Or.. Why i think child protagonists are a bad idea..
My peers have been urging me to read Enders Game for years, touting it as the Essential Sci-Fi Novel, or proclaiming that it is akin to the bible, but with spaceships. Okay, i made that one up, but yeah – they liked it and they recommended it.
But i didn’t read it. Despite my compulsive and consistent book buying sprees, i’ve struggled to make my way through novels for quite a while. Which is a horrible situation to be in when you grew up ravaging every novel you could find.
It was my birthday some number of months ago, and i was given a book i already owned. So i exchanged it for a couple of others, one being Enders Game (yes, i’m getting back to the point..). So i decided i’d give it a read during the few moments i have sufficient attention span to digest the lovely little words and phrases. Which is generally when i’m on the bus.
I don’t want to review the book, i don’t want to spoil it. But i DO want to talk about the main character – Ender.
Wunderkind Ender is a genius, a trait he shares with his siblings. Unlike his siblings, he’s recruited into the military. It’s made clear to the reader that Ender is exactly what the military is looking for. It’s not so much that we decide it ourselves, more-so that the author tells us with the narration vehicle of staff discussion.
We’re educated with the notion that Ender is a strategic genius, able to lead his fellow students better than anyone ever has. We’re also instantly immediately challenged by the fact that he is nine years old, or thereabouts.
Here’s where my rant begins.
As a generality, i think it’s fair to say that adults have forgotten how it feels to be a child, not to mention the way a child thinks. So writing as a child is challenging to say the least. In the same way as it’s hard for a woman to write as a man, and it’s hard for either to write as an animal. This leads, in my opinion, to the vast majority of child protagonists reading like naive or badly written adults.
In this case, however, we don’t just have a naive adult… We have a naive adult who is better than you. But as the book continues on, you’re left looking for evidence of Enders superiority. Okay so he understands zero gravity, and he’s taught people to bend their legs, sure.. Neither of those are tasks the reader sees as impossibly difficult to achieve. I think i’d do fine in zero gravity, and i think i’d do reasonably well when it comes to tactics in the danger room. So why am i to believe that Ender is such a genius? Is it simply because he can do all these things as such a young age? Well then, surely all the older students are getting great praise too.
I can buy the idea that the reason Ender is so magnificent is that he will get more skilful as he gets older, and therefore has a lot more potential than everyone else. But why does that make me enjoy his character? I’m a comicbook fan, i like my heroes to have obvious and understandable powers. To me Ender was just Hey i’m super smart, well.. for my age, i know it doesn’t impress you much NOW, but it will later!!. Big deal, you’re boring me.
As a contrast, consider the book The Contortionist’s Handbook by Clive Clevenger. The protagonist is explained to the reader as having an excellent grasp on size and perception. He can look at an object and make an accurate assessment of it’s dimensions. He also has a great sense of direction, and can generally tell which direction he’s moving in. These are things i cannot do reliably. I can’t look at a book and tell you its accurate dimensions, or get in a train and realise that it’s moving West. So to me, the character is exceptional.
Ender is not, he’s just confusing. The fact that i was left unconvinced by his “abilities” was made worse by the notion that his siblings were both equally “gifted” (albeit slightly less appropriate)! Three child prodigies in this family you say? Well that’s convenient. If Ender is supposed to be the most gifted child out there, so much so that the possibly successful adult future for Ender is worth more to the military than training older students, then surely his brother and sister would be a lot more desirable than they’re portrayed. Plus their mere existence subtracts from Enders apparent godhood.
I guess what i’m trying to get at is:
- if you’re going to give me a child character – make me believe it’s a child.
- if you’re going to give me a prodigal character – give me reason to believe it’s better than me.
- if you’re going to give me a child prodigy – don’t assume i care about it’s future.
This brief rant exists because too many of my friends love Enders Game, and disagree with me, or just don’t want to hear my criticism.
What did i think of the BOOK?
I really enjoyed Enders Game. I have issues with the way it was written, and issues with the concept. But i enjoyed reading it. Okay so there was a part near the end that made me feel like i was shot in the stomach. Reading through the following pages was like bleeding out on the floor. Then there was a little glimmer of hope which was like seeing the ambulance sirens coming, but it ended up being a disappointment much akin to realising that those flashing lights are just streetlights reflected in the dripping blood.
Oh, am i being overdramatic? You’ve not read the book then. I’m not going to give any events away. Which means i can’t justify my opinions. But yeah, i did enjoy the book. I wasn’t happy with Enders concept, so instead i enjoyed his personality. I did the same thing i did to enjoy His Dark Materials, scaled up the characters age a little in my mind to fit the writing style. I enjoyed some of the other characters, and i enjoyed the sci-fi setting.
I definitely recommend it. Don’t let my opinions taint you, because i’m a weirdo.
Tags: novel,
review,
sci-fi,
writing
