Ender’s Game Read Along, Wk 3: The Science of the Story

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ENDER’S GAME POSTS: Introduction, Week 1: Sci-fi and Orson Scott Card, Week 2: Ender vs Peter, Week 3: Science of the Story, Week 4: Conclusions

Welcome to Week 3 of our Ender’s Game Read Along!

PODCAST PARTICIPANTS

John Ottinger is a writer, classical educator, and dad.  His reviews, interviews, and articles have appeared in WORLD magazine, Publishers Weekly, Black Gate, Strange Horizons, SF Signal, and Tor.com.  He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in English at the University of Central Florida with research interests in Science Fiction, Christianity, and Southern Literature.  He blogs at Graspingforthewind.com.

Jack Mertens is a freshman college student at Louisiana Tech University. When he’s not studying or doing homework, he’s probably reading, writing, playing guitar, watching a TV show, attending a Bible study, or hanging out with friends. He is also a regular contributor to the blog Thousand Mile Walk.

Abby Burns is is also a Redeemedreader intern and a rising college freshman in Richmond, Virginia.  She has had a love for literature her whole life, stretching all the way from Dr. Seuss to Dostoevsky. Unfortunately, like many readers, she had to learn at a young age that she could not survive on eating, sleeping, and reading alone. (She says she gave it her best shot, though!) Now she divides her time between her family, preparations for her first year of college, and work with her youth group.   You can read more of her work at www.wordsoundimage.tublr.com.

And of course, I’m Emily Whitten, mom, WORLD magazine writer, and host for this read along.  You can read more about me in Redeemedreader’s About page.

THE PODCAST

RR Podcast 37: [powerpress]

(**If I can just make one disclaimer, we had some technical difficulties this week.  So if this podcast isn’t up to our normal standards, we hope you’ll bear with us!)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS by Emily

Today we’re focusing in on the science of this science fiction.  What are some of the most basic science tenets at play here?  How do they shape the story and how should Christians relate to them?  That’s what I hope today’s discussion will address.  AND I hope you’ll use this podcast as well as the questions below as a jumping off point for your own thoughts and discussion!

1. Who are the buggers and how are they different from most conceptions of aliens?

2.  How is evolution represented in Ender’s Game?  How does that play out in the story, especially in terms of the buggers?

2.  How do communication problems separate buggers and humans?  How does this represent a typically scientific (i.e. humanistic) view of man’s problems as opposed to a Christian idea of human fallenness?

3.  What does virtual reality and the technology of computer games add to the story?  What might Orson Scott Card be trying to say about reality and online personas?  How does that apply to our use of video games and Facebook pages?

What questions do you have about the science in Ender’s Game?  We’d love to hear them in the comments below…as well as your answers to some of our questions!

If you’d like more movie-related reading on our site, do check out our Book Thief review and our read along of The Hobbit.  And don’t forget to join us next Saturday for the last installment of our read along, as well as the announcement of our Writing Contest!