Sunday, August 17, 2008

the game of war: of mice or men?

It took me 24 hours to read shadow of the hegemon. I slept in between this time, went grocery shopping with my husband, and sent out more emails for jobs and a church hunt etc. Apparently I thoroughly enjoyed this book to have finished it so quickly.

War is such an interesting thing. I like what orson Scott card does in his books. He paints the picture that man will always have to be at war with something or someone. Once the war of the worlds was over men on earth immediately sold their previous alliances when there was a common enemy and began new wars consisting of the typicals Russia, china, Asia, and the us. Much like in lord of the flies. The ending of that book just kills me. I hate it so much because it is so true and yet we will never learn. The adults find the children and think they have turned savage since they are fighting and killing each other. It is thought that the children don't know any better since they are so young. Then the officer who finds them turns his gaze out to his own ship: a ship of war. He was himself doing exactly what these children were doing. The problem being, he is an adult: he should know better. He has no barbarian excuse such as being left alone on an island with no rules and no conscience. This is much like cards formic war turned to the war between the hegemon and the Warsaw pact.

I realize if you haven't read either of these books you will be lost in these comparisons. A problem with a simple solution: go read the books! I don't enjoy the lord of the flies all that much, its pretty distasteful at times, but if every gig schooler is meant to read it and you slipped through the cracks its a good one to have as a knowledge base. And the ender and shadow books by card are some of the best I've ever read.

The innocence of the children in each story also reminds me of another innocent little child fighting off pirates on never never land. I leave you with his parting thoughts.

"that was a great game!"

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