The Authorized Ender Companion (68 page)

My memories of that beach trip are inseparable from my memories of the book. When I was swallowed by an ocean wave, I was Dink Meeker spinning in zero gravity. While floating, I would pull my legs up to my chest, fire between my knees and think, “The enemy’s gate is down.” I read every moment I was not engaged in a family activity. When I would finally turn off the light to sleep, the images played on inside my head. I tried to double numbers like Ender, but I never made it very far.

I finished the book on the way back home. When Graff and Ender returned to space, I read the name of a place that sounded familiar and asked my dad, “Where’s the Pamlico Sound?”

“It’s right outside the window,” he replied. I looked out, imagining towers
of concrete and steel. When Ender learned that he had not been playing a game, I put down the book, bent forward, and placed my hands on the side of my head while taking deep breaths. My family thought I was carsick. And when I finished the book, just a few miles from home, I cried. My dad asked me if it had a sad ending, but that wasn’t it at all. The ending was pure hope. It was the simple fact that the book was over. My journey with these characters, these friends, was over. Ender had drifted off into the universe like the smoke from the birthday fire.

Now I teach eleven-year-olds, some already weary of the lives they lead, and I hope they find a book that teaches them what
Ender’s Game
taught me: People do not like it when you stand out, but sometimes that is what it takes to be great. No matter how many battles you face, you can survive. Childhood is a treasure, to be valued and protected at any cost.

And, of course, the enemy’s gate is down.

William Tobey Mitchell, teacher
Dobson, North Carolina

I have always been an intelligent child, maybe a genius, maybe not, the definition of genius is far too variable to apply to yourself, but I was definitely smarter than a lot of my classmates, and they knew it. And they hated me for it. It may sound like arrogance to say such things, but it was simple fact. I tried not flaunt it, but I knew answers, and wasn’t patient enough for the teacher to give up asking and tell us. I wanted to learn and I wanted to keep learning. This, of course, led to abuse.

All throughout middle school and into high school they teased me and taunted me, and it hurt me, and depressed me, and probably worst of all made me angry. When I lost control it just looked weak, because I was small and didn’t know much fighting.

Then I picked up
Ender’s Game
on a recommendation from my cousin. I started reading it on the way to a family vacation in Key West, and that first day I stayed in my hotel room until I had finished it.

I just kept going and couldn’t stop. I was so easily able to immerse myself into Ender’s character, to understand his point of view. It made sense to me, it was like Ender was me only, of course, better. I was stunned at the accuracy and depth of the portrayal of the mind-set of a child like Ender, and I was stunned because all of a sudden it wasn’t a character in a book, it was me.

After reading the book, I was able to draw strength from Ender’s ability to endure, and I was able to draw confidence from the strength. When one carries themselves with confidence, people start treating you differently. Without any hyperbole, I can say my life changed for the better the moment I read that book—to the point that whenever I go to a new, strange place I bring it with me, and whenever I feel weak I read it. It gives me the courage to smile and do what I have to do. I am going to college soon, and when I arrive, the first thing I will do is open
Ender’s Game
and read it again.

Nicholas Gilbert, student
Griswold, Connecticut

When
Ender’s Game
was introduced as required classroom reading in high school English, I initially regarded it as I did most such literature: with a resigned annoyance at yet another in a long line of books that teachers gush about and that I can look forward to wasting hours of my life trying to figure out what the author “meant” or “felt” when they wrote the book in the first place.

I soon found that
Ender’s Game
, and many of the books that followed it, were different altogether. As an adolescent who had been quickly advanced through earlier grades and was present in a class of peers several years my senior, I found a literary mirror that offered an examination of many of the same feelings and challenges that I was going through. The difficulty of bully magnetism to a younger kid (in my case, my rotund physique did not exactly help). The feeling of isolation; each success driving a further social wedge between myself and my peers. The congruency of finding comfort in a group of similarly ostracized freethinkers.

While I certainly could not claim any real experience of mortal danger or having somehow saved the fate of humanity by my own story’s end, I can definitely say that
Ender’s Game
provided a comfort in a difficult situation. Here was a story of a fictional youth enduring many of the same sorts of challenges that I had endured. He framed that intellect into executing each task put before him despite his personal struggles and constructed a life of excellence around his gifts, using a backdrop of friends to complement his weaknesses and provide the grounding necessary to succeed.

In
Ender’s Game
, I found support for my own journey through adolescence and the message that excellence is not only acceptable but is not a unique condition. Silent observation. Calculation. Hope. A drive to be the
best. These are themes that I wish every teenager could have the same opportunity to internalize through literature.

Wayne Anderson, systems engineer
Brighton, Colorado

I used to not be a science fiction fan, or a fan of any fiction for that matter. I read
Ender’s Game
for the first time last summer after a friend brought it to work. He gave me a summary of the story and I spent the next few hours reading it over his shoulder. Since then I’ve read every book in the Ender series, and passed it on to several friends. Having just finished
Children of the Mind
, it feels like I’ve lost a close friend since there aren’t any more books to read.

Ender’s Game
has fueled my interest in politics, history, and literature. It has inspired me to go deeper in my education and create a new class at my university. My philosophy professor and I will be launching a Concepts of Rights and Justice class next semester that will deal with the founding of new government laws and ethics. After reading
Ender’s Game
I began to see a lot of things differently. Ender has a knack for seeing past what people are saying and finding what it is that they really want and need. I’ve tried to implement that into my own life as much as possible and the outcome has been amazing.
Ender’s Game
is more than mere fiction. It has the ability to teach people new things and inspire them to greatness.

