Talk:Ender's Game/Archive 1

Time Frame

TIME FRAME In Shadow of the Hegemon, page 228, it is said to be 300 years after the U.S. Civil War. AaronCBurke 18:28, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

2002-2004

It is inaccurate that the covers have nothing to do with the content of the book. The first cover, for instance, depicts the simulator that Ender uses.

Removed the paragraph that said "While many claim the novel to be "deep", or to have some semblance of literary merit, Ender's Game does not quite fulfill these praises. Ender's Game is instead, a very entertaining work of science fiction." This is POV and unencyclopedic and sounds like the closing section of a review of the book, not an article about it.

Umm...Noticed this little bit in the article A "jeesh" is a word coined by Orson Scott Card for use in Ender's Game. The word means a group, posse, gang, army, etc. and remembered that in my Arabic textbook (Al-Kitaab fii Ta`allum al-Arabiyyah), a jaysh was defined as an army. Maybe it came from Alai?

Hi, whoever else is editing this at the moment. Good mods. :)

Hi yourself. Thank you. I just read Speaker for the Dead a few weeks ago while in L.A. Good series. --KQ 18:09 Aug 31, 2002 (PDT)

Yup, it certainly is. I'd do entries for Xenocide and Children Of The Mind except it's 2:30am, my head hurts, and i've not read them for a while. I feel i'd probably butcher it. :)

I'll be starting Xenocide in a few weeks.  :-) But first I have books to read for school. --KQ

Xenocide's a bit of a trek, I find. But has good stuff in it. Mostly typing this to try out that cool User: code. Here we go... --AdamWill

Yea hey i was just wondering about the short story what is the deal with that i want to get a hold of one. JS.

The original short story can be read in its entirety on Card's web page: http://www.hatrack.com/osc/stories/enders-game.shtml  :-) Koyaanis Qatsi 16:29 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I don't recall the book mentioning that buggers were more like ants than any other hive-type insects. So I have changed the adjective to "insect-like" rather than "antlike"

---Misfit 17:27, 3 Aug 2003 (UTC)

It says it in EG that they are much like insects and it gives an example of the ant, but good call on your part. Damien Vryce

The Buggers are called "Formics" later in the Shadow Series, which certainly implies that they are ant-like. Leeborkman 06:55, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

---

Some military colleges have used Ender's Game as a textbook on leadership.

Which colleges and when, and how? Or is this wishful fanboy thinking?

I know the marines training center in Quantico virginia does. →Raul654 03:10, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)

The Navy does too. =FaxCelestis 22:09, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

---

"Trivia," by definition, don't belong in an encyclopedia. If the information is trivial, it's not siginificant. If it's significant enough to be in an encyclopedia, it should be integrated into the paragraphs it's relevant to.

Separate article for the series

Should we have a separate article for the series as a whole (as with Foundation Series), or should we just locate the series information here? →Raul654 03:10, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)

Yes, I agree, it should have a separate article. By the way, I don't like how the preceded by/followed by links make Chidren of the Mind followed by Ender's Shadow. I think an internal order would be better than the chronological one, just like in the case of the Robots/Empire/Foundation series. IMHO Ender's Game should have:

[deleted the not-very-clear tables]

etc.

What do you think? Ausir 22:44, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I agree that the series should have its own article. I'm not particularly fond of the tables, however. I had a hard time figuring them out, and I've read the series. →Raul654 22:49, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, maybe you're right. How about having two different table orders then? As there is no connection between the Speaker trilogy and the Shadow series apart from both being derived from Ender's Game, so having "Children of the Mind" followed by "Ender's Shadow" doesn't seem right to me. Maybe like this:

Ender's Game:

Preceded by: The Polish Boy (Short story)	Ender Series	Followed by: Speaker for the Dead
	Shadow Series	Ender's Shadow

Speaker for the Dead:

Preceded by: Ender's Game	Ender Series	Followed by: Xenocide
Shadow of the Giant	Shadow Series

Ender's Shadow:

Preceded by: Ender's Game

Shadow Series Ender Series

Followed by: Shadow of the Hegemon

Shadow of the Giant:

Preceded by: Shadow Puppets

Shadow Series Ender Series

Followed by: Speaker for the Dead

(as I suppose he's going to connect the Shadow Series to the Speaker trilogy somehow in the last Shadow book - IF Shadow of the Giant is the last one, of course).

