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Orson Scott Card's speaking outside of the books makes clear he is a far-right reactionary. Some of his books make it clear that he is gay curious and I'm not

Orson Scott Card's speaking outside of the books makes clear he is a far-right reactionary. Some of his books make it clear that he is gay curious and I'm not talking about Ender's Game. I have no idea what to make of this.

Kluny 9y ago
He's made some very strong anti-gay statements, which is usually a sign of a repressed homosexual. There was also a lot of homoeroticism in Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, made especially troubling by the fact that those characters were prepubescent children.
- Turing_Machine 9y ago
  "He's made some very strong anti-gay statements, which is usually a sign of a repressed homosexual." You know, I've heard many people make that claim over the years, but I've never seen any evidence for it (there are anecdotal cases where someone who was extremely anti-gay was later outed as gay, yes, sure, but I've seen no evidence that this is always, or even often, the case). People can be racists without being "secretly black", and misogynist without being "secretly women", right?
  - tty7 9y ago
    https://gayhomophobe.com https://gayhomophobe.com
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- coldtea 9y ago
  >He's made some very strong anti-gay statements, which is usually a sign of a repressed homosexual. Or, you know, someone that is just anti-gay (e.g. for religious reasons, conservative tendencies, or whatever). For one, lumping people who make anti-gay statements as "repressed homosexuals" makes it like there's something wrong with their lives/mental state (as opposed to just with their ideas). There might be, but not for that reason. It deprives them of real agency. Second, it makes it like it's specifically gay people who are fascists when they are repressed. Why would repressing their desires (something that straight people do as well) make them have a specific trait such as that? Some people who repressed their desires (sexual straight or gay, career ambitions, love interests, etc) did good (became missionaries helping people, sacrificed themselves to save others, etc), and actual fascists (like, real Nazis, in actual 1933-1945) repressed few of their desires. If anything, they over-indulged in them.
jholman 9y ago
I haven't dug incredibly deeply into Card's political statements outside of his fiction, so unlike my other comments in this thread, I'm shooting from the hip here, but... My read is that Card (like a few other Mormon SF writers I can think of) is: 1) seriously invested in religion, especially but not exclusively his own religion, and absolutely unwilling to simply dismiss it 2) genuinely interested in social justice 3) struggling to resolve this conflict This comes out strongly in questions about the tension between collective action and individualist conscience. And it's also pretty tightly-wound in the tension between churchly homophobia on the one hand, and on the other, compassion and empathy and respect for the sovereignty of the individual whenever possible. I suspect that when one says that Card "is [clearly] a far-right reactionary", you're likely to be oversimplifying to the point of uselessness. Indeed, I suspect that in general, that description is unlikely to tidily fit very many people in the world. But on the other hand, I believe it's useful and accurate to say "some of Card's beliefs seem consonant with a deep connection to a reactionary ideology".

Kluny 9y ago

He's made some very strong anti-gay statements, which is usually a sign of a repressed homosexual. There was also a lot of homoeroticism in Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, made especially troubling by the fact that those characters were prepubescent children.

Turing_Machine 9y ago
"He's made some very strong anti-gay statements, which is usually a sign of a repressed homosexual." You know, I've heard many people make that claim over the years, but I've never seen any evidence for it (there are anecdotal cases where someone who was extremely anti-gay was later outed as gay, yes, sure, but I've seen no evidence that this is always, or even often, the case). People can be racists without being "secretly black", and misogynist without being "secretly women", right?
- tty7 9y ago
  https://gayhomophobe.com https://gayhomophobe.com
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
coldtea 9y ago
>He's made some very strong anti-gay statements, which is usually a sign of a repressed homosexual. Or, you know, someone that is just anti-gay (e.g. for religious reasons, conservative tendencies, or whatever). For one, lumping people who make anti-gay statements as "repressed homosexuals" makes it like there's something wrong with their lives/mental state (as opposed to just with their ideas). There might be, but not for that reason. It deprives them of real agency. Second, it makes it like it's specifically gay people who are fascists when they are repressed. Why would repressing their desires (something that straight people do as well) make them have a specific trait such as that? Some people who repressed their desires (sexual straight or gay, career ambitions, love interests, etc) did good (became missionaries helping people, sacrificed themselves to save others, etc), and actual fascists (like, real Nazis, in actual 1933-1945) repressed few of their desires. If anything, they over-indulged in them.

jholman 9y ago

I haven't dug incredibly deeply into Card's political statements outside of his fiction, so unlike my other comments in this thread, I'm shooting from the hip here, but... My read is that Card (like a few other Mormon SF writers I can think of) is: 1) seriously invested in religion, especially but not exclusively his own religion, and absolutely unwilling to simply dismiss it 2) genuinely interested in social justice 3) struggling to resolve this conflict This comes out strongly in questions about the tension between collective action and individualist conscience. And it's also pretty tightly-wound in the tension between churchly homophobia on the one hand, and on the other, compassion and empathy and respect for the sovereignty of the individual whenever possible. I suspect that when one says that Card "is [clearly] a far-right reactionary", you're likely to be oversimplifying to the point of uselessness. Indeed, I suspect that in general, that description is unlikely to tidily fit very many people in the world. But on the other hand, I believe it's useful and accurate to say "some of Card's beliefs seem consonant with a deep connection to a reactionary ideology".