the Elaine Radford argument recounted towards the end of this essay is a great example of how bad analysis of fiction can miss the point https://johnjosephkessel.wixsite.com/kessel-website/creating-the-innocent-killer

to me the biggest problem with the Ender franchise is that Ender is "not even guilty" much in the way some bad ideas are "not even wrong."

Ender is an automaton, in the sense of the Newtonian era view of the universe as a giant clockwork device that God breathes life into. With "God" here being the author, Orson Scott Card.

The books are set up in a way, which Kessel brilliantly describes in the section on Ender's fight in the showers, to prevent Ender from ever having to make a moral decision. Because making a moral decision would mean the possibility of Ender being able to do wrong

it works because OSC arranges everything to allow it, but at the cost of rendering the hero of his own novel a passive figure borne about by the doings of providence

It would be one thing if OSC did this purposefully to make some interesting philosophical point or parody genre writing in science fiction, but it seems to arise mostly from a combination of a naive belief that intention alone is sufficient and creative laziness

Radford instead seems to lose this in trivial parallels between Ender's fictional biography and Hitler's, and Kessel himself gets bogged down in side pursuits like the franchise's potential appeal to school shooter-type personalities

this allows OSC to dispose of Radford's arguments quite superficially, necessitating Kessel to come to the rescue by rescuing the better ones from association with the sillier ones (like the Hitler analogies)

so despite my admiration for this essay I think someone should do the same for Kessel. For example, here:

Kessel leaves out that one of Ender's motivations in using the MD device was to revolt against the adults; he was sick and tired of playing the game and finally decided that he was going to "win" using a cheat code of sorts

its the equivalent of a speedrunning trick that someone discovers that is technically legal but illegitimate. of course, the adults not only anticipate Ender's act of puerile rebellion but *intend* him to have that reaction.

this omission actually is very bad for Kessel's assertion that the pseudo-fictional character of the battle simulations is irrelevant, because it provides evidence for behavior that Ender might not necessarily manifested in other circumstances.

but in keeping with my earlier point about Ender's passivity, I think what this shows is how much OSC's purported critique of push-button warfare is meaningless https://twitter.com/Aelkus/status/1360225091448094721

Ender is the "commander" of an army that is not allowed to make any real strategic decisions. He can shuffle game pieces around, but everything about the "game" per se has already been foreseen and planned ahead of time by the adults and by extension OSC

even the ways he moves the pieces around can be said really to have been anticipated and shaped by the designs of others, he's more or less a puppet. Which is why the book's "big reveal" of the simulation being real falls flat. It doesn't change the moral stakes in any way

Kessel's reading of this is obviously inspired by Arendt's own misreading of Eichmann, but in the process he misses the sheer absurdity of the book calling Ender a strategic genius at all https://twitter.com/Aelkus/status/1360233675502346241

the more you think about this, the wackier OSC's supposed critique of techno-war becomes. the "real" war that Ender fights under the guise of the simulation is actually fake, because real war actually involves choices that Card allows no one to really make

Ender and Mazer Rackham are military leaders in the same way that Disney animatronic puppets are presidents

there's a parallel here to the behavior of Raiden, but the shock of learning that the player-character (and by extension the player) has been participating in a replica of the Shadow Moses Incident inspires genuine horror and reflection

whereas, absurdly, for OSC this is supposed to actually increase our admiration and sympathy for Ender (and unconsciously ourselves) because unlike the Patriots' S3 Plan there is really nothing wrong with what has just transpired.

even the horror of being manipulated fades because, well, everyone did what they had to do for the sake of humanity and there was no other option. OK, so what is the point of a novel with no real dramatic tension?

everyone does what they are supposed to do, which has been anticipated and shaped by the doings of powers beyond their comprehension, none of which can really be questioned. it's not the banality of evil here, its more just plain ol' banality

so Kessel misses what I think the true scandal really is here, that a book that ends up on military leadership reading lists.....has no actual leadership!

for all of the supposed genius of Ender and his peers, they would not last a second playing something like a USMC tactical decision game or a free-play exercise. They would collapse because for the first time they would be in a situation where adults or OSC

would not be in some shape or form telling them what to do or puppeteering them. they would be trounced by the most mediocre junior officers that the military would provide as opponents. it's hilarious