The Handmaid's Tale Vol 2

[PacificDogwod]

I go to work and this is what happens: the previous thread fills up when I have pertinent things to say!

Hope nobody minds, I've taken the opportunity to start a new one before the Offspring demand food and the likes...

One of the masterful strikes of strategic genius of the new regime is the division and envy between everybody and everybody: men vs women, women in different roles vs other women, high ranking vs low ranking.
No solidarity is allowed - even the partnered Handmaids were half companion and have guard. Never knowing who might be an Eye and who to trust must be soul destroying.

I think Serena is quite a tragic figure - in the book and in the TV series. She must feel so betrayed by the ideals she fought for and that she is now kind of forced to uphold because otherwise what would her life be?? Admitting that she supporting a world view that while giving her some kind of social status by dint of her husband's role, considers her without value as she cannot have children would render everything she stands for invalid, and herself by extension.

The author who wrote a book about women being able to electrocute men by touch thereby causing a power change over (sorry, I cannot remember either name ) was talking on Radio Scotland today. She said the idea for her book came from when she wondered why so many mechanisms in society seem to go back to the fact that 'more men can throw a woman across a room than the other way around'. It's a depressing thought that physical strength underpins so much.

Why were the commander and wife feeling like they couldn't shag when he came back from his first day at work I'm Gilead?

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I haven't read the book but I'm not sure whether the wives are infertile or whether it's that their husbands aren't allowed to have sex with them. That whole madonna/whore thing.

dead
Maybe they're a bit like hardcore Catholics in that sex for procreation is allowed but sex for pleasure isn't? So if it wasn't her fertile window, or if they already knew they couldn't conceive, they weren't supposed to have sex?
(I haven't read the book yet so I'm just guessing!)

I have a lot more conflicting sympathy for serena joy after that episode. I'd love to read her book!

Walking, in the book the wives are all much older than the handmaids

mary yes I think it was last week's episode, when she was having coffee with Luke, in the back ground 3 or 4 little girls were playing, dressed in little red coats......
I thought then, they were hinting at their futures.

Interesting to see the US flag at the government building.
The colonies are areas that have been destroyed by nuclear accidents or pollution. You do a few months cleaning up there until you die. It's a punishment posting.

Just finished reading the book and watched the first two episodes of the programme. The programme was imo very disappointing. The storyline was (as always) very much changed and the characters, not as I envisaged in the book.

Thanks beyond that explains it.

Some irony in the tv series not using actual older actresses as they are seldom seen in real life

I was a bit confused about the Commander/Serena shagging scene. Was that current or flashback? Because the no shagging would work if it was current (saving his swimmers for the ceremony), but in flashback I can't see the sense in it

I'm loving this series. I think Margaret Attwood has had a lot of say in it (suggested by her cameo earlier on?) she's possibly putting a lot into it that she would like to have padded out in the book and/or commenting on the world today. I found the commanders wife this week to be almost as heartbreaking as June. So much given up.

I re-read the book (which I'd loved) at the beginning of the series and find I'm actually hungry for the extra insights and moments the TV series is bringing in.

Very good point walking. I wonder if that crossed the makers minds when they decided to change the "dynamic"

Serena Joy deserves everything she gets! What was she expecting? To write a book about how women belong in the home and then think it won't apply to her? She probably wasn't expecting to be infertile and be assigned a handmaid, but she was happy in collaborating in setting up a society where they would exist? Fertility as a moral imperative and duty? She was writing a handmaid manifesto.

She's as culpable as the commander, she just didn't realise she was expendable, especially as she's infertile.

Re the future Handmaids, I think there's an implication that environmental pollution has caused infertility, which is why Gilead make such a big deal about reducing emissions, organic produce etc in their trade talks. Presumably they're hoping that raising the children in a cleaner environment will mean there won't be a need for Handmaids long term.

I think for Serena Joy it went further than she expected. She mentions a moral imperative to have children - women who can should do so but I get the feeling she was expecting forcing women to have children would be the outcome.

I think the Aunt is a True Believer and did think it was unfair that the 'damaged' (by them!)Handmaids were not allowed in to the reception

Yes, I thought the same. Her sincerity and fairness in that moment made her actions quite touching, even though she's utterly monstrous the rest of the time.

No children in 6 years versus a roomful of children, what would you do if you were the Mexican Ambassador?

Was that ballroom the whole of Gilead? All the handmaids? I wouldn't have thought that they had any to spare.

Gripping episode as always. I haven't read the book but the TV series is absorbing & all feels like a hairs breath away from being our reality. I still keep thinking about Iran Pre-Revolution - what were / our those women thinking? How can decent men just go along with it?

Heartbreaking.

Ah, I obviously misheard the whole Nick / June / commander thing . Makes much more sense that Nick doesn't have a vagina . I thought June meant the commander put it up her ass! I'm really not sure that's in the bible.

I definitely don't feel sorry for Serena Joy. She was astoundingly short-sighted if she thought her vision for domesticity and feminism wouldn't include her.

The whole God / his commands / his will really resonated with me this week too. We're always led to believe that God is male and I've never really questioned it before (I don't believe in God so I suppose I haven't thought about it).

These photos really drive home what can be done in just a few decades if religion is involved.

There's a very strong sense that power imbalance is poison to human relationships.

The Commander's kindnesses to Offred, such as they are, can never be anything other than oppressive. Serena, who thought she was part of a power couple, is cornered and made to understand her place. Even Nick cannot be a true ally. There are no winners when connections between people are so compromised.

I think the series has to stray from the book in order to be authentic to the book's original concept. Thirty years have passed, the world has become a smaller place, technology allows us to know more about what is going on around the world. We now have more knowledge of what is happening to women around the world, and the series reflects this. It needs to be pertinent today, as it was then, and Atwoid's consultation in the series shows that she is happy for the series to act as an updated version of the novel.

Those who want to see an adaptation of the book, rather than an update which reflects the world as we now know it to be, could watch the acclaimed film version.

Just catching up with the last episode. God, the Serena Joy aspect is fascinating, bringing up things I'd forgotten from the book. Don't want the series to end so much that I'm rewatching the episodes for things I've missed & then inevitably flipping back to the book. Bought a copy for my 18 yr old dd as mine is now so badly thumbed. Don't think I've ever been such a Telly Addict before!

My name is AWendy and I'm a Handsmaid addict...

I was with friends this weekend, who have been watching it, but have found it slow, and a bit difficult to follow what's going on, because some of the flashbacks are confusing, like last week when Moira escaped at the metro station, it wasn't clear to them if that was at the same time as the main time line of the story. I think they are... not enjoying it as such, but appreciating it. I have not really struggles with the time line, because I have read the book, so have more background understanding.