At this point, I have read all three of my American Author Novels: Ender's Shadow, Speaker for the Dead, and Shadow Puppets. I decided to put down Shadow of the Giant in exchange for Shadow Puppets, as I feel Shadow Puppets would add a chronology to the story. These were all very entertaining, but also quite deep and interesting, with many options for a good thesis. The books were heavily tied together thematically, but they all covered different aspects of the same theme. From the beginning, (because I read Ender's Game before I started this project) I was considering a thesis involving the power of the mind., because Card's characters are the most intelligent on Earth. So far, my only idea for a thesis that I deem worthy:
Card's style eloquently and realistically depict the human mental process, despite the amount of communication that is lost in the translation between a thought and language. This adds a brilliant depth to all characters into whose minds you get to gaze. This writing speaks to and helps the reader relate to some of the enigmas that come with thought: the difference in thought processes under different emotional conditions, the moral and philosophical aspects, and the logical dilemmas that are also and most commonly faced. This brings to light such problems as the fact that strong emotional impulses such as love are inhibited by over-analysis because of the almost nonexistent amount of logic they require. Card invites readers to not only delve into the minds of his characters, but their own as well.
Well, something like that. There's a lot to cover, so it needs to be long, especialy for a ten page paper. I could work on tightening it up, but I want to keep most of these points in here.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Post 6
I haven't read anything this week, and the week off has been great, but now I need to get back to the reading. I'm going to pick up Shadow of the Giant, which follows Bean's story after his time in battle school. I've been thinking about the books over the week and I've been contemplating the author's overall view of nature. In finishing Speaker for the Dead, I uncovered some very powerful and deep quotes from the book that an entire paper could be structured around. One of those included:
"For he loved her, as you could only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of your deepest sorrow."
From quotes like this which there are enough of to compile, I could form a thesis covering these quotes and how they give a deeper insight in to the characters and their motivations than other pieces of literature.
That's the kind of stuff I'm dealing with here. A lot of material.
"For he loved her, as you could only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of your deepest sorrow."
From quotes like this which there are enough of to compile, I could form a thesis covering these quotes and how they give a deeper insight in to the characters and their motivations than other pieces of literature.
That's the kind of stuff I'm dealing with here. A lot of material.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Post 5
I've finished my second book quite early so I'm going to take a week off from reading. I've started to notice the difference in illustration of mental processes between the two series' of books. From Bean's stories, the thoughts are colder and more logical. From Ender's perspective, the thoughts are more empathetic and emotional. I could compare the two sets of books and characters for a paper. I'll have to read my third book for sure.
Possible thesie:
"The difference between Ender's and Bean's psyche force Card to adopt a different writing style for each book and show his versatility as a writer and storyteller."
Possible thesie:
"The difference between Ender's and Bean's psyche force Card to adopt a different writing style for each book and show his versatility as a writer and storyteller."
Sunday, March 2, 2008
I have finished Ender's Shadow and am now moving on to my second book, Speaker for the Dead.
Bean has helped Ender to destroy the evil alien race and is now contemplating the imminent war that is soon to follow on earth when the "Buggers" are no longer a threat.
Orson Scott Card doesn't use symbolism. Plain and simple. All those flashy descriptions and mental pictures of visual perception are nonexistent. Instead, he fills that large spacial gap in writing with detailed maps of the human mental processes. These processes, given the extreme intelligence of the majority of characters in these books, point to future plot development more directly without the use of symbols, just by illustrating the power of deductive reasoning. This in itself, the power of the mind, could be a great theme for a paper if it continues in the second book.
I could definitely see writing a paper with this thesis: "Card's lack of symbolism in his work opens up a large amount of open space in his writing which he chooses to fill with elements of characters that are more important to the plot and contribute more to the story than symbolism ever could."
I hate symbolism and the lack of it is refreshing.
Bean has helped Ender to destroy the evil alien race and is now contemplating the imminent war that is soon to follow on earth when the "Buggers" are no longer a threat.
Orson Scott Card doesn't use symbolism. Plain and simple. All those flashy descriptions and mental pictures of visual perception are nonexistent. Instead, he fills that large spacial gap in writing with detailed maps of the human mental processes. These processes, given the extreme intelligence of the majority of characters in these books, point to future plot development more directly without the use of symbols, just by illustrating the power of deductive reasoning. This in itself, the power of the mind, could be a great theme for a paper if it continues in the second book.
I could definitely see writing a paper with this thesis: "Card's lack of symbolism in his work opens up a large amount of open space in his writing which he chooses to fill with elements of characters that are more important to the plot and contribute more to the story than symbolism ever could."
