Saturday, November 2, 2013

The game belonging to Ender

Ender's Game is out and of course this had led to a flurry of chat about whether or not the odious views of the author Orson Scott Card should be grounds for boycotting the movie.  Card isn't just an opponent of legalized same sex marriage - he advocated that sodomy laws be kept on the books so that people who did not conform to cultural standards could be imprisoned.  The dude is full on bigoted and crazy.  However, that isn't enough to convince me to boycott the movie.

The book (and the movie from what I hear) really don't have anything at all to do with Card's terrible beliefs.  If it was a book all about God burning gay people for being bad then yes, I would boycott it.  However, if you look carefully at every author you have ever enjoyed and examine their politics you will undoubtedly find that many of them who are currently alive have highly objectionable viewpoints and the great majority of the dead ones do too.  Shakespeare was probably a real jackass if you dig deeply enough.  Are you boycotting pretty much everything until you properly vet the full writings, opinions, and actions of the author in question?  I bet not.

So if you, like me, think Card is an asshole then what you should do is watch the movie if you want to and ignore it if you don't.  Talk, blog or write about what a jerk he is and how much you hate his ideas loudly and publicly.  Donate a dollar to an organization that promotes same sex marriage if you like - that will be a vastly greater sum that any amount of your movie ticket that gets spent on causes you hate.  Don't conflate watching a movie that is apparently reasonable but not superb or boycotting said movie with doing something important.  Or just lie and tell everyone you are boycotting it and then go see it anyway after donating to a cause Card hates; then you get the best of all words.

Personally I probably won't see it.  I loved the book and it was very impactful on me as a teenager but I kind of doubt the movie will be anything but a bunch of special effects wrapped up in in a veil of disappointment.  Rather than boycotting the movie I simply am not going to care very much.

4 comments:

  1. Mostly agree. Two things:
    1) Shakespeare doesn't get paid when I buy a copy of Hamlet.
    2) Boycotting things because the people making money from them have publicly advocated for bad stuff sends a pretty good message. It might get people who want to make money to not publicly advocate for bad stuff.
    I likely won't see the movie because I can't be bothered. Haven't read the book. I'd feel fine about buying the book used......

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  2. It is true that Shakespeare doesn't get paid for Hamlet but Card isn't getting paid either if the news is to be believed. People are still boycotting it anyway, and they aren't boycotting other dead authors who get the same zero sum from ticket prices.

    I think this has brought the issue to light and the boycott got attention. However, how many extra people heard of the movie because of the boycott and end up seeing it because of that free advertising? Is yelling about the movie actually going to make the movie make less money? I kind of doubt it. Basically I think it is useful to use this as a talking point about bigotry but I don't know that skipping the movie is a big deal.

    The negative attention that this garnered is probably useful. I bet a lot of folks who have attitudes like Card's will realize that the world increasingly does not tolerate such things.

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  3. Agree. Good stuff.

    Is Card really not getting a cut of ticket sales? Would be interested in knowing for sure but can't be bothered to look.

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  4. "2) Boycotting things because the people making money from them have publicly advocated for bad stuff sends a pretty good message. It might get people who want to make money to not publicly advocate for bad stuff."

    Given that people disagree on what stuff is bad, I worry that it leads to people who want to make money not publicly advocate for stuff. Hence why this post is anonymous.

    Report that Card doesn't get a piece of the box:
    http://www.thewrap.com/orson-scott-card-boycott-enders-game-box-office-book-instead

    --Kilan

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