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The Handmaid’s Tale
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November Book Discussion 1: The Handmaid's Tale, Part 1 - 4 (Chapters 1 - 12)
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Brittany
(last edited Nov 11, 2015 08:25AM)
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Nov 10, 2015 04:57PM
Discussion thread for The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Part 1 through 4, or chapters 1 through 12. Discussions will run through the first or second week of December.
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I have to admit I was really surprised when I realized that this book doesn't take place in some far off future like I had always assumed it did. It kind of makes it scarier, seeing the references to our normal world, and knowing that theirs changed so much in such a short time.I'm mostly enjoying this book so far, my main complaint is that the prose is a bit on the purple side for me, but not so much that it's actually distracting me from the story. I'm kind of beginning to wonder why I put off reading this book for so long.
Holy crap guys, this book. This book still haunts me. I'm pretty excited to be reading it with a bunch of people who care about stuff like this. Here we go!
Got mine downloaded but I definitely forgot to charge my kindle last night and it is SLOW to charge. Guess if I do all chores I've been putting off all morning, I'll find it completely charged and then I'll have the rest of the day to read!
I did read it once before but, it was in like middle school or freshman year of high school, both were longer ago than I care to admit.
I'm doing the audiobook starting tomorrow (13th) for my long drive for working this weekend & my normal long commute. For some reason seeing that Claire Danes is the narrator for it makes me kind of happy.
Brittany wrote: "Discussion thread for The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Part 1 through 4, or chapters 1 through 12. Discussions will run through the first or second week of December."It is scary to see that the world is more "recent" (well, 1980s recent anyway), and in the parts I've read so far, it's really jarring to see remnants of the modern world, that other parts of the world aren't like Gilead!
I find in my copy sometimes the sentences read oddly, and I'm not sure if it's typos or the actual prose. Still, off to an exciting start!
I've been listening to it while driving for work. It does seem a little like how the church was way back in the day when they had more power than most politicians. To essentially be taken from having a normal life to this life of what someone else considers "piety" is really jarring.
What's always stuck with me about this book it the fact that most "dystopian worlds" or whatever you want to call them are always books narrated by people who were born into it and don't know the world before the current one. I always wonder what it's like for the people in say the Divergent series or the Hunger Games who could remember a world before the chaos and the leanness and the separation.
I will say that while I probably would enjoy the act of reading the book, Claire Danes reading of it kind of gives it that feel of that loss & how depressing this new life is & there's this resentment kind of hidden, but it's there.
I'm noticing a lot of victim blaming and the subtle current of socialized misogyny of their "lessons" and how that must have carried over into their lives now. Even the back and forth between whether the Handmaids are something to be cherished for their fertility or despised for all the other women's lack of fertility. For example, the Handmaid who was pregnant and how they were for just a moment in awe of that life within her, and then suddenly resentful of her for "showing off".
A blatant example of subtle and socialized sexism that is very relevant today. First of all, their whole purpose is to be fertile (yes, there's so much wrong with that already), yet when one is successful she is then judged and reviled by her sisters for so far achieving this goal! Agh!
It is interesting that people remember the pre-dystopian world but also that other counties (or Japan, at least) aren't affected by whatever happened to Gilead (or at least they are responding differently). A very interesting read so far!
