Tag: The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Posted November 29, 2015 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Classic, Dystopia / 0 Comments

Title: The Handmaid's Tale (Goodreads)
Author: Margaret Atwood
Published: Vintage, 1985
Pages: 324
Genres: Classic, Dystopia
My Copy: Audiobook

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Most people would be familiar with Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale; a Christian totalitarian theocracy has overthrown the US government and are controlling reproduction. Set in the not so distant future, this dystopian society serves as a platform for Margaret Atwood to explore some real issues. Written in 1985, it is surprising to think that these themes and issues are still relevant thirty years later.

When I read this novel about four years ago, I think I missed the point, saying “I felt like Margaret Atwood spent too much time trying to explain the dystopian world in which The Handmaid’s Tale is set rather than the story itself.” I obviously was reading this book for its plot rather than trying to understand what Atwood wanted to say. To be fair I recognised this, citing “I understand she was trying to create a world that was a metaphor of a totalitarian society and explore the issue of women’s right” but even that makes me sound naive or stupid. One reason I like rereading books is for the fact that it shows me how much I have improved as a reader. I gave The Handmaid’s Tale three stars when I read it in 2011, but it is now clear to me that this is a brilliant novel and needs a much higher rating.

Looking at this dystopian society; the government wants control over reproduction. To do this, women become a political tool, rather than humans. This government was created due to a dramatic decrease in birth rates. Women become the property of their husband or the state. Women are not allowed to vote, have jobs, read or anything else that might make them have individual thoughts.

“There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore, not officially. There are only women who are fruitful and women who are barren, that’s the law.”

This one quote really summed up this novel for me; the whole idea that women are only useful for one thing. Women are considered subhuman and their only use involves their ovaries and womb. Even the main character, Offred reflects in one scene that her body was an instrument of passion and desire but now she has only one purpose; reproduction. She does not consider it rape, because she signed up to be a Handmaid; but what other choice did she have? In fact rape is severely punished and the government believes the women are protected. Yet would it not be considered rape if we take away the women’s rights, including their right to give consent?

There are many layers that could be explored within The Handmaid’s Tale, I would like to explore the novel deeper. I think looking at this book from a religious angle would be interesting as well, and I think I will need to give it a reread before considering that. I am glad to give this book another go; rereading this was eye opening and really highlighted just how much I have grown. One thing I found humorous was that Margaret Atwood set this book in the United States of America and references escaping to safety in Canada. This is an iconic novel and Atwood is an author well worth exploring; having said that, I have only read The Handmaid’s Tale and the MaddAddam trilogy. Lucky for me, I have so many more Margaret Atwood novels to explore.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Posted October 2, 2015 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Gothic / 2 Comments

Title: Interview with the Vampire (Goodreads)
Author: Anne Rice
Series: The Vampire Chronicles #1
Published: Sphere, 1976
Pages: 308
Genres: Gothic
My Copy: Paperback

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

When people talk about Anne Rice, you can be sure that the first novel in the Vampire Chronicles, Interview with the Vampire, will be mentioned. Easily her most recognisable novel, this 1976 debut tells the story of three very different vampires. Focusing on the two hundred year old, Louis, the book tells how Lestat turned him as well as five-year-old Claudia, and his life as a vampire as he conveys it to a reporter. This breakout novel even spawned the hit 1994 adaptation starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst.

I first read Interview with the Vampire when I first got into reading and really enjoyed it. In that review I gave it high praises, saying, “The whole story is almost philosophical in the way it tells the struggle of Louis and his moral conscience…[A] battle of good and evil is played out in a more evil orientated world… It doesn’t feel forced or predictable it just leaves you thinking how wonderfully complex these characters are.” Looking back on that review with a fresh re-read and five more years of reading experience, I have a very different opinion.

First of all, the vampire mythology is an interesting literary device to explore morality. Looking back on the mythology, all the way to classics like Dracula; novels continue to explore the morality of a powerful vampire sucking the life away from the innocent. What gives them the right to life over everyone else? There is a conflict between morality and the idea of survival. Within Interview with the Vampire it does this in two distinct ways; first you have Lestat who takes life without a care in the world, following the instincts of survival. While Louis is often questioning his survival and the moral implications, often hating what he has become.

