Ender’s Game: Homophobia Evolved

Yeah it’s been a hell of a morning and the best I could come up with was a take on the original Halo title.. meh. Let’s get to it shall we. Chair Entertainment has announced Ender’s Game for XBLA, PSN and Windows. The game will utilize Unreal Engine 3 and is based on the novel of the same name. Here’s the interesting part, Ender’s Game is written by Orson Scott Card and has been lauded with numerous awards since it was first published back in 1985. The novel is set in a future where Earth has been invaded by an alien insectoid race called ‘buggers’. It then gets into a whole ‘gifted kids whisked off to Battle School in preparation for a third invasion’ kind of deal.

Sounds fairly science-fiction other than ‘buggers’ being used to describe the alien race doesn’t it, well here’s the thing Orson Scott Card has some very strong views about homosexuality:

“Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society”

So despite this only being related to the game in some small way, since
given it’s an XBLA title it’s hardly going to amount to an all out gay
hate fest, or probably any sort of game worth ranting about, there’s
more to this than that. Card was recently awarded the Margaret A.
Edwards Award by the American Library Association (ALA), an award
handed out to authors who have contributed to young adult literature in
a special way. Essentially Card has been awarded the honor because the
ALA "recognizes an author’s work in helping adolescents become aware of
themselves and addressing questions about their role and importance in
relationships, society, and in the world". Now I don’t want to be a big
spoil sport here, but for many young adults the question of sexuality
may be one of these questions, but it seems Card’s flagrant homophobia
has been ignored when this award was dished out. What sort of message
does this send out to young teens who are aware of Card’s overall
feelings – ‘well you’re queer, which means you’re a sinner, sick and a
deviant and I’m the guy whose just been awarded for helping young
people like you get to grips with growing up’. Give me a break!

… but let’s play devils advocate to the devil for a moment. Should
people truly be up in arms about this (and quite a few are)? If the
work (which is science-‘fiction’) has been awarded, should Card’s
staunch personal opinions even matter? I’ll refer to this as The Robert
Downey Jr. Dilemma – here’s a guy that everyone knows in the real world
aka outside Hollywood, would be a junkie, in jail for doing enough
drugs to kill a horse or in jail for doing something worse to feed the
addiction. In our world though he’s deemed by many to be a great actor,
one of the true greats of our generation (by ‘our’ I mean ‘my’). So
should he not have got that BAFTA or Golden Globe because he was a drug
addict and awarding someone who is sends out the wrong message to teens
– oh well he’s a drug addict, but he’s talented so it doesn’t matter
(and you can safely change ‘drug addict’ to adulterer, thief, drunk and
any of the other celebrity and / or political crowd’s ‘weaknesses’).

So I guess the real question is, should personal belief and politics
cross over into art? Who says there aren’t some gay haters on numerous
game development teams all over the planet? Who says there aren’t loads
of gays there too? Should it matter when handing out Best Game of the
Year Award, if the lead designer is a bigoted homophobe?

Just on a side note, I kind of think the Ender’s Game.. er.. game will
suck, not because Orson Scott Card thinks I should and will burn in
hell, but because Undertow wasn’t that great and neither was Advent
Rising, both previously made by Chair Entertainment.

5 Responses to “Ender’s Game: Homophobia Evolved”

1. Tigger says:

   February 1, 2008 at 12:04 pm

   Orson Scott Card is a massive bigot, he’s widely publicized his anti-gay views all over the place. Now imagine you’re a gay teen and you loved his book because you thought it spoke directly to you, so you come online and google the magnificent author only to find out he’d rather you were locked away than free to live.
   Rant fini
2. Jamie says:

   February 1, 2008 at 6:46 pm

   I’m torn. I think Card’s views are abhorrent and offensive. But, I have to stand up and say he has a right to them.
   I feel I need to say that because if the shoe was on the other foot, and people were crying out for a game not to be made because the author was pro-GLBT rights (Mass Effect comes to mind), we would think it was wrong to suppress it based on that. I think we have to live up to our own standards.
   I happen to like the book in question, and have since it was published. I didn’t learn about Card’s personal views until much later, and I was very personally disappointed by it.
   But that doesn’t lessen the fact that the book is good.
   That said, the game will suck. There’s very little way to make the game into anything either remotely resembling the book, or interesting and good. The company doing it has a poor track record, as you say, and this is not an easy one to tackle.
   Just because it has ‘Game’ in the title, doesn’t mean it will make a good one!
   In this case, I don’t really think Card meant ‘buggers’ to be a negative reference to gay men. The aliens in question were as alien as could be, which as it often does, means insectoid. The bug and hive aspect, while not explored deeply in the first book, .is. important to the overall arc.
3. Angela says:

   February 1, 2008 at 7:20 pm

   I can see both sides of the argument here, but I wanted to say what a wonderful comment Jamie. Thank you for taking the time and writing such a well thought out and intelligent / polite comment.
   I don’t think ‘buggers’ was meant in reference to gay men either, but it is a rather ironic thing to have them be called given his personal views.
   Needless to say I also think this game is going to be pretty dire.
4. sam says:

   February 2, 2008 at 5:04 am

   well, I am really disappointed about this, I had no idea that OSC was such a bigot. I have been a fan of his work since I was a young, I grew up in Greensboro, where he lives so I go to meet him a few times, but it makes me sad. I also agree that the name for the “buggers” is not a gay reference in anyway. The game is going to be bad the movie that has been in pre-production forever will be bad.
5. Istele says:

   March 22, 2008 at 12:44 pm

   Wow, I am so sad now. I read Ender’s Game and really loved it, and I’ve liked a lot of work by Card. I had no idea that he was such a bigot; it’s really disappointing.
   I know that if I choose to read any more of his work, that would colour my perception of it now that I know. Objectively, though, an author or artist’s personal opinions, unless expressed in the work, really shouldn’t matter. In my opinion, anyway. A piece should stand on its own, seperate from the creator, if one can help it.