Orson Scott Card rewrites Hamlet... as anti-gay diatribe.

[ThatPoetGuy]

The most polite thing for us to do would be to walk away and quietly forget the whole painful exercise. But Card does not deserve our polite amnesia. His failures should be known and remembered, because the revelation in his "revelatory new version" turns out to be a nightmare of vitriolic homophobia.

Here's the punch line: Old King Hamlet was an inadequate king because he was gay, an evil person because he was gay, and, ultimately, a demonic and ghostly father of lies who convinces young Hamlet to exact imaginary revenge on innocent people. The old king was actually murdered by Horatio, in revenge for molesting him as a young boy—along with Laertes, and Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, thereby turning all of them gay. We learn that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are now "as fusty and peculiar as an old married couple. I pity the woman who tries to wed her way into that house."

Hamlet is damned for all the needless death he inflicts, and Dead Gay Dad will now do gay things to him for the rest of eternity: "Welcome to Hell, my beautiful son. At last we'll be together as I always longed for us to be."

All of this is as horrifying as it is ridiculous. It is not, however, surprising that Orson Scott Card's primary purpose is to slander ten percent of the human race. He recently joined the board of the National Organization for Marriage, an institution which exists solely to crush gay civil rights wherever they emerge. Card has publicly stated that homosexuals will destroy America:

http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2011summer/card.shtml

The awful badness of the thinking is matched by the bad awfulness of the writing.

Luckily, Scott Lynch is here to share with us a parody of Mr. Card's effort:

http://scott-lynch.livejournal.com/265746.html#comments

[xchrom]

1. There will never be a shortage of anti-gay bigoted fuck wads in the world.

More is the pity.

[mysuzuki2]

2. I have been reading SF for well over 50 years but I have never

read anything by Card. I do not believe I will damage my perfect record anytime soon or ever.

[Kurmudgeon]

3. Songmaster and The Worthing Saga were exceptional, however.

The more I read, I just got bogged down in it and lost interest. Same thing happened on both the Ender and especially the Alvin Maker series.
Then after reading some of his political "opinions", I just wrote him off.

[Meeker Morgan]

4. No no no no. Othello is the anti-gay play.

Iago was envious of Desdemona. He wanted Othello for himself. :evilgrin:

[tomfodw]

7. Not a bad interpretation

I saw a production of The Merchant of Venice once at Lincoln Center that posited a closeted homosexual relationship between Antonio and Bassanio, with Portia's resentment and jealousy of them as the reason for her incredibly vindictive treatment of Shylock at the conclusion of the trial.

Iago being after Othello is a pretty good explanation for his otherwise motiveless malignity, as someone once described it.

[closeupready]

5. Clearly, he doesn't really get out much.

Lives like a hermit, likely.

[drmeow]

6. Damn Mormons!