In Which Orson Scott Card Misses The Point And Is A Tool

[andraste]

So, in his infinite wisdom, Orson Scott Card decided to rewrite Hamlet. As one might expect, this did not turn out very well, as detailed in this review.

It's not just a terrible book, though, it's also disgustingly bigoted. Unfortunately, this is also not surprise to those who have followed the author's career. Now, like the review, I'm going to spoil the big plot twist OSC decided to add to Hamlet. You'll be glad I did.

The reviewer, William Alexander, explains:

The extent of the novella's failure is surprising—and embarrassing, given that Card is a skilled veteran novelist and Subterranean a well-respected press. 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."

Oh, Orson Scott Card. How did this happen to the guy who wrote Ender's Game? I know being a good writer is no defense against being a homophobic bigot, but I thought it might prevent someone from catastrophically MISSING THE POINT OF HAMLET.

And people wonder why I refused to read OSC's Dragon Age comic series despite being completely obsessed with the universe.

Comments

[ruuger]

Ugh. Every time I read anything about OSC I become more and more glad that I never read Ender's Game and can just hate him without any kind of conflicting feelings...

[cremains]

It's actually pretty fun to (re-)read Ender's Game with the knowledge that OSC is a total dickbag; you can detect some pretty intensely creepy warning signs. Then again, if you don't enjoy being needlessly annoyed, there's not much point to the exercise.

[saturnofthemoon]

OMG, I cannot unsee it! I didn't enjoy Ender's Game but it was definitely a notch up from this. *shivers* I wish I could spit in OSC's face.

[cremains]

I hope this will smarten up some of his apologists. Best line of the review: "Card does not deserve our polite amnesia. His failures should be known and remembered."

[astrogirl]

Man, it's such a sad thing, because when Card's writing is good, it's very good. And when it's bad, it's freaking offensive.

And, you know, there are people who've done cool things with re-writing or remixing Hamlet; it's not an exercise that's automatically doomed to failure. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, for example, is awesome. It is, of course, also notably lacking in homophobia.

[greenygal]

Yeah, one of the things I'm thinking in response to this is that a perspective flip on Hamlet where Claudius had good reason to kill the king and now he's got to deal with this maniac Hamlet about it--you could totally do that; there's so much confusion and moral ambiguity in that play it shouldn't even be that hard. However, starting with the premise "and today, I will write about how gays are evil" is not the way to go about it.

[bimo]

This amount of bigotry, ignorance and stupidity is leaving me speechless. Seriously.

Thankfully, I've never read anything by OSC.

[lynndyre]

.......there is not enough WTF in the world.

[weewarrior]

*facepalm*

I, too, don't have to feel conflicted about Card, since I've never read Ender's Game, and thanks to its author's antics, never will.

[mara]

I also find myself wondering what happened to the guy who wrote Ender's Game. How can his bigotry blind him SO much that, as you say, he misses the point of Hamlet?

As Neotoma notes, I'm so glad I gave up Card years ago. Ugh.

[danel4d.livejournal.com]

It's sad, but almost a lesson in many ways - a few years back, you could see him as a decent writer with unfortunate tendencies you *could* overlook for the writing... but gradually his obsessions have consumed him until there's not really anything left. I mean, I take it as a sign that my reaction to your post was a sorrowful sigh and a sad shake of the head, whereas with other writers I like I'd see something like this and wonder if it'd been taken out of context or whatever. With OSC, it's just the obvious endpoint of the road he's been on for years.

[par_avion]

How did this happen to the guy who wrote Ender's Game? I know being a good writer is no defense against being a homophobic bigot, but I thought it might prevent someone from catastrophically MISSING THE POINT OF HAMLET.

Heh. Tempted to meta-quote this :)

[suaine]

I think it's most telling that I fail to be at all surprised about this. OSC has been going there for years, it's probably a good thing that he's so obvious about it now - it gives me more ammunition to justify refusing to read his backlog of sci-fi classics. He's been a bigot forever, it just didn't show quite so much.

[kernezelda]

It's incredibly disappointing; I once stood in line to get his autograph for one of his early novels, which were riveting and unforgettable and so very human. Ever since that dreadful Homecoming series, I haven't been able to read a thing he's written or respect his ideology as a person.