Card's sequel to Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, brings another dimension to our various discussions of human-ness and what it really means to be human. In this novel we're introduced to a new species of sentient being referred to as the piggies. Their relationship with the humans is complicated: the humans have largely separated themselves from the piggies by use of a fence, but they send ambassadors to learn about the piggie society. However, they are restrained in how they can interact with the piggies in that they are forbidden to even hint at any part of human culture and they can't ask direct questions of the piggies. This relationship, combined with the troubling and seemingly unexplainable behavior of the piggies, causes some people to question whether or not the piggies should be considered to be on the same level as humans. An idea that contributes greatly to this debate is the theory of the four levels of foreignness that is introduced by Demosthenes. In this light, the debate over the piggies revolves around whether they should be considered ramen, another species of human, or varelse, basically an animal (p34). Despite the humans' awareness that the piggies do have intelligent thought and are part of a developed culture, the ideas of "human superiority" (p231) and "cultural supremacy" (p227) remain.
On page 227, Ender addresses these problems when he explains to Miro and Ouanda that they can learn from the piggies and not just about them. Thinking this way is a bit of a catch-22 however, because it means that either they have to hold the piggies accountable for their seemingly murderous actions or they must think of them as simply animals. Breaking through these viewpoints means breaking through the boundary of "otherness." The humans have to learn to see the piggies as their cultural equals and also to develop an understanding of the differences in their cultures. This clearly has implications for real-world interactions; and (not to sound like too much of a hippie) we can definitely learn from the peaceful relations that develop between the humans, piggies, and (we can imagine) the buggers as well. The differences that exist between various human groups (ethnic, religious, national) are no doubt much less than those that exist between the piggies and the humans or the buggers and the humans.
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Jackie, I think you've hit on a huge point in this class - that communicating with an "other", whether it be in science fiction or not, is never perfect. Because we can't perfectly perceive another culture or species, it's theoretically impossible for us to know exactly their perception of us. Thinking of aliens like the piggies as equals doesn't mean that we understand them, but it makes us able to live with them, and I think that was Ender's central message.
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