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s0mnambulance"I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born" (66).
I bought a copy of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale at the Blacksburg YMCA thrift store yesterday. I read Surfacing some time ago and enjoyed Atwood's method. Her plots are founded on concerns of gender and identity. I'm enjoying the book. Like that of Surfacing, the protagonist of The Handmaid's Tale exists as a partial individual. She is someone, but she doesn't know who she is. The expectations concomitant to womanhood, shown as they currently exist in Surfacing, are magnified in THT. A blurb on the back of the book compared it to Orwell's 1984. I've never read that book, but I'm familiar with the reference. It's a good comparison. Atwood's dystopian society is one in which women have become valuable, but merely for their reproductive capabilities. As people, they're marginalized. Their allure is controlled via surveillance and formal dress (including masks, 'natch).
Abortionists from the 'before time' are executed for their past crimes. It doesn't matter if it was legal then; the world as it exists in The Handmaiden's Tale regards abortion as a sin beyond regard of contempraniety (32). Children must be born, and women must bear them. All mention of men being sterile has been eliminated from medical discourse, the protagonist tells us (61). With women reduced to birthing machines, masculinity has run amok. The government knows only to control. Women are either "Martha"s dressed in green, wives in blue, bereaving wives in black, or child-bearers in red. There are also commoners in striped dress. (Atwood naturally allows that Marxist stab, since her commentary falls so heavily on Marxist feminism. It's appropriate.) The Handmaiden's Tale is Atwood saying, "Look here, at what happens when we let this oppression proceed unchallenged." It's hyperbole, but it's science fiction. Good sci-fi provides a fictional perspective of something existent, particularly relating to a moral or political quandary. I consider this novel a part of that group. Aside from being well-written, its implications are deftly interwoven with the novel's plot. Atwood juggles effective subtext with effective storytelling. That's not an easy thing to do.
The quote I began with occurs as our handmaiden washes, presumably before laying with the Commander. (I'm currently taking a break from reading to write, so I can't say for sure. Maybe she's about to pick up the rake and play some bluegrass with the kitchen staff. All I can do is guess.) That line refers to the world of the text, where women have literally been resigned to the roles prescribed to them by the patriarchy and its favorite control mechanism, religion. But it also rings true for our world, even today. We don't value women based on their existence, but rather on their appearance. Culture only values women with desirable physical attributes that groom themselves and dress according to vogue. The vogue is heavily shaped by what men find attractive. A woman is born into this world, biologically speaking, but she is 'made' a woman by adhering to the behaviors prescribed to her.
I'm now going to abandon this post in order to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and to work out a bit. Today is Sunday, which means that tomorrow will be Monday. I need to make whatever good of this day I can. This week, that's going to mean grocery shopping and relaxation. Despite the sad state of the American grocery store on Sunday afternoons, I prefer Sunday trips to weekday trips. Heading to a crowded Wal-mart following a shift of work doesn't amuse.
I bought a copy of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale at the Blacksburg YMCA thrift store yesterday. I read Surfacing some time ago and enjoyed Atwood's method. Her plots are founded on concerns of gender and identity. I'm enjoying the book. Like that of Surfacing, the protagonist of The Handmaid's Tale exists as a partial individual. She is someone, but she doesn't know who she is. The expectations concomitant to womanhood, shown as they currently exist in Surfacing, are magnified in THT. A blurb on the back of the book compared it to Orwell's 1984. I've never read that book, but I'm familiar with the reference. It's a good comparison. Atwood's dystopian society is one in which women have become valuable, but merely for their reproductive capabilities. As people, they're marginalized. Their allure is controlled via surveillance and formal dress (including masks, 'natch).
Abortionists from the 'before time' are executed for their past crimes. It doesn't matter if it was legal then; the world as it exists in The Handmaiden's Tale regards abortion as a sin beyond regard of contempraniety (32). Children must be born, and women must bear them. All mention of men being sterile has been eliminated from medical discourse, the protagonist tells us (61). With women reduced to birthing machines, masculinity has run amok. The government knows only to control. Women are either "Martha"s dressed in green, wives in blue, bereaving wives in black, or child-bearers in red. There are also commoners in striped dress. (Atwood naturally allows that Marxist stab, since her commentary falls so heavily on Marxist feminism. It's appropriate.) The Handmaiden's Tale is Atwood saying, "Look here, at what happens when we let this oppression proceed unchallenged." It's hyperbole, but it's science fiction. Good sci-fi provides a fictional perspective of something existent, particularly relating to a moral or political quandary. I consider this novel a part of that group. Aside from being well-written, its implications are deftly interwoven with the novel's plot. Atwood juggles effective subtext with effective storytelling. That's not an easy thing to do.
The quote I began with occurs as our handmaiden washes, presumably before laying with the Commander. (I'm currently taking a break from reading to write, so I can't say for sure. Maybe she's about to pick up the rake and play some bluegrass with the kitchen staff. All I can do is guess.) That line refers to the world of the text, where women have literally been resigned to the roles prescribed to them by the patriarchy and its favorite control mechanism, religion. But it also rings true for our world, even today. We don't value women based on their existence, but rather on their appearance. Culture only values women with desirable physical attributes that groom themselves and dress according to vogue. The vogue is heavily shaped by what men find attractive. A woman is born into this world, biologically speaking, but she is 'made' a woman by adhering to the behaviors prescribed to her.
I'm now going to abandon this post in order to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and to work out a bit. Today is Sunday, which means that tomorrow will be Monday. I need to make whatever good of this day I can. This week, that's going to mean grocery shopping and relaxation. Despite the sad state of the American grocery store on Sunday afternoons, I prefer Sunday trips to weekday trips. Heading to a crowded Wal-mart following a shift of work doesn't amuse.