Orson Scott Card Finally Removes All That Pesky Gayness in "Hamlet."

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I hate Orson Scott Card. This is an opinion that I openly share with anyone who will listen to it. His novels aside, the man is one of the biggest and homophobic douchebags to ever have written a best seller. So it comes as something of a shock (or maybe not, considering what he has said in the past) that the celebrated science-fiction author has taken upon himself to "rewrite" William Shakespeare's timeless tragedy, Hamlet, and expunge it of any and all references to things that may oppose his archaic sense of reality (namely, the homosexual undertones of the play.)

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

Now, I am not opposed to the rewriting of classic works in the name of bringing the story into the modern age. Though I have issues with the director's other works, I think Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet was an alright movie, and Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies is still on my "must-read" list. However, the motivations behind Card's version is down right deplorable not only for removing the play's gay undertones for thinly-veiled homophobia, but also for apprently sucking all of the drama out of the plot by having Hamlet not give a crap about the murder of his father. As Alexander states in his review:

"The prince is unfazed and emotionally indifferent to the old king's death, feels no sense of betrayal when his mother speedily remarries, and thinks that Claudius will make a perfectly good monarch. Hamlet is also secure in his religious faith, with absolute and unshakable beliefs about the nature of death and the afterlife. He isn't particularly hung up on Ophelia, either. Throughout the novella, Prince Hamlet displays the emotional depth of a blank sheet of paper."

He also states:

"Hamlet, as re-imagined by Orson Scott Card, is certainly queer. Unfortunately, the prince's literary stepfather is both a bigot and a bowdlerizer. If aught of wonder you would see, look elsewhere."

Well said, sir.