Things I Love #4: Orson Scott Card

In celebration of Columbus Day, there was an article in the paper this morning about how kids these days are getting a more rounded view of Christopher Columbus, such as that he really didn't know where he was going or getting into and that through his efforts he brought smallpox to the Americas and killed off thousands of Native Americans. Quite frankly, the most I remember about my Columbus lessons was the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria and that we got banana boats with our school lunch. But between the Columbus article and today's celebration of Columbus Day, I remember one of my all-time favorite books by one of my all-time favorite authors. "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus," by Orson Scott Card tells of a future where people have invented a machine that lets a person see what happened in the past. They are the researchers of the future watching past actions and listening to past conversations, discovering how things came to be the way the are. When these people of the future find that the resources of the world can no longer sustain life and that their future will not exist beyond two generations, the pastwatchers decide to intervene in the past. They choose Christopher Columbus' search for a water passage to the east and ultimate "discovery" of America as the key event that will make the future happy and healthy for all humanity. It is a fascinating voyage both through the histories of Europe and Latin America and through "what would have been if..." I love the research that Orson Scott Card shows by the detailed historical references that are laced throughout his writing both in this book and many others. Another thing I love is his focus on interpersonal relationships and how many of his characters' thought processes include how they should word or phrase an idea for the receiver to understand it in the way it was meant. This makes the characters much deeper. It helps me to consider how my tone may be taken by others, as well as considering that the way I initially take somebody else's mean tone may not be the way he meant it. It also makes for fascinating parallel books, where the same interaction is shown from another character's point of view and the whole meaning of the conversation is different. It makes for quite enjoyable reading. Orson Scott Card is on my personal list of fascinating people I would like to meet. I am just amazed at his ability to depict history and its influences on the future, his understanding of the human character and how we relate to each other, his imagination of how the future could be, and the manner in which he combines it all. There are some Orson Scott Card books that I didn't like (Magic Street, Songmaster, and Homebody for some), and some that I enjoyed but don't recommend highly (the Alvin Maker series, Empire, and Saints), but I think that makes my enthusiastic recommendation of others even stronger. The Ender series (starting with Ender's Game, then following through Ender's lifetime with Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, then starting over with Ender's Shadow [taking place at the same time as Ender's Game but focusing on a different character], and following the lives of the other battle school kids in Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant) is wonderful albeit a bit tedious if you take them all back to back. The Women of Genesis trilogy (Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah) and Stone Tables, the story of Moses, are interesting and thought-provoking takes on Bible prophets and events. Enchantment is a delightful dip into fairy tales and fantasy whose main character is a distance runner. I read this one for the first time while I was dating Brent who is also a distance runner, so my view of it could be clouded by rosy glasses of happy happy times, but it only enhances the joy. And Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus is simply fascinating. I highly recommend it. Oh, and Happy Columbus Day!