"Every burned book enlightens the world" Ralph Waldo Emerson

Banned Books Week is probably the best thing that has happened to me blogging motivation! Although I have no idea whether anyone is actually reading this, it makes me feel like I HAVE to write or I will let someone down. Myself, perhaps?

Today is another day of personal statement writing (boo). But it should be easier because it is just revising the one I wrote yesterday for two other programs. Hopefully I won't feel the need to procrastinate as much as I always do. Heading to UM tomorrow (was supposed to go today but I'm still feel kind of sick) to pick up the recs and not spend too much money on my sister's birthday gift. It is quite bizarre to me that in less than 2 weeks she will be 17. Granted, I am 23 and I do not feel that in the slightest, but I guess that's life eh?

``Of course I procrastinated again. I need some sort of award for that. But, the way I see it, once I finally DID start writing yesterday, I hit a stride and wrote for nearly 2 hours, so here's hoping for the same today!


The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is amazing, first off. But this book is chilling. As fiction it is intense, but when you realize that this is going on all over the world- to the polygamist sect that was raided in Texas not too long ago, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, parts of India, and so, so many other places, this book becomes especially relevant. The Handmaid's Tale even starts with on an epic note, with a terrorist attack (blamed on Muslim terrorists...oh hey, did I mention this book was published in 1985??), a crazy sect of male chauvinist nutjobs called the Sons of Jacob overthrow Congress, suspend the freakin Constitution, take over banking accounts, and promptly freeze all accounts owned by women. The new Republic of Gilead moves to enforce a compulsorily-Christian regime of Old Testament-inspired social and religious orthodoxy.

The story is narrated by Offred...which isn't even her real name. We never find out her real name. Because in Gilead, women are only important in so much as the serve men (hence, her name "Of Fred" the man she works for). She was a concubine, kept around for reproductive purposes (hence, the "handmaid" in the title). Her story is actually told after the fact, through cassette tapes she left of her life. They are put together in a disjointed, out-of-order manner by professors after the "Gilead period", and in the end, we don't know what happens to Offred. We don't even know what she looks like until about halfway through the novel, when she very succinctly describes her appearance.

Atwood is not afraid to attack virtually every extremist sect in this novel. The revolutionary right, totalitarian regimes, traditional values proponents ("Barefoot and pregnant"), contemporary feminism, and those in favor of utopian communities. The most interesting (and probably relevant, for this week at least) was her attack on the contemporary feminists of her day that were anti-pornography. Not because of the content itself, but because many of them aligned themselves with the religious right and were in favor of pretty extreme censorship. It became so rigid it was basically another form of revivalism. And while Atwood manages to critique all of these movements, she does so in a way that doesn't paint her as either revolutionary OR counter-revolutionary. And most interesting, while the book is #37 on the ALA's list of frequently challenged or banned books, it has never been challenged in Canada...

Tomorrow's book is Ordinary People