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The first Ender's Game "teaser trailer" was released today:

 

 

http://tinyurl.com/d7hx4mx

 

 

It includes a couple seconds of fluid effects and dramatic dialogue!

 

 

Despite Orson Scott Card's insistance to the contrary for the last 20 years, the actors are all teenagers.

 

 

This parallels the BSA's move to move"Real" Scouting over to the Venturing program where many Scouts now first experience adventure and "leadership" in a Patrol-sized unit (if you can call anything with two-deep helicopters "leadership").

 

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

 

Kudu

 

 

http://kudu.net

 

 

 

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Interesting topic. All my kids enjoyed Ender's Game and the sequels.   As was mentioned above, the military branches now have assigned reading lists for development of their troops, from enlisted

The film is not true to Kahuna's assessment.   In the novel when Stilson's gang confronts six-year-old Ender, the smaller, highly intelligent boy (the alter-ego of every sci-fi and/or Boy Scout ne

Interesting topic. All my kids enjoyed Ender's Game and the sequels.

 

As was mentioned above, the military branches now have assigned reading lists for development of their troops, from enlisted up to General. Some are military history or books on leadership and logistics, some area and cultural studies, and some novels that teach and encourage the values the services want to develop in their members. So Marine recruits are to read "Battle Cry!" by Leon Uris, "Corps Values" by Zell Miller, "Making the Corps" by Thomas E. Ricks, and "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane. E1 through E4 are required to read, well "Enders Game" (The reason it is included? "In this science fiction novel, child genius Ender Wiggin is chosen by international military forces to save the world from destruction by a deadly alien race. His skills make him a leader yet Ender suffers from isolation and rivalry from his peers, pressure from adults, and fear of the enemy. His psychological battles include loneliness and fear that he is becoming like his cruel brother. The novel’s major theme is the concept of a “game†and all of the other important ideas in the novel are interpreted through this concept. Some of the important ideas in the book include: the relationship between children and adults, compassion, ruthlessness, friends and enemies, and the question of humanity: what it means to be human."), as well as "Gates of Fire," a novel about the Battle of Thermopylae, and others. If you're curious about what our Marines are reading, you can find the Commandant's required reading list here: http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/content.php?pid=408059&sid=3340410.

 

Which led me to think (sometimes a dangerous thing): would it be worthwhile to require a Boy Scout (or an Adult Leader) to read a book at each level of advancement? We probably don't want Scouting to be too much like school, and I don't think book reports are something we want to add to Scouting, but something like the requirement to watch a movie for the Citizenship in the Community MB, just tell them that they should read certain books at each level, or maybe to have read them all for Eagle. Ones that they will enjoy and should also help with learning different values in Scouting. Maybe one to represent each of the values in the Scout Law. If as Kahuna suggested, Ender's Game isn't appropriate, which ones would be worthwhile? (Other than the obvious suggestions of the Handbook and Fieldbook).

 

Just an idea, but what would you all suggest? Could be novels, could be books about Scout history, could be about leadership, could be about love and protection of the environment, could be about moral values.

 

Some ideas off the top of my head:

 

"Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein - another SF novel which was written for the juvenile market by Heinlein in the 1960s but is suitable for both adults and kids. Set in a future where the combination of population pressures and the discovery of a stargate/wormhole have forced humanity to push its excess population to colonize habitable worlds. This has created a demand for survival/colonization experts that have mastered the old time skills of pioneering (kind of like, well, the Boy Scouts). The hero is a high school senior who is taking an AP college-level Individual Survival class. The final exam is that teens (some from high schools, some from college) are pushed through the stargate onto an uncolonized planet, and have to survive on their own for up to two weeks before a recall. You can bring any equipment you want with you. The hero, who is informed that there is a family crisis the night before the test, is pushed onto a jungle-type world and manages to survive the first two weeks, but he and the other students soon find that there is no recall, and they appear to be stuck on the planet for reasons unknown. They gradually form teams and eventually, government, with all the problems and the need to find solutions that entails.