I hate symbolism and the lack of it is refreshing.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
2/26
I've started reading with a fury, and I've already hit page 336/467. So far, Bean has been taken off the streets where he used his wit to survive and been recruited to a battle school while a nun tries to find out the secret by his ungodly intelligence and reasoning skills. Bean is rising fast in the ranks in battle school while mysteries of his shrouded past are being uncovered. I've learned a LOT so far, but one thing has really stuck out to me. Where most authors try to use symbolism and hints that are to be interpreted by the reader to predict the plot of the book, Card uses something else. With all this writing space filled with vivid descriptions and figurative language that is empty now, Card instead fills it with incredibly realistic mental journeys that often describe one single thought the character had and all of the steps it took him to get there. You can tell if the thought happened instantaneously or it took more time than it did for you to read the paragraph. It is the most accurate simulation of an actual thought using a human language I've ever seen and there are great indications of Card's writing styles and themes of the book in these mental tangents. I am definitely sucked into this amazing book and I'm not coming out until the end.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
American Author Proposal
Arin Schwartz
Block A English
1/24/08
American Author Proposal: Orson Scott Card
The American author I have decided to propose to you is Orson Scott Card. He has written many books in many different genres, including fantasy and biblical novels, along with poetry and many plays and scripts. The main area of writing Card is famous for is his science fiction novels. There are different series’ with a large number of books in each, but all the series’ are connected somehow. His most famous works are Ender’s Game, Ender’s Shadow and Speaker for the Dead, which are all quite well known and are becoming increasingly used as a teaching tool in classrooms. Card’s birthplace was Washington (America) and he grew up in assorted states, the main ones including Utah, Arizona and California. When he is not writing, Card is teaching writing and literature at Southern Virginia University. He also served in a mission in Brazil in the early 1970’s, emphasizing his Christian beliefs which (thankfully) do not appear strongly in his science fiction novels.
Card as a writer is fascinating to me. There is one theme/topic I am growing increasingly interested in as I think more about his books. This topic is the depth in which Card explores the raw power of the human mind. He uses this to attempt explain the motivations behind every human’s actions. Card points out the sheer depth of the mind and makes his best guess at explaining it, but my favorite part about his writing, being the logical guy that I am, is the way it entices your own thoughts about such an intriguing subject such as psychology. It’s not technical psychology either. It’s emotional and rational psychology. It’s the very same stuff that I love to explore on my own with meditation, so it’s great to see someone who can provoke such thoughts and yet still entertain me in other ways.
Card has written countless books and played a very important role in the many genres he has added his work to. I however, plan to stay strictly in the science fiction section of his work, because it is the only section that interests me (Biblical novels… gross.). if all goes well, the very thing that draws me to Card’s writing is the subject that I will be able to write my ten page paper on. If this theme and explorative nature of writing style continues across multiple books of his, I could go twenty pages about this subject if I wanted to.
I do not have a definite plan for which of Card’s many books I will read yet. Since I like to finish things after I start them and I have already read Ender’s Game and there just happens to be a total of four books in that particular series, I may just read the next three and finish that series off. If I for some reason get wind that the Ender’s Shadow series is more appealing, I may just switch over and read the first three books of that series. However, because the themes in Card’s writing I love so much were present in Ender’s Game, reading the rest of that series will probably be my best bet if I am looking for a continuation of such themes, as they will have the same characters for the most part.
In closing, I’d like to say that I am looking forward to this project quite a lot. It gives me an excuse to actually sit down and read a few great books with no distractions. I believe Card’s novels will be quite entertaining, and that is a large reason why I chose him as well. I could not sit down and read three novels by someone who I thought was boring. I just couldn’t do it.
Block A English
1/24/08
American Author Proposal: Orson Scott Card
The American author I have decided to propose to you is Orson Scott Card. He has written many books in many different genres, including fantasy and biblical novels, along with poetry and many plays and scripts. The main area of writing Card is famous for is his science fiction novels. There are different series’ with a large number of books in each, but all the series’ are connected somehow. His most famous works are Ender’s Game, Ender’s Shadow and Speaker for the Dead, which are all quite well known and are becoming increasingly used as a teaching tool in classrooms. Card’s birthplace was Washington (America) and he grew up in assorted states, the main ones including Utah, Arizona and California. When he is not writing, Card is teaching writing and literature at Southern Virginia University. He also served in a mission in Brazil in the early 1970’s, emphasizing his Christian beliefs which (thankfully) do not appear strongly in his science fiction novels.
Card as a writer is fascinating to me. There is one theme/topic I am growing increasingly interested in as I think more about his books. This topic is the depth in which Card explores the raw power of the human mind. He uses this to attempt explain the motivations behind every human’s actions. Card points out the sheer depth of the mind and makes his best guess at explaining it, but my favorite part about his writing, being the logical guy that I am, is the way it entices your own thoughts about such an intriguing subject such as psychology. It’s not technical psychology either. It’s emotional and rational psychology. It’s the very same stuff that I love to explore on my own with meditation, so it’s great to see someone who can provoke such thoughts and yet still entertain me in other ways.
Card has written countless books and played a very important role in the many genres he has added his work to. I however, plan to stay strictly in the science fiction section of his work, because it is the only section that interests me (Biblical novels… gross.). if all goes well, the very thing that draws me to Card’s writing is the subject that I will be able to write my ten page paper on. If this theme and explorative nature of writing style continues across multiple books of his, I could go twenty pages about this subject if I wanted to.
I do not have a definite plan for which of Card’s many books I will read yet. Since I like to finish things after I start them and I have already read Ender’s Game and there just happens to be a total of four books in that particular series, I may just read the next three and finish that series off. If I for some reason get wind that the Ender’s Shadow series is more appealing, I may just switch over and read the first three books of that series. However, because the themes in Card’s writing I love so much were present in Ender’s Game, reading the rest of that series will probably be my best bet if I am looking for a continuation of such themes, as they will have the same characters for the most part.
In closing, I’d like to say that I am looking forward to this project quite a lot. It gives me an excuse to actually sit down and read a few great books with no distractions. I believe Card’s novels will be quite entertaining, and that is a large reason why I chose him as well. I could not sit down and read three novels by someone who I thought was boring. I just couldn’t do it.
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