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Friday, September 09, 2011

Well that's an unusual take on Shakespeare

Outcry over Hamlet novel casting old king as gay paedophile: Publisher showered with complaints over Orson Scott Card's Hamlet's Father
Subterranean produced its limited edition, signed, 1,000-copy run of the book this spring, with the release largely falling under the radar, apart from a damning review from trade journal Publishers Weekly which said that its focus was "primarily on linking homosexuality with the life-destroying horrors of paedophilia, a focus most fans of possibly bisexual Shakespeare are unlikely to appreciate". This is a view Card has espoused in the past, writing in 2004 that "the dark secret of homosexual society – the one that dares not speak its name – is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally".

Just for the record, no, the book should not be banned or otherwise challenged. And I probably shouldn't be surprised, given some of the details in his bio. I can't comment on Card's abilities as a writer (I'm familiar with his fantasy writing through a friend, and I know it actually includes some man/boy love themes, such as in Songmaster, but I haven't read his work.) But it does rather sound like he has an axe to grind somewhere along the way.

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