Hidden Messages
Just a lion.
I have been zipping through Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” books over the past few weeks (well, up until I got to Xenocide - yeesh! Snooze city, right dorks?) I mostly read on the subway or crouching in the corners of public restrooms, and I’ll tell you - people just can’t stop talking to me about all the “hidden meanings” and “Jesusy stuff” in these books. The same thing happened when I reread the Narnia series a few years ago - every asshole in the world wanted to make sure I knew they were all secretly about Christ and isn’t that super lame.Here is how I feel about that: *fart*. I don’t care! So what?All that proves is that the Bible contains some good stories (big surprise - Joseph Campbell could have told you that), it doesn’t magically trick you into believing them as truth. Sure, these books bring up questions and make you ponder things like faith, loyalty, and leadership, but so does The Girls Next Door, and I don’t think that is making anyone more religious. Plus, the inspiration for a story doesn’t define it. If it did, Alice in Wonderland would be illegal.I think the only reason to worry about that stuff is if you are so weak minded that you fear that you’ll unwittingly get brainwashed. Which is the exact reason I have never ironically read dianetics or spoken to a scientologist (beyond yelling “The power of Christ compels you!” as I push over their ‘free stress test’ stations).
June 25th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Agreed. Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy a work of fiction without freaking out about the author’s head trip. I grew up reading Orson Scott Card and never picked up on the Mormon stuff until a librarian pointed it out.
Thanks for ruining my favorite book with your paranoia about indoctrination. It’s like finding out the New Zoo Review was prosthelytizing Eckankar.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Just remember, the enemy’s gate is DOWN.
I hear they’ve been working on an Ender’s Game movie for years. Wonder if it will be criticized as much as Travolta’s “Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000.” L. Ron FTW.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Yeah, I’m not happy about it, but they’re doing it. OSC is writing the screenplay himself. I prefer it as a book - so much of it is about internal thoughts, it’s either going to be really boring or over-narrated.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Wow didn’t know about the film. I met OSC many years ago and he was quite kind and didn’t try to make my have polygamy wedding at all.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Have you read The Sparrow? At least in that there is NO question about any religious overtones. I mean, it’s about the Vatican making first contact.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Amen!
June 26th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I’ve read, and enjoyed, Orson Scott Card….but I have moved on to Neal Asher to satisfy my geekness.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
how am I the only person on the internet who hasn’t read “Ender’s Game”
I never even heard of it
at some point in college I realized I was a dork and I finally accepted it and was proud of it, but now I’m suddenly cooler than I thought and its weird and scary
June 27th, 2008 at 8:05 am
I second The Sparrow. Glad to see that somebody’s read it… a neat book that I rarely hear mentioned. The Catholics who got so freaked out about the Dark Materials series must be incredibly insecure.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:00 am
My entire Jew-y family read every OSC book religiously - wakka-wakka!