Reminder that Orson Scott Card is still a crazy right-wing bigot (user search)
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  Reminder that Orson Scott Card is still a crazy right-wing bigot (search mode)
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Author Topic: Reminder that Orson Scott Card is still a crazy right-wing bigot  (Read 3998 times)
Zioneer
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Junior Chimp
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Posts: 7,451
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« on: August 14, 2013, 04:29:18 PM »

I refuse to read Orson Scott Card's books or watch his movies on sheer principle, because I hate his crazy views. Living in a state where he's ultra-popular makes that difficult, but still doable.

Besides, if I want an LDS sci-fi or fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson is much better and doesn't spout his mouth off over everything.
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Zioneer
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Junior Chimp
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Posts: 7,451
United States


« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2013, 01:07:08 PM »

Clearly Card's imagination is still active enough to write good fiction.

Besides, if I want an LDS sci-fi or fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson is much better and doesn't spout his mouth off over everything.

What has he written besides finishing Wheel of Time? (Where I'm nowhere near far enough in to enjoy his work, which is at the very end of the series?)

Well, he's basically written 30+ books, but the main series he's written are Mistborn, the thousand-page long Way of Kings which is part of a planned ten-novel series, a standalone called the Emperor's Soul, and a children's book series or two.

I'd highly recommend the Mistborn series, it's very good. If you don't want to click the link, the basic premise is that a thousand years ago, the heroes lost, and an incredibly powerful sorcerer called the Lord Ruler took over, and he's ruled ever since. There's a magic system based on ingesting different metals (if you swallow tin, your senses are temporarily enhanced, for example, while steel lets you pull yourself towards metallic objects), with very logical limitations, such as the fact that you can only ever have one of these powers unless you're a Mistborn, in which case you can have all of them. A rag-tag band of thieves try to steal the Lord Ruler's riches and get in way over their heads.

In any case, Sanderson's strength is building interesting worlds and great and logical magic systems.
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Zioneer
PioneerProgress
Junior Chimp
*****
Posts: 7,451
United States


« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2013, 03:08:27 PM »

I refuse to read Orson Scott Card's books or watch his movies on sheer principle, because I hate his crazy views. Living in a state where he's ultra-popular makes that difficult, but still doable.

Besides, if I want an LDS sci-fi or fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson is much better and doesn't spout his mouth off over everything.

Wasn't Sanderson the one who wrote rather a...shall I say...despondent article about Dumbledore being gay? (in short; I understand LDS frustration at Dumbledore being gay but have gay characters be normal rather than cliched as even noble heroic characters can be 'wrong' and Mormons don't have to debate against those who support gay rights because their position is universally true and doesn't require defending)

I know espousing cheap and naive views about gays rather than dealing with the reality of the person in front of you being gay is par for the course for the LDS (sorry Zioneer) but he (and I admit he wrote this in 2008 so may have evolved) simply seems to be OSC with his mouth shut.

I don't know about Dumbledore, but I believe Sanderson did write a short article about how he personally doesn't agree with gay marriage, but that he didn't want to judge or have that taint his writing process. Googling it, it seems like he chilled out on Dumbledore a bit. He does admit that he's speaking from a position of privilege, and it sounds like he's endorsing civil unions with all the legal rights and bonuses of marriage. He also says he's more "socialist" then those around him (but in Utah that's not hard), for what that's worth.

To be honest, as long as he isn't a "blaargh Obama blaaargh those dang gays blargh if you criticize the military you are a traitor blargh religion is under attack and socialism is taking over" type, I'm fine with Sanderson being conservative like he is (even though I'm the rare Mormon who is fine with gay marriage being legal). As long as Sanderson doesn't make Hamlet's father a pedophile to demonize gay people (like Card did), and as long as Sanderson doesn't make it perfectly obvious that he himself is hiding something (I seem to remember hearing about weird shower fight scenes in Ender's Game), I think Sanderson's books are okay to read.

And to be perfectly honest, I didn't care when Rowling said Dumbledore was gay. It added another dimension to his character, but it's not like it was a plot point in the books. I do think that it was beneficial in that it encouraged other authors to write or "out" their characters, though.
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