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NPR 12 June 2003

Criticism

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More Anti-utopian stuff

Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale (1986) Reviews Context (Spark Notes)

Anti-Utopian Genre Features Themes  (Spark Notes)

Motifs (Spark Notes) Symbols (Spark Notes)

Character Analysis (Spark Notes)

b) evolution: peaceful process

Many of the great dystopic novels of this Century--George Orwell's 1984 (review) and Animal Farm (review), A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (review), Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (review), Ayn Rand's Anthem (review)--are still as timely and pertinent today as they were on the day they were written.  Their endurance is a result of the eternal and universal theme that each of them addresses: the fundamental human conflict between the desire for security and the aspiration for freedom.  On the other hand, Margaret Atwood's feminist take on dystopia, while still an interesting and entertaining read, now feels dated and parochial.  It is essentially just an expression of liberal fear of Ronald Reagan in the early 1980's;  its concerns are too limited, temporary and, ultimately, misguided. read more .....

Religious Associations  Motifs / Symbols (Spark Notes)

Num 32:29 And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle, before the LORD, and the land shall be subdued before you; then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:

Jer 8:22 [Is there] no balm in Gilead; [is there] no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Topical Reference

This novel was produced in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution of 1979, with its establishment of a fundamentalist theocracy, and during Ronald Reagan's presidency of the United States, which saw both an escalation of global tension (the doomsday clock moved to within five minutes of midnight) and a rise of the religious right. The 1980s were in many ways a backlash against the rise of social liberalism, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly against feminism, multiculturalism, and freedom of expression. However, Atwood is also concerned more generally with patterns of totalitarianism and theocracy as they have manifested themselves in various periods in history (her most obvious analogies are to the rise of Nazism in Germany which preceded and precipitated the Second World War, and to the social organization of the New England Puritans in 17th century America. Elements of the South African system of apartheid in place till the 1990s might also be identified). credit and more: Gisèle Baxter, University of British Columbia

In the case of Pryor, a Catholic, his views on abortion and homosexuality have alarmed liberal interest groups. Senate Democrats successfully blocked his nomination to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July, and Republicans haven't brought him up for a vote since then.

As President Bush bounced through East Asia this week, the international media was abuzz with reactions to Malaysian Prime Minister's assertion that Jews rule the world by proxy. But across the Arab world, a parallel scandal was roiling editorial pages, as journalists chewed over revelations that U.S. Army Lieutenant General William Boykin saw the War on Terror as a clash between Christians and Satan. UPI Chief Correspondent Martin Walker gives Bob a glimpse from the world press. Listen  Transcript

 That’s because the procedure he performed is one of those criminalized by the ban on so-called “partial-birth abortion.”                                            more ...

The men wear white coats, like those worn by doctors or scientists. Doctors and scientists aren't the only ones, there are others, but they must have had a run on them this morning. Each has a placard hung around his neck to show why he has been executed: a drawing of a human fetus. They were doctors, then, in the time before, when such things were legal. Angel makers, they used to call them; or was that something else? They've been turned up now by the searches through hospital records, or - more likely, since most hospitals destroyed such records once it became clear what was going to happen by informants: ex nurses perhaps, or a pair of them, since evidence from a single woman is no longer admissible; or another doctor, hoping to save his own skin; or someone already accused, lashing out at an enemy, or at random, in some desperate bid for safety. Though informants are not always pardoned.

Colonial era preacher, midwife and mother of 16, Anne Hutchinson just didn't seem to know a woman's place. She was called an "American Jezebel" for publicly teaching and interpreting scripture. A century and a half before the American Constitution erected a barrier between church and state, Anne Hutchinson defended herself against judges who proclaimed God was on their side. Banished from Massachusetts, Hutchinson helped establish religious tolerance in the new colony of Rhode Island.    NPR's The Connection 19 Mar 2004

I'd like to tell a story about how Moira escaped, for good this time. Or if I couldn't tell that, I'd like to say she blew up Jezebel's, with fifty Commanders inside it. I'd like her to end with something daring and spectacular, some outrage, something that would befit her. But as far as I know that didn't happen. I don't know how she ended, or even if she did, because I never saw her again. (chap 31)

Paradigm Samples

In the News

Guardian 26-7

Financial times 4-7

Book Sense Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers 4-7

salt Spring News 24-6

Guardian 16-6