Margaret attwood

[marissab]

I adore handmaids tale. I love the futuristic 1984-ish bleak future themes. Are her other books along the same themes? I don't know whether they'll live up to HMT.

Literary criticism doesn't demand negativity though.

I think I shall throw some pies at you all now

I didn't say it does.

Unless it's you talking about Ian McEwan or Cloud Atlas

AF

Criticism doesn't have to be negative. In its broadest sense, it is no different from a review. Literary critics, theatre critics, they have good things to say as well as bad.

Look, it was just a general comment, it wasn't aimed at anyone in particular. Language moves on, and the meanings of words change. I just don't like this particular usage that has crept in.

Anything by MA is well worth a read. I did struggle a bit with The Penelopeiad. Sorry have no idea how to spell that.

My only criticism (in the non wanky version of the word) of Margaret Atwood is that she hasn't written enough novels

And that is my lesson of the evening to you native speakers

Now... Would you say Margaret Attwood's writing style is similar to another better known sci-fi author?

Isn't it odd how if somebody doesn't like a book written by a woman they "don't like books written by women". But if they don't like a book written by a man they don't like that book. Or even that author. They never say "I don't like books written by men"!

Isn't that just what funnys said on this thread?

Fanx, but I'll stick with the Oxford English Dictionary.

Actually, I've asked for that post to be deleted because I realised later that I misread yours as A critique doesn't have to be negative.

I liked The Penelopeaiad because it's a really tongue in cheek comment on how history and culture are so male centred and mysoginistic.

I mean, poor old Penelope. She's beset by all those bloody suitors. She's not interested in any of them, shes got no way of getting rid of them, and yet she's regarded with suspicion because she let them hang around.

But everyone is so impressed with Odysseus's "bravery" over the wicked sirens. FFS!

Love Margaret Atwood! Oryx & Crake is possibly my favourite dystopia ever (and I love dystopias).

Realised on looking at the (constant) pile of books on my bedside table that they're almost all by women!

HMT is there, one by Ursula LeGuin (my all time favourite author), in fact 2 by her, a JK Rowling (prisoner of Azkaban), a great book about the Lighthouse Stevenson family, and one by Julian May - who is female.

I didn't know Julian May was female. I loved the start of the Many Coloured Land but never managed to finish the series, this has reminded me about it, must see if I can find the books.

I have never read any Margaret Atwood (I don't know why) but because of this thread have downloaded the Penelopeiad and am devouring it, so thank you.

I will download a few more later.

I agree with kitten on the hatred of the word critique, it seems like such a gary Barlow word to misuse.

Cote you are right, that is exactly what I said

oh and another man obsessed by sex is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I am half way through Love in the Time of Cholera and tbh I am soooo bored with all the shagging. I say half way, I stopped reading it after last years summers holiday and haven't picked up another book since...........

Robert Heinlein is another author obsessed with sex. In Time Enough For Love, women who pass through Lazarus Long's bed include but are not restricted to:

• his adopted daughter Dora
• his twin girl-clones (don't ask!) Lapis Lazuli and Lorelei Lee
• a computer called Minerva who then becomes a flesh & blood woman
• his own mother called Maureen, to fetch whom as a young woman he travels back in time (again, just don't ask )

I didn't even have to look up the names of these characters. That's how badly it's burnt in my memory.

Heinlein is weirdly obsessed. Stranger In A Strange Land is bonkers once the shagging starts.

Remus, I loved Alias Grace until the ending.

I think Cat's Eye is my favourite.

I must be missing something...what was the twist at the end of Alias Grace? PM me if you don't want to give it away on here, but I don't remember a twist at all.

Trust me, Remus, Stranger In A Strange Land had nothing but a bit of free sex. Some of his later books are totally obsessed.

Time Enough For Love, I already mentioned.

I Will Fear No Evil was pretty out there, too. Iirc, it was about an old man who dies of old age but is somehow put into the body of a young attractive woman (details are a bit hazy) who then starts shagging everyone, starting with her (his?) driver and bodyguards. It has some worrying content like this man-in-a-woman's body chimera curling into various men's laps and saying she deserves a spanking before more sex, some of it with multiple partners.