***SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!***
One of Ender's most capable and trusted lieutenants during the war was a small kid named Bean. This book tells Bean's story, which kind of makes it less of a sequel and more of a parallel story, or a co-novel, or something. This one is not quite as good as the first, but pretty close.
Both novels are set in a science fiction future where humans have twice fended off an alien invasion. Instead of being a sci-fi tour de force, however, these stories are much more personal and introspective than you had expected. They follow their characters as each gazes inward and struggles with his own sense of justice and with his own capacity for destruction. Bean gives you an enlightening analysis of the same events you witnessed in the last book, but from a different perspective. These novels are excellent examinations of what qualities define our concepts of leadership and morality.
Unlike Ender, Bean doesn't come from a relatively stable home life. He is an orphan and is forced to fend for himself from a very young age. In fact, it is soon revealed that Bean has had to fend for himself almost from birth. It is hinted at pretty early on in "Ender's Shadow" that Bean might be genetically modified. His escape from the facility where he was born and his struggle to survive on the streets define Bean's existence, but his enhancements may be the very thing that gives him the edge to survive. Soon, Bean is noticed and shipped off to Battle School. He is younger than Ender was when he arrived, younger and smaller. At the book's climax, Bean is no older than Nicholas is today, seven years old.
Despite Ender's growing legend at Battle School, Bean is actually smarter than the boy who would eventually save the world. Bean has perfect recall, photographic memory, the ability to speed-read and to pick up languages with ease. When it comes to thinking strategically, he is an unmatched genius. That "different perspective" Bean brings to the story is a laser like focus on what is vital to goals of the school, putting a commander in place who will be capable of defeating "the Buggers." Nothing gets by Bean. He is almost perfect. But he is still never quite as good as Ender.
Even though all the right switches have been flipped in Bean's brain, he never quite makes the other kids adore him the way they do Ender. "Ender's Shadow" makes a compelling case that leadership has little to do with ability. Sure, everyone wants to be on the winning team, but leadership is a quality that is more ethereal than just raw talent. Ender makes the soldiers who fight in his army want to be better, not just better soldiers... better people. That is what makes Ender such an effective leader. He has an empathy and an honesty that people are drawn to, an ease of making others feel accepted while also reminding them that he has high expectations for them.
You've met people like this. There was one kid back in Boy Scouts named Brian Savage (what a great name, right). He wasn't the best at starting fires, or tying knots, or navigating with compass and map, but you would have walked through fire for him. He was competent enough at all of those things that he made you stay sharp, but that wasn't what made him a natural leader, it was his character. He was such a good guy, a guy who would always stop and take care of the weaker or slower scouts, who would always take the time to show you how to tie that knot one more time to make sure you felt confident about it, that you didn't ever want to let him down. Ender reminds you of Brian (except Brian was never accused of committing genocide).
But leadership is not an inherently valuable quality. Hitler was a great leader, but so was Churchill. George W Bush inspired legions of devoted followers, but so did Barack Obama. What counts in the end is not whether you are a great leader, or an inspiring person. What counts is where you lead those who choose to follow you, what you inspire them to accomplish.
Bean makes damn sure that Ender leads his soldiers in the right direction.
Ender is a great tactician. But tactics only win battles, it's strategy that wins wars. And there is no one who is better at strategy than Bean. Even while he is devising the best way to defeat the Buggers, he is also fully aware of the coming civil war that must break out on Earth as soon as Ender's Game is over (and he even cites Rome's collapse after their defeat of Carthage as historical precedent). Bean proves instrumental in helping the leadership of the International Fleet anticipate and prepare for the war that Ender never sees coming.
It seems a bit off-putting that children in a story would be capable of thinking of such grandiose ideas or would be capable of such violent acts, such long term thinking, such wisdom and such insight. In fact, when "Ender's Game" was first published, Orson Scott Card was denounced for just that reason. "Children don't think like this," his critics insisted. "Kids aren't capable of these profound thoughts," they complained. "The youngest among us," they declared, "Do not possess this kind of wisdom or clarity of thought."
Card's answer was simple, but insightful. "At what point in your development," he asked "Were you... not you?"
Brilliant.
You have seen this idea played out before with your own children. Last year, when he was still in the First Grade, Nico started a conversation with you about J. Robert Oppenheimer's existential crisis when he witnessed the first explosion of a nuclear weapon. Nico had watched a video on the history of nuclear weapons in school the day before (and it wasn't even Battle School!) and he couldn't get Oppenheimer's quote upon seeing the destruction his handiwork had wrought out of his head. "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds," Oppenheimer had said, and even at seven years old Nico could recognize the tragic internal struggle of a man who had worked to accomplish some good only to realize far too late that he had unleashed unimaginable evil in the world. Together, you talked about the confluence of science and ethics, about the wisdom of accomplishing something without ever considering the implications. The two of you together pondered the limits of technology and morality, and you both marveled at the accomplishment of J. Robert Oppenheimer and also lamented his place in history. Your little boy was able to add to this conversation, engaging you and participating. He was not a mere listener or spectator.
If Nico, who is not a genetically modified super genius, can have that kind of a conversation with you at the age of seven, then it's not completely preposterous for Bean to glean the course of future events from his readings of history. People tend to underestimate children. We sometimes forget that those brains in their heads are still open to novel ideas, to a simple clarity and honesty unfettered by presuppositions, they are not yet set in old ways of thinking. Books like "Ender's Shadow" make you want to learn a lesson from them and work to keep your mind open and fight to try and forge new connections in your own brain.
So...
On to the next book!
No comments:
Post a Comment