Does it make more sense now? :) If this version also isn't clear enough, I vote for simple internal chronology instead of publishing order. Ausir 23:28, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I like it them, but I am not fond of having two articles for the series (Shadow Series and Ender Series). →Raul654 23:42, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)

Both can link to the same article (Ender Series and Shadow Series), and be displayed separately only in this table :). Ausir 00:04, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

How about instead of calling them "Ender series" and "Shadow series" (which are distinctly misleading), we call them "Ender Quartet" and "Bean Quarter". Also, we should link one (but not both) to the Ender's Game series article (that does not yet exist). →Raul654 00:26, Feb 19, 2004 (UTC)

It does now: Ender Series :) Ausir 00:32, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

FYI - I moved it to Ender's Game series, which I think is a better name. →Raul654 00:33, Feb 19, 2004 (UTC)

I added the new table to the Ender's Game article, and linked Ender Quartet to Ender's Game series, and Shadow Quartet to the paragraph on Shadow Series in Ender's Game series. Ausir 00:41, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I saw - it looks good! →Raul654 00:42, Feb 19, 2004 (UTC)

Sentence incomplete

Near the end, there's a sentence that ends "this has been dubbed the." Anyone know what that's supposed to be?

Hehe, yea - I tend to do that when I write a long article. I fixed it now. →Raul654 23:41, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)

Cleaned up table format

I did some cleanup on the table markup in the article to make both the markup and the table cleaner. Gray for the header background is just an arbitrary neutral choice. Just wanted to catch it before it propagates too far. :-) Also--I could quickly change this to the newer wiki table markup if you wanted--even less markup's involved. Elf 01:35, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Yes, absolutely. Please do. →Raul654 01:38, Feb 19, 2004 (UTC)

OK, I did. Also stuck <div> tags around the table to reduce the font size somewhat because I think full-size table text looks a little too in-your-face. But that's easily removed if others don't like it. Elf 01:59, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

check this out

military nintendo complex

http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id390/pg1/index.html

Prescient for predicting newsgroups?

I'm curious why Card would be "remarkably prescient" for writing about things similar to newsgroups, on-line discussion boards and blogs, since it was published in 1985 and that sort of thing had already been going on for at least 10-15 years (though nothing was called a "blog" at the time, and I'm not sure that what Card was writing had much resemblance to the blogs of today).

Even the idea of being able to hide your identity so people wouldn't dismiss you for reasons such as "he's only a kid" were well known (although the famous cartoon "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" wasn't published until 1993). What Card did get right was how important something like the Internet would become, but to many people on the Internet and other on-line communities of the time, it wasn't that big a leap, it was just wondering when it would happen (though few predicted just how fast it would explode once the trigger, i.e. Mosaic, was pulled).

I agree. Usenet was created in 1979, and BBSes were popular in the early 1980s. The first "true" laptop, the GRiD Compass 1101, also came out in 1982, according to the Wikipedia article, and was being used in the Space Shuttle during the 1980s (i.e. they weren't too obscure for Card to have known about them). So Card didn't foresee much technology that didn't already exist (besides holographic displays, IIRC, which still don't exist); rather, he predicted their eventual ubiquity, which wasn't that unique for an SF writer even then (Neuromancer beat him to the punch, for example). skoosh (háblame) 19:07, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Hitler connection

I've read an interesting article on Kuro5hin, and am checking out the claims made within. It is interesting to note that there was really an essay entitled 'Ender and Hitler: sympathy for the superman' which appears to make the case that the book Ender's Game is an apology for Hitler and a justification for genocide.

I do believe that these elements should be included within, and hopefully we can get some more background on this issue. The Kuro5hin article link from the first paragraph is an excellent place to start. --ShaunMacPherson 07:10, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Having read the essays, I'm not certain the 'controversy' is of a stature worth including. A minor author writes a weak critical essay that Card rebuts, and the whole thing is forgotten until her boyfriend dregs it up on kuro5hin as a personal attack on Card to get more attention, and to further drag some dead author's name through the mud with a dubious account of a drunken party that's directly rebutted by someone else there.

