cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/2164461
I have been keeping an eye on this series over in !BannedBooks@literature.cafe and was intending to link the discussions for SF titles that I saw. The Handmaid’s Tale is definitely an SF title that has seen it’s share of fans and detractors. It has been banned or attempted to be banned in many jurisdictions including Western ones.
What is the communities thoughts on this book, does it unfairly extend Christian philosophy into questionable territory or does it not go far enough? Is it pornography, and if so, why? Let’s hear your thoughts.
Bonus video: Margaret Atwood using a flamethrower on the unburnable edition of the book.
I never really thought of it as science fiction (see her MaddAdam series for something more SF-y), but I love the book and think it does a great job of extrapolating from various political trends into where parts of the “western world” could end up going.
I’m also not surprised it’s a candidate for being banned, either from people who think it paints religion or conservativsm in a negative light, or people who think it might make anyone under 18 uncomfortable. Is it appropriate for 5 year olds? Probably not. 16 year olds? Seems reasonable to me.
Margaret Atwood has been very firm in her stance that it is not scifi, but speculative fiction. She was careful not to include anything outside the realm of current or historical reality and events. Her point was “This is real, this has happened, this can happen again, to you.”
Lots of people disagree with her though. https://www.mildlyscientific.com/2018/10/what-is-science-fiction-a-case-study-of-margaret-atwoods-the-handmaids-tale/
I’d agree it’s not really sci-fi.
Science Fiction is a branch of speculative fiction that looks at the impacts of science or technology on society, culture or individuals. It doesn’t even have to go into technology itself.
Handmaid’s tale is more about political/cultural speculation than science
Some of my least favorite sci-fi are the ones that beat you upside the head explaining why there’s no such thing as artificial gravity generators or FTL or whatever. Fine, you don’t need to have it if you want harder sci-fi. But do you really think the characters are going to dwell on something so routine as transition from accel-gravity to microgravity…. everytime a ship makes the transition? Or back into routine accel gravity?
Leviathan Wakes was the most recent that did this.
If those particular characters have a bee in their bonnet about it… 🙂 then it is what it is. It might make the story more enjoyable, it might make it less.
I agree that it’s a very cliche writing tool to have the characters dwell explicitly on everyday things just to draw attention to them, but if it’s not overdone I think it can be a powerful tool.
Sometimes they can hit particularly hard and not just as mood pieces either. I remember a phrase in a Greg Egan book where the character wonders if their reality is real or simulated, and surmises that for as long as they are still capable to ask themselves that question it makes a crucial distinction. It made me stop and think; it’s not a rare topic but it really matters how it’s put and where it’s the flow of the book.
Probably the best way to deal with it, is to have someone for whom the information isn’t new- maybe a first timer in space, or something.
For example, in Babylon 5, they didn’t explicitly state it so much as just showed the starfuries flipping around. (Which absolutely blew my mind way back when. The “of course” lightbulb went off.) or also Babylon 5, Sinclair commenting that setting aside the space for a zen garden was hard because of oxygen generation and crops; explains where the food comes from, etc.
Or, like Amos bitching about being in heavy grav because some idiot bleeding heart had tor report it. Or Naomi bitching about maintenance from the hard burn, etc.
What annoys me is when it’s not natural- if that makes sense. It’s information the author sees as important to convey to the reader, but if it’s not presented naturally in the context of the story, it’s jarring.
We’re not stupid, generally, so we can pick up on things. We’re not comic book fans, after all.
(Excuse me while I run and hide….)
Slightly off topic maybe, but it dawned on me that what happens in this tale is not so different from what happens in Iran…and that made it even more terrifying, together with what is happening in the US with all those creepy right-wingers taking away women’s rights bit by bit
Margaret Atwood with a flamethrower is, by far, the best thing I have ever seen.
I’m kind of holding out for Marge with a shredder, for the inevitable shredder-proof version.
That seems easy enough to make. Weave some metal thread into the paper or some such and you’ll jam most shredders handily.
Fine then. The programmable nanotech version, that just reforms itself and produces a pair of copies everytime its damaged.
(Actually wouldn’t be surprised if trolling dumbasses is the reason we get the tech, heh)
Apparently she’s a massive fan of chainsaws as well.
Copied from Wikipedia, it’s censorship information:
The American Library Association lists The Handmaid’s Tale as number 37 on the “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000”.[56] In 2019, The Handmaid’s Tale is still listed as the seventh-most challenged book because of profanity, vulgarity, and sexual overtones.[57] Atwood participated in discussing The Handmaid’s Tale as the subject of an ALA discussion series titled “One Book, One Conference”.[58]
In 2009 a parent in Toronto accused the book of being anti-Christian and anti-Islamic because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed.[59] Rushowy reports that “The Canadian Library Association says there is ‘no known instance of a challenge to this novel in Canada’ but says the book was called anti-Christian and pornographic by parents after being placed on a reading list for secondary students in Texas in the 1990s.”[60]
A 2012 challenge as required reading for a Page High School International Baccalaureate class and as optional reading for Advanced Placement reading courses at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina because the book is “sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt”. Some parents thought the book is “detrimental to Christian values”.[61]
In November 2012, two parents protested against the inclusion of the book on a required reading list in Guilford County, North Carolina. The parents presented the school board with a petition signed by 2,300 people, prompting a review of the book by the school’s media advisory committee. According to local news reports, one of the parents said “she felt Christian students are bullied in society, in that they’re made to feel uncomfortable about their beliefs by non-believers. She said including books like The Handmaid’s Tale contributes to that discomfort, because of its negative view on religion and its anti-biblical attitudes toward sex.”[62]
In November 2021 in Wichita, Kansas, “The Goddard school district has removed more than two dozen books from circulation in the district’s school libraries, citing national attention and challenges to the books elsewhere.”[63]
In May 2022, Atwood announced that, in a joint project undertaken with Penguin Random House, an “unburnable” copy of the book would be produced and auctioned off, the project intended to “stand as a powerful symbol against censorship”.[64] On 7 June 2022, the unique, “unburnable” copy was sold through Sotheby’s in New York for $130,000.[65]
In 2009 a parent in Toronto accused the book of being anti-Christian and anti-Islamic because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed
I wonder if that parent ever actually found out what the plot of the book is…
The main problem with this book is in how it is applied by various people to Christianity in general (as opposed to a fringe cult), or used as an analogy of events today. It might apply in some cases, but those are so rare and unusual (back woods polygamist cults and the like), that they really don’t deserve to be discussed in context of current politics.
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