(Begins May 31 - Ends June 7)
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Chapter 13
“They must talk to each other directly, Ender, mind to mind. What one thinks, another can also think; what one remembers, another can also remember. Why would they ever develop language? Why would they ever learn to read and write? How would they know what reading and writing were if they saw them? Or signals? Or numbers? Or anything that we use to communicate? This isn't just a matter of translating from one language to another. They don't have language at all. We used every means we could think of to communicate with them, but they don't even have the machinery to know we're signaling. And maybe they've been trying to think to us, and they can't understand why we don't respond.” (Card, 253)
1) What is the critical issue/concern revealed in this quote? Why is there a war between humans and buggers? What is it that has allowed Ender to beat all his enemies thus far, but is now missing as he considers the menace of the buggers?
Chapter 14
1) In chapter 14, Ender encounters “the most perfect video game he had ever played.” (Card, 258) Describe this game. What importance is graphical quality? What importance is interface control?
2) At what point does the strategy of the simulator become “pleasure” and “play”? What transforms this serious game into serious fun?
3) Who becomes Ender's new teacher? Why does the new teacher refer to himself as the enemy?
4) What do you think is “Ender's Game”, to which the book's title refers?
Chapter 13
ReplyDelete1. The Bugger’s have a mode of communication which is indecipherable by humans. This presents two problems; the first is that the enemy has a near-perfect instantaneous mode of communication which allows them to synchronize their thoughts and movements for extremely efficient combat, something that’s impossible for humans to do. The second is that the entire war may stem from a simple misunderstanding. The aliens may have tried to be peaceful but because humans cannot understand them or because the aliens cannot understand language, the war began because each side was assuming it was being ignored. Furthermore, as it is discussed earlier and later in this chapter, the Bugger hive-mind system functions very differently from the humans’. The individual troops in a Bugger hive don’t exactly equate to a person as we know them. The queen, the one who controls the Bugger troops is essentially the one with a full personality, the individual troops simply pawns. As such, it’s no big matter to them when individual troops die and because of this the Buggers are not able to comprehend why it is so significant when a single human is killed.
The problem this presents to Ender is that this renders the Bugger’s almost impossible to understand. In this chapter, Ender relates to Valentine how he has been able to beat all of his enemies so far; by coming to understand them, see into their head, know what they think he’s doing and use that to his advantage. He even says that he seems to come to love his enemy before undoing them. With the Buggers being so alien, though, this proves almost impossible.
Chapter 14
ReplyDelete1. The game which Ender is given begins as one involving a player controlled fighter and a computer controlled enemy. Ender has full control over the fighter as well as the heads up display. Though the graphics of the game a very simplistic, especially by what we see today in game technology – though the game takes place on a holographic display, the two ships are described as dots of light of different colors – the interface controls are responsive enough to allow for great freedom. Ender is able to rotate the display to look at the battle from every angle, allowing him to implement the same relative gravity techniques he used back in Battle School. He is also able to zoom out and reposition the center of the screen, as well as move his fighter in any direction. As the game progresses, however, so does difficulty. Ender finds the computer enemy will copy a technique he used after only performing it once, forcing him to constantly invent new strategies. Also, as time progresses, Ender is put up against more enemies, then put in control of more fighters, in which he learns he has a greater chance of survival and success if he devotes himself to commanding an entire unit rather than trying to control one specific unit fully and issue commands to the rest of the unit.
2. Ender appeared to enjoy the simulator up until a point when it was just him controlling the fighters. However, he becomes bored before too long, signaling his keepers to begin his interaction with his “teacher”. From then on, the game picks up in difficulty, yet still the game isn’t considered “pleasure [and] play”. It’s not until Ender is matched with his friends from Battle School that he begins to enjoy the game. Part of this is because of familiarity. Ender grew attached to these people and had them wrenched from him by the army staff. Now he’s able to interact with them again, albeit in what’s possibly a more intense environment. The other part of it is that Ender is able to learn more about these people and how they fight while in his new role as commander. Ender’s chief joy appears to be analyzing people, trying to understand how they operate. By doing this with his group, he’s able to figure out how to best use them to overcome whatever the simulator throws at them.
Chapter 14 (continued)
ReplyDelete3. Ender returns to his room one day to find an elderly man sitting in the center of the floor. The man turns out to be Mazer Rackman, who the IFF placed into relative time in order to preserve him to teach his successor. Mazer insists that he is Ender’s enemy because, he claims, the enemy is the best teacher. Only the enemy can teach Ender his weaknesses and show him what he needs in order to beat the enemy. No teacher can test someone like their enemy. This could also be a psychological trick. By making himself Ender’s enemy and being hostile towards Ender – or just by showing initial hostility, as Mazer appears to soften, if only slightly, later – Ender will be more driven to defeat the challenges set forth.
4. One could surmise that Ender’s Game simply referrers to the final simulation which Ender finds himself playing. Yet, I believe that Ender’s Game is his thought process. Ender’s Game is how Ender has analyzed every situation up until this point. As I said before, the definition of a game, to me, depends on a player’s viewpoint. In order for a game to really be a game to someone, there has to be a diminished sense of consequence or, if not that, a higher priority; a player might understand the severity of the situation on one level but on another he feels that the consequences are subservient to the goal. Ender realizes the consequences of his actions, sometimes during them, other times just after, still other times long after he’s performed them (only far too late does he realize that he probably killed Bonzo and the bully back on earth). But at the same time, some level of his consciousness was treating the situation as a game, analyzing what was needed in order to achieve a full victory and then performing the action. That Ender avoided harming others for as long as he could in almost any situation shows that he’s not a psychopath, the times in which he did use violence were to obtain an ultimate solution.
Likewise, Ender appears to always be seeking solutions to his problems through different angles. We see this when he plays with his desk back on Earth at the beginning of the book, then how he deals with the bullies and Peter, then how he copes with zero gravity, then how he deals with the mounting challenge of battle school and so on and so forth. Ender’s Game is also how he devises unorthodox strategies to his problems and, ultimately, how his unusual strategy wins the “war”.
1.) the critical issue is that the humans cannot communicate with the buggers.
ReplyDeleteEnder was able to understand each of his enemies so far, he cant understand the buggers to well.
1.) The simulator is what ender is referring too. User Interface is extemely important for games, if a game doesnt have a smooth UI then it can ruin a game.
2.) I think when the sim had reached its limit ender stopped haveng fun with it.
3.) the older gentleman is ender's new "teacher", he claims that ender can only really learn from the enemey.
4.) I think "ender's game" is referring to the whole thing, the whole book is a series of games eneder has to play in order to succeed.
Ch 13
ReplyDelete======
1. Just like in the real world, there are language barriers, and the same can be said with the humans and buggers. With this, Ender is crippled in the sense that he cannot read the buggers as well as his human opponents.
Ch 14
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1. It's a simple game graphically, but what is most impotant is that it offers the player full immersive control; Not important; important.
2. Just like every game we play, there is a point where we get bored of playing the same game over and over, and this is exactly what happened to Ender while playing this game.
3. Mazer; He poses as Ender's "enemy" in order to better his skills.
4. Since the beginning, everything has been presented as a game to him, making it easier for him to hone his skills.