Do you have a source for the rebuttal? I read that it appeared in the same magazine; is it available online? --Yooden

For Card's rebuttal, I think it's as inaccessible as the original article. For the reuttal of the party story, look in the comments of the Kuro5hin article. JJ 04:25, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Just because someone thinks there's a controversy doesn't really mean there is. JJ 06:04, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Just to round out the details (rather than just mention the first article and leave it), I've added some detail on the four essays / articles that touch on this topic and described them at a very high level. No, I don't think this article is the place for a long debate on the nature of Ender Wiggin. Partially, this is because I don't think it's fair to Card. He has said that that was not his intent, and while it's fun to speculate past that, I don't know that it's useful. However, this debate is a matter of record, and should be noted for historical purposes. -Harmil 29 June 2005 21:06 (UTC)

I clarified a bit about Kessel's essay. It's not actually about the Hitler issue, but it does touch on it. Kessel is actually writing about the intention-morality system that Card promotes. I also added another section about some serious critical discussion of the book that expands on Kessel's essay a bit and also mentions Norman Spinrad. -- Bornyesterday 14:03, July 19, 2005 (UTC)

"The criticism seems invalid however, for Ender is not really a leading force in the conflcit, in fact he is more like a tool used for an end."

This is biased and should not be included. Seems is not a word you should see in a encyclopedia User:Thorton

The whole Hitler 'controversy' is a laughable smear campaign by a handful of crackpots, and I fail to see how it can possibly be considered appropriate in an encyclopedia article. I'm calling for removal of that section until someone can provide examples of Wikipedia articles with similarly obscure criticism that has been deemed suitable for inclusion. A Kuro5hin thread and some isolated article in an SF journal are not sources of notability. "In particular several authors have made the case..." - This is ridiculous. "Roger Williams" is not some sort of author. Self-publishing sci-fi on the Internet is a hobby, not a profession. The opinions of some Joe Blow writing Kirk/Spock fanfic are not grounds for a consensus among 'several authors'. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.79.138.212 (talk • contribs) .

Also, I am not sure that she represents a "heavy" in the field. She doesn't have any hits on Amazon.com, and I can't really see her having any credibility. This has been flimsy since the beginning. Why is it still here? -Scm83x 07:55, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Typical over analysis that every popular literary work gets. Get rid of it. Yoink23 19:17, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Done. —Frungi 03:42, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Influences

I removed the following claim that Evangelion is inspired from Ender's Game from the article. This is a dubious claim and it shouldn't be in the article without proof. The supposed "parallels" are weak (Ender is a superman, Shinji is a wimp; Graff is a kindly fat man, Ikari is a cold lonely bastard). There is no really convincing evidence of "inspiration" (unlike say Lion King/Kimba the White Lion), and since Ender's Game is AFAIK not especially well-known in Japan there's no reason to think that the Evangelion creators might have read it. Redquark 2 July 2005 18:21 (UTC)

Ender's Game is widely regarded as the inspiration for the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, although anime otaku and purists tend to react violently to any comparisons. Nonetheless, the characterization in both the anime and novel are extremely similar, such as drawing parallels between Ender and Shinji, or between Colonel Graff and Commander Ikari.

I was under the impression that the main inspiration for Neon Genesis Evangelion was the New Testament, with Shinji as the unwilling Jesus figure. =FaxCelestis 22:07, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

I actually found Ender to be more similar to Kira from Gundam Seed. Both cried a lot, both whined about how they don't wana fight, both don't like killing, both happen to be very good at killing and warfare. Except I hate Kira, and I like Ender a bit (not too much though).

In any case, I believe it was Gunbuster that was directly influenced by Ender's Game. Incidentally, Gunbuster was created by the same company, and the same man who created Evangelion, so that's where the confusion probably came from. Malamockq 14:17, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually, most of the main pilots from any Gundam series tend to be very good at killing and hating themselves for it - I wouldn't say they were directly influenced by Ender's Game, since it seems to be a recurring theme in a lot of action-oriented anime. And according to WP:NPOV, we can't really cite any "influences" unless there is stated proof thereof. Virogtheconq 00:15, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I wasn't saying Kira was influenced by Ender, I simply said that they were very similar. And not all Gundam main pilots hate themselves for killing. Heero didn't. Neither did the guy from Gundam X. Never saw much of the UC series so I can't say about that. Malamockq 13:32, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually, Ender seems to dip into a very common sci-fi/fantasy plot, in which a gifted youngster becomes the central figure in the universe, and goes through the various stages of reaction - denial, resentment, acceptance, etc. See Dune, Neon Genesis, Robert Jordan, Star Wars, Nausicaa, Gene Wolfe, Raymond Feist, Buffy, and probably many others. I would think that all such works are influenced by those that have come before. And all of these obviously borrow from classic Messiah stories.Leeborkman 02:16, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

