As long as it isn't Greg Bear or C.S. Goto (Destiny)

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Wednesday, February 17, 2016, 19:54 (2998 days ago) @ cheapLEY
edited by General Vagueness, Wednesday, February 17, 2016, 20:18

The whole bigot thing is the usual internet posturing we've seen so much of lately rather then any real issue.

While I don't really thing it's the huge deal that the internet went crazy about when the Ender's Game movie was being advertised, it's still not irrelevant, and not something I can see many companies wanting to associate with.

I still like and read his works, but his opinions are more than a little disappointing, coming from the author of the Speaker for the Dead trilogy, which was basically entirely about different species being able to overcome their differences and live together in relative peace.

There's an old, old article somewhere on the Internet (I think written around 2000 and posted to the Internet or updated a few years later?) about someone who was a fan of his work and who had been abused as a child doing an interview with him and (among other things) talking about how that element relates to the Enderverse. They really connected, until it somehow slipped out what he thought of homosexuals (there might have been some sexism brought up too, I can't remember). The article writer went through... almost a crisis of faith or identity, because they couldn't like and respect their literary hero any more, but they couldn't stop liking his books, and eventually came around to the position that you can still like someone's work even if you don't like the author.

I think that's true, and that's how I try to treat some creators of things I like, but I also think for most people it feels like doublethink (understandably, because most artists put pieces of themselves into their work), and I don't begrudge anyone who doesn't want to put in the effort to have that state of mind. I also think some issues are too important to ignore (not to say that this is necessarily one of them, but they exist).

Personally I thought the Ender series (the main one, I haven't read the newer books) was full of peaks and troughs and I kind of wish I hadn't read it because it kept coming back to depressing things and that's what stays with me, but it was well executed and artistically done. I could see that talent applied differently leading to some really good stories.