This is the book I’ve just read. A book by Orson Scott Card.
Basically, the Speaker For the Dead is the one, who comes to the place after someone's death (on the request of relatives, friends, anyone) and talks about the deseased...Something like - making a Speech. Though the speech would reveal a lot about the dead. much more then those who asked, would want to know...
Actually, this is not a central idea of a book anyway.
It is a Tale. A tale with happy ending. Actually, this was the part that disappointed me. Not that I like the miserable endings, where everybody dies and there is the end of a world. But this one resembled the ending of a very good movie which has run out of deadlines during the shooting and hence the ending has been done in a rush and without much of a sense.
Apart from this, I am amazed. The story is not the thing to look for in it, but the philosophy – that’s where all hidden. At first I thought the book is – about – Death. When reading further, realised – it is – about – Guilt. A tremendous guilt, that the heroes of the book have taken upon themselves. The problem with it – it was entirely their OWN decision to feel guilty. Because in fact – they weren’t. So both of the heroes of the book went through enormous mental tortures, etc…(its a book in the end of a day) all that – practically – for Nothing.
”I am not one to despise other people for their sins. I haven’t found one yet, that I didn’t say inside myself, I’ve done worse then this…”
In a way, despite of the happy ending, the story is way too gloomy…oh, and of course, you’d fall in love with that Andrew Wiggin, the main character, from the first pages he appears. Tho, this would be not the “fall in love” as in “romantic” love….I’d say – it is more like “you-will-love-him-but-after-that-you-won’t-be-sad-when-he-will-need-to-go” love. Like, you know – when someone bigger then anyone else (and I’m not talking of a size) – you just can’t have them for yourself only.
Ok, Ok, I already hear you laughing saying I’m too much of a romantic…Yep. That’s me. I am romantic, but tell me – who isn’t? We all have it in us, only some chose to hide it far in the closet, trying to get real, to be rational. I don’t see myself as been rational in how I live my life. But I’d say with the Ender’s words here:
Rational decisions are far more easily made, then carried out
Well, the book, of course is not about romance at all. It is after all - about Guilt. And about Death. And I would recommend to read it, if you haven’t done it already. I believe that if one would be able to get through the traditional unsophisticated sci-fi story line, there will be great wisdoms awaiting to be discovered…
Sickness and healing are in every heart. Death and deliverance are in every hand