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.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.insider.com/the-handmaids-tale-dc-rings-handmaids-2019-6

No spoilers in the article but be careful about clicking on links to other articles - it’s a US magazine so will have episode reviews covering episodes 9 & 10.

Eyes on Gilead are usually informative podcasts.

They are Australian though so bear in mind that the top two podcasts will always be two episodes that we in the UK haven’t seen yet.

I listened to Eyes On last year and it was great. I'm planning to listen to it again after the tv series has finished.

I'm so hoping Holly is part of the resistance! I want to see more of it. I'm disappointed we haven't seen more of the Martha resistance.

How is Gilead's PR team so dim that they can't see that the propaganda video is clear proof of the brutal subjugation of the handmaids?

@inmyfeelings

I think Gilead’s official line to the outside world is that the Handmaids volunteer for their sacred duty, that’s why there was such an outcry when the truth (the Handmaids letters) were published on social media, in series 2.

I agree though, that propaganda video, will just reinforce what the outside world found out from the Handmaids letters, that Gilead forced some citizens in to sexual slavery.

But obviously nobody chooses life long servitude, forced sex with an allocated stranger and to have their baby taken away . Nobody in their right mind would believe that this is a voluntary way of life .. just not convinced by this at all .

@inmyfeelings

I think we sometimes forget that we are watching the Handmaids Tale. So what we are seeing is June’s story, we are seeing what June sees. We have more information on Gilead than those people living outside Gilead.

@Andylion

Did Putnam get demoted after his affair with Janine went public? Could explain the posher house. Demote him, chop off his arm but no point making him move house.

Listened to some Eyes on Gilead last night, it’s great. Thanks for that.

@inmyfeelings

Gilead’s PR team? Isn’t Fred part of it, he was some kind of Marketing PR guy pre Gilead. A lot of us think Fred is a bit dim. Surprised by but blinded by the power he’s acquired in Gilead.

@morningtoncrescent62

It’s scary isn’t it. The religious conservatism in the US unnerved me a bit when I lived there. We’re just not used to it here.

You’re right, Aunt Lydia is an utter fanatic and her moral compass is just so completely different from anything we can comprehend with our non religious fanatic outlook.

@thatone

I remember the bit about the body parts of loved ones being sent to refugees in Canada, if they were causing trouble for Gilead. It seems to have been missed out of the TV show for some reason.

I too am concerned about the refugees being sent back (as it is in the epilogue). I’m not sure if the Swiss asking Emily about the crimes she committed in Gilead and Emily and Moira being imprisoned after the protest is leading up to that. I really hope not.

No spoilers - interview with MA on the inspirations for the book:

lithub.com/margaret-atwood-on-how-she-came-to-write-the-handmaids-tale/

Another piece of trivia - “the wall” refers to the wall that encloses Harvard. The Wall is a landmark in Boston.

I’ve never been to Boston so didn’t realise this.

I think being sent to The Wall must be like being sent to The Tower in the 1500s and 1600s here.

I thought The Wall just meant any old wall as the Gileadeans had randomly decided to hang executed bodies in walls. Didn’t realise it had any significance.

@Andylion

I’ve been thinking about technology. They seem to be selective about what / in what situation they will use medical technology too.

I know some religions don’t allow any technology to be used in the sabbath. So wondering if there are links to that idea. I’m not religious though so not sure about the reasoning behind it.

I also had a question about why THT was based in the more liberal NE USA, I thought it would be more likely to happen in the Bible Belts of the South and Mid West.

I’m going to read up on the Puritans and see what other similarities there are to what we are seeing in Gilead.

I saw the Graham Norton show interview @Ivy40. Johnny Depp hits the nail on the head when he says “God lives in the mid West”.

I think I miss things because I don’t know the Bible that well. I’ve had to google a lot. Is there anything explaining the bible references to heathens like me?

I get the obvious ones like eyes, guardians, angels.

I read up on Jacob (Sons of Jacob) and Rachel and Leah. Interestingly, the Handmaid - Bilhal - doesn’t speak in the bible. Just thinking of the silencing of the Washington Handmaids.

The shops are called things like loaves and fishes after stories in the bible.

The Martha in the bible did all the cleaning and cooking for Jesus while her sister preferred to listen to his sermons. I think it was a parable.

There are loads I miss though, as I don’t know what I’m looking out for.

@Skaife
Did Putnam get demoted after his affair with Janine went public? Could explain the posher house. Demote him, chop off his arm but no point making him move house.

Excellent question. There are so many details I would like to have filled in.

@Skaife
I’ve been thinking about technology. They seem to be selective about what / in what situation they will use medical technology too.

I know some religions don’t allow any technology to be used in the sabbath. So wondering if there are links to that idea. I’m not religious though so not sure about the reasoning behind it.

You would think, as others have said, that they would use any technology possible when it comes to babies. On one hand, they apparently don't use artificial insemination to impregnate the handmaids, which would, at the very least, save them from being raped. On the other, the handmaids have the chips to monitor them. Once again, good old fashioned hypocrisy. And women being punished for being fertile.

This post is not very coherent. I'm haven't yet finished my morning coffee, (Not in the UK.)

@andylion. @Skaife

I can’t work out if there are inconsistencies with there use of technology or if there are reasons why they use some and not others. Remember when June was pregnant and she was found bleeding outside? She was taken to what looked like a high tech hospital. However we’ve just seen a baby born with a cord round it’s neck just be left to die. I don’t understand this at all - as others have said, given that Gilead’s stated reason for existing is to increase the birth rate, why would they do that?

@Andylion. @skaife

Margaret Atwood said that she didn’t use any technology that didn’t exist when she wrote THT. That was in 1985 though, before smart phones, social media, mass internet use. I imagine the show writers have found it difficult to work out what technology to use and not to use, now from 2017 onwards, and that might be the cause of some inconsistencies.

It does seem like it’s supposed to be set in the present day. We can see from the cars they drive, mentions of Uber and Craigslist in pre Gilead days. Also Erin and Luke post the Handmaids letters on social media.

(So they’ll also need technology to fix and maintain the modern cars they’ve got too).

The commanders have access to and use modern technology. It’s just understanding why some things are allowed and others aren’t. Fitting humans with GPS trackers strikes me as pretty high tech.

I don’t understand why they left the baby with the cord wrapped around it’s neck to die but fit Handmaids with GPS trackers, it does seem very inconsistent.