DecENDER: Chapters 9-11 Roundup (Week 3)

Originally posted here.

Peter and Val: bloggers. I mean, that’s pretty much it, right? They’re going from lively comment-makers to bloggers to columnists on the future-world Drudge Report and Huffington Post. They’re doing what some people assume Glenn Beck and the Fox News set are doing, but in a way would make Glenn Beck cry with envy. These two geniuses are starting to take over the world. Megalomaniacal Peter is thrilled, but Valentine is worried, especially when she realizes that “reasonable people” like her father are being swayed by her arguments. It’s a very prescient view of the way the internet is being used in politics today, though it does feel reasonable unattached to Ender’s plight in Battle School.

Dragon Army is a pretty kickass name. Ender does a good job of living up to the name with his army. The kid has a good sense about people, considering his typical anti-social bent. He can control an army easily, but has a lot of trouble maintaining any sort of working relationship with anyone. Bean seems like a likely candidate for friendship, if Ender can balance his desire to push him and not be too much of a dick at the same time.

Ender’s strategies are pretty impressive, but honestly, the Battleroom game is very rigid. The ideas of formations in toons (short for platoons) remind me very much of the Redcoats in the early American Revolution battles. Ender’s positioned Dragon Army like the American revolutionaries—breaking ranks, shifting formations, moving towards a more guerrilla type of battle. I expect to see the progression to guerilla fighting to continue and deepen as the book progresses. Assuming Bonzo doesn’t break Ender’s face first.

Discuss with #decENDERwk3 and #decENDER, as usual.

Merry Christmas!


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