Hamlets father orson scott card biography
Orson Scott Card
American science fiction novelist (born )
Orson Scott Card | |
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Card at Life, the Universe, & Everything in | |
| Born | () August 24, (age&#;73) Richland, Washington, U.S. |
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| Education | Brigham Young University (BA) University of Utah (MA) |
| Genre | |
| Notable works | Ender's Game series, The Tales of Alvin Maker |
| Notable awards | |
| Spouse | Kristine Allen |
| Children | 5 |
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, ) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. As of , he is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game () and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card coproduced, was released in Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (–). Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between and , and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction, and historical fiction genres starting in Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels
Hamlet's Father
novella by Orson Scott Card
For the actual character in Shakespeare's play, see Ghost (Hamlet).
First standalone edition | |
| Author | Orson Scott Card |
|---|---|
| Cover&#;artist | Tom Kidd |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Subterranean Press |
| Publication place | US |
| Media&#;type | |
| Pages | |
Hamlet's Father is a novella by Orson Scott Card, which retells William Shakespeare's Hamlet in modernist prose, and which makes several changes to the characters' motivations and backstory. It has drawn substantial criticism for its portrayal of King Hamlet as a pedophile who molested Laertes, Horatio, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the implication that this in turn made them homosexuals.
Plot
The story largely follows the plot of Hamlet. Unlike the original, Hamlet is disconnected from his indifferent father. He does not envy Claudius as the new king, believing him to be a fine monarch, although he pines for the day when he can rule Denmark peacefully and without war. He grieves little after the death of Ophelia. Hamlet does not question death nor his faith, which is unshakable. He is presented as moral and unwavering, a stark contrast to the original Hamlet.
At the end of the story, it is revealed that King Hamlet was not killed by Claudius, as the king had led Hamlet to believe, but by Horatio in retaliation for the king having molested him as a young boy. It is also revealed that the King had molested Laertes, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet is sent to Hell for the harm he's caused and will be with his father for eternity.
Development and publication
Orson Scott Card has modernized other Shakespeare plays, including The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, and Romeo and Juliet, "so that modern audiences can understand them instantly and easily while still remaining [sic] all the flavor of blank verse in Elizabethan English."
In his foreword to the Hamle In an unprecedented fashion, Card won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel two years in a row for Ender's Game and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, in and Orson Scott Card Website I certainly don't like thinking of Hamlet, Sr. as a child molester, but it does fit my general criteria for modern Shakespearean fiction: it invites a return to the text based on an imagined version of events or on different characterizations. Still
Orson Scott Card
Born in Richland, Washington, Orson Scott Card grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He lived in Brazil for two years as an unpaid Mormon Church missionary, and received degrees from Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine, and five children.
ISFDB Bibliography
SF Site Review: Enchantment
SF Site Review: Stonefather
SF Site Review: A War of Gifts
SF Site Review: Space Boy
SF Site Review: Shadow of the Giant
SF Site Review: The Crystal City
SF Site Review: Wyrms
SF Site Review: Songmaster
SF Site Review: Ender's Shadow
SF Site Review: Ender's Shadow
SF Site Review: Enchantment
SF Site Review: Heartfire
SF Site Review: Homebody
While we're talking about Orson Scott Card, I suppose I'd better mention his rare, limited-edition novella that retells the story of Hamlet. I read it many years ago and really didn't feel like writing it up right after finishing it. I still don't feel much like writing it up, but I do feel a bit obligated to do so.
Note!
Caution!
Spoilers will inevitably follow&#;and, in this case, they're rotten spoilers.
Additional Note: This post will not be as family-friendly as most posts at Bardfilm are.
Hamlet's Father keeps to the basic premise of Hamlet, but it spends the majority of its time setting up the ending. Hamlet returns to Denmark for his father's funeral around page seventy&#;of this ninety-two page novella. He returns and puts on a kind of half-hearted antic disposition. Here are a few pages to give you a feel of that:
After Hamlet returns, he starts poking around to discover how his father died and who killed him and goes so far as to kill Claudius and Laertes before the real murderer steps forward to confess and to explain his reasons for killing King Hamlet.
Horatio did it.
In Clue parlance, it was Horatio in the garden with the sword in the ear (Horatio suggests that the sword must have felt like poison to the dying man, which is why his ghost mistakenly thought it actually was poison).
King Hamlet was a pedophile who was in danger of molesting Hamlet but instead turned his attention to Horatio, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others. When Horatio found himself about to repeat King Hamlet's misdeeds, he turned from them and decided to kill the king instead. Here's part of the denouement: