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The Handmaid's Tale Vol 3

574 replies

CruCru · 24/07/2017 21:18

Hi all

As the last thread has all but totally filled up, I've started this new one.

Bit shallow - but do you think the Wives are allowed cosmetics? I got the impression that make up is banned but they do all look very polished.

OP posts:
Elendon · 31/07/2017 09:57

I don't think the book had a cheery ending at all.

I found it just as sinister as the Gilead state. All back to normal now, ha ha ha

But Offred's story was just that a story. Like all those who wrote their tales too.

illegitimateMortificadospawn · 31/07/2017 10:06

This is a bit off-topic in that Guardian review:

There it is, that dangerous, creeping normalisation, the utterly unordinary becoming ordinary. I hate it when someone gets publicly stoned to death, I hate it when transgender people are banned from the military.

God forbid that we could actually have an article that focuses on biological, sex-based oppression in a review of a TV series about biological, sex-based oppression. Hmm

AdalindSchade · 31/07/2017 10:10

Yeah that was a random and quite irritating line. However the line about the Kardashian surrogate was right on the money IMO

EBearhug · 31/07/2017 10:12

When she told Fred she was pregnant, he said something about it being a miracle - I think he knows he's infertile and so can't be the father, which means she must have slept with someone else. Serena didn't tell him about the plan with Nick, and neither Serena nor Fred know she slept with Nick through choice after (though they may suspect.)

I agree in the book there was even less certainty that she could trust Nick.

brokenshoes · 31/07/2017 10:16

I've always thought of the book as having a relative positive ending for Offred as otherwise how would the people in the epilogue know her story?

Is there anything that anyone didn't like about series one?

As a standalone TV series, I thought it was outstanding.

There were a few niggles when I compared it to the book (sorry!). I felt that the whole Mayday/resistance bit was a bit overt in the TV series. I really missed the bit in the book where Offred and the first Ofglen have the conversation "it's a beautiful may day", with Ofglen subtlety testing the waters, whereas in the TV programme they seemed to trust each other very quickly.

I also felt unreasonably annoyed that they missed the bit about the handmaids hiding the pats of butter from their meals to use as moisturiser!

The younger Serena jarred at first, but really worked. Her heartache at not being able to have a baby... I almost felt sorry for her at the end when they were taking June away as it meant she was losing "her" much-wanted baby.

Elendon · 31/07/2017 10:18

God forbid that we could actually have an article that focuses on biological, sex-based oppression in a review of a TV series about biological, sex-based oppression.

This. Excellent observation on that dissonant comment.

brokenshoes · 31/07/2017 10:21

Just a thought - might have been much more use for Moira to have taken the bundle of letters with her to Canada Grin.

Do you think June whispered to Rita to look behind the bath in order to find the letters? She went there immediately, so unless she had already found them, how did she know to look there?

Elendon · 31/07/2017 10:22

But the epilogue explicitly states they are extrapolating facts from fiction so therefore don't actually know what happened to Offred. We know on reading the 'Tale' that this has some truth. Which is sad because Offred's historical telling is ultimately being dismissed (women are dismissed from history). The epilogue states they know more about what happened to the men in Gilead.

illegitimateMortificadospawn · 31/07/2017 10:24

When she told Fred she was pregnant, he said something about it being a miracle - I think he knows he's infertile and so can't be the father, which means she must have slept with someone else.

I agree.

I think, with the ready familiarity, the series lost some of the isolation and paranoia of the book. When Alma and June duck into the alley beside the shop, I was muttering "oh, for fucks sake!" as Attwood perfectly describes how careful Offred and Ofglen have to be in order to hold a conversation, how they stand momentarily in front of a shop and look at each other's reflections in the glass as even raising their heads to look at one another face-to-face would be noticed by the guards. It was sloppy and made it look like they had more freedom than they actually hard - May Day is all the more astonishing in the book because of the extreme difficulty of organising.

Elendon · 31/07/2017 10:24

Rita has done this before, of that there is no doubt. She is the eye to everything in the house, with a very sad history of her own.

noblegiraffe · 31/07/2017 10:26

As June walked past Rita she said 'Behind the tub' to her, that's why she looked there. We watch with subtitles!

CoolCarrie · 31/07/2017 10:28

June did whisper to Rita " Behind the bath" I think it was, so now Rita can pass the letters on to someone else in the resistance. Moira couldn't take the letters as she seemed to just grab her chance to get away as quickly as possible.

Elendon · 31/07/2017 10:28

Those letters would have brought comfort and despair to Rita. I love that the letters were shared to those caught up in the horror of it all.

Perhaps Rita might just be the one to get them to Canada.

CoolCarrie · 31/07/2017 10:30

The whole series was excellent, and i honestly think that a second series will be just as good.

Elendon · 31/07/2017 10:33

Moira had to kill (I'm thinking a driver) in order to escape.

She did as June asked and then, impelled by this, caught a glimpse of her own bolshie self.

illegitimateMortificadospawn · 31/07/2017 10:36

I am greatly reassured to hear that Attwood is involved in writing the second season. She has a track record of revisiting earlier novels and either rewriting them from other perspectives or extending the narrative. She has such a clear, singular "voice" in her writing, I am glad she is closely involved. Just typing this has made me realise what a loss it will be when Attwood is no longer with us. Her novels scare me and thrill/provoke me in equal measure.

QueenieGoldstein · 31/07/2017 10:38

I agree that Atwood is great at revsisirinv her works to add additional voices and story lines. I have high hopes for the next series.

QueenieGoldstein · 31/07/2017 10:38

Revisiting that should say!

brokenshoes · 31/07/2017 10:45

That's true about the epilogue having to extrapolate facts from fiction, but my feeling is that even if only some of the story is that of the Offred we read about in the Handmaid's Tale then she must have escaped to at least some extent (even if only to one safe house before being recaptured), otherwise how could she have told her story at all? I accept that it is not a "happy ending", but I don't think the van takes Offred directly to her death.

I was being facetious re: the letters! Thanks for the clarification that June whispered "behind the tub" to Rita.

InigoTaran · 31/07/2017 10:50

Just saw this on Twitter. Handmaids in London!

The Handmaid's Tale Vol 3
BeyondDrinksAndKnowsThings · 31/07/2017 10:57

Marking my place, can read okay today Grin

woodhill · 31/07/2017 10:57

If Fred was infertile then wouldn't he be relieved that Ofred was pregnant otherwise he could never father a baby and was living a lie which could be discovered and put him in danger. Did he not suspect he was infertile before the regime or do you think it was put down to Serena Joy's problem. Surely June is safe being pregnant?

SomethingOnce · 31/07/2017 11:13

Just typing this has made me realise what a loss it will be when Attwood is no longer with us.

I thought exactly the same thing but didn't want to say it Sad

I worry about the level of engagement with politics these days; radicalism, protest and counterculture seem to be consumed and neutralised by the system at every turn.

EBearhug · 31/07/2017 11:18

I don't think the van takes Offred directly to her death.

Not if she's pregnant, but we have plenty of examples of pregnant women being held in prison and handcuffed in hospital while they give birth.

SomethingOnce · 31/07/2017 11:18

The Handmaid’s Tale: The Hidden Meaning in Those Eerie Costumes

Costume designer Ane Crabtree gives the rundown on dressing Margaret Atwood’s dystopia.

www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/handmaids-tale-hulu-costumes-margaret-atwood

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