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Maybe it's that we're just not as sensitive and don't give half a shit? Remember we also look down on people who cry $3 billion lawsuit because they've been called a racial epithet or had their butt swatted at while waitressing tables.

http://www.hatrack.com/misc/Quotes_in_Context.shtml

From reading this document published on his personal fan site in response to these allegations, I take that his view is that marriage is, by definition, a bond between a man and a women.

Just speculating, but he may not have any issue with a homosexual bond at all so long as that bond isn't called "marriage".

It isn't a teen flick. Read Card's interview here where he says that is what Hollywood wanted, but he was holding out.

There's an interview with Card where he mentions the script he wrote, all the way back in 1998:
http://hatrack.com/research/interviews/1998-scott-nicholson.shtml

If this is keeping with that, then they are telling the story from the adult perspective, because 'keeping the secret' until the end makes it necessary to leave out too much of the story when you're telling it by film. So instead the audience knows, but Ender doesn't, so we get to see his actions knowing entirely what the consequences are. It also integrates some of the Ender's Shadow elements, like more information about Bean.

In a way this is even more brutal than how the book tells it.

Try his own rebuttal here: http://www.hatrack.com/osc_responds_halmets_father.html

YMMV.

PS I don't consider people who think homosexuality is wrong on religious basis to be homophobic, and the word doesn't mean that either. I think cheating is wrong by way of example, but I'm still friends with and don't give people a hard time for being cheaters. He does not appear to have a fear of or hatred for homosexuals, he simply disagrees with their sexual preference. There's a difference that many try to ignore.

Simply film just the original story, not the whole book.

In fact, you could probably film all that in half an hour or 40 minutes.

OSC pointed this out a year ago (at least the focus aspects). I couldn't agree more...

Atlantis, by Orson Scott Card.

The gist is, Science(tm) has invented a machine that can view backwards in time, scientist finds society under the Red Sea. Cue up ancient barbarian, who leaves his crocodile worshiping village in a right of manhood, goes to the Indian Ocean, finds that the ancient floodwall is about to break in the monsoon, returns to his village warning everyone, builds a Super-boat, he and a small group survive while the city sinks beneath the waves. Amalgamation of Gilgamesh, Noah's Ark, and Atlantis all rolled into one mythos.

There is also a short story version, "Atlantis", which you can find on the Library section of his website along with other free etexts (with some restrictions on copying).

Orson Scott Card wrote a short story which unifies many of the world's flood myths and explains them as a sudden rise in the level of the Red Sea at the close of the last ice age.

Speculative fiction, not science, but pretty entertaining and a little bit interesting.

This is the Black Sea deluge hypothesis, originated by William Ryan and Walter Pitman. (Although they argued that the Black Sea already existed before the flood, but was signinficantly smaller.) Incidentally, Orson Scott Card wrote a story which postulates that the Flood legends started with a prehistoric flood which filled the modern-day Red Sea.

Not that this will be seen but there is an interesting bit on Orson Scott Card's blog that's relevant to this topic. A word of warning: Mr. Card is a bit of a skeptic where Anthropogenic Gloval Warming is concerned.

Hope this doesn't result in /.ing his site. It's under the topic of pretty good science.

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2009-08-02.shtml

Without permission from Orson Scott Card, the only difference between fantasy and science fiction are the rivets.

You see a fiction book cover with rivets? Sci-fi. Book cover with trees? Fantasy.

1. Ender in Exile is the first sequel to Ender's Game that is actually centered around Ender Wiggin himself, while he's still a child.

Most of it takes place between chapters 14 and 15 of Ender's Game. It involves characters from the Shadow books, including the mother and son who go off to a space colony at the end of Shadow of the Giant.

So Exile is a sequel to two different books. But you don't have to have read either of them. All the information you need to understand Ender in Exile is contained within the book. If you've read the other Ender books, you'll recognize characters and events -- but it's been tested on readers who've never read an Ender book, and they understood the whole story without a problem.

It's a tale of soldiers who can't go home. They won their war, but they end up so far from Earth that if they tried to return, by the time they got back, everybody they knew and cared about would be dead. What was the point of returning? So they stay and colonize their former enemy's land.

