Handmaids Tale, 1985

Handmaids Tale, 1985

1. Critics

   • "shifts towards policies aimed at controlling women, especially women's bodies and reproductive functions" (Margaret Atwood, Guardian 2012)
     • "repression of women as if they were recipes" (Atwood)
       • "Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on foundations that aren't there already" (Atwood)
         • "Like any theocracy, this one would select a few passages from the Bible to justify its actions" (Atwood)
     • "is it entertainment or dire political prophecy?" (Atwood)
     • "the rare and desirable include fertile women and reproductive control" (Atwood)
   • "the sexual revolution will fail if men are the only ones allowed to define it" (Nicolaus Mills, Guardian 2013)
   • "[The Handmaid's Tale] is powerless to scare" (Mary McCarthy, 1986)
   • "Offred's tender remembrances provide relief from the brutality of her new life" (Charlotte Newman, 2010)
   • "the main rhetorical thrusts are made against the repression of women, and of sexuality" (Dan Geddes, 2001)

2. "Pen is Envy"

3. "Don't let the bastards grind you down"

4. "we tried to sleep in the army cots" 1

   • "They had electric cattle prods" 1

5. "thought must be rationed ... Thinking can hurt your chances" 2

   • "A sister dipped in blood" 2

6. [garden] "it's something for them to order and maintain and care for" 3

   • "The tulips are red, a darker crimson towards the stem; as if they had been cut and are beginning to heal there" 3
     • "From a distance it looks like peace" 3
       • It isn't easy for them - 3
         • a business transaction - 3

7. Perhaps he is an eye - 4

   • Think of yourselves as seeds -4
     • Blessed be the fruit / may the lord open - 4
       • she is my spy and I am hers - 4
         • I just know they are there - 4
           • the young ones are often the most dangerous, the most fanatical, the jumpiest with their guns - 4
             • Birthmobile - 4
               • The touch with their eyes instead - 4

8. Doubled, I walk the street - 5

   • Gilead is within you - 5
     • There are no lawyers any more, and the university is closed - 5
       • women were not protected then - 5
         • We were a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice - 5
           • Its hard to imagine now, having a friend - 5
             • Now that she's the carrier of life, she is closer to death - 5

9. Beside the main gateway there are six more bodies hanging, by the necks - 6

   • The smile of blood is what fixes the attention... these are not snowmen...doctors and scientists - 6
     • their crimes are retroactive // they've come here from the past - 6
       • It will become ordinary - 6
         • The red of the smile is the same as the red of the tulips in Serena Joy's garden - 6

10. The night is mine... as long as I am quiet - 7

    • Where should I go? / Somewhere good - 7
      • I would like to believe this is a story ... It isn't a story - 7
        • Writing is in any case forbidden - 7
          • ill pretend you can hear me. but its no good, because I know you can't - 7

11. "'it's a beautiful May day' ... used to be a distress signal" - 8

    • Unbaby - 8
      • the large empty-looking houses, the weedless lawns - 8
        • the tulips are redder than ever...thrusting themselves up, to what end?...they then explode slowly, the petals thrown out like shards - 8
          • She doesn't make speeches anymore. She has become speechless - 8

12. How I wasted them, those rooms, that freedom from being seen. / Rented licence - 9

    • Men and women tried each on, casually, like suits - 9
      • It seems like such an impossible thing, now - 9
        • Nolite te bestardes carborundorum - 9

13. Pornomarts - 10

    • We lived, as usual, by ignoring. Ignoring isn't the same as ignorance, you have to work at it - 10
      • We lived in the gaps between stories - 10
        • FAITH is a faded blue - 10

14. the doctor will never see my face. He deals with a torso only - 11

    • He calls me honey - 11
      • He said a forbidden word. Sterile - 11
        • There is no such thing as a sterile man.. only women who are fruitful and women who are barren - 11

15. [the bathroom] It's papered in small blue flowers, forget-me-nots - 12

    • I step into the water, lie down, let it hold me - 12
      • She fades, I cant keep her here with me, she gone now - 12
        • the small tattoo on my ankle. four digits and an eye, a passport in reverse -12

16. Testifying is special...Janine was gan raped at fourteen...who's fault was it...Her fault, we chant in unison - 13

    • even though we knew what was being done to her, we despised her... we meant it, which is the ad part - 13
      • Each month I watch for blood, fearfully - 13
        • She's too young, its too late, w come apart... I can see her, going away from me, through the trees which are already turning, reed and yellow - 13