Comments

1
Since it pisses you off, I support Card 100%.
2
I only read the headline, did the pope get a new job?
3
Never knew this about the guy. I read Ender's Game years ago, and was sort of looking forward to the movie. This puts a damper on that.
4
Interesting this story comes the same week as the Stranger finally outed Charles Krafft as a Nazi-sympathizer and Holocaust denier. He friended me on fb years ago and post after post was spewing hatred towards Jews and mocking the Holocaust. Charles shows all over this city, country, and in Europe too. His views have been known for years. Why no similar outcry or any mention of it any of the numerous times Charles has been invited to participate in gallery shows in Seattle? Greg Kucera, who's gay, has been a promoter of this Nazi. Why have galleries showing his work, patrons, and supporters of Krafft not faced a similar outcry as this incident?
5
Because I bought this as a coffee table book and love it and want everyone to be aware of it:

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Identity-Su…

That is all.
6
I'm really tired of people's constant need to let artist's personal lives trump their artistic contribution to society in our modern world. You are correct. Card is a douche. But his writing is good, if not great at times. Ender's Game and some of the other books in that series are excellent science fiction which challenge the reader to think. Although I agree wholeheartedly with your opinions of his personal views about queer rights, I disagree wholeheartedly with your attempt to destroy his right to write. Very red-scare-ish if you ask me. I teach Ender's Game in my class, and bring up his personal opinions as a topic of discussion. I mean, if we start banning artists based on their personal beliefs, we're going to be lacking good art in the world damn quick. Should we ban Twain for being racist or, from the other point of view, Walt Whitman for being a homo? Come on. Really?
7
I'm not particularly into science fiction or comics, but I read Ender's Game years ago on a friend's recommendation (i.e., he pressed his paperback copy on me and said "You've GOT to read this!") and before I knew anything about Card's Mormon background and homophobia (probably before he made his attitude known in a public way, even).

It struck me as very homoerotic—spaceboys in a spacedorm practicing stuff naked, as I recall. That makes Card just another in a long line of repressed fuckheads.
8
Whatever. Every Superman story is just a rehash of "Kanga and Roo Come to the Forest" anyway.
9
@6 "Very red-scare-ish if you ask me."

A useful parallel only if all those involved in the red scare were indeed actively conspiring to destroy America. And if they were, then I don't think an impending boycott of their books would be at the top of their worry list.

They're not the only answer, but boycotts are a perfectly valid form of self-expression.
10
I'm glad I read Ender's Game and its sequels before I knew about any of this.
11
I hate that I gave money to this man for his books and indirectly supported my own marginalization as a gay man. I also did like Ender's Game and thought it was well-written and thought-provoking. I realize that he has a right to create art, and that DC has a right to pay him for his art. I also have a right to express my desire to reduce or remove, as much as possible, any platform that this artist has to contribute to the marginalization of LGBT people. I personally believe the damage of his hate-speech trumps the value of his art. Art which he has every right to create and disseminate, and I have every right to oppose being related to a beloved character like Superman. If it were possible to completely dissociate the art from the artist, that would be one thing, but it isn't. Orson Scott Card's name will now be associated, to some degree, with Superman; and with that association comes an implicit message from the Superman brand that gay is bad.
12
I was a big fan of Orson Scott Card until I read an essay of his about how gays should be banned from the boy scouts, years ago. Haven't been able to bring myself to read one of his books since. Even so I hadn't realized how low he had sunk. How sad.
13
#6 - Twain was hardly a racist. I think you're missing the point of his writing.
14
Yet another reason to support creator-owned comics.
15
Lies, injustice, and the AmeriKKKan way.
16
I used to read his books. Then I went to a (hateful) talk he did here in Utah. Left part way through, went home and threw away all his books.
17
@6: He's an active member of the largest and most influential anti-gay rights lobbying group and has threatened violent overthrow of the US government if human rights are achieved by gays.

Yes, exactly the person who deserves to represent "Truth, Justice and the American Way".

Bigots and racists seem to have a non-stop series of supporters who would remove the rights of all to support someone's "right" to never be criticized.
18
Card has a right to believe what ever he wants.
DC Comics has the right to hire anyone they want.
And I have the right to point out OSC is a homophobic kook who should not be supported.

This leads to -
I am totally against someone trying to get the US government to blackball OSC.

It's so disappointing when people can't tell the different between free speech and a government crack down.
We're all having an honest conversation here, right?
Right?
19
He's Mormon. Of course he's a hateful bigot.
20
@18 Exactly where is the US government involved in any of this?

You do realize that "DC" refers to DC Comics, the publishers of Superman, don't you? No, I guess you don't.

That said, I assume that DC will have some control over the content of whatever OSC writes, so his pernicious messages won't slip into his storyline, but I still wish they hadn't hired him.
21
Followup to my comment @18 - Re-read your comment; ignore my second paragraph.
But I still don't see how the government is involved in any of this.
22
Sigh....

When i see comment like this -

" I disagree wholeheartedly with your attempt to destroy his right to write."

