Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/07/margaret-atwoods-the-han.html
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Is there a breakdown on how many bought it as a “How To” manual vs the number who bought it as a warning?
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Roger That!
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I think we can safely assume that those who see it as an instruction manual aren’t interested in reading.
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Corpses hanging from the wall outside Harvard Yard.
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We hope.
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How many white ladies are buying that book because of bodily sanctity without any awareness of the relevance to deportation? #SleepWoke
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I’m not that willing to discount the effect of a Hulu adaptation starring a well known actress.
I mean, I believe people are concerned about Trump. But, considering that it was the known impetus for at least two people that I know of to pick it up… I’m a little more anecdotally inclined to think Trump is a little less important in the analysis than he’s being made out to be.
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In all events, I hope they do it as a single season (or at least a limited run) series. There’s a great story arc in the book, but I hope they don’t stretch it beyond all reasonable limits.
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Elisabeth Moss.
I don’t recognize the name, but she was Zoey Bartlet on The West Wing and Peggy Olson on Mad Men.
I’m more concerned that they haven’t heard of this book by now and haven’t read it already. This should be required reading for high school students, but it keeps getting challenged… mainly because of sex. Welcome to Murkastan.
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I always read that as a lovely swipe against Harvard as a bastion of privilege, but I think Atwood just meant it as a sign of what’s been lost, sad! All that corporate sponsored learning! All those meticulously preserved archives reflecting back power down the ages! All those rich kids fixed for life!
The idea of Gilead having a class-leveling anti-privilege vector always intrigued me. Fuck Harvard.
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In fairness to them, one had read it years ago and the other grew up in an ultra-Christian household and still has decent gaps in common influences with society at large.
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I have extended family who grew up in ultraconservative Christian households. They are still recovering. The gaps in knowledge show up occasionally, especially in regard to science, and occasionally literature.
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Also… Samira Wiley is in it…
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I don’t know if she actually mentioned Harvard Yard by name, or if she described it so vividly that I know exactly what she was describing, and could probably point out the exact building.
Gilead was not class leveling at all. If anything, it was the total polar opposite of class leveling.
Atwood was describing the USA flipped totally upside down into a violent authoritarian state, and every place was affected. Everyfuckingplace. Nobody was immune. Not even a very comfortable, well-mannered, educated setting like Harvard.
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As well as Robin on Top of the Lake.
And… a Scientologist[quote=“LearnedCoward, post:10, topic:94573”]
Welcome to Murkastan
[/quote]
Why thank you.
But I tend to wonder just how long I, for one, will be welcome.
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I remember reading a synopsis of this novel a decade ago and thinking it was a ludicrous, fear-mongering fantasy. Been thinking about it lately. Now I’m not so sure.
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That was my impression on reading it. That I enjoyed it but that it went a little far.
My wife set me straight.
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Besides which, Handmaid’s Tale doesn’t come into effect until after Trump is impeached.
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I’m not sure how a totalitarian junto wouldn’t involve some class leveling? But I agree that Atwood is not very interested in those angles. I just thought making Gilead’s hq the center of the evil American WASP money-power-paper-god nexus was more than just They killed all the smart folks, sad!
But I guess 2017 is a bad year to critique the academy and its interests!
