The gaps between human minds are massive, and Card illustrates this in EG and Speaker, and unlike the empathy fetishizers who like to go on about the "narcisphere," he gets - probably because of his own self hatred - that no one really ever knows another's mind
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Even with telepathic powers, the formics have to construct a video game to understand Ender. They can only understand him through that interface, through his fantasies which is what the book is, too - a window into a fcked up nerd's fantasies that aren't that uncommon
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Replying to @BootlegGirl
It's genuinely surprising to me that people don't understand Ender is an aggressive sociopath when the book states specifically that he was only chosen for training because his traits matched successfully vicious soldiers in the first war.
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Replying to @Animal5pirits
No hard feelings, but this is just wrong. First of all, I don't use "sociopath," it's a tool for psychologizing people in the same way any other mental health slur is, and furthermore, Ender clearly doesn't have ASPD as generally understood bc of how his whole tactics work
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Replying to @BootlegGirl
Fair enough. Perhaps I don't know the correct word for what I mean. I was referring to Ender's lack of empathy (or maybe mercy) that allowed him to hit harder than others and his willingness to completely destroy an enemy without remorse.
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Replying to @Animal5pirits @BootlegGirl
Usually, we celebrate a hero's restraint when using deadly power but Ender had none.
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Replying to @Animal5pirits
Ender has a lack of mercy but not a lack of empathy and the text represents that as bad.
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Replying to @BootlegGirl @Animal5pirits
You'd rather face an enemy with no empathy but plenty of mercy than the other way around
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Replying to @BootlegGirl @Animal5pirits
I'm reminded of Charles Stross' Singularity Sky where the advanced hyper-rational civilization gets attacked by the space Victorian British Empire, swats them aside, then lets them live because there's no rational reason to pursue them
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They could have annihilated them all immediately in vengeance for their own people who were killed but they see no reason to do so, having calculated that the invaders are very unlikely to return as opposed to seeking easier targets elsewhere
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And in fact they regard the idea of avenging the dead and other atavistic human reactions with this reflexive contempt
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