 

Heinlein wrote the novel as an answer to "Lord of the Flies," which he found pessimistic and unrealistic in regards to man's ability to cooperate and develop societies. There is a lot a boy could learn from this novel about mental, emotional, and physical survival, selecting equipment, working in groups, small and large unit leadership. Plus, it's just a great, fast-moving story. There's nothing in there that would be inappropriate for youths to read.

 

Maybe "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold or "Eric Sloane's Weather Book." For older scouts, maybe "The AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership." "To Start a Fire and Other Stories" by Jack London.

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Kahuna's much earlier assessment of the book is exactly the way I remember it as well. I'll skip the film. I have no idea why anyone should consider leadership or much of anything else in life a 'game'.

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  • 2 months later...
"National Public Radio censored Ender's Game from this year's "100 Best-Ever Teen Novels" young readers' poll, because it was too violent. The jury had no such problem with The Hunger Games series, which came in second.

 

Liberal bias much?"

 

Yeah, Kudo, it's really easy to just go ahead and claim NPR censored something and it's due to liberal bias when you don't do any investigation to see if you actually have a leg to stand on.

 

In this case, you don't.

 

NPR didn't choose the nominees for their list - they chose a panel of experts that chose the list. There were only four of them:

 

The Features Editor and Children's Book Editor for the New York Times Book Review

 

The Children's Book Editor for Publisher's Weekly

 

The Book Editor of the A.V. Club - the arts and entertainments section of The Onion - ironically, this is the non-humorous section of this paper.

 

A Middle School Teacher/Librarian who is chairman of this years committee to select the Young Adult Library Services Association list of Best Young Adult Fiction.

 

This panel of experts didn't nominate Ender's Game. Had they done so and NPR removed it from the list, that would have been censorship. Wisely, NPR didn't edit the nomination list either way - they let it stand just as their panel proposed it.

 

A lot of favorites of people were missing from that list. A different panel would likely have come up with a completely different list - and other people would then be disappointed. Expressing your disappointment and second guessing the panel is just fine. Indeed, I'd expect it if one is passionate about something. But to wave it off as "it must be liberal censorship by NPR" is just lazy and shallow.

(This message has been edited by calicopenn)

NPR didn't choose the nominees for their list - they chose a panel of experts that chose the list.

 

So, NPR did not censor Ender, they chose a panel of feminists to censor Ender.

 

The on-going anti-Ender campaign was addressed by Harrison Ford this week at Comic-Con:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/18/showbiz/comic-con-enders-game

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"National Public Radio censored Ender's Game from this year's "100 Best-Ever Teen Novels" young readers' poll, because it was too violent. The jury had no such problem with The Hunger Games series, which came in second.

 

Liberal bias much?"

 

Yeah, Kudo, it's really easy to just go ahead and claim NPR censored something and it's due to liberal bias when you don't do any investigation to see if you actually have a leg to stand on.

 

In this case, you don't.

 

NPR didn't choose the nominees for their list - they chose a panel of experts that chose the list. There were only four of them:

 

The Features Editor and Children's Book Editor for the New York Times Book Review

 

The Children's Book Editor for Publisher's Weekly

 

The Book Editor of the A.V. Club - the arts and entertainments section of The Onion - ironically, this is the non-humorous section of this paper.

 

A Middle School Teacher/Librarian who is chairman of this years committee to select the Young Adult Library Services Association list of Best Young Adult Fiction.

 

This panel of experts didn't nominate Ender's Game. Had they done so and NPR removed it from the list, that would have been censorship. Wisely, NPR didn't edit the nomination list either way - they let it stand just as their panel proposed it.

 

A lot of favorites of people were missing from that list. A different panel would likely have come up with a completely different list - and other people would then be disappointed. Expressing your disappointment and second guessing the panel is just fine. Indeed, I'd expect it if one is passionate about something. But to wave it off as "it must be liberal censorship by NPR" is just lazy and shallow.

