Orson Scott Card is an Asshat
 

I figure this has more to do with political crap than the literature itself, so this forum seems appropriate.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/5/28/22428/7034

The message of Ender's Game is conservative, but Ender is in no way Hitler.

I doubt this account as well, btw.

i think he's going crazy. he's allowing the muslims who went apeshit over newsweek completely abrogate self-responsibility of their actions, and then goes further in blaming r-rated western movies as part of the root cause as to why this is happening.

never mind that they're fundamentalists, he'll just find some way to vilify his own personal enemies by applying a larger problem to them.

getting sentimental over under-acheivers simply because it serves as an opposition to his object of hatred is short-sighted and more than a little stupid. since when is lowering the bar for everyone supposed to be intellectually acceptable? people against freedom of speech and who watch adam sandler movies are supposed to be what we aspire to? this is real america now?

what new low standards should we push forward to establish what messages are acceptable and how we should support our government?

i love the ender books, but as a blog writer and someone eager to spout folk psychology about an entire nation and treat it as fact, he's a fucking awful writer

He's not justifying the extremists, he's pointing out that the immorality of Western culture - and the influence it's having in the Middle East - is the root cause of their actions.

Now, in that sense, I think he's partially correct. But I'm not advocating a change in our society by any means (at least, not to counter terrorism).

what's the point, then? whay did he write what he did?
oh, shit, it wouldnt be (gasp) childish vilification would it? tell me it isn't the burnin-in-the-loins compulsion to merely attack the opposition with whatever's handy by means of bitter, mangled logic.

I never said that he wasn't attacking the left. Which he was. Obviously.

Oh, right, it's got less to do with the fact that we've been blowing them the fuck up for the better part of a century (as Americans, at least -- let's not forget that this war spans millenia) than the fact that I can go pay $9.25 and see Keira Knightley's tits.

This guy's argument is so full of holes it's absurd.

The man himself was full of holes to begin with.

So is he saying America suffered a terrorist attack because it was immoral? Isn't that what Osama himself was saying?

Okay, this is a close to religous prejudice as you're ever going to hear me get.

Ready?

Orson is a Mormon. Anyone familliar with their belief system?

In addition;

He writes series sci fi. Not 'trilogies'. Not a single multi-book series. He writes franchises.

He also likes himself better than any sci fi writer since Ellison, and for my money he nevr wrote anything as good.

He is a genre writer on the level of Stephen King. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I've read a lot of both of them, and enjoyed them. In paper back they both give a fine return on the dollar.

But King doesn't present himself as anything but a good storyteller. Orson thinks the light of the universe shiones out his bung whenever he bends over.

On the other hand, I'm rather enjoying his Iron Man comic book. Or I will be until about the fifth issue when he inevitably starts with the irritating "I bet you never spent a lt of time really thinking deep religous thoughts like me" psuedo-Mormon ideology into it.

In short, there is no need at all to take anything this guy says with even the faintest degree of seriousness. There's nothing wromng with being a good pulp writer. There is a whole lot wrong with being a good pulp writer with delusions of grandeur. That's what got us Scientology.

He sounds a lot like David Brin. Now that guy makes himself to be a real asshole.

Is it an epidemic amongst scifi writers?

When you have legions of nerds worshipping you, you feel big.

Well, I've read plenty of interviews with authors that have inflated opinions of themselves, but these two seem to be really off the scale.

Is Brin a Mormon, though?

'Cause Mormon's? Think that God turned native American's red so their embarasment at their sins would be more visible.

Oh shit. I'm not sure where I fit in America anymore. I'm not particularly religious but there are a few Adam Sandler movies that made me giggle a bit. :(

There is nothing wrong with hating Mormons. They condemn more people to hell than hardcore southern Baptists.

You fit into the greater part of America who realizes there's more to life than playing out your own self-esteem issues with religion. Seriously, this country doesn't need a God, it needs a good fuck after a night of alcohol and good times with friends to put things in fucking perspective. Religion is this country is bullshit anyway, it's just another band-aid to cover up what is really wrong in this country and that problem is that the American Ideal of Perfection is quite hollow. But enough of my bullshit, let's cut to the heart of this:

Orson Scott Card is a shitty writer. I know this because I was given one of those 'how to write science fiction' books that he wrote and all he did was jack off about his shitty life and how he wrote and how he took this big piece of paper and drew a map of this story and blah blah what the fuck ever. The point is that sci-fi hit a slump where everything was a bland ripoff and they turned this into the frachises we see today whenever you go into a bookstore: nothing but reprints of the Golden Age and then the millions upon millions of bullshit covers that nobody would pick up for their cover price. And Card is a symbol of this turn into shit. And honestly, after reading that story, I think I know why I turned away from science fiction as well. At it's very heart it's turned from a good thing to a bad thing full of angry sadsacks trying to rationalize their stupid behavior problems.

So, the belief in a being greater than us with a plan is shallow, but some sort of psychological drinking binge/one night stand is deep and meaningful?

Trying for a better world with an eye on the future is shallow, but living for the next 5 minutes is deep and meaningful?


ya, that makes perfect sense.