Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Or perhaps Card either didn't realize the real question he was asking, or simply didn't have an answer, or perhaps decided any answer he might propose would ultimately be unsatisfying to too many readers.
That's the problem with those big moral quandaries: how do you resolve them?
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I agree that it's a problem, and they don't
have to be resolved. I just felt that Card spent most of the book setting up this particular question, and then didn't address it. (I've read the Blish book, and I've heard of that Le Guin book, though I haven't read it yet. I probably should.)
I think one can tell a story that asks a moral question without answering it. And I don't have a problem with stories that really show how one way of trying to resolve a moral question falls out, and allow the reader to draw their own conclusions on whether the outcome is satisfactory or not. I just think it's jarring to the reader to set up a story in which it looks as though a moral question is going to be dealt with-- even unsatisfactorily-- and then abandon it.
