Home Entertainment Orson Scott Card responds to calls for boycotting of ENDER'S GAME; asks for "tolerance"

Orson Scott Card responds to calls for boycotting of ENDER'S GAME; asks for "tolerance"

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I think we can all agree that Orson Scott Card is a really talented writer. Unfortunately, we can also agree that he is a vitriol-spewing bigot. Card has made a number of increasingly inflammatory statements over the years regarding his controversial stances against everything from Muslims to Mexicans, and recently his diatribes against same-sex marriage got him removed from a highly touted upcoming Superman writing gig for DC comics. His detractors don’t want to stop there though, as groups have sprung up calling for a boycott of Gavin Hood’s upcoming adaptation of Ender’s Game, Card’s most famous literary creation. 

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In response to the calls for boycott from site like SkipEndersGame.com, Card has issued a statement (via EW) asking folks to not drag the film into this fight.

“Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984.

With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot.  The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state.

Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute.”

Now I always used to be of the opinion that we should separate creator from creation. When Tom Cruise was busy destroying Oprah’s furniture and eating placentas for breakfast, there were many people who outright refused to see any of his movies, as they refused to fund his crazy as well as the coffers for the Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a highly prominent members. But these very same Cruise-hating people had no problem in forking over their R40 to see movies starring known drug addicts/alcoholics, etc, as I would often remind them.

It’s certainly a slippery moral slope, and one I’ve always avoided by objectively looking at the product and not the person behind it. Now, I’m not so sure. Card has been increasingly aggressive with his bigoted rhetoric, and now with this snooty and ironic response asking for “tolerance”, it may just be one phobic rant too many for me.

I’m still conflicted though, as effectively boycotting Ender’s Game would certainly decrease Card’s platform for his hateful soapboxing, but it would also hurt the careers of writer/director Gavin Hood (who really needs a pick-me-up after X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and rising young stars like Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin. This movie’s failure may just be a blip on the career radar of established hands like Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley, but these youngsters are far too talented to have their opportunities blunted by the miasmic stigma of being attached to a movie based on a book written by a loud mouth bigot who thinks that gays “cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.”

What do you guys think? Should Ender’s Game the movie be boycotted because of its author, or should we not have our opinion of the one influence the other?

Will I see Ender’s Game? Yes, I’m fairly certain I will. Will I be buying another Orson Scott Card novel again though… that’s a whole other question.

Last Updated: July 11, 2013

19 Comments

  1. I think it is actually ridiculous and hypocritical that people fighting for the equal right of living style and ideals of one group maliciously target another person for their personal views and belief.

    Card has full right to his personal views and beliefs and to voice his opinion, as long as he is not hurting or violating the rights of another person.

    I find this on the same level as boycotting a brilliant author or actors work because they are gay.

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      July 11, 2013 at 10:02

      The argument is that he’s saying hurtful things towards these people. I’m not saying I agree with it, but that’s the argument.

      Reply

      • HvR

        July 11, 2013 at 10:27

        If you feel hurt by a persons views it is your own problem, as long as he is not saying hateful things.

        Reply

    • James Francis

      July 11, 2013 at 10:21

      Your final line makes an interesting point.

      Reply

  2. James Francis

    July 11, 2013 at 09:50

    If I had to boycott Card’s work over his opinion, I’d have to do the same with Heinlein and Philip K. Dick, who both held some controversial views. Also, if it has to go all the way, shouldn’t people also boycott Iron Man? Card’s writing has been instrumental in that regard. And we oughta also stop supporting anything by Frank Miller, who is well-known for his far-right opinions. Dr. Seuss also made several rather racist and anti-Semitic political cartoons in his days and Hugo Boss manufactured Nazi uniforms. Let’s not even go to what Henry Ford and Walt Disney thought or wrote.

    I say keep creator and creation separated. Let Card have his opinions – it’s not as if Ender’s Game is propaganda.

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      July 11, 2013 at 10:01

      I’ve already seen it mentioned on a number of sites that people are now reading Ender’s Game in a different light, seeing all sorts of “propaganda” in the story all of a sudden.

      Reply

      • Trevor Davies

        July 11, 2013 at 10:14

        People often see what they want to see, or expect to see.

        Reply

      • James Francis

        July 11, 2013 at 10:15

        It reminds me of the same issue with Starship Troopers, which is an uneven commentary on Fascism. Ender’s Game follows a similar trend and if there is a theme, it’s to ponder whether the ends justify the means. What many readers perhaps miss is how the experience changes Ender to a very contrarian position, something you see in the second and third books. But I never felt Card was intentionally pushing that view and if he did, it was incredibly subtle. Still, because of those thematic elements, it would be easy for a prejudiced reader to find what they are looking for.

