It was impressive when the adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale won a bunch of Emmys at the television awards ceremony last weekend. And there was the Grande Dame of Canadian fiction, in the flesh, receiving a Standing O, no less. The world loved that she hauled her purse on stage to receive the award. She may be a rock star in the world of literature and television, but she is also a sensible Canadian senior!
You might think that Ms Atwood doesn't have much use for 'ligion, given the dystopian nature of The Handmaid's Tale. Actually, she has taken part in forums where she acknowledges the value of religion for positive change in the world, including on the environmental/Creation care front. In a United Church Observer piece a few years ago she describes, humorously, her insistence on going to a United Church Sunday School as a kid, and how she won an essay contest on temperance as a nine-year-old. We may have helped to nurture her literary greatness. In the article she ponders:
In fact, when one looks back in time, one realizes it is only very recently that religion — specifically the Christian religion — came unglued from nature and turned away from it. Many other religions never broke that bond. In the Qur’an, animals are to be respected and are credited with having societies equal to ours. Buddhists and Hindus, the Shinto of Japan and the Parsis of India all maintain quite strong links to the old ties. What happened in the West?
http://www.ucobserver.org/features/2012/01/back_to_garden/
She does have what has been described in The New Yorker as an "oracular sheen" regarding the perils of fundamentalist religion, of any stripe.
I'm retired now, so I've lost the opportunity to do a book study that could have included The Handmaid's Tale and After the Flood. Ah well. I do have more time for personal reading these days.
Here are a couple more worthwhile interviews, including one with Atwood singing a hymn she wrote for one of her novels.
https://sojo.net/articles/margaret-atwood-christianity-handmaid-s-tale-and-what-faithful-activism-looks-today
https://arocha.ca/margaret-atwood-sings/
What are your observations on Dame Maggie of TO? Have you read or watched THT? Were you aware of her UCC roots?
I was not aware of the UCC roots of Margaret Atwood - I saw the Handmaid's Tale series on TV (did not read the book) . It is a dark story, for sure . Depicts some of the worst things that can happen in a religiously controlled society.
ReplyDeleteYou could still offer a book study, David. The Year of the Flood might be a good one to look at in a group.