The Handmaid’s Tale (UK pace, so no spoilers from the US/Israel/Aus please)

[Ivy40]

This is a new thread where we can refer to the original book, published in 1985 (including the epilogue). Everyone is welcome to speculate on how the writers will get us from the book (end of series 1) to the epilogue (we’re assuming this will be series 10). Plus any other interesting plot developments that you have noticed.

No spoilers from the US/Israel/Aus etc please, as we in the UK are 2-3 episodes behind. We don’t want to KNOW what happens next, we just enjoy speculating and enjoy the plot development.

The basics:
Margaret Atwood wrote the Handmaid’s Tale in the 1980s, it was first published in 1985.

She said that she didn’t use anything that hadn’t happened in real life.

Series 1 finished at the end of the book.

There is an epilogue though.

Hulu have said that there will be 10 series.

We are assuming that series 10 will be the epilogue.

That means that Hulu have a lot of creative licence in series 2-9, as long as what they create leads to what we know is the epilogue.

Margaret Atwood is a consultant writer on the tv series.

The Testaments are being released in September 2019, written by Margaret Atwood. Set 15 years ahead of the ending in the original book and will be the stories of 4 different narrators, not June’s story. MA said that she based the Handmaid’s Tale on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, so we’re expecting “A Wife”s Tale”, “A Martha’s Tale” etc.

I think she's already given up on custody of Nicole.

Didn't notice that Joyce. Guess I'll just have to watch those final scenes once again.

That would be horrific Joyce - will have to watch again - will be the third time for me.

Hadn’t noticed that Joyce, no harm in having another look though! (Really don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when the series is over and I’ve read the Testaments!).

I'm just listening to the playlist on Spotify....amazing!! (Although I can't remember hearing some of the songs in the programme...)

The Testaments review:

www.npr.org/2019/09/03/755868251/the-testaments-takes-us-back-to-gilead-for-a-fast-paced-female-centered-adventur?fbclid=IwAR3dFi0-ZwSg1lK3JjANCwrcJuayr3D7-1vfkXpj6Tcs3Baia-9MrKKVRLQ&t=1567594650403

I’m so excited about next Tuesday!

I’m assuming Agnes is June’s daughter Hannah?

Also, Daisy, the Canadian girl, could be one of the children smuggled out of Gilead on the plane, in the final episode?

And wow, Aunt Lydia!

I do wonder whether Serena went to Canada partly as a result of the visit to see Nicole. She and Fred visited Canada in a previous series, and I remember her being given her itinerary in the form of pictograms, because they knew she was not allowed to read.

I think that she had realised how much had been taken away from her in Gilead - she had no power outside her own home, and inside it her power was limited. She wasn't allowed to read, and went from being a published author and a political activist (even if though I can't agree with her politics) to someone with no purpose and no influence.

It must have been very seductive to visit Canada the second time and to wear clothes that weren't blue - and trousers too! It must have made her realise how much she had given up, and I think the temptation was too much for her.

@sdt

I agree and I think Mark Tuello deliberately played on this - when he gave her the clothes on her 2nd visit, not only were they beautiful clothes but they were wrapped as gifts - a reminder of her life pre-Gilead. It wouldn’t surprise me if the instructions in pictures were his idea too. I’d like to see more of Tuello in the next series - he’s American so maybe he has female relatives stuck in Gilead and that’s driving his actions?

Today (Wednesday) the Guardian has an extract from The Testaments.

Sorry, no good at links.

I am salivating!!!!!!

Thanks @viques!

I’ll read that before I have to go back to work.

Here’s a link to the extract in the Guardian that Viques mentioned

www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/04/the-testaments-by-margaret-atwood-read-the-exclusive-first-extract?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The Sydney Morning Herald says that Amazon have messed up and sent some of the people, who had the book on pre order, the book early ie today. Hope I get mine today too!

I must say I’m surprised by Aunt Lydia, so she survives the regime. I guess she’s like a cockroach- indestructible!

I’m pleased that we find out more about her though, she’s very interesting. It also explains why we didn’t get much of a backstory on her.

Damn, I just checked my amazon account and my copy hasn’t been dispatched yet. I’m not one of the lucky ones.

I must say I’m surprised by Aunt Lydia, so she survives the regime. I guess she’s like a cockroach- indestructible! Are we sure it's her?

I'll have to read the extract again. I did read it very quickly.

It says it’s Aunt Lydia in the review I posted above.

OK I'll read that. I just read the extracts, none of which have any names. The third one seems to be of a girl who was nearly 16 pre-Gilead, she mentions a driving licence. I don't think she could be anyone named in the original book, maybe an econowife.

The other two are Agnes and Daisy. I’ve assumed Agnes is June’s daughter Hannah, the Mackenzies renamed her Agnes.

OK I've read the review bit now. So Daisy, the third one, has presumably escaped from Gilead. So it's post-Gilead not pre-Gilead.

Or, if not post-Gilead then, at least, she is no longer there.

I wondered if Daisy was one of the children that escaped on the plane. Then I wondered if she was Nicole with a new name - maybe she had to go into a witness protection type scheme as Gilead we’re trying to get her back, hence the name change.

time.com/5668056/the-testaments-hulu-margaret-atwood/?utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0Zm-SnELMqP07HuBXgGlcv1iw4MXdg_k6MgYdXOecZrZRXzWzqcZ0vaPo

Interestingly, Atwood started writing the Testaments pre 2017, before the programme came out. The Testaments is due to be televised too, it says they don’t know whether it will be a new show (in its own right) or will be folded in to the Handmaid’s Tale - this would give the producers chance to have a narrator other than June.

I wondered if Daisy was one of the children that escaped on the plane.
More likely to be Nichole in some ways as the escape on the plane was only in the TV series not in Margaret Atwood's original book. If I remember correctly June was pregnant at the end of the book when she was put in the van by MayDay - everything subsequent to that is only 'based on' Atwood's work. I would assume The Testaments would only refer directly to her book but I could be wrong.

Also, I've mentioned before but maybe on the other thread, MA didn't actually call Offred June, that was the last name whispered in the scene at the Red Centre at the beginning of the book and readers have assumed that was her name.