McNally Hamlet Gay article from LA Times in 97

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 3:26pm

Excellent article. Very insightful and impressive.

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 5:06pm

Can you provide a link, or any text from the article? I'm interested in reading it.

[fossemoves]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 3:13pm

That makes two of us.

[Julian2]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 3:50pm

Sounds interesting.





Ok, this thread is currently VERY pointless, does anyone have a link?

[wyou17]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:20pm

This was discussed brienfly on All That Chat a few days ago, and someone posted an excerpt from the article. I would link to the post, but old posts fall off of that board after awhile:

"The greatest gay character ever written is Hamlet.... He is the role model for any playwright wishing to depict a gay man.

One reason Hamlet is not generally understood to be a gay character is that he keeps his clothes on....

Another reason the Prince of Denmark is not thought to be gay is that the playwright who created him is not "officially" known to be gay....

But the main reason Hamlet is not taught as a gay man is that he never, not once, talks about being a gay man. How can a character be gay if he does not talk about his sexuality? How can an audience know a character is gay if he does not "walk" gay or "talk" gay or "think" gay? Good question. No wonder Hamlet and the actors who have played him have escaped "outing" for three centuries. But it is Shakespeare's accomplishment to have created a gay character who never once talks, walks or acts like our usual perception of one. This is probably the most stunning accomplishment of Shakespeare's entire oeuvre.

No, the only thing that has made Hamlet straight is our thinking so. But in the light of the possibility of this new insight, reconsider his misogynistic treatment of both his mother and his alleged girlfriend, reexamine his relationship with his best friend, Horatio, and check out his over-the-top enthusiasm for the theater and actors. If it takes one to know one, Hamlet is one. Trust me on this."

The original poster identified it as being from the LA Times, Dec 8, 1996, and that it was only a few paragraphs from a much longer piece about "gay theater."

[fossemoves]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:33pm

Fantastic.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:33pm

That doesn't make any sense to me. It's possible to make just about any Shakespearean creation gay, so I don't see what's so special about Hamlet.

I always suspected Iago was gay, though. Although it's not as nice to have a villain be a gay guy rather than the hero of one of the greatest dramas written.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/15/07 at 4:41pm

NO! Hamlet is actually a Duck! What's amazing about this is that Skakespeare created a character who is a duck without ever once mentioning he's a duck or engaging in duck-like behaviour! It's a masterful accomplishment.