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Comment by falcolas | Hacker News Reader

I have never quite understood the mythos surrounding Ender's Game. I read it as an adult, and the overarching theme that stood out to me was abuse. Abusing children in general and exposing one child in particular to more abuse because they might be a solution to an otherwise "unsolvable" problem?

It just struck me as ridiculous.

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Yes, there was plenty of abuse going on, and the I.F. thought that abuse was necessary for survival. They never stopped to think if there was possibly another explanation for the first two wars with the buggers and the following calm. They relentlessly pursued extermination of another intelligent life-form at the hands of an innocent minor. In the end it was far from clear whether any of that was necessary, and that is where the biggest uncertainty lies.

It sucks that that was the path they chose, but I can't say that it's something humanity isn't or wouldn't be capable of.

"I can't say that it's something humanity isn't or wouldn't be capable of."

You can't say?

It's certainly something that humanity is, and will remain, capable of.

I just can't say that it's something humanity wouldn't choose over some other option.

I thought the abuse was part of the story. The lengths we will go to preserve ourselves, even to destroying the weakest of us in the effort. The subsequent Ender novels delve into Ender coming to grips with how he was used and what he did.

Granted it's been forever since I read them.

I think it's important to note that Ender's Game was only written to provide the necessary backstory to Speaker for the Dead. With that in mind, when you take both books as one, it becomes more a story about dealing with abuse than the abuse itself.

Would you suggest reading SftD right after Ender's Game? The order is very confusing.

Yes. I consider it an equally good book, though it's an entirely different genre.

The books in the Ender's Shadow series came much later and are more in the same vein as Ender's Game.

Definitely. Speaker is an amazing book. In my opinion, it's much better than Ender's Game but you need Ender's Game to understand it.

I remember Orson Scott Card saying Ender's Game was originally written to provide structure around the idea of the battle room.

Though Ender's Game was later revised. I'm not an expert on those revisions, so it's possible there were some retcons to support Speaker for the Dead.

The short story was written to flesh out his battle room idea. It was turned into a novel (adding the final chapter as a segue and the first couple of chapters as background) to set up Speaker.

I think the book makes the case that none of them are really children, but really adults in children's bodies (with the exception of the first boy Ender accidentally killed).

The book grapples with these issues, and Graff is brought to trial for this.

When I was a kid, I enjoyed the fact that the kids in the book were not infantalized and patronized. I remember being frustrated that people in real life confused youth and inexperience with stupidity and weakness.

To some degree, I'm sure my love for Ender's Game is a result of the nostalgia of finding a story that didn't talk down to me.

Yes!

I think it's hard to fully appreciate Ender's Game as an first-time adult reader.

"accidentally"?

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