A picture is a matter of perspective. If one did not know where one was, one would think that the picture was of mountains in the distance. However, when compared to the Appalachians or the Rockies, what is pictured are mere hills. Hills that will funnel a tornado across the basin that contains Nashville and leave a path of destruction that takes years to erase. Or cause heat and humidity to linger on summer days and nights. Hills that make winter driving treacherous and sometimes hilarious.
Mind doodle–Really bad Latin for the true name of the male hominid–homo lacerta cerebrum–two legged lizard brain. Sapiens which means wise or intelligent is commonly misapplied to so-called modern humans. The actions, thoughts, being of the the hominids currently in control of this Earth, especially the male, in no way reflects any wisdom or intelligence. This two legged male hominid is stuck between toddlerhood and adolescence and created “patriarchy” so that they never have to mature. End mind doodle.
What makes us panic buy at the forecast of a snow storm, tornado, hurricane, etc. In Tennessee, rarely does a storm present as forecasted. The bad storms are the ones that sneak up on us with little or no warning. There was a snow spittle in December, no major bad weather the week after Christmas, so this may be the first major storm of the winter. We shall see.
It snowed and, for most of the day, it has sleeted. Tomorrow, there will be ice that may or may not melt, but it won’t matter as any melt will refreeze overnight. Looks like this arctic front will be around through the first week of February.
I have read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel, The Testaments. I did not like The Handmaid’s Tale. The main character, in The Handmaid, was passive and not very likeable. The story was told through the lens of a character that took no active part in her environment. Things happened but she never did anything to make anything happen. Her best friend and even her mother would have been more sympathetic main characters.
She did nothing that would jeopardize her next meal or a roof over her head. Everything she did was within the constraints of the society in which she existed. Sex with the person who engineered her escape was done only with the permission of the “Wife”. She was lucky that he cared enough to engineer her escape.
At the end of the book, at the time of her escape, she thought she was pregnant. However, in the sequel, it appears that she and the baby were somehow separated and they entered the safe haven of Canada separately. Doesn’t make sense to me because she was in the early stage of pregnancy and she would have been transported to Canada post-haste and the baby born there. Maybe not.
The sequel is much better written and the characters, most still not very likeable, take action, especially Aunt Lydia. In the sequel, I actually wanted to know what happened next.
Both these books are set in Gilead, a Christo-fascist regime located in part of the United States (Northeast mainly? I really didn’t get a sense of the boundaries.) The United States has fractured into separate regions. Gilead is a paternalistic misogynistic regime (does not include Texas, Alaska, California, or the mid-west) where white males rule an illiterate population. Gilead is at war with most of its neighbors and, if one can flee, one does. If one is caught fleeing, death is the consequence unless one is female and of child-bearing age and then one is reeducated to be a whore for the old white males who are the leaders.
The males are murderers, rapists, pedophiles, predators. Females are rationed and the old males get their pick. However, apparently, many males are sterile…something about the mumps and many of the babies are defective and do not live long. And, this is a Caucasian country–no Asians, no Blacks, no Native Americans, no Hispanics. Older white women who cannot be reeducated are used as laborers (slaves).
Gilead-a biblical place of restoration and deliverance. The books show that Gilead as led by the white males was neither. It was a place where the Dionysian practice of frenzied women tearing males to pieces was practiced (their revenge/emotional compensation for being ritually raped), where females were forced to be child brides, where the entire population, except for the white male leaders and the white women who were complicit, were illiterate, where hanging and executions by firing squad were common, where fear was used to control the population, and betrayal by family, friends, neighbors, strangers was normalized. As described by Atwood, Gilead was a “hell” on Earth, except for the ruling class.
Background info on Dionysus Wikipedia–Dionysus came to his birthplace, Thebes, where neither Pentheus, his cousin who was now king, nor Pentheus’ mother Agave, Dionysus’ aunt (Semele’s sister) acknowledged his divinity. Dionysus punished Agave by driving her insane, and in that condition, she killed her son and tore him to pieces. From Thebes, Dionysus went to Argos where all the women except the daughters of King Proetus joined in his worship. Dionysus punished them by driving them mad, and they killed the infants who were nursing at their breasts. He did the same to the daughters of Minyas, King of Orchomenos in Boetia, and then turned them into bats.
I would not read either book again. The Handmaid’s Tale was boring and The Testaments, while more enjoyable, didn’t have the depth or complexity that would merit a re-reading. An aside: there is a hint…I do believe in the sequel…that the Native Americans have reclaimed their land from the thieves.
I do take issue with how Gilead was brought to its knees. Seems like the public airing of the criminal enterprises and the amoral character of its leaders was enough to wake the people up. In real life, the leaders in this country are rapists, murderers, grifters, grafters, amoral, child molesters or worse, liars, thieves…and most of the citizens are quiescent.
Both Octavia Butler and Margaret Atwood have described in their books aspects of the world we live in today. In fiction, authors have answers/solutions to their fictional realities. In reality, there are no simple answers, there is no one answer, there is no one person. In every revolution, there are the un-named who bear the brunt of the change that might be a benefit, if not for themselves, for their progeny. Those un-named are the true agents of change. Where are they today?
There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves. People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?) but they love the idea of being superior. James Baldwin
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