Sinfest

Sam · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 8567

I just remember ender's game more fondly because, shamelessly, its adolescent power fantasy done right.

I have generally recommended to people that they quit after Speaker, AND that for the love of god they do not research Orson Scott Card at all while reading the books.

(he's a complete shithole of a human being)

eureka00 · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 1706 Location: Pretzel City

Alright, I'll keep Speaker of the Dead in mind. It's hard to ignore two such glowing reviews. And I've heard plenty about Orson Scott Card..ugh.
_________________
Eureka00: "Reminding you of your addictions" since 1982.
*Resident Anime Goddess*
Proud owner of Calisrue.

Samsally · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 4709

I didn't like Ender's Game at all. I didn't get much farther than half way through before I gave up on it.

That was a while ago. Now the only thing I really remember about it is that it was so masterfully descriptive of horrible violence it managed to make me feel a little sick.

(God damn, I swear every time I come in this thread I'm the Queen of Unpopular Opinions.)
_________________
"Samsally is rude and calls people fuckwits." ~ Dogen

Heretical Rants · Joined: 21 Jul 2009 Posts: 2507

I liked Ender's Game

still struggling to keep the author's bigotry from ruining it for me, though
_________________
butts

WheelsOfConfusion · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 10741 Location: Unknown Kaddath

Samsally · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 4709

Good god, the more I learn about this guy the more I'm kind of pleased with myself that his book creeped me out so bad.
_________________
"Samsally is rude and calls people fuckwits." ~ Dogen

Sam · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 8567

more orson scott card

Canopus · Joined: 13 Sep 2010 Posts: 517

Katharine Harmon - You Are Here

It's about destroying homosexuals and their filthy presence upon God's beautiful earth.

But really it's about maps both real and abstract. Or something like that.

WheelsOfConfusion · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 10741 Location: Unknown Kaddath

You know, disregarding my own advice and looking over a lot of Card's crazy editorials, it seems that he has a real fixation on conspiratorial happenings and they're-not-saying-it-but-they're-all-thinking-it explanations. The media is secretly colluding to promote Obama and destroy Fox News. Homosexuals are secretly ashamed of being gay and know it's the result of emotional trauma or some kind of choice. Scientists are secretly disquieted by Intelligent Design arguments, or secretly know that global warming is more dogma than science. It's like he has to explain everything not encompassed by conservative politics in terms of secrets, ulterior motives, and fronts at some level.
The people who disagree with him on the facts not only have to be wrong, they have to KNOW they're wrong.

Sam · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 8567

Yeah also check out his latest on global warming that just came out.

The IPCC is a buncha liars! evil mendacious fact twisters. And global warming actually will do us right and will be good. more crops! something something about trees and carbon,

ShadowCell · Joined: 03 Aug 2008 Posts: 4449 Location: California

school has resumed, so, among other things:

The Shattering of the Union by Eric Walther, about the 1850s in US history and the various crises that culminated in the Civil War. the current gun debate isn't exactly comparable, but i'm struck by how similar the rhetoric of today's NRA and its satellites is to the rhetoric of Southern slaveholders back in the day.

On Philosophy: Notes From a Crisis by John McCumber. the cool thing about reading a book written by a teacher whose class you are taking is that you can go to their office hours and be all "wtf does this mean"

Dogen · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 8539 Location: Bellingham, WA

Like I mentioned in the Q&A thread, I just read The Professor and the Madman, and it was pretty awesome. I had no idea dictionaries had such an interesting history, with murder and asylums and whatnot.

Now I'm finally reading In Defense of Food, which I feel like I should have read ages ago.
_________________
"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

fritterdonut · Joined: 24 Jul 2012 Posts: 269 Location: Krieg ohne Hass.

Went back in time a bit and reread Iain Lawrence's The Wreckers.

It was Lawrence's first published work (1998), and I originally read it in elementary school; grade five I think. It was one of my first forays into more adventurous literature, and I loved it. It helped spark my interest in reading, which more or less helped me through most of school.

Looking back on it, I still love it. It might be simplistic, but the plot is still as horrifying to me now as it was back then, perhaps even more, now that I know it is based on Cornish legend. Maybe also because I've gone sailing now, and have actually almost managed to run aground at night (anchor slipped).

It makes me wonder what kid's literature is like now days. I grew up on Charlotte's Web, The Indian in the Cupboard, and Aesop's Fables. Definitely feel like I need to go back and reread those.

On a completely different note, I finished reading the much more adult Archangel, Fatherland, and Imperium by Robert Harris. All thoroughly enjoyable books based off of alternate timelines of historical events. Fatherland gets a little disturbing, insofar as how things could have played out if Germany had managed to build the atomic bomb and successfully hide the Holocaust. Archangel was good (albeit gritty), and made me want to watch the BBC mini series.

Overall, it's been a good last couple weeks of reading.