I read Ender’s Game and hated it, so I wouldn’t watch the upcoming movie adaptation even if Orson Scott Card wasn’t a blowhard homophobe. But he is one, which is all the more reason I happily signed Geeks OUT’s pledge to skip Ender’s Game. “Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to… READ THE REST
I know that Card is widely-known to be a homophobe, but it might help your case to cite evidence of that that’s less than 2 decades old.
Also I understand that the man inspires ire but what’s up Frauenfelder? What’s to hate about super-genius kids in a messed up military school space station playing zero-gravity laser tag and ultimately SPOILERS wiping out an insectoid alien race? I’m not a huge fan of all the add-on stories that came later but I have a real soft spot for the original Ender trilogy. You gotta at least admit they’re page-turners.
The preview was enough to make me go meh not worth the $10+ ticket price anyway.
While I did enjoy the book and the rest of the series that was before I found out how much of a dickweed Card is. The preview makes it look like a actionfest space opera which the book while it has some moments is not ‘action packed explosion summer blockbuster FX’ material so yeah as the kids say whatevs.
I still say that the only good thing he ever wrote is the set of sword-fighting insults in Monkey Island.
His response to the nascent boycott is to ask us to “show tolerance”. That’s some balls.
Looks like I’m the one to bring up the old stuff about Ender’s Trilogy being Hitler Apologia
Meh, the book and the movie have nothing to do with homophobia… unless people make it so. Do you really think a boycott will be met with anything other than a “Hey let’s support it BECAUSE it’s homophobic!” response? Hooray! Now everyone is polarized and no one convinces anyone else and the movie makes more money (remember the whole Chick-Fil-A thing? The lines around the block?)
I repeat, the book has nothing to do with homophobia, it’s just a light sci-fi book that I enjoyed as a kid. I’ll probably watch it in theaters 'cause I like 'splosions…
What does he mean by “show tolerance?” Is someone trying to take away his civil rights?
The movie’s going to suck. There’s no way the final scene plays out as other than an anti-climax. Also, I hate homophobia, but I let’s be real: he’s also a Mormon. He’s already cray-cray, and he writes sci-fi. Sound familiar? It’s fucking horrible to hate on people for their sexual preferences, but does it mean that we can’t enjoy the hater’s work? If Paula Deen cooked me some fried chicken, I wouldn’t turn it down because of her racism. Cholesterol, maybe, but the chicken still tastes good even if she shouted the n-word a million times when she made it. I understand that boycotting is a way to raise awareness, but this dude is a certified genius. Pretty sure he’s aware, but just an asshole. I’m not giving him any more of my money, but I’m not going to let his dickiness ruin my memories of his work.
Does not ring any bells… Ok maybe it totally does
I’m glad to hear you hate Ender’s Game, Mark. It gives me a chance to come out of the closed as an Ender’s Game hater.
I suppose I would have liked it if I had read it when I was twelve. I was rejected from all the cool cliques and I was ripe for a Last Starfighter-esque nerd-to-galactic-savior story. But I read it as an adult and found it unpleasant, and not very deft storytelling. I almost read it twice because I thought I was missing something that put it near the top of all the Best SF Of All Time lists, and constantly praised by friends. But at that time I was working my way through a bunch of the Best SF books and found that quite a lot of them are straight up awful. These books might be important to the development of the genre, but they’re not, through a modern eye, good books.
As for his vocal homophobia… I’m mixed on this. Homophobia bugs me and I don’t want to support anyone who espouses it. But If I had to give up the works of all the authors I disagreed with, my life would be less rich. And if I get to know anyone well enough, I’m going to find something fundamentally wrong with what they think. And I’m not sure I’m comfortable vetting every author before I buy their books.
On the other hand if I found out an author does something laudable I usually go out of my way to buy their book or spread the word. Which is in the same spirit as a boycot. Spread the good, ignore the bad.
It’s just a shame that the petition requires a zip code so locks out U.K. citizens. Still I can do my bit by not buying a ticket anyway. IMHO the book was crap.
I’m just glad to hear that I’m not the only one who did not like Ender’s game…
[quote=“Herbie, post:9, topic:3130”]
The movie’s going to suck. There’s no way the final scene plays out as other than an anti-climax.
[/quote]If only they’d brought in M. Night Shyamalan.
This is why I pirate everything. There’s simply no way to be sure that everyone associated with a work of fiction will agree with my views on completely unrelated subjects.
Or maybe just stop with your fallacy of extension and burn your strawman effigy in a fit of rage instead?
Is someone trying to take away his civil rights?
Let’s face it, that’d probably just turn him on.
Why would you assume that Mark’s post is about Card’s religion? None of being Mormon, Christian, or Muslim mean you have to be a homophobe.
…but it helps!
J/K.
/coat.
Assuming that the term “homophobe” means wanting society to promote traditional religious values, as Card does, then yes, it does. This is what religion is.