Ender Wiggin is appointed to be governor of such a colony. But because he's still only a child, it is assumed by the captain of the starship carrying him there that Ender will only be a figurehead, while the captain himself becomes the real governor.

That's far from being Ender's only challenge -- for instance, there's the mother who thinks her daughter will be the perfect mate for Ender (that's the Jane Austen portion of the novel), and an alien species that is discovered on the planet before Ender arrives.

I think this may be the best of the Ender novels. It comes out on 11 November in bookstores everywhere.

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2008-11-02.shtml

For those of you who missed this the first time, you should really read his take on this whole mess.

Actually i thought the oppposite - i found the artwork (while still very good) rather bland when compared to the storyline, specially when contrasted with some modern comics (this one i read recently, in particular, has stunning artwork).

To each one its own, i guess. Watchmen broke with a lot of superhero comics conventions, presenting a rich storyline with (*gasp*) believable characters, and the long expositions added a lot to this. I admit that in some bits it got rather tedious; for example, i could've done with less of the "Tales of the Black Freighter". But overall, i loved the comic, and i just can't wait for this movie.

Do some background work before you spew forth.

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/bibliography/index.shtml

Please post a link to your biblio page.

Since the linked article is down, you can catch a copy of the Rowling roasting at Card's own site:

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2008-04-20.shtml

Here's another location where the article can be read: http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2008-04-20.shtml

Considering that Card may not have even written the Ender books himself, I'm not surprised that he continues to advocate using other people's ideas.

That being interesting and all, the Potter encyclopedia clearly isn't a clear-cut case of plagiarism because Rowling gets all the credit for invention. This sort of thing happens all the time, under the "unauthorized" banner. Asshat or not, Card has a point.

P.S. Ender and Hitler essay was recently put online

While I'm not a lawyer, I can tell you the understanding that I have: Unless it can be shown that a work uses about a third of the written language of the source, or closely paraphrases it for many long passages, there is nothing actionable under the law. Ideas can't be copyrighted, nor can titles (titles can only be trademarked, and then only if you're using them for merchandising, and even then only if it's not a common word).

Orson Scott Card routinely makes the first five or six chapters of his books freely available on his website. He's hooked me several times that way. His forthcoming book "Empire" is receiving the treatment right now. http://www.hatrack.com/

Question
How do you feel about your fans writing "fanfiction" using characters that are already established by you (e.g, Ender, Valetine, etc.)?

OSC Answers
I'm flattered; and then, if they try to publish it (including on the net) except in very restricted circumstances, I will sue, because if I do NOT act vigorously to protect my copyright, I will lose that copyright -- and that is the only inheritance I have to leave my family. So fan fiction, while flattering, is also an attack on my means of livelihood. It is also a poor substitute for the writers' inventing their own characters and situations. It does not help them as writers; it can easily harm me; and those who care about my stories and characters know that what I write is "real" and has authority, and what fans write is not and does not. So it's all pointless. I'd prefer simply to ignore it when it happens, but the way copyright law functions, I am told that I cannot ignore it. So there it is.

Question
How do you feel about your fans writing "fanfiction" using characters that are already established by you (e.g, Ender, Valetine, etc.)?

OSC Answers
I'm flattered; and then, if they try to publish it (including on the net) except in very restricted circumstances, I will sue, because if I do NOT act vigorously to protect my copyright, I will lose that copyright -- and that is the only inheritance I have to leave my family. So fan fiction, while flattering, is also an attack on my means of livelihood. It is also a poor substitute for the writers' inventing their own characters and situations. It does not help them as writers; it can easily harm me; and those who care about my stories and characters know that what I write is "real" and has authority, and what fans write is not and does not. So it's all pointless. I'd prefer simply to ignore it when it happens, but the way copyright law functions, I am told that I cannot ignore it. So there it is.

Then again, he did have a hand (however minor) in Loom and wrote the dialogue for The Dig. I miss Lucasfilm Games.

From Orson Scott Card's own website:

So here's what I have to say about Serenity:

This is the kind of movie that I have always intended Ender's Game to be (though the plots are not at all similar).

And this is as good a movie as I always hoped Ender's Game would be.

And I'll tell you this right now: If Ender's Game can't be this kind of movie, and this good a movie, then I want it never to be made.

I'd rather just watch Serenity again.

