[ExI] why the book is better

[spike at rainier66.com]

…> On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] why the book is better

 

>…On re-reading you noticed the mistake, eh?

 

No, do explain pls.

 

>…Has anyone got good examples of films that were at least decently parallel to the book?   bill w

 

Ja, where I was going with this notion originally: it has been said one should never seek to meet one’s living heroes in person, for it is nearly always a disappointment.  

 

Well.  To some extent this is true, but certainly not always.  

 

About ten years ago, Natasha More organized a transhumanist sci-fi conference at UC San Francisco.  I volunteered to be the gate keeper, so I was out at the front desk as biggity biggies from the sci-fi world came and went.  Of course I was star struck, but hid it well, until about middle of the morning, sessions had been going on for a couple of hours, I was idly chatting with another one of the volunteers, when I notice in the distance… coming our way… up strolls… Orson Scott Card.  It was the man himself.  No band was playing, no acolytes collecting pebbles from the path upon which he walked.  Just came up, introduced himself, I acted as if I didn’t already know damn well who he was, calmly directed him to the auditorium, waited until he was out of range to shriek and faint like a desperately infatuated teenage fan girl.  

 

At the lunch break, I managed to talk to the man.  Nicest guy, unassuming, not at all self-aware, acted like he never wrote a word, perfectly normal human being, except… with Enders Game inside of him.  WOWsers.

 

Coupla years later they made a movie of that.  I went, assuming Hollyweird would mess it up, but I was pleased to see the script-writers had realized what Card was doing, and did as good a job any in conveying the real point of Ender’s Game: that warriors are generally deluded into fighting.  This general notion applies to culture warriors as well.

 

In the past three decades, we have had a good strong Reddit community, where good books are discussed.  Movie makers can read that and get a good solid take on what is wrong in a book and what is right.  To some extent they can fix the shortcomings and emphasize the strengths, if they know where they are, which is something the Reddit community is good at finding and explaining if one has the patience to wade thru the reams of silliness.

 

After all this time, there is still an active Enders Game discussion group.  Collectively it is very insightful.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

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