1vw2go ( think i got that right ):
Sure, and I get that argument. I accept it as a valid argument, although I don’t agree with it. There’s this tricky idea of incidental damage ( I think that’s the legal term for it ). Essentially you are arguing that by enjoying ender’s game I am basically providing Card with money for that work. He then uses that money ( some of it ) to harass Gay folks. So I am in effect harassing gay folks by proxy ( at worst ) or simply ignoring that he’s doing that ( at least ). Maybe we call it sin of omission on the lesser side.
Fair call. I don’t think I am assisting him by proxy. Even if I know he’s doing that, what he does with his money is his own business and his own moral dillema. I liked ender’s game, and as a product or artwork it’s accepted as a masterpiece. So, he contributed positively in life and was rewarded for that. He could have spent that money on hookers and blow, or blood diamonds and I’d still not be responsible for his actions. He made a choice. And the consequences are his, and that of the people he chose to lambast. I didn’t shout support for his position. I didn’t stand next to him and nod. I said the guy wrote a solid book. He did.
But, I do know he’s a bit of a bigot. And I know he’ll go on being a bigot. In addition to monetary gains, he’s gained public noteriety and acceptance as a major author. That gives him a big public platform for his hate mongering. And it sucks that he shits all over his literary successes with hate speech and radical opinion pieces. But, I still say that’s his moral dillema. Not mine.
There’s a fundamental reason I do this. And it’s not the ‘not my problem’ approach. At the end of the day, our country is about a person’s right to choose to be whomever they are. If he wants to invest his time in hurting people, we stop him once he’s broken the law. Not before. Because, in this country, people have inalienable rights.
By the same token, if you hate Card because he’s admittedly something of a douchebag and refuse to pay for or read his works… then by all means. Do so. It’s absolutely your right.
But, it’s my right to say Orson Scott Card wrote a masterpiece of young adult science fiction that will likely remain one of the better literary pieces of our generation. And I am willing to give credit where credit is due, even if that person has failed in every other aspect of their life. And I am going to enjoy this beautiful work that came from an unlikely source. Because hell, it is beautiful art. If Card gets money because of that, it’s money he’s earned. And if he wants to go ahead and use that money to shit all over people, it’s his right to choose to do that, and he will have to live with the consequences of that, including folks much like yourself being turned off from his work. The tragedy of free will, and of our basic rights is that Card can and does try to hurt people. And to an extent he gets away with things he should not because of his fame, and because of a general lack of support for gay rights in some arenas. That’s a shit state of affairs. But it has nothing to do with Ender’s game. That has to do with societal problems. It also has to do with the cost of having freedom of expression. I have the right to say that I think what someone else does is wrong. I can say that I think that the way Orson Scott Card spends his money is immoral and deplorable. As he has the right to say he thinks the way some folks use their genitals is immoral and deplorable. We pay a price for freedom. Some pay more than others. And that sucks. But burning authors or their books be it economically or literally is not a solution to that issue.
, while I wish I was NO kind of idiot, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.