Orson Scott Card’s
“Artifact or Artifice”:
Where It Stands
After Twenty-five Years

There are 4 thoughts on “Orson Scott Card’s “Artifact or Artifice”: Where It Stands After Twenty-five Years”.

1. Great article Jeff – You covered a lot of content very well.

   I hope that Matthew Bowen’s book becomes available electronically (Kindle), as it is an expensive endeavor to procure the hardback living in Australia.

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2. I really liked this article. Kind of a ‘highlights reel’ for the last 25 years of BoM research. Jeff puts things into perspective so well. Thanks.

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3. Pingback: Orson Scott Card’s “Artifact or Artifice”: Where It Stands After Twenty-five Years - Jeff Lindsay - The Mormonist

4. I read Card’s speech on the internet some years ago, and ever since I have found myself looking for the telltale signs that tip off the reader to the era and culture from which the science fiction author writes.

   In Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein points out that specifications for the jumper’s power suits can be found in any good-sized library, and describes how one spaceship has the luxury of a well-stocked library with actual books.

   No one writing in today’s internet age would include such elements into a futuristic society.

   One of the first science fiction books I read after reading Card’s speech was Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Besides the overt naming of characters after Karl Marx, Leon Trotskey, George Bernard Shaw, Vladimir Lenin (Lenina), and Henry Ford, there is the fascination of the author with “pneumatics,” which unlike its use in our day to reference “air powered” is instead used to mean “soft-but-firm, spongy, air-filled, pliant, and comfortable.” As such Huxley uses the word to apply to comfortable chairs, noiseless shoes, and most notably, full-figured women. Such a usage pins Huxley’s writing to the inner-tube era of car tire manufacturing.

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