Does Card even have any experience writing screenplays

..dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s

..supported his family primarily by writing scripts for audiotapes..

..he wrote the screenplays for animated children's videos..

A fairly well known SciFi author begs to disagree with you...

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2005 -09-30-extra.shtml

maybe there are already a lot of ghosts watching us right now... the future students studying history!!

On that topic, I'd like to reccomend the book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card (...you know, the guy who wrote Ender's Game)

Pastwatch is a real mind bender in many ways, as it deals with future historians looking into the past. I hesitate to say any more for fear of giving something away, but I highly reccomend picking up the book.

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/about.shtml

Uncle Orson knows a lot about science fiction, and Mormon Orson knows nothing about gay people.

So they're the same person. So what? There are different sides to the same person. I can like Uncle Orson, and not need to care what Mormon Orson has to say about gay people.

Besides, duality of character is a theme of his in Uncle Orson's books.

For an indepth view of the Authors personality and thoughts take a look at http://www.hatrack.com/ The Official OSC website

Punk kid grows up for trained only for war. He is rebelious, resourceful and ruthless as only children can be, and thus groomed for success. Only in the end he realises the grown ups haven't been telling the whole truth - he succeeds on their terms and yet is left with no moral compass.

A perfect counterpoint to The Lord of the flies; this time civilisation is the barbarity.

Go read the novella. You'll probably enjoy it far more than this film when it comes out. I hadn't heard of it before this evening either, but it's a nice way to spend a couple of hours. Of the other stories there Atlantis was interesting - the others I didn't really appreciate.

I note that Card said in the Enders Game mention on his production site:

"I have every expectation that he and Mr. Weiss will be able to create a screenplay that will distill the strong characters and moral dilemmas of the novel into an exciting film that will justify the huge expense involved in filming it," said Card.

I notice he didn't say "Belief". That's what I like about OSC, he says things particularly weighty like that, which enables him to take the project away. He's basically insisted on all the things he's usually insisted on, such as children being used, with creative ways for children to be "Shot" by the "Hook" mentioned in Ender's Game but without guns (as he has mentioned would have do be done if this were ever made into a movie).

From everything Card has mentioned under HatRack River, http://www.hatrack.com/ He's putting alot of faith behind the director of Troy (who's caught some wind despite Troy sucking ass) and I'm all for it. In the end you're right- he'll have final word, and either the children's ages will change signficantly (which I doubt) or they'll use new conceptual technology to overcome it. This is going to be great.

OSC's site is good way to burn an hour or more - writing advice, forums (or is it fora?), philosophy, etc. Mr. Card is an interesting fellow.

OSC's site is good way to burn an hour or more - writing advice, forums (or is it fora?), philosophy, etc. Mr. Card is an interesting fellow.

And he also denounced DRM in his 27 Feb 2005 Review, stating that he is himself boycotting Virgin Records for their abuse of copyright fair use.

"I regard [encrypting CDs to prevent MP3 ripping] as cheating the customer, since it is widely known that many customers expect to be able to do exactly that, and copyright law allows it.
"Therefore I will never again buy a cd from Virgin Records. Cheat me once, shame on you. Cheat me twice, shame on me."

So maybe his position isn't all black-and-white.

You'd understand if you got to know my history with games.

The big problem with Orson Scott Card is that while is ideology is disgusting, he wrote some marvellous fiction.
The Alvin Maker series is full of lovable, entertaining, soulful, compassionate characters... And he is a master of storytelling.
I never understood how he could write so incredibly good books, being so incredibly prejudiced.
You can find some of his bad non-fiction writing there : http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/ or there : http://www.hatrack.com/ .
For his fiction, I don't have an online source, but you can always check your local library for the Alvin Maker series, or the Ender one, or for some of his short fiction.

