Card is simply brilliant

Orson Scott Card is, without a doubt, brilliant.

In every book of his that I’ve read, there is a strong sense of…. heresy. The ideas he presents feel heartfelt… like actual personal complaints he has with God. Complaints I’ve had myself. But throughout his books, he ends up inevitably coming to the conclusions that God is indeed, Good. And the things he does truly are for the Best.

In the Enders series, its the anti-religious group, the Speakers For The Dead. They are played as being enemies of Religion. But it ends on a very serious religious note – God is everywhere, and not always in ways you’d think.

Then the Homecoming series with its characters who quite openly defy the only concept of a God that they have, railing against it for its seeming apathy, and then again for the way it selected individuals above others, and finally for its inadequacy. And then they learn the truth, that God is real and that he loves his people, but not enough to keep them from being who they are, even if it means they stray from his path.

And all the while he creates characters with such depth… you get so attached to them, that when they fail, you feel their grief and their shame. When they succeed, you rejoice with them. All the while you keep turning pages, until the nearly 500 page book you just started is over. And its 5 in the morning.

le sigh.

Had a good time with Melinda tonight. Been a while since we hung out last. It always seems like we’re better friends the more time we actually spend together, physically. It’s when we try to keep in touch online or with phones that it starts to suck. All the more reason she should try to start hanging out with me and my friend. Alexis, too, for that matter.

Anyways, its late.

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