Civil war rages as a fundamentalist Christian regime revokes all
women’s rights and presses the few who remain fertile into sexual
slavery as breeders, called handmaids, for infertile couples.
About the Author
13 Comments on "Fact or Fiction?"
Comments are closed.
You’ve been reading Margaret Atwood.
That was not mean to sound accusatory.
one of my favorite stories. has been for about 15 years.
margaret atwood. lover her stuff. handmaids tale is kinda scary…but good.
Handmaids Tale. The movie was good, the book better.
I found it to be very disturbing.
The Handmaid’s tale is about 20 years old. I bought it at the airport to read on the plane flying back to Cairo from the U.K, so I remember.
Fact? Fiction? It’s like a split/scene comparison.
Futuristic dystopian novels make their political points about the present in which they’re written. They aren’t “prophetic”, but rather an acute analysis of the zeitgeist seen from the perspective of the vulnerable (usually, but not always, a minority).
I just dugged out my dog-eared coffee-stained copy (it’s been around) and found this description of the last days before America became the “Republic of Gilead.” :
“It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time. Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control. . . “
And here’s what Margaret Atwood has to say about the influence that “1984” exerted on her imagination (I think this is terrific stuff) :
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,978474,00.html
Quote:
“The 20th century could be seen as a race between two versions of man-made hell – the jackbooted state totalitarianism of Orwell’s Nineteen Eight-Four, and the hedonistic ersatz paradise of Brave New World, where absolutely everything is a consumer good and human beings are engineered to be happy. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it seemed for a time that Brave New World had won – from henceforth, state control would be minimal, and all we would have to do was go shopping and smile a lot, and wallow in pleasures, popping a pill or two when depression set in.
But with 9/11, all that changed. Now it appears we face the prospect of two contradictory dystopias at once – open markets, closed minds – because state surveillance is back again with a vengeance. The torturer’s dreaded Room 101 has been with us for millennia. The dungeons of Rome, the Inquisition, the Star Chamber, the Bastille, the proceedings of General Pinochet and of the junta in Argentina – all have depended on secrecy and on the abuse of power. Lots of countries have had their versions of it – their ways of silencing troublesome dissent.
Democracies have traditionally defined themselves by, among other things – openness and the rule of law. But now it seems that we in the west are tacitly legitimising the methods of the darker human past, upgraded technologically and sanctified to our own uses, of course. For the sake of freedom, freedom must be renounced. To move us towards the improved world – the utopia we’re promised – dystopia must first hold sway.”
Oh Kipper that’s great…Thanks for sharing.
Hey, we should do an online book club!
I have been wanting to read this for a long time … but find myself reading more kid’s books alongside C. than adult’s books these days. One of them was The Giver by Louis Lowry.
He also weaves a futuristic tale wherein every society member is assigned a vocation in accordance with his/her aptitude at twelve: The lowliest possible role? That of “birthmother.” (yes, he uses that term).
Birth mothers are chosen based on low intelligence and physical strength. They conceive and birth children for the entire community and are looked down upon.
Sexual “stirrings” are eliminated (via pills to stop them)as adolescence begins. They grow up, marry, and when they are ready, get a baby via the the “birthmother” who is never seen or heard from.
The “nurturers” care for the babies before giving them to a new set of parents.
If I recall correctly, when twins are born, one is sent “elsewhere” (killed) by one of the “nurturers” because twins don’t fit into the controlled scheme of things.
This is mandatory reading in California in fifth grade. It actually is an excellent book that is really about not conforming, not hiding from pain or grief – as the society is programmed to do – except for the one member, “The Giver” who feels the collective pain and stores the collective memories of the society.
Needless to say,it was disturbing/confusing for C. to read … and I had to do a lot of explaining about “fiction.”
“The Giver” sounds fascinating. Thanks for the tip, SfM
On-line book club, Claud? Great idea. Fave books (not *just* adoption related, please. Though that too of course. As well as other stuff we’ve enjoyed and want to share)
Ohhh that sounds like another interesting read…
Hmmmm…how to do a book club online?? Maybe someone who is more blogerrific can tell us? Like I see that we can have more than one “team member” to a blog..so would that mean that many people could write on it? Like if there was a book club blog then many could post instead of one posting and very one else having to comment??
A friend of mine gave me this book years ago and it sat on my shelf until someone mentioned it in a comment recently. I decided it was time to read it. I have a lot of books, I actually have a little problem, sort of a book addiction! They may go unread for a long time but always seem to get read at the appropriate time.
Anyway, I am only halfway through but I find it uncomfortable, frightening. Obvioulsy that is what M. Atwood was going for. It just sounds possible which is what makes it so totally scary.
An online book club sounds fantastic!
Being Mama Daily have a bunch of writers on their blog: http://www.beingmamadaily.blogspot.com/
Not sure how it is done… but someone could ask them.
As for the handmaids tale, me and my boyfriend are going to read it together after I return home. He has read it, I haven’t. Don’t want to alone….
Oh wow how did I miss this post for so long? I love Handmaid’s Tale and The Giver. Lowry has two other books with the same characters: Gathering Blue and Messenger. They are even better! So much to think about and discuss with those books!
I go to naptimebooks at http://lilysea.blogs.com/naptimebooks/ and it is a bookclub blog. We are reading The God of Small Things. Everyone just comments on what they are reacting to… it works well. We would just have to have someone start a new blog named bookclub or something and chose a book to start…. That would be a simple way to start I think.