Sci-fi is an expansive genre with varying degrees of technology, space travel, robots, and more. I personally thought of sci-fi as just robot revolutions. Then I read Ender’s Game. I’d seen the movie several years back, another space drama with complicated characters and a plot that didn’t quite click. Everything absorbs better as words, and so I was drawn into the complexities of Orson Scott Card’s mind.
While the characters are fascinating, they make my head spin. Scott Card has way more tolerance for scientific blah than I ever will (why do you think most of my main characters aren’t scientists?). Nevertheless, I did comprehend some interesting elements between the movie and book, especially in the history of Ender’s Game.
What Humanity was Told
There are tons of alien encounter movies, but I think Ender’s Game had the most drastic impact on Earth’s culture. The book sprinkles snippets throughout the chapters while the movie drops it more clearly. Aliens attacked, Earth beat them back. Ever since that time, it’s been a race to create technology and weapons that will prevent the aliens’ return. Children are regualted (two per family unless requested) and rigorously tested to see who’s the fastest, strongest, and most resilient to lead armies. This is actually where the movie makes a mistake because Ender was SIX YEARS OLD!
Sorry, unrelated to the history. But what is related is the singular mission they’ve revealed to the populace. The primary ship attacking Earth was destroyed by a military commander named Mazer Rackham. In the book and movie, this iconic moment is played repeatedly, but we’re told Rackham is “no longer with us.” The tragic history of lives lost and humanity nearly helpless against a foe pushes everyone to do what it takes to prevent tragedy.
What’s Revealed in Ender’s Game
Ender’s Game is a hard book to absorb, but even then the history of this “alien attack” isn’t fully clear. Primarily cause it was buried. While everyone on Earth and in the Battle School thinks they’re preparing for another invasion, several galaxies away humanity is fighting the aliens head on.
After the attack that introduced humanity to extraterrestials, technology advanced quickly. Star fleets were built and launched with hundreds of troops traveling millenia to other galaxies. Because of the time taken, these humans are dead to Earth (a teenager would come back fully grown). This is where we later find Mazer Rackham, training the next Rackham who will end the war.
Which war isn’t the right term as we learn that the lies don’t stop. Ender, the main character, exterminates the alien race in a game, only to learn it was reality. The movie hinted at the rest of the journey, explored through five or so books. I’ll stop here because I haven’t read the other books and I’m almost certain there’s more to the our past with these creatures.
How to Discern Truth from Propaganda?
In writing this post, I realized a very scary parallel between the novel and our present day: truth vs. propaganda. Ender’s world was based on lies, he and his siblings undermining the fragile politics that gave the military an iron grip on society. From education to birth rates, everything was regulated by the military for the military because of a singular event. A televised moment that allowed people with skewed reasoning to commit genocide.
Our world today is consumed with propaganda. Everyone has an opinion they have to share with everyone because if you don’t spew it on social media, it didn’t happen. So where is truth in an ocean of lies? Ender and his siblings had high IQs that allowed them to notice patterns. More importantly, they asked questions and thought critically of everything they were told. This allowed them to put ideas into the world in the same manner, people latching on like a flock of sheep.
Can’t say I understand most of the geopolitics Peter and Valentine spouted, but I took note of their strategy. Think critically, question everything. I personally would add know what you stand for because without a good foundation of beliefs, you’ll agree to anything.