It's known as the standard hero story. Check out Norman Spinrad's writings to find a good summary of the issue. Bornyesterday 03:34, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Bean

There doesn't seem to be mention of Card's book Bean. Why's that? - Ta bu shi da yu 13:12, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

As far as I know, there is no such book. Do you mean Ender's Shadow? Head to Card's website to check for the book you're thinking about. -Scm83x 13:58, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Revisions in 1991 version?

I've heard that some of the changes in the '91 edition could be considered significant. Anyone know what the changes were (or a site that lists them)?

I believe that the change included the removal of the N* word, which was a change made in order to satisfy the claims of reviewers claiming OSC was racist. Funny, though, he mentions the part of the story it was removed from, and it was in an anti-racist situation. That's all I know of.

One thing off the top of my head is the tiny detail on Valentine's secret file that is to be opened upon her death. "my secret file, which will be opened" was changed it "my secret file in the city library, which will be opened". Seems trivial... (Chapter 2: Peter)

OSC meantioned that he made changes to the book because of the Challenger crash. He wanted to change the text that said that there had been no shuttle crashes to there had been no shuttle crashes from the earliest days - I heard this at EnderCon or read it in the beginning of the revised Ender's game.

Short Story vs. Full Book

I just read the original short story as per Card's website and it doesn't merely focus on battle school like is stated in the article. It Goes from when Ender becomes an army commander in battle school to after the war, when Anderson and Graff are sitting in the park. I didn't want to change it since I'm so new to the topic. Yoink23 20:37, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Done, I think… take a look. —Frungi 07:14, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Special Edition?

Does anyone have any idea what the “Special Complete Edition” means? What was added to make it “Complete”? —Frungi 03:49, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

No idea. I know he wrote a new introduction for the '99-ish release. =FaxCelestis 22:08, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Mormonism

Orson Scott Card is also a member of the Mormon faith - is there any connections in the work?

Nothing extremely overt. Bornyesterday 06:26, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, there is, actually. Ever read folk of the fringe? Mormonism affects his writing very much.

I think Bornyesterday means it doesn't affect the Ender series very much, which is correct. --Lethargy 20:55, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. Bornyesterday 04:08, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, there is lots of discussion out there about the way Card's Mormonism is evident in the later books of the Shadow series. There's definitely a philosophy about what gives life meaning (marriage and children) that is promoted by various characters (if not by the author himself). Perhaps there are some hints of this in the later Ender books. Certainly, at least, there is a great deal of moral and metaphysical discussion in the last 3 Ender books, although it's difficult to say how much this is affected by mormonism (I don't know enough about that subject myself to offer an opinion). See ya. Leeborkman 04:34, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

I would have to say that his morality is strongly affected by his Mormonism, but frankly that could be said of just about any author, whether it is in acceptance or rejection of religion or any form of morality. Frankly, I find his writings a breath of fresh air in a genre that is generally antagonistic towards all religious belief (an unnecessary attitude, whether one believes any particular religion or not---and he certainly doesn't believe all the religions he portrays, not even the ones he portrays sympathetically).

Starship Troopers

Are you 64.66.85.99 (talk · contribs) presenting your own thoughts about Heinlein's Starship Troopers? "Wikipedia is not original research." Despite your point 2, morals are front and center in his novel. The protagonist-narrator Rico is profoundly influenced by his teacher of "History and Moral Philosophy" and those classes are discussed repeatedly in the book. Hu 07:38, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Ender's Game: Questions and Emails Answered

I've emailed Orson Scott Card over the years and asked him several questions. Here is a list of Q&As that, of some are interesting, and others there seems to be much confusion about.

Notice: These are all direct responses from OSC himself from [OSC's email address removed by Raul654. Check page history]. Everything in italics are direct quote from Mr. Card.

Ender's Game cover: The original Ender's Game cover was actually created for a space game published in England. So the artist had never heard of Ender's Game when he drew it.

All Ender books: The covers of Speaker, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind have nothing to do with the book. They were chosen only to look like the cover of Ender's Game, which also had nothing to do with the book.