Eric

Orson Scott Card comes to mind.

http://www.hatrack.com/

SF is technology marketing. It started as short stories in radio parts catalogs to encourage subscriptions. After 20th Century life was revolutionized by technology, and practically every economy switched from an agriculture to a technology base, real technology marketing has replaced much SF in that role. As a fan of "hard" SF, where the scientific speculation is plausible, I'm encouraged by the prospect of a "die off" of lots of SF twaddle that can't compete with the real marketing. More interesting tech speculation, like Greg Egan (a programmer, quantum physicist, and skilled author) writes, and excellent character development through simple, compelling plots like in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, are possible now that SF doesn't have to reintroduce the speculative framework with each book, or risk missing a large audience containing sophisticated readers. Maybe SF looks bleak today because today is so screwed up that the future itself looks bleak. Well, hope springs eternal, so someone will inevitably write some SF that explores a future more inspiring than the possible futures so dissapointing now. It might not be in a familiar paperback - it might be on a webpage, an email, a chain SMS, or a medium just now being imagined. Get to work!

= 9J =

>War is terrible. Games are fun. Ne'er the two should meet. IMHO.

Like in
Ender's Game ?

Try Iain M. Banks. It Culture series is well known and I've found it very entertaining reading with well fleshed out characters and good storyline

Or try Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game' and the companion 'Shadow' series (Ender's shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets) All of Card's books tend to focus more on his characters and storyline than on science. He's also written a lot of fantasy, so you might want to check that out. You can read the first chapter of some (all?) of his books on his website.

Anyway, there are tons of good books out there. Just sample here and there and you're bound to find something that suits your taste. And bluntly speaking, there is no such thing as real SF, just different "subgenres". If you find an author whose books you like, to h*ll with your friends and enjoy yourself :-)

CodeSong

Actually, if you look at his site (under OSC Library), you will see that you can read at least the first chapter of most of his books online (including the first few chapters of Crystal City, his next book which isn't even published yet).

What a great way to let readers get a *real* taste of the book (Amazon's five pages doesn't usually do that).

So would he mind if I pirated his e-books, then?

In short, I just don't think that publishing is going to be affected negatively by digital copying. That's why I used to make my manuscripts available online for free during the months between my writing the books and their publication. There were sometimes hundreds of downloads -- but as far as we know, most or all of the people who downloaded it went on to buy the book when it came out in print -- and during the months when the book was only available online, those who read those advance copies were helping sell the book when it did appear by talking about it with their friends!

His next novel, Walking on Water is currently being serialized on his website. Probably only of interest to folks who have already read the previous books in the Alvin Maker series though.

So would he mind if I pirated his e-books, then?

In short, I just don't think that publishing is going to be affected negatively by digital copying. That's why I used to make my manuscripts available online for free during the months between my writing the books and their publication. There were sometimes hundreds of downloads -- but as far as we know, most or all of the people who downloaded it went on to buy the book when it came out in print -- and during the months when the book was only available online, those who read those advance copies were helping sell the book when it did appear by talking about it with their friends!

His next novel, Walking on Water is currently being serialized on his website. Probably only of interest to folks who have already read the previous books in the Alvin Maker series though.

So would he mind if I pirated his e-books, then?

In short, I just don't think that publishing is going to be affected negatively by digital copying. That's why I used to make my manuscripts available online for free during the months between my writing the books and their publication. There were sometimes hundreds of downloads -- but as far as we know, most or all of the people who downloaded it went on to buy the book when it came out in print -- and during the months when the book was only available online, those who read those advance copies were helping sell the book when it did appear by talking about it with their friends!

His next novel, Walking on Water is currently being serialized on his website. Probably only of interest to folks who have already read the previous books in the Alvin Maker series though.

Just shorting things down might make a worse novel,
but what really makes a work good is the sections you have to cut out. Maybe it's still left as loose references throughout the book, but somehow its spice for the imagination radically different from the super-pedagogic standards of your typical hollywood movie.

Tolkien could have gone into much more detail and history about middle earth than he finally did - though maybe the books tells a lot more that just a plot.

Enders game started out as a short-story
and it's got everything the final novel has so I sholdn't be soo fast saying it's better or worse just because it don't tell you about Enders parents suppressed religion.

I think the whole series is good. However, Enders Game is the best. I got it for xmas a few years back and read it in one weekend. I then purchased the others and read them all in about 1.5 months. I think the story is very interesting. It is also a realtivly easy book to read - as opposed to say LoTR. I think there are sample chapters on Orson Scott Card's website.

Nope -- not good, for a variety of reasons listed in other posts.

Reminds me of a story by Orson Scott Card called Dogwalker . The protagonist is someone who groks passwords. He ends up caught because he got a password correct on the first try, which the owner never ever did.