This is topic Enders Game 20 Years Later in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Antony (Member # 7947) on :
 
So what things do you think would be different about Enders Game if it was writted today? Mostly Peripheral Things? Any major differences you think would be presesnt in this day an age as an effect of any changes in society?

One thing I think... every "Russia" would be "China" ... any thoughts?
 

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Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
 
Its use of Internet discussions and personalities would take modern developments into account.
 

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Posted by Bekenn (Member # 6602) on :
 
Its use of internet discussions and personalities would be far less compelling, as it would all have been done before, and the writer wouldn't have been quite as interested in that aspect.

Aside from that, I doubt we'd see the words "Warsaw Pact" used in quite the same manner, but really, the book has held up very well with time.
 

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Posted by alluvion (Member # 7462) on :
 
There would be more "fart" jokes and fewer nicknames.
 

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Posted by lego feet (Member # 8093) on :
 
Ender would be black and his nickname Tha Ender
 

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Posted by Antony (Member # 7947) on :
 
lol

Fear Tha Ender Yo!
 

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Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
 
EG the book or the novella? the novella was pre Cold war but was the book post cold war?
 

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Posted by Bekenn (Member # 6602) on :
 
Uhh... there was nothing "pre-Cold War" about the short story at all. I can't remember precisely when it was published, but you'd have to go back a few decades to get to the pre-Cold War era.
 

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Posted by Ramdac99 (Member # 7264) on :
 
also "the nets" that Val and Peter post on might just be called "Blogs"
 

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Posted by Antony (Member # 7947) on :
 
I think by "pre-cold war" he meant before the end of the cold war as opposed to before the start of it.
 

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Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
 
Over my dead body would the word "blog" be used in any version of EG.

The novel was written in 1984 and published in 1985, while the Soviet Union still looked like it would last forever.
 

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Posted by Dread Pendragon (Member # 7239) on :
 
My uncle-in-law is a retired FBI guy. He and his wife took me out to dinner when I was at a conference in their city. They took me downtown and he showed me where he would set up surviellance (sp?) to monitor spies from other countries. He was in to counter-terrorism before counter-terrorism was "in".

Anyway, he said that everyone way underestimates Russia's power and influence now, and predicted that they would be large on the world stage soon. (I'm sure he said it in a more sophisiticated, spy-like way.) Anyone might think that now given what is happening in Russia with Putin, but this was about three years ago.

(Oh crap, I'm sorry, this was classified and I'm going to have to terminate everyone who reads this. If you read this please email me your name and location.)

I think the characterizations of Russia were pretty good and still apply. Don't get me wrong, though. China scares the potstickers out of me!
 

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Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
 
Russia is a vitally important, huge nation with a population that is rife with nostalgia over the days when half the globe was USSR. Anybody who writes Russia off doesn't understand geopolitics. Communism was the tool and the excuse of Russian expansionism. But the national will has been toward expansion to a greater degree and for more centuries than any other that is still around. Notice please that Russia has shed only the outer ring of its conquests, and that many within Russia yearn to return them to the fold (watch carefully, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus).

This doesn't mean that Russia will ever DO anything about it. But the will is there, and with a leader who chooses to exploit it for more than personal political gain, it may prove to be a potent, dangerous force.

Keep in mind, too, that any nation that calls itself "the world's only superpower" in a world full of nuclear weapons, powerful ideologies, and nations with huge armies is setting itself up to be sucker-punched again and again.
 

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Posted by teoivan (Member # 8049) on :
 
Hey what do you know about nostalgia over communism at all. The real idea was (I think so and people still believe like this) to live peacefull, have yob and ...(Something like in Amerika but better (ha-ha. Here is aaaaa "thing" called Modern Up-town-small block ghetto.That was Tha PROPAGANDA then: See the people in western world live like that. Stay here)). That is an utopia and eastern Europe and Russia confirmed this. Next experiment, please ENTER! Now is the time of "REAL LIVE BREAK THROUGH". There is a song here "Normal doesn't survived" but we are still alive.
Just notice: I think that "our old" version of EG was "slightly" edited.
Back to Russia. Big countries have statisticaly higher potential. Big people and ideas lived there before because of the fear and/or specific soul condition (cold, vodka, faith, "Want to be different"). Do you ever see a Russian show. They (like most of us "slavic" people)see world through their soul. Compassion is too weak word.
About "the world's only superpower". Do you speak about your self.
 

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Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :
 
What? (Sorry, got lost somewhere in the first 2-3 lines of your post.)
 

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Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by MidnightBlue:
What? (Sorry, got lost somewhere in the first 2-3 lines of your post.)

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