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: Orson Scott Card: racist
"Alai was glad to see that these were not the Muslim soldiers of history - few fled from the bullets, and many rushed forward."
Reading Shadow of the Giant, which I got out of the library yesterday (Sandra wants that article comparing Ender's Game to Ender's Shadow written...) and I'm reading it and reflecting that one comparison is Card's 1984ish allegience to an American political ideal of the Enemy - in the original Ender, the Russians were The Enemy, so Card used them: writing the Shadow books, Islam is the Enemy, so although he must deal with Alai, Ender's friend, who in this book he has set up as a (Sunni, presumably) Caliph*, he nonetheless has to make clear that Muslims Are Bad and Islam Is The Enemy. (Card's "of history" is his present time-of-writing early 21st-century world.) There are worse moments in the book than that - but the ugly racism expressed by that one line is so huge that I just had to stop and write it down. Chapter 12, "Allahu Akbar", there's just been an assassination attempt witnessed by these soldiers who ran forward to try to prevent it/capture the assassins, not - as apparently Card expects "Muslim soldiers" would today - running away.
*Actually, so far, I do not see any indication that Card is even aware that there are divisions in Islam which would make selection of a Caliph acceptable to all Islam as problematic as selecting a Pope who would be acceptable as supreme ruler over Mormons and Baptists as well as Catholics and Presbyterians.
Tags: books are what i read, orson scott card, reading empire
"Alai was glad to see that these were not the Muslim soldiers of history - few fled from the bullets, and many rushed forward."
Reading Shadow of the Giant, which I got out of the library yesterday (Sandra wants that article comparing Ender's Game to Ender's Shadow written...) and I'm reading it and reflecting that one comparison is Card's 1984ish allegience to an American political ideal of the Enemy - in the original Ender, the Russians were The Enemy, so Card used them: writing the Shadow books, Islam is the Enemy, so although he must deal with Alai, Ender's friend, who in this book he has set up as a (Sunni, presumably) Caliph*, he nonetheless has to make clear that Muslims Are Bad and Islam Is The Enemy. (Card's "of history" is his present time-of-writing early 21st-century world.) There are worse moments in the book than that - but the ugly racism expressed by that one line is so huge that I just had to stop and write it down. Chapter 12, "Allahu Akbar", there's just been an assassination attempt witnessed by these soldiers who ran forward to try to prevent it/capture the assassins, not - as apparently Card expects "Muslim soldiers" would today - running away.
*Actually, so far, I do not see any indication that Card is even aware that there are divisions in Islam which would make selection of a Caliph acceptable to all Islam as problematic as selecting a Pope who would be acceptable as supreme ruler over Mormons and Baptists as well as Catholics and Presbyterians.
Current Mood: 
bitchy
bitchy