Of all people....Margaret Atwood ‘we’re all part of a flowing bellcurve’

(I was replying to Yetanotherspartacus sory)

Surfacing, yes.

I liked her when I was younger, but went off her as I gained more life experience. And read more widely. I think she's over hyped. Alice Munro is the real goddess of Canadian literature but she's not as TV- friendly.

But it's very often true that an ideological movement begets it's opposite, and then they feed off each other, becoming more and more extreme.

A few people have noted how elements or arguments that came from feminism were rolled into gender ideology, both in terms of contributing ideas or in a reactionary sense.

Goosefoot
I think the people in her books are weirdly soulless and disturbing. I made a good effort to read a bunch and some were required in school as part of CanLit, but I gave up in the end because they made me feel depressed

Chiochan

Weirdly, Im not that surprised
I liked some of her work a lot, but it has always struck me from her work that she seems quite cynical
mix this with ambition and you end up with someone prity ruthless*

I completely agree. The esteem she is held in by feminists has always puzzled me. I always got a sense that she really enjoyed piling on the misery.

apart from some of the early ones that were a pile of shite

What was the one with the drowning scene that was somehow tied to an abortion?

Fuck, it was dreadful.

Fucking hell! I love Margaret Atwood's books - apart from some of the early ones that were a pile of shite! Didn't realise she'd swallowed this women feelz nonsense...

Atwood is probably in the same camp as Philip Pullman, where she has either adaptations of her work ongoing, which could be jeopardized by her being #cancelled, or she hopes more of her work will be adapted in the future. TV money comes with PR strings. At best, she's putting profit above her principles.

At worst she's a hypocrite and a sell out.

I can't believe that the woman who wrote The Handmaids Tale could tweet this unmitigated bullshit

Oh I can very easily. I think you really have to dislike women to have written it.

It's not very edifying.

She's gone down in my estimation as a person on the basis of that behaviour towards our Jo.

Monday that's about as dignified a response as this deserves, quite frankly

Not a surprise if you've followed Atwood over the years

I agree. I can't stand Margaret Atwood either as a writer or a person.

The Handmaid's Tale is an utterly vile book. I've never seen as some sort of feminist warning but rather the work of someone rather enjoyed doling out misery and punishment on her female characters.

Ok. It's kind of depressing now. I feel it's a bit malicious, a bit 'lets cut the opposition down to size.' Ungenerous?

Yes I think she's basically trolling for attention on the back of this. Not many people are immune to the temptation of a bit of consequence-free virtue signalling.

Oh dear, don't check her Twitter. She's thanking clear thinking youngsters for setting her straight re the 'untruths' in JKR's essay.

Ok. It's kind of depressing now. I feel it's a bit malicious, a bit 'lets cut the opposition down to size.' Ungenerous?

but I remember a discussion about it at university where we talked about whether she was implying that the feminist movement that included Offred’s mother was indirectly responsible for the pushback from society resulting in the rise of Gilead. I think even then she said it wasn’t a feminist novel, it was once that about women

I remember when the novel was released. If you can, go back to some of the reviews and her discussions of it at the time. An early scene in the book (I loathed it so gave it away and can't check up on this) is Offred's mother with other radical feminists burning books (pornography). The point Attwood was making (and it is an interesting one) is that feminists created Gilead with their allegiance to the 'new right', the evangelical Christian movement and Reagan. She openly opposed radical feminism and always has been a lib. fem.

Marge Piercy, on the other hand, rocks.

There used to be flourishing women's publishing houses such as The Women's Press

medium.com/the-cinnamon-bun/whatever-happened-to-the-womens-science-fiction-press-8b8f4b0a5d5a

who published works equally as wonderful as Atwood. They didn't touch the public nerve so much though because they were radical, anarchist or socialist in orientation.

Also, Olivia records if you don't know them.

Not a surprise if you've followed Atwood over the years

Yes. Handmaid's Tale was very misunderstood. She is lib fem through and through.

Bellend curve more like.

Ha, that thread is grimly hilarious Heistsociety.

Sorry to go slightly OT but has anyone seen the Iranian film "Under the Shadow"? It was on Netflix until recently. It's about a woman living in Tehran in the early years after the revolution and during the Iran/Iraq war (it was recently made but set in about 1983 I think). There may or may not be a ghost in her house. But her backstory is: she was a doctor who lost her job under the new regime, and her husband, another doctor, agreed that perhaps she should stay home and look after their daughter. She has lost her career and independence overnight. In one scene, she flees her home in terror (I can't remember if it's a bombing or an apparition) and is immediately arrested because she's not wearing a chador. It's a vivid haunting picture of a woman on the edge of madness, someone whose whole life has been upended and it's very clever that you're never really sure if the ghost is real or not. It's fictional but for so many women around the world The Handmaid's Tale was and is very real. Margaret Atwood's sophistry about fecking clownfish or whatever, just depresses me. It's not some kind of intellectual game ffs.

Sharp.

twitter.com/mcgrawfinkle/status/1280361231816159237?s=21

She will put a foot wrong - not give enough and she will get her piccys. Its never enough for some people.

It's funny though even we disagree with her, we haven't defaulted to sending her dick pics.

Both sides? Hmmm.

Maybe she's always "felt like a man" but got stuck with being a woman and THT is actually a fantasy of how things should be.

Yes I agree with the Cool Girlness.

I've read most of her books and she has often given off a flinty Cool Girl vibe and seemed to enjoy skewering other women. I reread The Robber Bride recently and thought she actually seems to be on the side of Zenia!