Timeline: Never saw the movie Timeline, never read the book. Crichton, when he's good, is pretty darn good. But when he's bad, he's ...

Sequel to Children of the Mind: The followup to Children of the Mind will be written by me and no one else.

Opinion of books at church: Some people are offended, and some are delighted. I never ask people in my ward or stake whether they read my books, and the only ones who mention my work seem to be the ones who enjoy it. But I'm aware of criticism, and my only answer is, if you think I've done it wrong, write your own book to show how to do it right.

Xenocide ending: Most of the storylines go on and are completed in Children of the Mind.

Only the story of Qing-jao ends at the end of Xenocide.

She is a tragic figure - she IS holding to a lie, but it is the lie that gives her life meaning. And other people see saintliness in her utter faithfulness. Many who are revered as saints or other types of religious figures are in fact adherents to something akin to madness; but their very fanaticism is inspiring to others. So even if we reject what they believed, we can still admire their strength and courage and faithfulness. After all, Qing-jao was not a liar, she was lied TO and does not believe that it was a lie. She is absolutely honest; a victim of a lie.

You phone# is listed. Could I really reach you if I called your house? You forget - my books appeal to civilized readers who would never dream of intruding <grin>. The listed number is answered during working hours by my assistant, other times by an answering machine. But it rings in our kitchen, among other places, and we always answer, one way or another.

Advent Rising novel: There'll be no Advent Rising novel after all - not by me, anyway. The rights to the novel are tied up with a company that is bellying up, apparently - so the creators of Advent and I are collaborating on a completely different game project. It's the novel I'll be finishing before Christmas.

List of Armies in Battleschool

Suggest that List of Armies in Battleschool be merged into Ender's Game, or some other related article with some content. The current article is just a list, with no real content. Comments? --John Nagle 20:58, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

As is, I would agree. I think the list could be expanded to include more information though, which would warrant its own article. Alas, I haven't got my copy of Ender's Game with me, so I can't do it. jacoplane 21:10, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe merge it into the Battle School article. Tim! 20:59, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Use in Military Schools

I've added an example of this, and removed the 'citation needed' tag. I got that information from http://www.frescopictures.com/movies/ender/enderbook.html Is this enough proof to warrant my removal of the tag? If not, how do I put it back?

Ender, not Endor as Turkish name

In the trivia section, a Turkish male name is mentioned. The correct name is exactly "Ender", pronounced "An-there", not "Endor". (There is no such word as "Endor" in Turkish, according to the Turkish Language Institution's dictionary.) "Ender" does not mean "One in a million", it means "very rare". I have not changed the article to fix this, assuming that this piece of trivia is taken from an original source (for instance an interview with Card or something) and might reflect the way Card mis-heard the name. If this is the case, a reference to that source is needed. Erkcan 11:58, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Style

I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to include a bit about the style Card uses throughout the Ender books - such as the quotations at the beginning of (almost) every chapter that usually provide some omniscient viewpoint to the otherwise third-person-limited events of that chapter (particularly EG and the Shadow books). If this is something Card uses in his other works (which I have not read), then it's not notable enough to include here, but if it's uniquely used in the series, then perhaps it should be noted somewhere. Virogtheconq 15:04, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

It isn't something he does in his other books, but then, it isn't an uncommon or unusual style in itself. Not really worth noting in my opinion. Bornyesterday 17:49, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, I think it's somewhat notable since it changes the narrative structure of the story - the entirety of the story is told from a third-person limited perspective (Ender, Valentine, and to a limited extent, Bean and Graff), but some of the grand revelations (such as Stiltson's death) were made from this semi-omniscient viewpoint, which changes how they're perceived later in the book. Dunno, I just think it's worth a sentence, but I won't put one in if there's sentiment against it. Virogtheconq 19:21, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

A sentence is fine by me. It just seemed at first glance that you wanted to make a big deal about it. Go for it. For things like that, I'd say just make the addition. If someone takes issue with it, then you can discuss it. Bornyesterday 22:11, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

I see no reason why this should not be included, even if other books (none that I have read come to mind) use the same style. Since he uses this style in every book in the Ender's Game series, perhaps we should include something in that article as well. --Lethargy 13:41, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Cover picture

