by Doctor Science
I do not plan on seeing Ender’s Game, nor do most of my friends, even though we’re science fiction fans — and even though many of us love the book … or used to.
The problem is Orson Scott Card, author of the book and credited as a producer for the movie. OSC isn’t mere a homophobe, he has used his fame, talents, and (presumably) money to actively campaign against civil rights for homosexuals, including the right to marry.
This would probably be enough in itself for there to be a campaign to boycott the movie. But the campaign is particularly emotional because many fans of the book feel a sense of deep personal betrayal.
As I’ve discussed before, Ender’s Game is a book about (among other things) a child who is abused by his peers and manipulated by adults because he is different. I was in my 20s when it came out, so it didn’t hit me all *that* hard, but for a generation or more of young readers Ender’s Game was a formative experience. As I said before, it
resonated powerfully with other victims of abuse, including gay and gender-noncompliant youth. The message and hope many readers took from the books is that you can walk away from the family that hurt you, and build a more truly loving family outside traditional boundaries. Suffering can make you stronger, and in particular it can help you see the good in the alien, the stranger, the despised.
This is why in 2008 the American Library Association gave OSC the Margaret Edwards Award for “an author’s work in helping adolescents become aware of themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.” Of course the award turned out to be very controversial, because as much help and comfort adolescents got from OSC’s *books*, they would eventually learn that he didn’t necessarily respect *them*.
It’s a tragic and frustrating conundrum, that OSC could write about respect for diversity yet argue against it in real life.
I have my own theories about why this happened.
Source.
SPOILER WARNING: Post and discussion may contain spoilers for Ender’s Game, the book or the movie.