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The Immediate & Most Possible Dystopia: The Farming of Women"

danika_bookwormdanika_bookworm Posts: 162
edited October 2006 in A Moving Train
I've recently finished a book called "The HAndmaid's TAle". This book was the reason why I was absent from the forum for 2 days. i just devoured the book, because, try as i wish it wouldn't happen, the story could happen. Imagine how a society where a woman's ONLY function is to give birth (she's not even allowed to take care of her child) and to have sex without kissing or touching. here's the summary from the back cover:

"Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States of America. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets, where pictures have replaced words because women are forbidden to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray pray that the Commander get her pregnant, for Offred and other HAndmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable."

By the way, the story is futuristic and not historical fiction. It's narrated in the voice of Offred, and it's really a nightmare because SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING! All she know is that she has to get pregnant by the Commander, and that she and other handmaids are not allowed to read and even have relations with ANYONE. She tells it her limited view that her starched veil could give. According to the author, Margaret Atwood: "This is a book about what happens when certain casually held attitudes about women are taken to their logical conclusions. For example... a woman's place is in the home. And also certain feminist pronouncements-- women prefer the company of other women, for example. Take these beliefs to their logical ends and see what happens."
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Comments

  • warehousewarehouse Posts: 124
    You actually believe this could happen????? WTF??
    Lying sideways atop crumpled sheets and no covers he decides to dream. Dream up a new self. For himself.

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  • VictoryGinVictoryGin Posts: 1,207
    How could women preferring the company of women bring forth a dystopian society in which women don't have any rights and are just there for procreation? Is it just that men would be pissed off and retaliate?
    if you wanna be a friend of mine
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  • polarispolaris Posts: 3,527
    read oryx and crake by same author ... everything is set in the future but the subtext is very contemporary ...
  • VictoryGinVictoryGin Posts: 1,207
    polaris wrote:
    read oryx and crake by same author ... everything is set in the future but the subtext is very contemporary ...

    hi :)

    did you read this one, and if you did, what did you think?
    if you wanna be a friend of mine
    cross the river to the eastside
  • danika_bookwormdanika_bookworm Posts: 162
    VictoryGin wrote:
    How could women preferring the company of women bring forth a dystopian society in which women don't have any rights and are just there for procreation? Is it just that men would be pissed off and retaliate?
    by empowering only a few members of these women. in the books case, the women who are trained to "walking wombs" are trained by older women.
  • danika_bookwormdanika_bookworm Posts: 162
    warehouse wrote:
    You actually believe this could happen????? WTF??
    if today were 1984, it could be possible
  • OutOfBreathOutOfBreath Posts: 1,804
    A highly unlikely scenario to say the least. But the point of such fiction is exagerrating to the max a point that's valid enough in itself. women being objectivized and oppressed. Ok, we see that to some degree in many corners of the world. But I really see no indication towards a "walking ovary" society at all. But I guess it matters when the book was written. It may have had a lot more potency a few decades ago than today.

    Peace
    Dan
    "YOU [humans] NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death

    "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
  • Vedderlution_BabyVedderlution_Baby Posts: 2,535
    As long as there are people like me, that shit won't happen.
  • polarispolaris Posts: 3,527
    VictoryGin wrote:
    hi :)

    did you read this one, and if you did, what did you think?

    hey there! ... :)

    how's life?

    are you referring to the handsmaid tale or oryx and crake? ... i only saw the movie version of the handsmaid tale ... :p

    as like oryx and crake - one wouldn't foresee the world she writes however, i think the symbolism exists today ... i think different societies have pre-defined roles for both men and women ... i tend to think that those roles are more restrictive to women overall and the notion of a dystopian society can easily be seen today ... our freedoms are slowly being eroded and controlled whether its thru laws or thru mass media ...
  • danika_bookwormdanika_bookworm Posts: 162
    i just couldn't stop talking about the book to a friend... that's why i was away from this thread for days. anyway, i've stopped thinking the book could be possible at this present time
  • decides2dreamdecides2dream Posts: 14,977
    danika_bookworm wrote:
    i just couldn't stop talking about the book to a friend... that's why i was away from this thread for days. anyway, i've stopped thinking the book could be possible at this present time

    i've not read this book, but i have heard much about it. it does sound interesting...but i post b/c this just reminded me of some movie soon to open, about a future time when women CAN'T get pregnant, and what ensues..what society devolves into, the soon extinction of humans, etc...but then, somehow...there IS one pregnant female.

    not to totally change the subject, but does anyone know what fmovie i am talking about? i can't even remember who stars, i think clive owen...which gives it a bit higher level of legitamacy for me, excellent actor...so yea...just curious.

    either way, related sort of ideas i think...and both very interesting premises.
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  • kenny olavkenny olav Posts: 3,319
    i tend to think margaret atwood, writing in the Reagan 80s, was critiquing the present thinking in an effort to say "this is the logical result" of the prevailing philosophy towards women, not so much to say that it would definately happen that way. exaggerating to make a point, like Dan said.

    presently, i think we are in a different kind of dystopian era, where women are treated as sex objects, and once they have a kid, they are very much devalued unless they can continue making being sexy their #1 priority. i don't think there's nearly enough respect for women whether they are careerists or mothers or both.
  • surferdudesurferdude Posts: 2,057
    Kenny Olav wrote:
    presently, i think we are in a different kind of dystopian era, where women are treated as sex objects, and once they have a kid, they are very much devalued unless they can continue making being sexy their #1 priority. i don't think there's nearly enough respect for women whether they are careerists or mothers or both.
    I agree somewhat. But I do think the biggest devalueing of women is done by women, and came about in the feminist movement. That is the devalueing of the stay at home mom.
    “One good thing about music,
    when it hits you, you feel to pain.
    So brutalize me with music.”
    ~ Bob Marley
  • polarispolaris Posts: 3,527
    decides2dream wrote:
    i've not read this book, but i have heard much about it. it does sound interesting...but i post b/c this just reminded me of some movie soon to open, about a future time when women CAN'T get pregnant, and what ensues..what society devolves into, the soon extinction of humans, etc...but then, somehow...there IS one pregnant female.

    not to totally change the subject, but does anyone know what fmovie i am talking about? i can't even remember who stars, i think clive owen...which gives it a bit higher level of legitamacy for me, excellent actor...so yea...just curious.

    either way, related sort of ideas i think...and both very interesting premises.

    the movie is called "Children of Men" I believe ...
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