SUHweet Schedule

Captivating is divided into 12 chapters. There's other stuff to read, but I say we have:

chaps. 1-3 done by Nov. 8th

4-6 by Nov. 15th

7-9 by Nov. 22nd

10-12 by Nov. 29th.

I'M EXCITED!!!

This is probably bad timing

But I'm changing our book. Mostly because The Once and Future King is massive and I don't feel like making anyone commit to that. So, here's my choice. I think Em has already gotten it, but if she hasn't, I'll get it for her.

Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. Kate's got a copy, but I think I'm the only one who's read it. It's for women, but like Wild at Heart they recommend that the other gender reads it. And I loved it and want to reread it and hear what impacts you guys.

Is this a major issue? I hope not. Love you all!

Love, Love, Loved It

Er, I thought I'd posted on the end of this, but apparently not--I was still in draft mode. Well, a few quotes and thoughts from the end.

"Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be" (231). Oh so true--or becoming the identity that others consign to you.

"'So the whole war is because we can't talk to each other.' 'If the other fellow can't tell you his story, you can never be sure he isn't trying to kill you'" (253). I love the emphasis on stories; God just wired us to relate to narratives, and this just under girds the idea that it is essential to listen to and seek out stories that are different than our own.

"Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it" (277). Maybe true, but rather bleak. I'd like to think that this is not how a Christian should live--survival is not really an essential for us.

"I'm going because I know the buggers better than any other living soul, and maybe if I go there I can understand them better. I stole their future from them; I can only begin to repay by seeing what I can learn from their past" (314). How on earth are amends made for genocide? I do love the idea that Ender is heading the Truth and Reconciliation committee though...

Someone in my office got this magnet. I, of course, felt the need to scan it and share with my book club, where I'm a bad girl--but I'm nearing the end of Ender!

Next Book

I've talked to everyone I think, but the new book will The Once and Future King by T. H. White. King Arthur, kids!!

It'll be good. When I get my copy, I'll post a break down, but due to my moving, job-hunting and everyone else's craziness, i think we should take a break until November comes round.

Hope that's cool with everyone!!

Ender's Universe

Wow, I sure didn't see that one coming! Card is pretty brilliant in my book. I was shocked when I found out that the final game was not a game, but real. It blew me away. I think I had to just stop reading and process it and then I had to reread the passage again! Again, wow. In a way it seems like such a cruel thing to do to a kid and yet it also was so smart. I thought the explanation from Graff and Mazer was particularly enlightening...

"Of course we tricked you into it. That's the whole point...It had to be a trick or you couldn't have done it. It's the bind we were in. We had to have a commander with so much empathy that he would think like the buggers, understand them and anticipate them. So much compassion that he could win the love of his underlings and work with them like a perfect machine, as perfect as the buggers. But somebody with that much compassion could never be the killer we needed. Could never go into battle willing to win at all costs.  If you knew, you couldn't do it. If you were the kind of person who would do it even if you knew, you could never have understood the buggers well enough." (Graff in Chapter 14)

       "And it had to be a child, Ender...you were faster than me. Better than me. I was too old and cautious. Any decent person who knows what warfare is can never go into battle with a whole heart. But you didn't know. You were reckless and brilliant and young. It was what you were born for." (Mazer Rackham in Chapter 14)

That in my mind, is perhaps the most profound statement made in this book. It also shows that Ender is the best of himself and not the worst like Peter as he's feared. Whether or not what was done to him was right or fair (and arguably it wasn't) it was the perfect plan and makes so much sense when you read those paragraphs.

Chapter 14 was by far my favorite chapter. Of course it's when we get so many surprises and revelations that I suppose it isn't surprising. One of my favorite parts is when Ender gets onto the "game" and finds out all the squadron leaders he's commanding are his friends. I wanted to cheer and whoop that for once something happy had happened to him!!! The other thing I have to mention is that I can honestly say I anticipated Mazer Rackham. I don't know how I knew the old man, the teacher, was Mazer, especially since logically he should have been dead, but I just knew it from the moment he appeared in Ender's room.

The final chapter was a bit bizarre in my mind. I'm still processing it, not sure if I liked the ending or not. I'm hoping others will express their opinion on it and that the dialogue will help me solidify my thoughts.

Ender's Life

Before reading this book I expected a futuristic story about a kid playing space games. After the first five chapters I began to think it was a kid's version of Brave New World. Now after five more chapters I'm really thinking that it's a satirical commentary on all historical, current and future world politics! The chapter about Valentine and Peter, aka Demothsenes and Locke really threw me as I was not expecting such political and historical undertones. It seemed to make the story a whole lot bigger and made me wonder where the book and the series was going. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Ender is clearly brilliant and yet so lonely. Poor kid is really being put through the ringer to make him "the best." I'm glad he got a small window of realative happiness, but it seems that is over now. I am certainly on Ender's "side" if you can call it that. I have really enjoyed reading about his friends, his games, his tactics and his strategies, far more than I expected. This is not the typical book that I'd pick up to read, but I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read it...just hoping things on earth don't get too weird.

One other thing that really moved me was the using and in my opinion, breaking of Valentine. Not all torture is physical and what they did clearly had a profound and negative effect (emotionally) on both her and Ender, though it clearly acheived what the teachers wanted. To take and break a child through isolation, seperation and hardship is cold, to use a child's greatest love and ali against them is just cruel. I hope Ender realizes she didn't mean to do what she did and was forced into it, but it doesn't seem clear to me exactly what his thoughts were on the incident.