The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) in The Evolution of Science Fiction

Jun 08, 2022 Oleksandr Zholud rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a famous feminist dystopia, written by Margaret Atwood. I’ve never previously read anything by the author, a little put back by her infamous saying that science fiction is no more than “talking squids in outer space,” as well as knowing that this book is a dystopia, and my real life it too often not good enough to escape (for SF usually called an escapist literature) to a dystopia. I read it as a part of monthly reading for June 2022 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The novel This is a famous feminist dystopia, written by Margaret Atwood. I’ve never previously read anything by the author, a little put back by her infamous saying that science fiction is no more than “talking squids in outer space,” as well as knowing that this book is a dystopia, and my real life it too often not good enough to escape (for SF usually called an escapist literature) to a dystopia. I read it as a part of monthly reading for June 2022 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The novel was nominated for 1986 Nebula Awards, but ultimately lost to Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, which is very interesting in a hindsight – right now this book I guess is more popular than the winner and Card is, to put it mildly, is disliked my modern SFF fandom for his ‘paleoconservative’ views on homosexuality.

I guess the book’s setting is well-known to many – after all even before the TV series based on it, its iconic red dress of Handmaids was used as a symbol of patriarchy in protests in the US (and possibly elsewhere). So, in this near-future / alt-history USA was replaced by the Republic of Gilead, a Christian religious totalitarian regime, that among other things, “brings women back to home”, severely limiting their rights and even making some into Handmaids, as depicted in the Old Testament - And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, [...] And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. —Genesis 30:1–3, non-persons valued solely for their wombs. Everyone opposing this setup or ‘sinning’ in other ways is quickly disposed of, so that our protagonist-narrator despite growing up in the 1970s America with a feminist activist mother and university educated, ends up as a Handmaid at a mansion of an unnamed Commander, banned even from reading or walking alone on the street, her sole goal of existing (imposed from outside) to bear children and because she is in her 30s even this goal can soon become obsolete, so she can turn into an excess body.

The story is presented as her narration, made some time after the story itself occurred, with a lot of flashbacks and even admitting that she is an unreliable narrator, presenting some incidences differently in retellings.

One of the things that surprised me was the fact that a lot of features of Gilead totalitarian regime, while politically being a version of the US conservative religious right, had a lot of attributes of a (assumedly left-wing) Soviet state – from the secret police and its agents working as guides-translators for foreign tourists up to a literal Wall that ‘protects’ from foreign influences and stops those, who may think of escaping, just like Berlin Wall in particular and the Iron Curtain in general. They even use the motto ‘From each according to her ability; to each according to his needs.’ (ok, she plays with her/his there, which was absent in the Soviet equivalent «от каждого по способности, каждому по потребности») is the Communist slogan… and there are a lot more hints that suggest that the author studied communist totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, which I consider a great plus, for a lot of modern Left on the West (at least ones I saw) look at these men-eating states as a positive experience of building a more equal society (which it wasn’t).

Overall, definitely a hard but worthy read, both well-thought-out and executed.

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Jan 03, 2017 Deb Omnivorous Reader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2024-reading-challenge, science-fiction, classic-sci-fi, dystopian

A really hard one to review - there is just so much there!

This futuristic novel was published as sci-fi back in 1985, but described by the author as speculative fiction. When it was originally published it was said to be set in the 'near future' so maybe 2005, where a revolution in the US has established a Republic which calls itself Gilead. A totalitarian, fundamentalist theonomy which claims to be biblically inspired (but is next level hypocritical) and has insane levels of human right abuses. ...more

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Jan 14, 2018 Tomislav rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-3-times, science-fiction, 5-stars, 1001-books-you-must-read, utopian-dystopian-great-course, sff-2018-read-all-the-books

third read – 8 February 2022 *****. I re-read this again because it’s covered in Lecture 20, “Margaret Atwood and Environmental Dystopia”, from Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature. The Handmaid’s Tale is a feminist dystopia, barely dealing with environmental issues such as in her Oryx and Crake, but it could be that’s just an issue with the lecture title. Having recently read the 2019 sequel The Testaments, I knew some spoilers concerning a few of the characters and the alternate his ...more

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Mar 28, 2017 Greg Talbot rated it it was ok

Like 1984, Farenheit 451, or Brave New World, "The Handmaid's Tale" looks at a world where humans rights have been perverted, and a frightening new social order has taken hold. The subjugation of women, and seeing them in terms of fertility objects is frightening, violent, and souless. There are pieces of the nightmare that feel prescient, with today's headlines on the war on Planned Parenthood, women's rights marches, and the increasingly stringent abortion laws.

Unfortunately the book did not h ...more

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Dec 30, 2017 Elfira rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, favorites, origin-english, my-first-read-for-this-author, author-canadian

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 25, 2018 Mark Yashar rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Atwood presents a chilling, nightmarish, dystopian near-future where a religious retro/de-revolution has led to the overthrow of the US government, leading to the establishment of a totalitarian theocracy or "theonomy" where many women are treated essentially as slaves.

The novel reminds us to some extent of similar types of "movements" that have taken place in e.g., Iran ("islamic revolution"), or in connection with the Taliban, ISIS, etc. as well as other religion-inspired movements that have ...more

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