The novel spans the life of Louis for the past two hundred years, though Interview with the Vampire is just over 300 pages. For me this becomes the biggest downfall of the book, and the character development, especially the psychological, suffers. There are a lot of interesting topics that this novel could have explored but we never get the opportunity to do so in great detail. Take for example, Claudia; she has many years to live and learn about life, and this could have made for a far greater story. The struggles Claudia went through would have been fascinating, especially the sexual development of a girl stuck in a five-year-olds body.

It is interesting to see how much a few years has changed my view on literature; I feel like I am developing some useful skills to analyse the books. I also feel like I am getting to the point where I am starting to feel like I am ‘well read’ (although there is a long way to go). Having experienced more with the vampire mythology and literature in general, I am enjoying going back to some of the books I read more than five years ago. Sometimes I do not enjoy the novel as much, like I did this time, but other times I find a new found respect for what an author was trying to do (see a future review of The Handmaid’s Tale). Interview with the Vampire could have been so much more, and now I just wish it was.

Dystopian Fiction; A Brief History

Posted September 12, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Dystopia, Literature / 0 Comments

This post was originally a guest post that appeared on blahblahblahtoby; big thanks to Toby for allowing me to get involved in his Dystopian fortnight and for letting me share this post with my readers too.

Dystopian fiction has been around for a long time; interesting enough, it was an offshoot of utopian fiction which started growing in popularity in the 1900’s. I’m a little surprised that utopian fiction seemed to be the predominate genre but if you look at the history of dystopian literature you can see why. The spikes in popularity seems to have started from the lead up to the world war two and the cold war and then as a result of 9/11 and the war on terror. Escapist fiction; as a way to substitute the problems with the world with a more nightmarish world.

I thought it might be nice to have a quick look at the genre over time and highlight some essential reads (which stick out to me) for people that haven’t experienced all the joys of this genre. While there were dystopian novels before my first choice, I thought I would start with the one book that may be called the first purely dystopian novel.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1921)

A highly influential novel based on the authors experience of the two Russian revolutions (1905 and 1917) and the First World War. While this book is considered to be an influence for Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) or even Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano (1952), it’s one book that is unfortunately often overlooked.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)

Huxley refers to this book a “negative utopia” and looks at the idea of the government making a world so perfect and controlled that it really has the opposite effect; or does it? Are you really unhappy if you don’t know you are unhappy?

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)

No dystopian list would be complete without this novel; actually these three novels could make up the definitive influences of every dystopian novel to follow. Big Brother is watching. Orwell writes a satirical novel of what he sees as the dangers of totalitarianism.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

It’s a pleasure to burn; this novel looks at book burning, mass media censorship and the importance of books. Fahrenheit 451 is set in an unspecified time in a hedonistic anti-intellectual America.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)

Set in the not too distant future this brick of a book has a look at the disappearance of innovators and industrialists and a collapsing economy. I’m not going to lie, I’ve not read this book but I couldn’t give a list of essential dystopian novels without this book.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)

In a culture of extreme youth rebellion and violence, how can the government gain back control? Mind control and the removal of free will seems like a good idea, right?

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

In this dystopian novel Atwood takes a look at a totalitarian society and the issue of woman’s rights within it. While I thought this was more like a social critique than a novel, it is still an essential read.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

Sheltered from the outside world these children were brought up to believe they are special and need to be protected, but they are only protected from the truth. This is more a book of love and friendship set in a dystopian environment.

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (2010)

Super Sad True Love Story is a novel set in a very near future—oh; let’s say next Tuesday—where the world is dominated by Media and Retail. The story is centred on a thirty nine year old Russian immigrant, Lenny, and what could likely be the world’s last diary. The object of his affection, Eunice, has her side of the story told by a collection of e-mail correspondences on her “GlobalTeens” account.

If you look at this list you can see the changing of the dystopian genre; what started as satirical looks at the fears of the world gradually changed to lighter stories of love and friendships. This brings me to the rising popularity of Young Adult Dystopian fiction. This seems to deal less with the social aspects made famous in dystopian fiction and more about friendships and endless love triangles. The lack of freedom, obsessive governments or biological issues have been replaced with post-apocalyptic romances. Not that there is a problem with this new wave of dystopian fiction (I’ve read a few good ones), I just find that the books with more social aspects offer so much more than a good read. What are your thoughts and what would you call essential dystopian reading?