The Handmaid's Tale

Today I finished reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and I was really happy with it. I love the dystopian genre and how you can do just about anything with it these days, and this book is deffinately up in my top five or so. Before I offer my own personal thoughts, I'd like to thank some certain individuals for bringing my attention to this work of speculative fiction.

My good brother Babette who gave me my copy for Christmas, I pestured you sufficietly and it paid off. To my old literature teacher whom I've been calling Grace, thanks for bringing it up in class. Sadly I didn't read it at the time (all the books were optional) but if I had I would've brought so much to the class discussion. And finally to my good friend Yushka whom is a huge Atwood fan, thanks for making me aware of this genius of a woman! You've all been great.

Now, what I enjoyed most about this book was how it displayed the perspective of a female narrator and how women percieved the dystopic environment. Offred (whom is also June and Kate in the film) was just honest, fierce and tough through-out the whole 300 odd pages. I really felt her feelings when the Aunts (crusty old bitches who should die) were "reprograming" her and how she reacted to losing her husband Luke and her daughter. So much honesty, but I wanted to see more in her relationship to Nick, the underground man who saved her.

Other parts I enjoyed, but the one I loved the most was when Offred's friend Moira escaped the cruelty of the Aunts. I thought it was one of the strongest elements of the story, how she escaped and stuck it to oppression. I was a little bummed when she wound up in the brothel Jezebel's, but she seemed happy so I'm happy. The book was brilliant and I liked the final chapter where future academics are studying The Handmaid's Tale in the year 2195.

As much as it was nice learning that the oppression of the Republic of Gilead (the world America became in the book) came to an end and Offred finally got out to England, I just enjoyed the names of the professors. Atwood has a nack for creating interesting and likeable names from the smallest words in the English language, so I loved hearing about Maryanna Crescent Moon and James Darcy Pieixoto. It added a great touch to the ending.

I'm deffinately an Atwood nut, much like my good Yushka. She's got some other dystopian books out, including Oryx and Crake, and I'm gonna get a copy as soon as I can. I think I displays the male view of the future mixed with genetic engineering with animal and human DNA.

Looking forward to it!

What Avatar Did For Me

Happy Boxing Day to all, hope you've all been well. Been a while since my last post, bout a month maybe, but I've got something good to talk about. Eh, you wanna hear. Actually I've got a few things to bring up, like how Little Miss Shifty and Little Miss Honeybear ran up to me willingly yesterday, which was Christmas Day. However, I knida think they made the mad dash because I was carrying the bag with the presents in it.

What else is there, I'm finally reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, which I'm enjoying a lot. Thank you Babette, my good brother, and I read Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris, which is the book that inspired the series True Blood (Sookie Stackhouse kicks Bella Swans arse any day of the week). Also, like the rest of the movie loving world, I saw Avatar last Tuesday and IT WAS INCREDIBLE.

I've been wanting to see it since I saw the trailers on YouTube, and it was brilliant. At first I thought it was all going to be special effects and little story, but I was relieved when it got all intriguing. I enjoyed the actors too, like Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez (she makes anything work) and Sigourney Weaver. The imagery was spot on and the alien wildlife was interesting and something to look at, no questions asked. To me, the movie was ALIVE!

Now, the one special thing I wanted to bring up in this posting was how the search for the movie helped me out heaps! I get a lot of my info off the Wikipedia, so I looked up the movie on said abomination and I came across the Avatars of Hinduism (in India lesser thinkers) and I came across this religious quote.

Whenever righteousness wanes and unrighteousness increases I send myself forth.
In order to protect the good and punish the wicked,
In order to make a firm foundation for righteousness,
I come into being age after age. (4. 7-8)

Bhagavad Gita (c. 3138 BC)

I'm not a religious person (however I'm willing to accept some things) but I am all about this quote now. If you haven't heard, I am writing a dystopian fantasy series and I want it to be so big that it's quote worthy, like Philip Pullman's His Dark Material series. I've been looking everywhere for the right quote (which I want in the final book) and I nearly decided to use song lyrics by Pat Bennitar (think that's how you spell her name). Anyway, I found this one and I shouted hooray!

That's it for now, and I'm going to post something about THT by Atwood. Cheers for now, and have a good new year.