I love love love Samira Wiley (I want her to be Storm if Marvel ever gets the X-men back), but I find her casting in this odd. She’s playing Moira, Offred’s friend from Handmaid school who get shipped off to a brothel for not conforming. But in the book, Gilead is super racist and “resettles” all the black people. They’ve made it less racist by having Moira be non-white.
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It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but that’s true. Maybe the show will explain it away or justify the choice? I dunno.
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I have never heard of that.
Just because the US isn’t Gilead doesn’t mean it can’t be. We’ve seen what’s happened in Iran and what is happening in Turkey. It can happen here as well.
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It topples the ruling class only to install another ruling class. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Basically, Boston is the last place that’s expected to fall, yet it fell and fell hard.
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Offhand, I think she’d be good as Moira.
In the book, Moira is shipped off to a brothel for being gay, not for simply nonconforming. Women in The Handmaid’s Tale have little value outside of reproduction and menial tasks, so being a lesbian is nonconforming in a huge way. I guess it is less racist that there are still black people in Gilead, but I don’t know how I feel about only making this part available to white women.
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Right? It’s kind of weird all the way around. Equal opportunity opression! …Yay?
Also, IIRC, Moira runs away from Handmaid school by stealing an Aunt’s outfit. She ends up in the brothel after getting caught.
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It’s worth watching: a mini series, available on Netflix.
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Jane Campion directed, or well, I guess there is a second season now.
I didn’t love it. I’m not sure if it was cohesive.
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I always found Atwood’s future visions to be too depressing, and too well ordered, to enjoy.
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I always thought Ted Cruz had a real Nehemiah Scudder vibe about him, but I figured Trump would go the straight strongman route without the religious trappings.
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Just checked the Toronto Public Library site. Holds for a sample of Margaret Atwood books:
Surfacing: 1
The Edible Woman: 5
Oryx and Crake: 16
The Handmaid’s Tale: 44
Most others have around 1 or 2. Considering the age of Handmaid’s, something seems to have generated interest,
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Saw the trailer, pretty much thought “This is how it will be under Drumpf and the TGOP”.
Wonder if I can run to Canada and claim political refugee?
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didn’t end well for him if I remember correctly.
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What stops the fertile women from being higher status than the high status ones?
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I think if we can get around the Rocky Mountains, Pacific coast area, it will be far enough away from the new order that will pop up in the East.
We would still have to deal with the Neo-Nazi’s in Idaho and Oregon though…
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Men.
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What is preferable about the infertile ones?
Patriarchy. Women have no status of their own.
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It’s not that infertile women are preferable, it’s that the infertile wives of high-status men have some privileges that come from being adjacent to power.
It’s been nearly 20 years since I read it, so that’s from memory. Every time I think about re-reading it, I worry that it will feel too close to reality and my mental health is precarious enough.
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