Module Five dealt with the concepts “coming to faith and coming of age,” between which I was, at first, unable to determine a strong connection. It was only after I read Ender’s Game that I recognized the embrace of mysticism and the unknown in both childhood and religion, which usually stands opposed to the proclivity for the concrete, scientific, and realistic in both adulthood and atheism or agnosticism. Science fiction is typically very critical of faith and emphasizes the value of knowing, of deriving a sort of unique magic out of understanding the scientific processes that can bring about uncanny events, or the technological advancements that can engender entirely new ways of living. It is a way to imagine an explicable, yet fantastical, future, a future which really loses its luster if all were to be attributed to the divine, unknowable workings of a higher power. Science fiction is also necessarily a genre that is a home for children and adults who maintain a childlike sense of wonder, those people who can appreciate worlds that are presently impossible, as well as the scientific processes that could create these worlds from our present one.

Ender’s Game was undoubtedly my favorite text out of any we have read so far in this class, which is significant because I was unable to make it through this book as a child. It is odd that this book is a celebration of children, albeit exceptional ones, yet I felt such an aversion to it. I had no interest in the battle scenes, the descriptions of combat tactics, or the dramatic examples of military toughness. I found them gruesome and rather sad for a child to go through, perhaps because I was able to empathize with fellow children, or perhaps because I was unable to empathize with the experiences and interests of young boys. Reading the book this time, I was able to grasp and appreciate the political points, and I was shocked and amazed by the ending. I felt Ender’s rage as if it were my own, and it called forth feelings every child has experienced, that helplessness and anger at the inability to control your own life, and the suspicion that adults are really out to get you and make you as boring and reasonable as they are. The book made points that resonated with me about American foreign policy and the American consciousness. The I.F. had no qualms about calling their films propaganda, editing videos of battle to stoke fear of the buggers and thoroughly convince humans that the bugger war was necessary for the survival of the Earth, dramatizing the buggers’ attempts at exploration and colonization during which, one army official admitted, the buggers never intentionally harmed a civilian population. Instances of major countries using “survival” to justify disproportionate acts of aggression which, however incidentally, bring them major political gains, are among the most prevalent historical themes. Similarly, the popularity of Demosthenes’ arguments for demagoguery over Locke’s case for rationality and peacekeeping, even for the father of the incredibly intelligent Wiggin children, exemplifies just how easily Americans have, historically and contemporarily, succumbed to such base politics.

Ender’s Game did have a strange approach to gender that may have contributed to my earlier distaste for the book. Boys and men are inarguably the most important characters in the book. Petra is a valiant fighter, but she is one of the first to break down in emotion and leave the supposed simulation when pushed too far. Valentine is framed as equal to Peter and Ender in her ability to manipulate situations and people, but she is never the center of anything that does not directly involve her emotions, often to her detriment. She is not the engineer of Locke and Demosthenes, though she is arguably more adept at writing her character, and does not receive any of the fame or power for the political manipulation; she is inadequate for the I.F. because of her empathetic nature; and she is mainly used as a figure for Ender’s growth and stability, who shows Ender unconditional love and helps him when he strays off track during Battle School and before Command School. The most blatant thing was either said directly by Colonel Graff or as an authorial aside, I do not recall, essentially arguing that girls have hundreds of years of evolution working against their ability to succeed in Battle School and their capacity to be good commanders.