Does anyone have a picture of the cover without the whole "4 dollars off" sticker on it? It just seems kind of strange for that to be there since it seems like something added either by the bookstore or for some special limited-time deal by the publishing house... any thoughts? --Ampassag 08:19, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Changed to an early edition HC cover without sticker. Grey Shadow 08:49, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Nice... I think that looks much better no? --Ampassag 22:43, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Sales

What a great book. Does anyone know how many copies it has sold? Its probably a lot. I was looking around on Amazon for Shadow of the Giant (which was around 5000th in sales) and Ender's game was around 300th. Impressive.--Cms479 13:01, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Irrelevant external link

The last External Link to Ender!Krum appears irrelevant. It links to the blog of a man who's name is Ender Krum, and appears to have no information about the Ender series at all. I think it should be removed, but I've so far never removed information from a Wikipedia entry before. Does anyone agree?

You are quite right. Go ahead and remove it. Don't be afraid! :) Bornyesterday 20:45, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

2 Questions

Do Virlomi and Nikolei Delfiki even belong on the list of characters, or were they introduced in the Shadow series?

What are the sources for the information in the film section? The Ender's Game (film) article does not cite any sources, so I can't take any from that. --Lethargy 01:11, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

More formally known as "formics"?

As far as I can recall, the Buggers are never referred to as Formics in Ender's Game. Can anyone cite an example? This and "jeesh" are the two new words that crop up in the Shadow series, and have always seemed like weird revisionism to me.Leeborkman 06:53, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Norman Spinrad's critique??

It is mentioned that Spinrad critiqued EG, but there is not mention of what he said. Can someone who knows fill this bit in, otherwise we could probebly lose the Spinrad referebce completely, which would make thKessel's the only referenced ciricism left. Leeborkman 21:51, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

It's been a while since I've read it, but the main article that Spinrad included in the book was a comparison of 4 novels -- Dune, Ender's Game, The Stars My Destination, and one of Spinrads own novels. It is primarily comparing the success with which the authors presented their main characters as literary heroes and comes to the conclusion that Card failed. But without the article, adding more would be tough to do. Bornyesterday 22:30, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, I've included a link to a brief analysis of Spinrad's argument (it's a pretty superficial qualm with the book Spinrad has but necessary unless we delete the whole thing), but I'm new to this whole web editing thing and need somebody to add the bullet point and source it to the article. Thanks! BTW I also integrated the mention of Spinrad into the paragraph on criticism and added about the themes being continued in further books to flesh it out a little. Feel free to polish - I'm still new here. Primalscreamtherapy

Ansiblemoo

There is a MOO rpg for ender's game. Could someone please either make a section on it in this article or make a new article on it? The site is www.ansiblemoo.org.

"In-Universe" perspective should not be used for plot summary.

I wasn't the one who included the template that critiques the plot summary, but I can see that the template is correct, ie the plot summary as it stands is written from an "in-universe" perspective, as if the fictional world were the real world. Reading the linked policy, I see that this violates WP's guidelines and should be remedied. That's tricky, but we must realise that WP is not the back cover of a paperback, but a dry reference work. Anyone care to comment, or suggest a basic strategy? I suspect that we could get by with an occasional )once a paragraph) out-universe reference, eg "Ender's Game tells the story of Andrew (Ender) Wiggin, a child soldier being trained by the International Fleet..." Difficult to keep that up.. any ideas? Leeborkman 12:03, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I haven't really looked too closely at the plot summary here, but via WP:FICT:

Wikipedia articles on works of fiction should contain real-world context and sourced analysis, offering detail on a work's achievements, impact or historical significance, not solely a summary of that work's plot. A plot summary may be appropriate as an aspect of a larger article.

The implication here is that the plot summary may be written from a mostly in-universe perspective as long as there are significant other areas of the article which address the out-of-universe significance - which this article does (or at least tries). Certainly the summary sections needn't be very long or pointed, but a distillation of all the key points in the story (with the aforementioned occasional OoU inserts), so it could probably use some tweaking/rewriting. Virogtheconq 15:35, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I am inclined to agree that plot summaries can be largely or wholly "in universe". Certainly using artificial means to comply with an OOU style would not add to the article. Rich Farmbrough, 09:44 30 November 2006 (GMT).

There is a specific mention in the guideline that plot summaries may well be in universe. Also on the discussion page there is clearly a considerable dispute about the guideline. I've removed the template. Rich Farmbrough, 10:11 30 November 2006 (GMT).