Orson Scott Card, Superman And Here We Go Again

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7 Responses

  1. mike weber says:

    Scott Card and i have mutual friends (or had, since Karl Wagner is gone, though others are still with us), and i’ve met him at conventions (Way Back before the firestorms started).

    He always seemed a nice enough guy, and i wasn’t all that annoyed by his Mormon beliefs as they come out in some of his fiction.

    As to this more recent matter – if i encounter something he’s read, and it seems to be proselytising for some of his beliefs i actively disagree with, i probably wouldn’t read it.

    OTOH, if that’s just incidental to a good story (like Mormonism in the “Alvin Maker” books), i might still read it.

    I mean, i read and enjoyed Steve Ditko’s original “Question” stories.

  2. Martha Thomases says:

    If one doesn’t like a creator’s politics, one is free to institute a personal boycott. I, for one, stopped buying Revlon products when I didn’t like what Perlman did to Marvel. I don’t buy Domino’s pizza. My decisions make very little difference to the bottom line, but I can live with my choices.

    Similarly, anyone offended by Card’s beliefs is free to not buy his stories, if that is what they need to do. But organize to get him fired? That’s just making him a martyr for a cause you don’t believe in. Argue with him on the merits (where you’re right), don’t threaten his livelihood.

  3. Donald Bridges says:

    Martha, I understand what you are saying. But it is his “livelihood” that gives him recognition and a platform to express his bigoted points of view. Have you seen some of the debates people have tried to have with him on his bigoted points of views? It comes down to “his way or the highway”.
    Here is his latest points of view:
    Orson Scott Card, who’s served on NOM’s board, compared President Obama to Nazis and Bolsheviks, saying:

    You go along with the big lie every day. You did it obviously and openly in these last weeks before the election, allowing Barack Obama to conceal, cover up, lie — all because, like good obedient party flacks, you knew that nothing was more important than keeping the Beloved Leader in power.

    Then, when his appeasement of our enemies results in a nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv … When more and more Al-Qaeda-style attacks kill more Jews and more Americans around the world …(H/T Right Wing Watch)

    In the past, Card has advocated for the criminalization of homosexuality and has written that marriage equality could and should lead to an overthrow of the U.S. government:

    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…
    source: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/noms-reaction-to-this-weeks-historic-equality-victories

    He specifically states that government has no right to change or redefine marriage. Yet government has already redefined marriage twice by ruling the interracial marriages are constitutional and passing DOMA.
    If voting on civil rights were left to the people, we would still have slavery, women would still be in the kitchen, and separate water fountains would still be the norm.
    Apologies for getting so preachy but people need to be aware of the facts.

    As you said, we are free to institute a personal boycott and I will do that for those 2 episodes.

  4. sfjerry says:

    I support his right to a livelihood and completely support his right to free speech – in fact I would fight and die for his right to free speech.

    But I also have a right to object publicly to his position and to choose to not finance DC, who in turn finances his ability to build and leverage a platform.

    In this case, DC could easily release a statement distancing themselves from his opinions while simultaneously embracing his creative skills.

    I’ve been a reader, no a lover, of DC comics for 40 years…but I don’t think I will be tomorrow.

  5. Jay says:

    I think Orson Scott Card is a GREAT writer and I wish him all the success in the world! You have your opinions and he has his. I will do everything in my power to stop you from spreading your “evil” through your bully pulpit but I’m not going to try and stop you from working. That is just WRONG! Unless you are making a point of blatantly adding your views into your work, then I have a problem and I am going to complain about it! He is a citizen of these United States and Orsen Scott Card has the rights and freedoms to say what and believe what he chooses! No one has the right to interfere with your livelihood because of their opinion. No one has the right to take food out of your children’s mouths because of their opinions! Orsen Scott Card, I salute you, I love your writing, and keep up the great work!

  6. Chris Stansfield says:

    Comparing an economic boycott- something which is done by citizens as a form of activism and is not in any way compulsory or bearing a legal threat- to witch hunts and McCarthyism, which were government actions that could not be avoided, is about the most inapt comparison I can think of. I have no problem with the Million Moms boycotting. They don’t succeed, because there aren’t a Million of them, no one listens to them, and they’re idiots. But they have a right to make a statement and try their best to influence policy with that statement. And those calling for a boycott of Card and DC are doing just the same thing. What makes your position even more untenable is that fact that Card IS a political activist- he is on the board of an organization that spends a lot of money and a lot of time trying to influence legislation against gays. Why is collective boycott somehow more unseemly to you than being a member of a lobbying group?

    As for calling his statements simple “opinions” when he himself directly attempts to influence legislation and the economic livelihood of others, well, that’s more than a bit disingenuous. Replace his statements about gay people with statements about black people or Jews or women and he wouldn’t get hired anywhere. Nobody would defend his right to work with those “opinions” any more than we defend the rights of Don Imus or Michael Richards or David Duke. He has the right to free speech- that is guaranteed. There is no guaranteed right to be published by a comic book company. If there were, a lot of us would be working.

  7. Kade says:

    “Comparing an economic boycott- something which is done by citizens as a form of activism and is not in any way compulsory or bearing a legal threat- to witch hunts and McCarthyism, which were government actions that could not be avoided, is about the most inapt comparison I can think of.”

    Are you familiar with the Hollywood Blacklist?