The Question of Relativity
OK, so I read Speaker for the Dead, and I enjoyed it, mostly, but I couldn't help but get weirded out by the idea of a romantic relationship between Ender and Ivanova. He is 3,000 years older than her!!!!!! I know that he looks and feels like he is 35, but we all know the truth. He was born on Earth thousands of years before the Starways Confederation was even a dot on some treaty. He grew up with the reality of the Bugger War and he was the Ender who perpetrated the despicable "Xenocide". And, of course, the original Speaker for the Dead.
I can't really believe that he is the true equivalent of 35. I believe that at some atomic or subatomic level, he must experience all of the time that passes while he is in space travel. Afterall, the Hive Queen experiences every second of their travel because of her greater telepathic abilities. Since the atoms in the Hive Queen are the same as the ones in Ender, and throughout the universe, those atoms must have experienced every second that has passed in the real world.
There is also the element of experience. Although he may not have lived through everything conciously, Ender has experienced firsthand all of the transformations of public opinion and society that have occurred during that time. He has experienced first-hand both the hatred and love of the Buggers and every degree of feeling in between. He has seen the fall of the IF and the formation of the SC. He has spoken first-hand with people dead for thousands of years. And, most disturbing, he was a man of great experience when Ivanova was still a child. He fell in love with her even before she began her twenty year affair with Libo.
Yes, Ivanova has experienced more pain in her forty years than most people have. Yes, starship travel has kept Ender young outwardly. But, nevertheless, Ender's experiences and the literal age of his atoms mean that he is 3,000 years older than her.
posted by lennearb @ 9:23 PM
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