NO ONE is doing that.
You would need a tool like the government to do that.

So I am disagreeing with equating a boycott with stopping someone from creating.

And yes, I know we're talking about DC comics, not washington DC.
They are a for profit company and if they make decisions that can negatively effect their bottom line, then so be it.

So to be clear - this is America, everyone has the right to their opinion, including being a gay hater OR being someone who doesn't want gay haters to be able to write stories for an iconic character.

And since no one is actually trying to get the government to stop OSC from writing i disagree with the notion that by boycotting someone it's the same as 'banning' someone from working.

23
Should we ban Twain for being racist

Wow... what a fucking stupid thing to say.
24
6, If you want to teach your students something of value, besides whatever it is you're doing now (you think Mark Twain is a racist? seriously?) then use this as a way of teaching that the right to different moral values does *not* mean that those moral values are equal. Some, like bigotry, have very real world consequences, none of which do humanity much good.

Too often people mistake freedom of speech to mean that all speech is of equal value. It is most certainly not. This is true for all other rights we hold dear as Americans.
25
Wow. So now we're going to sanitize the culture of every artist who ever had a wrong idea?

Sure, yeah, let's kick him out of his job because he's guilty of thoughtcrime.

Maybe we could set up some kind of place off in the country where he could be shown the error of his ways. Someplace natural and healthy, like a camp of some sort, for reeducation.

And, of course, let's be sure to purge his books while were at it. No sense letting them go to waste of course...maybe they could be used to keep us warm on these cold winter nights?

Good grief...we bend over backwards convincing people that extending rights to us won't restrict anyone else's, and then we do dumb shit like this, playing right into the conservative victimology.

Since when are we such wusses that we can't handle an author who disagrees with us?
26
19

are you being ironic?

do you know how bigotry works?
27
@25 I take it you haven't read any of his screeds.

I have.

They're awful, illogical, religious based grounds for hatred. If that's the way he approaches logic in the real world, I refused to read any of his fictional writings on the supposed basis that they're good.

He's a hateful, confused old man and I haven't read a single one of his books, even as everybody implores me to how good they are. Fuck him.
28
His personal issues have creeped into his books more and more over the years. So don't fear, people who kind of want to never read his books again: you can quit reading Card on the basis that much of his stuff is straight-up Mormon Values Propaganda. You don't need to wring your hands over whether it is Right to avoid works with odious authors.

Loved Ender's Game and the older sequels. Eventually reached a critical level of "It seems unlikely that every right-minded person in this book could care this much about every little fetus."
29
@21: "But I still don't see how the government is involved in any of this."

He's an active political lobbyist against human rights, but that's the closest it gets.

@25: "Sure, yeah, let's kick him out of his job because he's guilty of thoughtcrime"

He's not just guilty of thoughtcrime, dipshit. He is directly involved in the continued suppression of gay rights and through his opinion pieces has threatened violent reprisal against any government that would dare treat gays as human beings.
30
God, the need to defend racists and bigots from any hatespeech backlash is always more important than defending gays, minorities, women from the effects of this hatespeech with some people.

I always defend his RIGHT to be a hatemonger while at the same time I wish for Card to not represent America through any of its symbols and publishing avenues.
31
Two very simple points that people seem to be missing:

1) Nobody is calling for Card to be thrown in prison or fined for his views. They are calling for a boycott unless he is fired.

2) Boycotts are not witch hunts or government infringement on anyone's rights. They are a collection of OTHER people practicing THEIR freedom of speech: I refuse to buy a product from someone who works diligently to destroy the lives of people I hold dear. I have a RIGHT to such a refusal, and I have a RIGHT to persuade (not force, but encourage) others to do the same. I also have a right to inform a company that I won't buy their product if it's created by such a person, and that it might behoove them to replace him. They, then, have a right to either take my advice or not.

When mass transit was boycotted over their racist policies, was that an infringement on racist bus drivers' First Amendment rights? Or was it an application of anti-racists mutual First Amendment rights? The same logic applies here.

Unless one of you concern trolls cares to argue why freedom of speech applies to Card but not to his detractors, you don't have a leg to stand on here.
32
Funny that people are acting like OSC is the first author to ever be revealed as an asshole. Should we boycott libraries and bookstores that carry Ezra Pound books since he was a known anti-Semite? What about boycotting T.S. Eliot for his collaborations with Pound? Or boycotting Charles Bukowski for the poem where he calls Gertrude Stein an old dyke? The list goes on ...
33
I believe R.K. Milholland said it best (and in webcomic form):

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp03162…
http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp03172…
http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp03182…

Of course, "Mike's Favorite Author" has more to do with whether it's okay to like the books of a person with hateful political views.

My concern? If a person's political activism against a cause that we agree with is grounds for a firing, then a person's political activism for a cause that we agree with would have to be ground for a firing too. DC's position that they want to choose the best writer or artist regardless of that writer or artist's politics has merit.
34
32: If enough people want to do it, why not? Or should they be forced to buy these books?

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