Garrett Stevenson, college student
Elk City, Oklahoma

I have always been into science fiction and was reading a lot of Robert Heinlein in those days, and a buddy of mine asked if I had ever read a book called
Ender’s Game
, and I hadn’t.

We were in the library (this was back in high school and since I didn’t have a car like the cool kids, I pretty much hung out in the library with all the other geeks) so my buddy Boaz went and grabbed it off the shelf and put it in my hands. He had never steered me wrong with literature before, but I was skeptical when he told me it was about a bunch of kids in space. But he was/is my friend, so I cracked it open and began to read. Nothing could have prepared me for the journey I underwent.

I would like to tell you that this book changed my life, but I think that
would be overstating things just a little and might sound faintly corny. What I can tell you is that it did change my mind about how much of an impact the written word can have on an individual. Because the ending is so unbelievable, I was completely unprepared for it, and it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I literally read those words in awe.

That story made me want to be a better writer. They say when you are in the presence of greatness you’re either embarrassed or you’re inspired and I would definitely say this book inspired me and still does to this day. It’s a story that I keep coming back to in my mind and I don’t make the mistake of trying to write a story like
Ender’s Game
but I want to do to a reader what was done to me—when the truth of that moment opened my eyes to an entire world of possibilities I hadn’t previously considered. This is the kind of story I have passed on to friends and family and one day if I ever have children I will share it with them. I carry Ender and his courage in my heart. And in my heart he will live forever.

James S. Wirfs, Jr., Wal-Mart
Oak Harbor, Washington

In my freshman year of high school, my English teacher required that we read one book per semester. So of course, as most students would, I waited until that last minute to find one and get the grade. I had never been interested in reading books, as there were girls to swoon and baseballs to be thrown around. My best friend had picked up
Ender’s Game
randomly from our school library because, he had said, that the cover was cool. Upon reading it, he hurriedly told me that I didn’t have to worry and that he had found the book that I was to read for the class project. Something like, “Yeah dude, it’s a cool book. The main character gets in space battles and stuff—you’ll like it.”

Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me. I didn’t care what I read, as long as it was relatively easy and at least mildly entertaining. It took me two school nights to read it. My mind was blown—never had I believed that a story told in print could grip my imagination so completely. From that point on, reading became one of my most important activities. Simply put, through
Ender’s Game
I learned to love stories; through stories, I’ve learned to love life. For me,
Ender’s Game
was a life changer.

Jonmark Ragsdale, college student
Tampa, Florida

My brother had to read
Ender’s Game
in high school. He loved it and raved about it. The next year, I had to read it as well and fell in love with it and read
Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide
, and
Children of the Mind
and it really opened up my mind and opened me up to a lot more of OSC’s books.

At this point in my life I was still living as a male . . . I am a postoperative male to female transgender. At the age of twenty I confronted my long hidden secret and exposed my true self to the world, risking everything for the chance at a happier life. After nearly being shot in the face, I decided I loved life, but if I would have died, no one would have known who I was inside. So at the age of twenty, I confronted the skeletons in my closet.

With the right education and the right approach, I was able to share my struggle with my loved ones and friends, and what I received in return was absolute acceptance and respect.

I didn’t want to be dead, I love life, but living in the wrong body and living the lie made me feel like I would rather be dead, but I knew I loved life and loved living. So the only way I could do that would be to make the full transition, which I have done quite successfully.

How this applies to OSC is that my name Jane was taken from the self-aware supercomputer in
Speaker, Xeno
, and
Children
.

I always connected greatly to that character and I loved the name. Having freshly reread the series around the time I was making these most pivotal life decisions, I was greatly influenced by the work.

My deceased grandmother’s name was Joyce. I didn’t want to use it for my first name. Jane, in my mind, represents the ultimate feminine, and power (because of these books), and it is a common name but I never once had met a Jane.

It was already written in the destiny of my life, but
Ender’s Game
opened me up to
Speaker, Xeno
, and
Children
, which have been omens for the path that I walk.

Jane Joyce B, graphic designer, musician
Phoenix, Arizona

Ender’s Game
quite literally saved me from insanity, from myself. I’d just been kicked out of one of the U.S. Military’s most academically challenging programs—a place I feel is as close to Battle School as anything today—for medical problems out of my control. I was spiraling downward, struggling with depression, with suicide, to the point where I had to be hospitalized.

My bonding over the Ender books with a friend I discovered there saved me. It felt as if we
were
Battle School students. It was nice to revitalize my mind, stretch my thinking, and mentally click with a friend who shared my love of
Ender’s Game
and, incidentally, my view on many things in life.

Feeling like you are part Ender or part Bean gives you a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, when all other means have failed you. Somewhere, somehow, the stories explain, there was someone who thought like you, who did the things you’d do, and they accomplished great things.

Michael Heath, Starbucks barrista
Ogden, Utah

I was introduced to
Ender’s Game
by my school’s librarian. She praised it as being a book she loved, even though she hated science fiction. I already loved science fiction, so that was enough to sell me. That year, my freshman year in high school, I found myself totally absorbed in the stories of young Ender at Battle School and in the stories that followed in
Speaker
and
Xenocide
. I became something of an
Ender’s Game
missionary, recommending the novel to everyone until there was something of a cult following at my school.

The book spoke to all of us on such a profound and spiritual level. For me, I found solace in Ender’s story, insofar as he had to find the strength to persevere through utter isolation and almost complete mental breakdown. I drew strength from knowing my own story was not entirely unique to me. I decided I was pushing myself too hard, with Ender serving as an example to me of what to avoid, and I think I may have thus avoided a similar breakdown or worse.