THE (ALMOST) UNDELETED

The Handmaid's Tale is a chilling look at the horror that results when sexuality and democracy are repressed, and history and religious dogma are reinterpreted to aid in consolidation of authority. Interestingly Atwood stayed away from big-picture issues, and instead concentrated on the life of one woman whose true name is never given. She is referred to only as "Offred," as a possessive form of Fred, a military commander who is basically her owner. Several hundred years in the future a nation called Gilead has come to power in the east coast of the United States. Those who run Gilead are never seen, but it seems that they are Christian literalists who use scripture and bastardized lessons of the bible to control the citizens. As expected the society is heavily ritualized even though things like reading and writing have been practically eliminated. The primary means of control include sexual conditioning and indoctrination. Young women have all been rounded up and put into centers called "Rachel and Leah" centers where they were indoctrinated into their new lives as handmaids. Take a look at Genesis 30:1-3 for an idea about the beginnings of this story...Please click here, or on the book cover above, to be taken to the complete review..

This sounds pretty good, might make its way into the pile of schtuff to read.

read it and wrote a paper on it a few years back. sort of a feminist 1984.

TBH one of the few atwood books I can stand

Baraka Bryan wrote:read it and wrote a paper on it a few years back. sort of a feminist 1984.

TBH one of the few atwood books I can stand

You should post the paper here.

Omphalos wrote:

Baraka Bryan wrote:read it and wrote a paper on it a few years back. sort of a feminist 1984.

TBH one of the few atwood books I can stand

You should post the paper here.

helllll no.. it was a grade 12 english paper that i wrote when I was in grade 11. some comparison paper between HMT and Fahrenheit 451. my teacher loved it and gave it 100% (and it was worth 10% of my final mark ) but i'm sure it wasnt good enough to share outside the classroom

besides, I'm not even sure i have a soft copy anymore.

Oh, comeon. People are gonna want to dig to find out what you were like when you have moved on from being a landlord and assumed office somewhere. Might as well give them something to find to satisfy their curiosity.

Omphalos wrote:Oh, comeon. People are gonna want to dig to find out what you were like when you have moved on from being a landlord and assumed office somewhere. Might as well give them something to find to satisfy their curiosity.

lol i can check my desktop and see if it's archived, but no promises

what was the year on this one ?

I guess I missed it -
and I LOVE me Margaret Atwood,
her poetry, especially.

and yeah, she's

1985. Ive got another one of her books, Oryx and Crake, sitting in the pile. I think its post-apocalyptic.

Had this on my wishlist; saw the mention here and ordered it; arrived yesterday.

(Tried some more of the Feersum last night. The "illiterate" killed me again; only managed two pages of it before turning out the lights. )

Ive read through four of those sections. Ive found that if you go quickly, you pick up a surprising amount of it.

One of those cases where I saw the movie and that'll just have to suffice because, well, there are just too many damn books in the world to read.

Read this one a while ago and rather enjoyed it. Atwood is a good writer, but I've not read anything else from her. She wrote a rather good opening to my copy of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

GamePlayer wrote: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

great book... i think i'll have to pick up a copy of it sometime for my collection

Baraka Bryan wrote:

GamePlayer wrote: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

great book... i think i'll have to pick up a copy of it sometime for my collection

Yet ANOTHER book I'm deeply ashamed to have not yet read.

What WERE you doing in high school, young man?

(Just kidding. I did nothing but read. )

Brave New World was required reading for my 11th grade English Lit class. Books never seem as good when you HAVE to read them.

Freakzilla wrote:Brave New World was required reading for my 11th grade English Lit class. Books never seem as good when you HAVE to read them.

I always felt that way too. But I fought through it all.