ON COMPARISONS

Last night, I finished reading "Ender in Exile," the newest book from author Orson Scott Card. And I loved it. It provided so much depth to the universe Card has created through his other books (including what is probably my favorite book, Ender's Game). It wasn't a perfect book, but it was so good, and the characters so deep, that it was impossible not to feel something while reading it.

I spent some time in bed last night trying to figure out if Orson Scott Card is my favorite author. Sure, he has written my favorite book, and many other fantastic books. My favorite quote from a book appears on his website every now and again (referenced in this post, back when this blog had pictures). But is he my favorite author? Sure, I own all of his fiction. But I also enjoy the heck out of Stephen King's work and own all of his fiction, including my favorite series, The Dark Tower. Card's writing is more...let's go with cerebral, but you can't deny King's everyman appeal. They both write well in different genres - King is known for horror and fantasy, Card for science-fiction and fantasy.

So I started looking at the artist behind the art. King seems like he'd be a cooler guy to hang out with. We could talk about some fantastic music (The Ramones, Bruce Springsteen) and about sports (my White Sox versus his Red Sox). Hanging out with Card, we could talk about theater (well, improv) and things of that ilk. Also, use of the word "ilk." Here's the thing, though: Card and I have very different political and religious views, as he seems like a staunch defender of the current political party in the Oval Office, and I am certainly not in favor of our current president (the president-elect, of course, being a very different story). So my sleep-deprived brain awarded a point to King.

When I woke up this morning and found myself thinking on it again, I came to the startling conclusion: why should I choose one of them over the other as a favorite? They are both excellent writers, but have completely different styles. There's no law that says I have to rank one as a "favorite." And I realized it's NOT A WRITING COMPETITION. I enjoy espn.com columns by Bill Simmons AND Gregg Easterbrook, despite their differences in tone and topic. I enjoy Cap'n Crunch AND Frosted Flakes. I like blondes, brunettes, AND redheads.

In conclusion, both Stephen King and Orson Scott Card have done some fantastic work, and choosing between them is not only too difficult to be meaningful, it's also too meaningless to be meaningful.