The batshittery is strong with this one

[lyore]

Orson Scott Card is at it again.

Most of it is just the usual all-women-should-be-barefoot-and-pregnant-TEH-GAY-is-destroying-life-as-we-know-it-Jim bullshit, but there are a few gems that are just too batshit to ignore.

Because when government is the enemy of marriage, then the people who are actually creating successful marriages have no choice but to change governments, by whatever means is made possible or necessary. ... How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die.

Um...

I'm really, really glad I never bought any of his books. I'd hate to think I financed this crazy in any way.

Comments

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

WTF? I actually own many of his books and have read many others. I'm not even a Christian (I'm an atheist--a pretty firm one), and I even enjoyed his books about women from the Bible or whatever that series was called.

He was one of my favorite authors for a while many years ago. I've also got two of his books about writing, and I never read *anything* like what you're saying above. *cries* I think I liked it better when I knew nothing about him, because that is batshit insane. :-( Now I'm embarrassed to have his books on my shelf, and I almost *never* allow someone's personal beliefs to influence me in that way, because, to me, that's like when everyone trashed the Dixie Chicks for their beliefs and for being honest about what they think. It goes both ways.

But still... I hate to be in any way associated with thinking like that. :-(

[lyore.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sorry. OSC's crazy has been fairly well known on the internet for a while now, it didn't occur to me that there would be a fan on my flist who didn't know. I hope this didn't ruin the books for you.

(My not owning his books is due purely to laziness - they were on the list of things to get for ages, I just never got around to it. And now, for obvious reasons, I've been discouraged, even though I'm generally pretty good about separating personal beliefs from my appreciation of authors (or actors) work. But it's difficult, especially when it's something you find pretty repulsive.)

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't worry about it! I didn't mean to make you feel bad. *g* You had absolutely nothing to do with his saying/writing/whatever these ridiculous things.

I know about the book he wrote somewhat recently and I've certainly heard rumblings about this sort of asshattery before (though only somewhat recently--in the last year or so, I think, never before that), though I wasn't aware of *all* of these views--this sort of extremism. lol Certainly *you* are not disillusioning me. *g* It's just pretty hard to ignore when he gets to *this* level of batshittery, as you put it.

Keeping it all separate is difficult (again, as you said *g*), but I certainly wouldn't say that the books of his that I loved now suck, because they are the same books, and I know exactly where the basis for a lot of his themes and plots came from (his religion), but I've always found that more interesting than alarming or off-putting.

I even read something a while back about how his misogyny and homophobia was in some of his books, but if it was there, I wasn't aware enough to notice it at the time I read them, I guess, and even then, I could look at it at least somewhat objectively--detached, I guess--the way one does when studying literature. (Not that I've "studied" his books. hehe)

I guess part of my point is that I never saw anything in his books that was worse than anything I've seen in other modern novels and/or on TV and in movies all the time. What's there is there, but nothing that set off my alarm bells, really--nothing that different from what's pretty prevalent out there. hehe It's entirely possible that I just missed it, though.

[lyore.livejournal.com]

I never saw anything in his books that was worse than anything I've seen in other modern novels and/or on TV and in movies all the time.

That's good - or alternatively, really depressing. But I'm in an optimistic mood, and am going for the positive belief that he managed to keep his more extreme beliefs out of his books (or perhaps they were written before his beliefs became this extreme? I don't know).

I'm glad this didn't spoil them for you.