        Reply

        • HvR

          July 11, 2013 at 10:42

          Well I think people “remember” Starship Troopers more pro fascist that it actually was due to the movie (I love both though as separate pieces). The books portrayed a multi-racial society with democratic representation where voting right is earned and not a given this was totally removed in the movie.

          Heinlein was actually a hippie before it was cool (practitioner of free love and a nudist before WW2) and later on became more conservative before going back to be an individualist

          Reply

          • James Francis

            July 11, 2013 at 14:48

            It’s wasn’t pro-fascist, but certainly had commentary on a proto-fascist society. Though there were elements of democracy in it, the book focused a lot on the jingoistic nature of the two wars against the aliens they fought. The movie followed a similar theme (though sans one of the races) and I think the sentiments were similar.

            The Starship Troopers universe was certainly nothing like the egalitarian society seen in Star Trek. Or maybe I should go read that book again. It’s been a while 🙂

        • Trevor Davies

          July 11, 2013 at 13:30

          I was completely surprised when I first saw someone moaning about Ender’s Game being filled with homophobia. Thought maybe I should go read it again because I totally missed it.

          Reply

  3. Trevor Davies

    July 11, 2013 at 10:09

    Both sides have freedom of expression. I just find it slightly amusing that he’s calling for tolerance when he has a financial stake in the matter.

    As to whether the creation should be separate from the creator, only the person viewing the creation can make that decision. If the creator holds a position that you strongly disagree with then it’s not so easy to separate the two as they are seen as linked, as opposed to someone who is not affected by that position and judges the creation purely on their impression of it.

    As a simple example, what would you do if someone made a fantastic product that you really want, but you know that half the proceeds go to a cause you despise?

    Reply

    • James Francis

      July 11, 2013 at 10:21

      Well, I love The Movies, but it worries me that it stokes Kervyn and Darryn’s egos…

      Reply

      • Kervyn Cloete

        July 11, 2013 at 10:41

        Why, I oughta…… :p

        Reply

    • HvR

      July 11, 2013 at 10:26

      I agree that it is a personal choice at the end of the day.

      ButI think the line is crossed if you mobilize organisations and groups with the purpose of financial damage or exclusion from a society.

      I also feel that they are (and I want to include Kervyn in this group) scewing the facts and using selective quotes using the word bigot to portray him a preaching hate speech where as he is only voicing his opinions which is coupled to his strong religious views. Ironically they themselves becoming intolerant and bigots.

      The only way a free society exists is if you accept that others are allowed their views and opinions even if you do not like it.

      Reply

      • Kervyn Cloete

        July 11, 2013 at 10:46

        Well a bigot literally means somebody who treats others with hatred/contempt due to their prejudices, which is exactly what Card has done.

        I’m one of the most open minded people you would ever meet, and i have no issue with just about anybody (except telemarketers!). And I agree %10000 that there’s absolutely nothing with having views or opinions that go against what some people believe, but you can voice those opinions in a dignified manner, which is what Card has not done.

        Reply

        • HvR

          July 11, 2013 at 11:06

          You are using a single quote he said to a Mormon/LDS audience two decades which he retracted in 2011.

          Can we get a transcript of everything you said in your lifetime take a single sentence and judge your whole life’s work on it?

          Reply

          • Kervyn Cloete

            July 11, 2013 at 11:24

            I’m using a single quote in this case for the sake of article length. My opinion of him as a bigot is not just based on that one quote though. He’s stated numerous things on several different occasions throughout the years, stating that gays were the results of “tragic genetic mixups”, that same-sex marriage is “an act of intolerance” itself, that it will “strike a death blow against the well-earned protected status of [his], and every other, real marriage”, that homosexuality is actually the result of being raped or sexually abused, and much more, as recent as just a few months ago.

            And as a board member of the National Organization of Marriage, he’s actively tried to impede the rights of gay Americans through legislature. That’s not even just words any more, that’s taking physical action.

            So yes, I consider him a bigot based on those and other examples.

          • HvR

            July 11, 2013 at 11:38

            All those very screwed up opinions analysis were said in essay’s and work targeted and within the LDS church and him part of National Organization of Marriage is his full political right.

            As long as those opinions stay within those organisations it is his free right to do so and as long as he keep those out of his SF literary work I will support him.

            And I grant you your right to disagree with him and not support him, I do however take strong opposition with you being part of a group maliciously targeting his work where there is no evidence if his stances influencing his work. In that context I put you on the same level as church and activist groups mobilizing to get teachers, doctors or whoever fired because they are gay.

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