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In reply to the discussion: So, I binge watched the 1st 2 seasons of The Handmaids Tale [View all]Generic Other
(28,979 posts)Atwood wrote it in 1985. I have always called it a feminist horror story although it is so much more. I love that it was published the year after 1984. Seem like wonderful irony, no? Like the morning after pill in dystopian form. This novel has always been on my list of 10 greatest of the 20th century.
Notice how she got it right that a 9/11 type event could trigger bizarro responses by the government to re-establish order?
As for your question, what about this scenario: the religious right are opportunists. They fill vacuums of reason with fear and superstition. The book you recommend sounds intriguing, but I tend to mistrust ones where a society filled with women given power are just going to be as dickish as the men they seized control from. We have good men and women and bad. That's more in keeping with Atwood's view. She is quite good at revealing the glimmers of humanity found even within the evil people in her stories.