A publishing house is getting a lot of attention for a new printing of a homophobic Hamlet rewrite called Hamlet's Father by science fiction author and NOM board member Orson Scott Card.
The Guardian notes:
The book is not a new release, having been published twice before, for the first time in 2008, but an explosive review at the Rain Taxi Review of Books has unleashed a wave of criticism.
William Alexander at Rain Taxi book review writes:
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.
Check out a sample of Card's prior writings on gay people here.
Adds Jeremy Hooper: "How long before NOM has him rewriting The Merchant of Venice so that said merchant is cast out of business for refusing to photograph a lesbian wedding? Or maybe Romeo & Juliet 2, where the lovers are tragically fated not because of family strife, but rather because of the committed gay couple in the castle down the road? Or perhaps The Merry Wives of Windsor rebranded as a warning sign about same-sex marriage leading to polygamy? So many options!"
