Quote 1
"Isolation is – the optimum environment for creativity. It was his ideas we wanted, not the – never mind, I don't have to defend myself to you." (9.304)
Graff starts to explain why isolation is necessary for Ender’s training (and why Ender didn’t get Val’s letters), but then he stops midway to say that he doesn’t need to defend himself. Which is what people always say when they <em>want</em> to defend themselves. We pulled this quote because in it, Graff nicely explains the positive side of isolation (“the optimum environment for creativity”); but the fact that he wants to defend himself shows that there’s something wrong about purposely isolating a kid. No matter the benefit of isolation, we should recognize the unhappiness it causes.
Quote 2
"We train our commanders the way we do because that's what it takes – they have to think in certain ways, they can't be distracted by a lot of things, so we isolate them. You. Keep you separate. And it works. But it's so easy, when you never meet people, when you never know the Earth itself, when you live with metal walls keeping out the cold of space, it's easy to forget why Earth is worth saving. Why the world of people might be worth the price you pay." (13.193)
Is it true to say that Ender hasn’t met people? Isn’t Battle School full of people? And why does the army need to isolate people when those people are these super-genius kids? After all, the army wants Ender to remain creative, but isn’t his creativity helped by his relationships with Alai and Bean? Graff lays out the reason why they do what they do here – and it’s a story we’ve heard before. But we hear it so many times that we can’t help thinking of some problems.
Quote 3
"If the other fellow can't tell you his story, you can never be sure he isn't trying to kill you." (13.282)
In this section, we’ve been thinking about several possible roots for communities. Maybe you can form a community with people who share your hobbies. Or maybe you can only form one with people who treat you as an equal. In this quote, Graff offers maybe the most basic requirement for a community: the people in it are able to communicate with each other. That makes the buggers’ telepathy perhaps the ultimate form of community; instead of having to talk about what they’re feeling or thinking, they simply transmit the feeling or thought: “What one thinks, another can also think; what one remembers, another can also remember” (13.280).