cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/2164461
I have been keeping an eye on this series over in !BannedBooks@literature.cafe and was intending to link the discussions for SF titles that I saw. The Handmaid’s Tale is definitely an SF title that has seen it’s share of fans and detractors. It has been banned or attempted to be banned in many jurisdictions including Western ones.
What is the communities thoughts on this book, does it unfairly extend Christian philosophy into questionable territory or does it not go far enough? Is it pornography, and if so, why? Let’s hear your thoughts.
Bonus video: Margaret Atwood using a flamethrower on the unburnable edition of the book.
Copied from Wikipedia, it’s censorship information:
The American Library Association lists The Handmaid’s Tale as number 37 on the “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000”.[56] In 2019, The Handmaid’s Tale is still listed as the seventh-most challenged book because of profanity, vulgarity, and sexual overtones.[57] Atwood participated in discussing The Handmaid’s Tale as the subject of an ALA discussion series titled “One Book, One Conference”.[58]
In 2009 a parent in Toronto accused the book of being anti-Christian and anti-Islamic because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed.[59] Rushowy reports that “The Canadian Library Association says there is ‘no known instance of a challenge to this novel in Canada’ but says the book was called anti-Christian and pornographic by parents after being placed on a reading list for secondary students in Texas in the 1990s.”[60]
A 2012 challenge as required reading for a Page High School International Baccalaureate class and as optional reading for Advanced Placement reading courses at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina because the book is “sexually explicit, violently graphic and morally corrupt”. Some parents thought the book is “detrimental to Christian values”.[61]
In November 2012, two parents protested against the inclusion of the book on a required reading list in Guilford County, North Carolina. The parents presented the school board with a petition signed by 2,300 people, prompting a review of the book by the school’s media advisory committee. According to local news reports, one of the parents said “she felt Christian students are bullied in society, in that they’re made to feel uncomfortable about their beliefs by non-believers. She said including books like The Handmaid’s Tale contributes to that discomfort, because of its negative view on religion and its anti-biblical attitudes toward sex.”[62]
In November 2021 in Wichita, Kansas, “The Goddard school district has removed more than two dozen books from circulation in the district’s school libraries, citing national attention and challenges to the books elsewhere.”[63]
In May 2022, Atwood announced that, in a joint project undertaken with Penguin Random House, an “unburnable” copy of the book would be produced and auctioned off, the project intended to “stand as a powerful symbol against censorship”.[64] On 7 June 2022, the unique, “unburnable” copy was sold through Sotheby’s in New York for $130,000.[65]
In 2009 a parent in Toronto accused the book of being anti-Christian and anti-Islamic because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed
I wonder if that parent ever actually found out what the plot of the book is…
Margaret Atwood with a flamethrower is, by far, the best thing I have ever seen.
I never really thought of it as science fiction (see her MaddAdam series for something more SF-y), but I love the book and think it does a great job of extrapolating from various political trends into where parts of the “western world” could end up going.
I’m also not surprised it’s a candidate for being banned, either from people who think it paints religion or conservativsm in a negative light, or people who think it might make anyone under 18 uncomfortable. Is it appropriate for 5 year olds? Probably not. 16 year olds? Seems reasonable to me.
The main problem with this book is in how it is applied by various people to Christianity in general (as opposed to a fringe cult), or used as an analogy of events today. It might apply in some cases, but those are so rare and unusual (back woods polygamist cults and the like), that they really don’t deserve to be discussed in context of current politics.
