Ender's Game and the 1970's Tomorrow People series were
major inspirations for my book series. I saw the Ender's Game movie last night
and I have to say that it was, "inspirational", though the movie felt
a bit rushed. The scene's which depicted some of the formative parts of Ender's
life were hurried along so that there would be time for the dramatic ending.
Another interesting thing was that some of the preview scenes did not appear in
the movie. I suspect the movie was chopped to death and that we'll have to wait
for the "extended cut" DVD to see the real movie. I think we have become
action sequence junkies and we ignore the subtleties of life where the real
shaping of our lives occurs. Lately I've noticed that consumers of the arts
really want the answers to questions raised in a movie or novel plot rather
quickly, not wanting to solve the puzzle themselves. People used to consider
solving puzzles entertaining and would spend time on puzzle like pursuits. This
new cultural idiom has even progressed to schools, where the imperative of
regurgitating answers as opposed to figuring out the answer is at an all-time
high.
That's one thing that makes Ender's Game so timely. Here we
have a kid who has a number of special talents that are truly a wonder. Yet,
developing those talents that can serve the needs of the moment rather than
developing the entire Ender becomes the priority. Ender is a war tool and
people feel his justification for existence is solely for that purpose — his
human and broader intellectual needs are largely ignored as irrelevant. This
can be seen in school testing of talented people, where the capability of
talents of particular interest to industry are tested and any other talents or
learning differences are ignored.
Book #4, "The Saeshell Book of Time Part 4: The
Ceremony of Life” has a subtle quote that addresses this nicely: “For now and
forever, the Nexus you will be. Forever will you be tied to the Saeshell family
tree. Such is the fate for all Children of Sophista. For as soon as they see
how good life can be, they no longer control their destiny.”
You can see this quite clearly demonstrated in Book #1, “The
Saeshell Book of Time Part 1: The Death of Innocents”, which is where the article
illustration came from. As Stefan’s talents emerge, the concern of Professor
Kettil, who really cares about Stefan, is that Stefan not stand out among his
peers. Suddenly, his talents have caused him to lose his cherished, peaceful
home life where he develops his own talents and to be thrust into a strange
environment. Professor Kettil explains to Stefan that “stretching” is
beneficial yet the stretching results in the death of “innocent, creative
Stefan”. This has a nice analog in Ender’s Game where Ender’s connection to his
family and to people he depends on are systematically destroyed. All that is
left is Ender, the strategist, whose feelings are required to be deeply
submerged. Ender, the complete person, is irrelevant.