(This message has been edited by calicopenn)

More from Comic-Con: "Ender's Game" producer Roberto Orci responds to the anti-Ender campaign:

 

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ken3ol7

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"would it be worthwhile to require a Boy Scout (or an Adult Leader) to read a book at each level of advancement?" Diabolical! I love it!
I suggest to my gifted Scouts that they compare and contrast Golding’s Christian view that humans are inherently sinful, with Baden-Powell's Christian view that humans are basically good.

 

In "Lord of the Flies" when boys go to the woods without adult supervision, they UNLEARN citizenship.

 

In "Scouting for Boys," they go into the woods without adult supervision to LEARN citizenship.

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"would it be worthwhile to require a Boy Scout (or an Adult Leader) to read a book at each level of advancement?" Diabolical! I love it!
In another thread:

 

In 1898 Robert Baden-Powell was more deeply influenced by his father's best-seller "The Order of Nature" following a spiritual awakening in Kashmir where B-P came to view camping and walking in wild places as an experience which transcended practical considerations:

 

http://www.scouter.com/forum/girl-scouting/387069-boy-scouts-girl-scouts-campfire-the-whole?p=387414#post387414

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"would it be worthwhile to require a Boy Scout (or an Adult Leader) to read a book at each level of advancement?" Diabolical! I love it!
Kudu, you like sending people off on their own to figure things out.

 

Here's another idea for spiritual awakening on your own that I'd like to try some day with the scouts. It's something along the lines of the vigil ordeal or a vision quest. Find a pretty place away from everyone else and sit quietly for 24 hours tending a fire. You can bring religious material to read but no electronics, not even a watch. All the water you want but no food. You're asked to think about your place in your community. I talked to someone else that does this with his troop. He said it was great for the more mature scouts.

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"would it be worthwhile to require a Boy Scout (or an Adult Leader) to read a book at each level of advancement?" Diabolical! I love it!
MattR,

 

Your Scouts might like some of Seton's Woodcraft Indian vigils:

 

The Initiation Trials, especially "8. Lone Camp. Go forth alone into the woods at sunset, out of sight and sound of camp, or human habitation. Take blankets, axe and matches, etc., and make yourself comfortable overnight, not returning till sunrise."

 

http://inquiry.net/traditional/seton/birch/organization/initiations.htm

 

And the Naming Ceremony: "To the singing of the GHOST DANCE SONG (Song No. 42), the Medicine Man leads the way toward the Vigil Rock, where a fire has been laid beforehand."

 

http://inquiry.net/outdoor/native/ceremony/naming.htm

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  • 3 months later...

Just back from the movie.

 

They did a good job staying true to the book.

 

Didn't really address the homicidal nature of Peter. They did not discuss Peter and his political aspirations on earth. They minimized Enders struggle at the battle school and the guilt after the genocide. Didn't do the ending justice or his break

 

Harrison Ford, Asa and Ben Kingsley did a good job. Harrison may have been not intense enough.

 

The CGI was incredible. The zero g battle room was fantastic, saw it in IMAX. made me a touch motion sick.

 

I think the theme are too dark to make it the success of a star wars. The crowd was quiet when we were leaving. I think most had not read the book and were stunned by the ending.

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Just back from the movie.

 

They did a good job staying true to the book.

 

Didn't really address the homicidal nature of Peter. They did not discuss Peter and his political aspirations on earth. They minimized Enders struggle at the battle school and the guilt after the genocide. Didn't do the ending justice or his break

 

Harrison Ford, Asa and Ben Kingsley did a good job. Harrison may have been not intense enough.

 

The CGI was incredible. The zero g battle room was fantastic, saw it in IMAX. made me a touch motion sick.

 

I think the theme are too dark to make it the success of a star wars. The crowd was quiet when we were leaving. I think most had not read the book and were stunned by the ending.

I'm planning to go see it on Saturday morning. I hope it's good.
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I hope to see it soon. Some trepidations--I don't like the look in the stills. My sons finally read it (after twisting arms for a couple years) and said it was "pretty good but not great". I do not think it resonated with them--ya never know. My older son--Mr Survival Man--hated "Hatchet".

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