From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri Aug 01 2003 - 12:03:35 MDT
Damien writes
> >I just want to know), if you recall, was the other species
> >(in *that* book alone) represented as having any compassion
> >for humans? Were there such parts?
>
> See, this is what I find most mind-boggling in your faulty recollection of
> the book. How could a reader have missed this pivotal moment of cognitive
> and affective breakthrough?
You have neatly explained *why* I forgot it! It made so damned
little sense! (I have a lot of trouble, I readily admit,
recalling nonsense.)
> I guess I just have to type the damned thing out:
Thank you. I, too, have made numerous sacrifices for the sake
of the truth ;-)
> Andrew Wiggins (Ender) speaks of the hive species, the `Buggers', he
> exterminated:
>
> < They found me through the ansible, followed it and dwelt in my mind. In
> the agony of my tortured dreams they came to know me, even as I spent my
> days destroying them; they found my fear of them, and found also that I had
> no knowledge I was killing them... We are like you; the thought pressed
> into his mind. We did not mean to murder, and when we understood, we never
> came again. We thought we were the only thinking beings in the universe,
Now how likely is that? We haven't met any other thinking
entities in the universe, and it would come across as pretty
suspicious as an excuse for waging war. ("Oh, sorry---I didn't
know you were alive.")
I know that this was not Card's intent, but in retrospect it was
a coolly told story to at least get Ender to save the Queen.
(I remember that much, though maybe Card only added that in
the insipid sequel to this great book.) It worked, and she
was not killed.
So frustrated at the syrupy story "Speaker for the Dead" did
I become, that I began fervently hoping as I read it that the
Queen would roar back at first chance, and exterminate the
whole stupid human race. It would serve Ender and the rest
of the idiots right.
> >And if somewhere there is a race of totally genetically determined
> >entities open to no dialog at all, but among whose purposes is our
> >complete elimination, then why don't aren't you in favor of us
> >completely wiping them out if we can?
>
> I'd be up for that, implausible though it seems.
Okay, thank you for answering.
Lee
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