Handmaid's Tale

Ok this is far and away one of the best books I have ever read, seriously. I went into it a little skeptical about the topic, but the beginning scene was interesting and it has developed into a really amazing novel. What has made this so amazing is the control of the narrative which Atwood wields. She has led me into this novel with nothing but enticements. The foreshadowing is everywhere, but so subtle that you would never pick up on it unless you look like you want to find it. But enough raving, let me actually talk about a topic here.

I know we will be watching the film version of this next week, and I have to say that while I always enjoy watching movies, I am not expecting this to be a good representation of the novel in any form. As I stated earlier, the most amazing feature of this book is the controlled narrative which reveals little of what's actually going on, but at the same time reveals huge plot points in ways you pass over. The fact that as you read you see the word "shredder" used to describe deformed babies and then see a sudden connection as Offred remembers her old job as a "discer" who shredded books is one of the most satisfying moments as a reader. You picked up on something! A film version loses this attention to the word with a fixation on the visual qualities. You are watching a story being played out rather than reading it. You become an omniscient third party to the all, rather than being forced into one perspective from which you attempt to piece together what is really happening.

That is the challenge of film. There is no real proper way that you can portray something written in the first person. Some films (both crappy and well-made) have toyed with first person portrayal. There is one particularly bad horror movie based on a videogame, Doom, that did the most with this by actually portraying a long action sequence entirely in the first person, and while it was intriguing and probably the closest any film has ever gotten to putting each individual audience member into the character's shoes, it would never suffice to portray this novel. It is intensely psychological and very limited while still being incredibly interesting.

The way that Atwood was able to take such a limited point of view and engage the reader is by creating a world that is both impossible to belive, but all too probable. Her description of the fall of America has been drawn on by authors such as Orson Scott Card in his novel Empire (which I recommend to anyone who is interested in politics or war-type novels). But the scariest fact is that Empire was published two decades after Handmaid's Tale. This begs the question, how pertinent is Atwood's novel to the future? We have already seen the suspension of the Constitution following a terrorist attack blamed on Islamic militants. Does this not scare anyone? Have we not recently been seeing a rise in the radical christians of America? Have we not seen a rising concern with sterility? It is just scary to think about a book written 20 years ago having such present imagery.

Well I think I've reiterated Lavender enough, but I am just so excited to finish the book this weekend. The film, while destined to be a poor imitation of it's model, is going to be fun.