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"Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

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Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#81

Post by Joeboy »

shiven wrote: post #51
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Not seeing a movie' is a pretty small battle. Did you act politically in favor/against the issue? Write a letter to your congressperson? Speak publicly on the subject? We must not imagine for a second that a personal boycott is a significant political/moral act to anyone but ourselves. I agree, you must do what you can, but the movie is a trivial point at best. Your posting on this forum is more significant than, pr…

Voting with your dollars is where it all begins. Don't underestimate the power of a single cent.

That's true if you invest your dollars in supporting political action. A personal boycott is going to have no impact on anything.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#82

Post by algorias »

EnderMB wrote: post #16

It seems like a terrible thing to do to the hundreds of potentially nice people that worked hard on this movie. People will boycott this because of peer pressure, and to follow the crowd. People don't boycott the countless movies based on Roald Dahl books, even though it's very common knowledge that he held strong anti-semitic views. Yes, I think his views are terrible, but that's not going to stop me enjoying his wo…

People are in many senses products of their time. It is a recent phenomenon that people are so acutely aware of discrimination (of all kinds) and the harm it does to society.

If someone was born in a time or place where that kind of awareness wasn't widely established, I'm willing to cut them a lot more slack. See also HP Lovecraft for another famous author whose writings have awkward racist and misogynistic undertones when read from today's perspective.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#84

Post by icebraining »

anonymous wrote: post #49
EnderMB wrote: post #16

It seems like a terrible thing to do to the hundreds of potentially nice people that worked hard on this movie. People will boycott this because of peer pressure, and to follow the crowd. People don't boycott the countless movies based on Roald Dahl books, even though it's very common knowledge that he held strong anti-semitic views. Yes, I think his views are terrible, but that's not going to stop me enjoying his wo…

When I first read the title, I thought they wanted me to boycott the movie because it wouldn't honour the book. Turns out it's because Orson Scott Card is an influential asshole who doesn't like gay people? I'm not sorry, and this is just petty poop-flinging. Hollywood as a whole is full of assholes and I don't see what makes this one special.

Hollywood as a whole is full of assholes and I don't see what makes this one special.

Agreed! Thankfully, there are many movies being produced out of Hollywood. Just from last year, I saw great films such as Amour (French-German-Austrian), Barbara (German) and Lore (Australian-German), which were better than anything I've seen from Hollywood in years.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#85

Post by flatline »

Stranger2013 wrote: post #18

What do you do when you don't like someone's use of freedom of speech? Try recruiting a mob to bully them.

One person's freedom to speak, another's freedom to censure them, both of which are covered under the first amendment. I don't understand the problem with this.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#86

Post by shiven »

Joeboy wrote: post #81
shiven wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voting with your dollars is where it all begins. Don't underestimate the power of a single cent.

That's true if you invest your dollars in supporting political action. A personal boycott is going to have no impact on anything.

Let me put on my Ben Franklin glasses :-) Ahmmm...

A penny saved is penny earned. And that penny can now be used for so much other than supporting bigots.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#88

Post by _b8r0 »

anu_gupta wrote: post #22
_b8r0 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course not, it's much easier to feel self-righteous boycotting one of the greatest living science fiction authors than boycotting the oil that funds this sort of thing. Gay marriage is legal in the US, and rightly so. Neither Orson Scott Card nor middle-eastern oil will change that.

> one of the greatest living science fiction authors Oh please. Ender's Game is a classic. The rest of his work is worse, and the recent Shadow stuff is execrable.

Rather than argue about whether or not he's one of (not the top one) the best living sci-fi authors, how about you post some sci-fi authors that are better than or as good as him?

The only criteria is:

    They must be primarily known for sci-fi
    They must be alive today
That way everyone on HN can benefit.

I'll start with:

* William Gibson * Ursula K. LeGuin * Charlie Stross * Margaret Atwood

Anyone else care to add to the list?

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#90

Post by dsr_ »

tome wrote: post #64
dsr_ wrote: post #37

I liked Ender's Game when I first read it. Then I thought about it. Ignore anything else the author has done: in this particular story, he poses a conflict between survival and ethical behavior, and illustrates it repeatedly... by having characters choose survival over ethics. He makes them heroes for it. Well. That's a brave stance. Except... that every time a character is given that decision, it is also clear, whet…

I've got a sense of what you're talking about, but could you give explicit examples? That would help make it clearer. (I know that some of them will be massive spoilers for those who haven't read the book!)

dmansen's comment in this thread points to an excellent analysis.
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