holy crap I want to punch someone. preferably Orson Scott Card

[angevin2]

So Orson Scott Card has got his grubby homophobic paws all over Hamlet. (WARNING: link contains discussion of homophobia and [fictional] child molestation.)

All I really have to say is

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK.

Comments

[eviltigerlily]

Ah. An improved Hamlet: all tension, ambiguity and talent removed. Perfect for the Modern Audience (TM). KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

Set the spirit of Freud on him.

[dramaturgy]

I feel like I say "I can't" a lot but. There is so much wrong with this I really can't.

[elettaria]

What...what...

Mind you, it's self-sporking, really, so at least we don't need to go through the grubby job of pointing out what's wrong with it. Although I will point out that it makes that scene in season 1 of Slings and Arrows where thingy, that film star playing Hamlet, is driving everyone dotty in rehearsal by "translating" his text into bland modern English, look like he is doing the most erudite and interesting thing ever to the text.

Go and read Atwood's "Gertrude Talks Back" to cheer yourself up, love.

[evewithanapple]

"to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stew'd in corruption, and- and you SCREW in that bed!"

[elettaria]

"Not that it's any of your business, but I change those sheets twice a week, which is more than you do, judging from that student slum pigpen in Wittenberg."

(Full text here, more or less intact.)

[kerrypolka]

Although I will point out that it makes that scene in season 1 of Slings and Arrows where thingy, that film star playing Hamlet, is driving everyone dotty in rehearsal by "translating" his text into bland modern English, look like he is doing the most erudite and interesting thing ever to the text.

YES.

[ghost_light]

What is it about Hamlet that attracts this level of jackassery?

[quietprofanity]

I've complained about this everywhere. At this point I think Orson Scott Card has moved beyond homophobia to the point where his hatred for gay people has become one of the primary facets of his personality, and it is sad.

I don't understand how you can change things in the story that characters explicitly said they did and important thought processes and call it an adaptation, either. I mean, I'm as much of a terrible fanficcer as the next person but I don't see how you can jive when one character says "Yes, I totally killed my brother" in the text with "No, actually, this other character killed the King." I think even on an LJ for crack AUs people would call shennanigans.

What a sad and pathetic man he is.

[angevin2]

I actually co-run an LJ for crack AUs* and I CALL SHENANIGANS.

Also the review is full of quotes from Card about how he's making it easier for modern audiences to understand What The Text Is Really About, and there isn't even anything in Hamlet that supports his, erm, "interpretation" even tenuously! Even setting aside, you know, EVERYTHING ELSE THAT IS WRONG WITH IT.

*They're not all crack, but some are.

[quietprofanity]

Also the review is full of quotes from Card about how he's making it easier for modern audiences to understand What The Text Is Really About, and there isn't even anything in Hamlet that supports his, erm, "interpretation" even tenuously! Even setting aside, you know, EVERYTHING ELSE THAT IS WRONG WITH IT.

It sort of reminds me of Nathan Rabin's review of the Demi Moore "The Scarlet Letter" film where he's like "I pity the kid who tries to cheat his homework watching this film."