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.

Maybe it’s supposed to demonstrate what Gilead was supposed to be and what it’s actually become?

Gilead was supposed to be a religiously conservative, return to traditional values country. I think this is what a lot of people were promised when they joined the Sons of Jacob, pre Gilead.

What it’s actually become is a fundamentalist religious theocracy, where ALL women have become objects, the property of men. This isn’t what Serena Joy and probably Naomi Putnam wanted.

So the stated aim of Gilead is to promote more babies being born. What it actually is is a society where the ruling men have a number of different women under their control, to do with as they please.

A guardian shot a pregnant handmaid in this last episode (8) too. I wonder if he didn’t realise she was pregnant because she was wearing a loose robe or it was a split second decision as she was waving a gun around.

This really is a rabbit hole thread! Love it though. I come here for answers and go away with more questions.

@skaife
Know what you mean. I’m spending this evening reading up on the bible. Never thought I’d hear myself say that!

@inmyfeelings. @Skaife

Although we see propaganda videos coming from North Korea and what do we do about it? The average British citizen doesn’t do anything, or really even think about it. Same with Iran, Taliban Afghanistan and Communist Eastern Europe, when it existed.

Just reading the paper and this jumped out at me. A dramatic drop in the birth rate was the original thing that caused the rise of Gilead.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/aug/01/birth-rate-in-england-and-wales-at-all-time-low?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It does seem like it’s supposed to be set in the present day.

I don't remember if the book was set in a specific, identifiable period or not. Anyone?

I do recall that while watching the first season I thought that by choosing a specific time period to set it in, and one that we recognize as not different from present day, that they had to make decisions about things the book had left vague.

Ok, I've finished my coffee, but still expressing myself well.

but still expressing myself well.= still not expressing myself well.

@Andylion

I don’t recall anything in the book striking me and telling me when it was set. @thatone seems to have quite a detailed knowledge of the book though.

The Handmaid's Tale was always "the near future" to me. The tv series has been set in modern times, I imagine in keeping with the current political climate. It's recognisablly "now" and that's what's terrifying to me.

@CurbsideProphet

Thanks. I couldn’t remember anything specific from the book that said when it was set, so assumed it was left open.

I recently re-read the book - was trying to piece the current series together with the book and to look for clues about the Resistance.

@thatone
I re read it last year but seem to have forgotten some of the detail. So the book is just set at some point in the near future from the point you read it and the tv series is set in the present day due to the references to Uber, Craigslist and the cars they drive.

I’m thinking I might reread it again but I’m already watching series 1 again to spot things I missed the 1st time around. There is so much information that doesn’t seem important but then a few episodes later (or even in the next series) it becomes a major plot line!

i always thought the Gilead period was from 21something to 23something but i can't find it in the epilogue so might have made that up somewhere along the line.

Fred in the series at the beginning was shown struggling to get or keep work having to rely on Serena. The early adopters became commanders regardless i think so it doesn't mean that they are particularly useful or good at their jobs. Presumably they will weed out the weaker ones as they go along.

IIRC the pregnant handmaid didn't have to go shopping and would have had a guardian bodyguard. I can remember someone saying Janine was showing off when she was shopping whilst pregnant. So it is plausible the guardian wouldn't have known.

The baby i think was dead when it came out which is why they left it. Fertility medication is thought by uber religous people to be playing god so perhaps that's why Gilead doesn't go in for artificial insemination though. They do get check ups though and i think they have scans. Didn't June have to hide behind a curtain whilst Serena got to see when she was pregnant with Holly.

Yes June escaped from hospital didn't she when she was having a pregnancy check up.

Was there not something in the book about babies not being named or celebrated until they knew it was going to survive?

I've got a vague recollection of a suggestion that some babies were damaged by the radiation from the bomb/something nuclear that was implied in the book.

So, perhaps babies being born dead isn't always a thing like the cord being round the neck? Am surprised there isn't a midwife though - where did all the midwives go?

Am surprised there isn't a midwife though - where did all the midwives go?
Women aren't allowed to work, though, apart from Marthas and Aunts. They had to get a Martha who used to be a doctor to save the life of the Puttnam's/Janine's baby but it was done in secret.

Having had a quick google at the book of Jacob Rachael had a midwife so there could be an argument for them being allowed in Gilead.

The aunts don't really play a mw role they are more there for supervisory purposes that many handmaids in one place need looking after.

The births are really poorly managed though wtf are they all shouting push you don't forcibly push baby out they always try to stop you pushing.

What about after care as well there is no interest in the handmaid once a baby has appeared do the other handmaids deal with the placenta and clean up? I don't think the show really thought this bit though very well.

I'm listening to the Eyes on Gilead podcast for series 2 while I'm working. They reminded me that Luke's ex wife popped up in flashbacks and they wondered if she will make another appearance.

I'm currently listening to an interview with showrunner Bruce Miller (whatever a showrunner is!) and he said it all ties back to the idea in the novel that the story of June was recorded on tapes. Everyone we see in each episode is because they're important to June's memories of Gilead. They might only play a small role, but they make an impression on June and that's why they are included in her storytelling.

I wasn't sure if that would class as a spoiler to those who haven't read the novel.

So does that mean that we are watching June's story as told by her after the fact.

Who knows? Anything is possible in this 3rd series. Not sure how strong the production team's vision is any more.

Timeline wise, in the book June refers to Holly being of the era of feminism protesting porn. That - roughly - puts her mum as at least 20-something in the 70s, meaning she would be born in approx late 70's-80's. So even though the book was written in 1985, I think Gilead would have been set around now, for June to be an adult woman, married and with a child, in Gilead for approx 5 years.

So even though Atwood was writing in the future, the series is set in approx the present.

Yeah I get the timeline thing I was more thinking that this story is going to turn out to be one huge flashback and will finish with it turning out to be a tape we were listening too all along or something