angelic_tears's Full Review: Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game: Special 20th Anni...
This book was first read by me in 7th grade - yes, I was very young, and could identify with Ender. I could pick up the book and say "Hey, that happened to me yesterday." This book was the best one I had read back then, and while now it has been eclipsed by such authors as Thich Ngat Hanh and Marcus Aurielis (I hate spelling his name). However, Ender's GAme still occupies a prominent space on my shelf, showing others how much I prize it.
The basic story of Ender's Game is this: Earth has been savaged by a race called the Buggers 2 times. From these attacks come the International Fleet, a consortium of the various countries, banded together to hold the Buggers at bay. From the various populations of Earth, come the best and the brightest to serve in the Fleet. Out of these promising young children, none of which are over 6 years old, come the students at the Battle School. The Battle School is an elite academy for the commanders of tommorow, and one boy, Ender, is destined to find himself on this station. Isolated from the first, he finds no solace in his search for meaning, and few friends among the other children. Put among hostile environments, playing a real-time battle game 24/7, he is soon thrust into the commanders seat of a game, which turns out to be very real.
However, to me the most important part of this wasn't that an alien race was trying to wipe out the human species; it was that a young boy, around 6 years old, could cause such an uproar and be such a cruz for change for an entire species. This gave me an idea: if such a boy could do that, even in fiction, what was stopping me? I see things that are wrong everyday. I see things that don't have to happen that way, ways to help and heal, to band together for a higher purpose. This was the revelation to me, that I could make a difference if I just try hard enough. To this day, four years later, I am still working towards that goal, and I will still yet work towards this goal. From the works of Locke, Sun Tzu, Thich Ngat Hanh, Machiavelli, come my ideas of how to change this, of how to live longer and more fuller lives. Now, think about this: If a young boy could get all this out of a book, what will you get out of it?
The third level that I saw in this book was the level of philotics. It's a theory that isn't fully explained in Ender's Game, but in the other books in the quartet, it expounds on it better. Now, bear with me; I'm going to try and explain it.
Philotic theory is based around the principle that evry living thing, no matter how small or large, and every object and particle, no matter how small or large, contains an Aiua, or spirit. It is this spirit that binds them to the universe, allows them to exist. Now, when one cell's Aiua binds with another cell, it forms a much stronger twine. think of aiuas as threads. Now, as the cells continue to combine, their aiua grows stronger, until you reach a level like a human, or bat, or fish. now, humans are unique as we know it. We are the only living being, by virtue of strong emotions coupled with a strong mind, that can actually manipulate their own aiuas. see, the twines don't stop at the human level; they continue in our social structure. Houses, family friends; towns, to cities, to countries, to a planet. And each planet to the galaxy, and each galaxy to each universe, and so on, in both ways, so it goes back down the scale too. Humans, by virtue of mind and body, can choose who, and what they want to be closely associated with. For instance, I'm probably pretty twined to anna, because of our relationship, but I'd be twined a lot closer to my parents or someone I've known for a long time. Twins are especially succeptable. And, the more twined you get to the other person, the greater the feelings you share get to be. This is why mothers can tell when their children get hurt; psychics are able to move almost their entire aiua force to a person, allowing them to feel what the other is feeling. by dint of our close attachment to our cells, and our bodies, messages can still be passed from one cell to another while they may be physically seperated. It strengthens the smaller you get; it is inversely related to how small and how long two things have been together. For instance, a meson (The building block of a quark, which is the building block of a partile, which is the building block of an atom) would be connected philotically longer than a cell, potentially for years. we have no idea how long. now, to wrap it up: We are simply a part of something that extends up and down a chain. We are on the chain, which goes on to infinity in both ways. We have meaning, and so we live. Everything is connected.
This was the third revelation I had from this book, and it hasd helped to improve my worldview immensely. Being a Unitarian, it came to be integrated with my own view of religion, and so it became a staple of life. I like it, and it fits.
If one person believes it, is it fiction?
Again, if I got thse three levels, plus many more levels which I would have a lot of trouble putting into words, and I was just a child, what would you learn from it? What can you teach yourself from Ender? GEt the book and find out.
The Earth is under attack and the survival of the human species depends on a military genius who can defeat the alien buggers. Recruited for military ...More at Barnes & Noble.com
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