Books I Loathed discussion

I got into OSC back in Junior high school with Seventh Son. I loved that book. Fast forward to 2001 when I read Ender's Game.
The thing is, he's starting to seriously frustrate me. No, he's been frustrating me for years. I read the Bean Series and it seemed like nothing more than an excuse to nag people about morality, marriage and babies! The relationships were unbelievable. Constantly the reader is told about these smart characters and how they are the smartest people in the world, but they do incredibly stupid things.
After reading Ender in Exile and his rants and raves against gay people, I'm not sure if I want to read anymore of his books. In fact it seems to taint the books I loved by him before when I realize that they were also filled with nagging, with stereotyped ethnic characters and morality, morality and more MORALITY!
Then he has the nerve to call JK Rowling's writing self indulgent when he can't go a page without possessing a character and lecturing them. Books 4 and 5 of the Harry Potter series are way better than the movies and they are not bloated at all.

Is anyone else as frustrated with Orson Scott Card as I am? All the inaccurate rants about gays makes me want to pull out hair and scream.

That dude makes some good points. I totally agree with him... Card's morality is kind of warped and it's extremely frustrating.
It's especially annoying the way in the Bean series Ender's parents magically become super smart and intelligent, but if they were so smart wouldn't they noticed their oldest son bullying the youngest children?
That drove me up a tree...
Plus he referenced Alice Miller who is extremely cool. OSC's morality gets more warped as the series continues.

HA! It's annoying how much he wussified Peter in the Bean books. I don't like Peter much, but you got to admit he is a bit more interesting then Ender who is just guilt, guilt, more guilt and angst and a marriage that sucks.
He turned him into someone so depended on his now SuperSmart parents.
I don't know why he couldn't have just stopped with the last Ender Book because those were tolerable, but a super smart character, suddenly supersmart parents and nagging. URG ><
No, he's not very good in dealing with characters that aren't solidly good or evil instead of in between and mixed. It's rankles.

you know, I thought of myself as liking the Orson Scott Card books, but reading the above, I find I can't disagree with very much. I never did like the Bean series very well. I think he was making so much money off Ender, he just kept cranking out more and more...

Anna wrote: "Re: Morality- Card is a practising Mormon, like Stephanie Meyer, and also like SM, he uses he fiction to promote Mormon values. Which are kind of warped :)"

So that explains the manipulation of children and the endless killing of locusts.

Actually, I never picked that up in his writing.

But be fair, unlike Stephanie Meyer, OSC can write.

It's his money, I don't much care what he does with it.

He entertains me. That's all I ask for from him.

I try not to follow a lot of this kind of info about writers. I mean, I know that Harlan Ellison is reputed to be cantankerous, and I find that amusing, but I don't rate his writing based on someone else's personal commentary about him.

Anna wrote: I guess my politics are more important to me than being entertained in some cases. The LDS church basically funded the Prop 8 movement in cali with the proceeds of their tithing policy. It makes me not want to economically support Mormons or Mormon funded enterprises.

Anna, I feel the same way. I feel like knowingly giving money to a Mormon business is throwing money toward a cause I find morally objectionable. I sought out and bought Ender's Game used to specifically avoid giving Card my money (I have yet to read it.) I read an interview with him defending his Church's actions on Prop 8 that just sealed the deal for me.

Really? Meh. I know several people who liked it including some non-religious friends so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm very turned off at the moment though.

thanks for the heads up.

Science fiction. Maybe I'll read it and skip the sequels. If I can watch and love Big Love, I can handle this.

Orson Scott Card used to be one of my tangential reads, his Homecoming Saga (Earthfall) was a nice escape for one with puerile naivette (as I was in 4th grade), but as I continued the series when I grew older, my interest in World Religions paid off. I discovered disillusionary and disheartening references to the Book of Mormon, inconspicuous allusions, and egregious morality-thumping. Orson Scott Card has perverted the realm of Science Fiction with his ignorant pedantry, and he continually espouses his warped morality and personal ethics in his books. He is a part of the National Organization for Marriage*, an antigay foundation dedicated to the eradication of gay marriage and civil union. Be warned. It's the closest thing to brain-washing you will ever get to. His writing has become muddled with personal opine, and I can no longer respect him as an author.


*Here's the link:
http://www.nationformarriage.org/site...

Yeah, that is what has made me stop reading him.
Neil Gaiman doesn't do stuff like that. I hate it when writers take over characters and nag you.

I don't know....its hard for me to put aside my politics in Card's case....especially since I am gay. I will admit he is a GREAT writer....but I can't in good conscience support him and his bigotry.

Harlan Ellison is one of my favorite writers of all time since so many mentioned his name. Yeah, he's a grumpy jerkass....but he's a jerkass with a heart of gold if you really look into his life and what he believes to be right and wrong. For all his snarking, Harlan is actually a pretty good guy underneath it all....wish I could say the same about Card.

Card has recently expanded his repertoire of awful to include racism:

“Having been anointed from the start of his career because he was that magical combination—a black man who talks like a white man (that's what they mean by calling him "articulate" and a "great speaker")—he has never had to work for a living, and he has never had to struggle to accomplish goals. He despises ordinary people, is hostile to any religion that doesn't have Obama as its deity, and his contempt for the military is complete.”

This is in reference to Obama (and I'm not saying anyone has to like or dislike Obama's policies, that's irrelevant to how wrong-headed Card's statements are), whom he believes will create a future in which he utilizes "Black street gangs" to control the population. Pretty sick stuff.