I hate Orson Scott Card

[Amanda]

This jackass lives in the same town I do. Yesterday, I saw an interview with him with the executive director of our local cable access channel. Dear Uncle Orson had the gall to say that his church does the best community theatre in Greensboro, and that most people in the community would never go watch because they all think it's "church" theatre. He then proceeded to elucidate on his technique for producing theatre at church--rewriting Shakespeare. He honestly believes that if Shakespeare were alive, he would thank Orson Scott Card for updating the language and doing his plays in front of a bunch of Mormons.

Honestly, if he were truly a writer, don't you think he should have a bit more appreciation for the language itself?

[Kelly]

The incredible arrogance of that is astounding. I'm going to go with Card actually pronouncing the name Shakespeare like he knows anything about it being the most offensive thing.

Has the man ever read a Shakespeare play? The gender switches, essentially gay love affairs, the beautiful chaos of life and identity? No. I don't think he has.

[[deleted user]]

Argh! The trifecta of his homophobia, jingoistic asshattery & now this, makes it so hard to choose!

[Amanda]

He writes a column for our local conservative rag. I'll let you all know if he says anything "profound" next issue.

[Bryan]

Is Shakespeare so sacred that he can't take a little re-writing? Don't avant garde theaters do that all the time? Don't most productions of Hamlet cut out significant chunks of the text?

[Bryan]

Well, I hafta disagree, Elijah. I don't think he's sacred. I may agree that Shakespeare's great, but that doesn't mean some dude can't shouldn't rewrite him and alter at will.

It's just a play.

Hey, speaking of...http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress...

[Robbie]

I once saw Orson Scott Card berate a poor Panera's employee because they weren't serving his favorite soup of the day. True story.

[Jason]

I was so disappointed when I found out who Card really was (years ago, after reading the Ender's game series, which I earnestly enjoyed), and since then I've heard nothing to repair his reputation. Shame...plus, most of his other books suck.

However, on this Shakespeare thing, I have to agree with Bryan. I'm all for rewriting pretty much anything, if it suits your fancy and people enjoy it. I'm pretty sure that's what we've been doing since the beginning of time, anyhow.

Plus, I think Card was right about Shakespeare. Much of his work was written or edited up to the very day of the performance, and he had no intention of any of his work being recorded for posterity. We have some of his friends/acquaintances to thank for the stuff we now read. If he were to walk into Card's Mormon church and see the audience, he would have torn up his script and cried, "Give me a quill, I need to write something these fools will understand!"

[Amanda]

Jason, are the other books really that bad? Crap. I kind of wanted to read something else of his (I've only read Ender's Game). Oh well.

My thoughts on re-writing shakespeare: unlike other art forms, theatre is mutable. The only static piece of the art is the script; like a painting or a sculpture, it deserves the respect of a completed and whole piece of art. But the thing that really pisses me off about Uncle Orson is that he honestly believes that he is a BETTER writer than Shakespeare and a BETTER theatre artist than anyone else in town.

That's just plain idiotic...

[Jason]

yeah, well, he is mormon...
(no offense to you normal mormons, if you're out there...)

actually i've read the beginning of the Seventh Son series, and i liked the first couple books of that. that was ages ago, though, when i was 12 or 13ish, so i make no guarantees. i think Speaker for the Dead is a better book than Ender's Game, if you haven't read it. I really really like it. Quite different than it's prequel, however, and that turns a lot of people off who are expecting more action and kids playing at war, etc.

[Gbina]

Oh yeah. I totally hate Orson Scott Card. What an ashmonkey! To be fair, I did like Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead (Jason, I agree Speaker was better), but OSC is a complete and utter moron! He's written several preposterous essays on global warming (like a theatre degree from BYU qualifies him to write scientific essays). Ugh. I don't even like thinking about it.

Oh and community theatre performed in a church, IS "church" theatre (especially if said churchy people are re-writing Shakespeare) and I agree with everyone in Greensboro for not going, even though it is it supposedly so great.

[Jason]

Hell, I would go just for the novelty of it. Plus, I like churches...they usually smell good and have nice lighting and windows. Not to mention the importance of educating oneself about the people controlling our global fate. I just wish they put some seasoning on those crackers, they're so bland.

[Fredstrong]

What do you expect from trolls? LOL, good one about seasoning the crackers Jason.