, it makes me barf in my mouth. Dink/Petra forever).
So, clearly, I've got a lot invested in this fandom, even if I don't actively participate in it, because honestly there's not much of a fandom to participate in. The book came out in the 80s, the author is alienating of his fanbase, the sequels all undermine the original, and the older I get the more I recognize that the universe I thought was so wonderfully diverse when I first encountered it (Alai remains the most sympathetic Arab character in all of science fiction, thank you and good night) is actually pretty sinister in ways I can't quite put my finger on. But I love the book, I've read it something like fifteen times, and that's why I get so mad at Orson Scott Card - because he's one of the people who first inspired me to write, and he's not a worthy role model. He's a misogynistic, homophobic, evangelical bag of dicks and I don't understand how a book that reads as having a really liberal worldview came from his mind.
I'm really excited that the long-rumored film is finally in production and has what looks like a fantastic cast (Harrison Ford! Asa Butterfield!), but I do worry about what kind of reflection of this world is going to finally turn up on screen. I've been attending Battle School in my head since I was about nine years old and while I recognize that all the detail from the books isn't possibly going to make it to film, I'm more worried about the essence of the world.
What would ruin this film for me is if the author's personal politics were to be jarringly present in it. Because I don't think his worldview is overtly present in the book. I do think that the film could benefit from updating the world to match modern terminology - but even that's not a huge stretch, because OSC basically predicted the internet and iPads. But if the world of Ender's Game were to change from one where characters are presented with moralities independent of their ethnic and religious backgrounds to one where OSC's xenophobic rationale is the norm I would be sorely disappointed, because the message of Ender's Game is one of acceptance - just because you don't understand how someone thinks doesn't make them evil, which is Ender's ultimate conclusion about the Buggers/Formics (dear fandom, what are we calling them?)
I've also got some bizarre but smaller concerns that aren't really relevant to my worries about the overall tone of the world being changed / OSC being a bag of dicks.
ie - Ben Kingsley, who is a fantastic actor, has been cast as Mazer Rackham. In the books, Mazer is described as being "half-Maori." Ben Kingsley is of Indian and English descent. Does this reflect a tendency in Hollywood casting towards considering minority ethnicities to be interchangeable? (Other complaints I could lodge under this same heading - Taylor Lautner is even less Native American than Johnny Depp; The entirety of The Last Airbender.)
Is it "whitewashing" when you're substituting one minority for another instead of substituting a white actor?
So, clearly, I've got a lot invested in this fandom, even if I don't actively participate in it, because honestly there's not much of a fandom to participate in. The book came out in the 80s, the author is alienating of his fanbase, the sequels all undermine the original, and the older I get the more I recognize that the universe I thought was so wonderfully diverse when I first encountered it (Alai remains the most sympathetic Arab character in all of science fiction, thank you and good night) is actually pretty sinister in ways I can't quite put my finger on. But I love the book, I've read it something like fifteen times, and that's why I get so mad at Orson Scott Card - because he's one of the people who first inspired me to write, and he's not a worthy role model. He's a misogynistic, homophobic, evangelical bag of dicks and I don't understand how a book that reads as having a really liberal worldview came from his mind.
I'm really excited that the long-rumored film is finally in production and has what looks like a fantastic cast (Harrison Ford! Asa Butterfield!), but I do worry about what kind of reflection of this world is going to finally turn up on screen. I've been attending Battle School in my head since I was about nine years old and while I recognize that all the detail from the books isn't possibly going to make it to film, I'm more worried about the essence of the world.
What would ruin this film for me is if the author's personal politics were to be jarringly present in it. Because I don't think his worldview is overtly present in the book. I do think that the film could benefit from updating the world to match modern terminology - but even that's not a huge stretch, because OSC basically predicted the internet and iPads. But if the world of Ender's Game were to change from one where characters are presented with moralities independent of their ethnic and religious backgrounds to one where OSC's xenophobic rationale is the norm I would be sorely disappointed, because the message of Ender's Game is one of acceptance - just because you don't understand how someone thinks doesn't make them evil, which is Ender's ultimate conclusion about the Buggers/Formics (dear fandom, what are we calling them?)
I've also got some bizarre but smaller concerns that aren't really relevant to my worries about the overall tone of the world being changed / OSC being a bag of dicks.
ie - Ben Kingsley, who is a fantastic actor, has been cast as Mazer Rackham. In the books, Mazer is described as being "half-Maori." Ben Kingsley is of Indian and English descent. Does this reflect a tendency in Hollywood casting towards considering minority ethnicities to be interchangeable? (Other complaints I could lodge under this same heading - Taylor Lautner is even less Native American than Johnny Depp; The entirety of The Last Airbender.)
Is it "whitewashing" when you're substituting one minority for another instead of substituting a white actor?
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