The Handmaid’s Tale 2017
This 1985 Atwood has never shifted from my top ten, and, like 1984, it works because there’s nothing in it that isn’t happening right now, to someone, somewhere. While Orwell’s future is made richer with language (it includes a glossary), Atwood’s uses small, creeping increments of privation in the hope our ears prick up a la Niemöller’s First They Came. Want to step back 100 years? Just switch off all access to bank accounts marked with an F. Argggghhhhh…
The 1990 film of The Handmaid’s Tale feels like a made for TV erotic thriller, but Bruce Miller’s 2017 TV version is great. And it’s sprouting into meatspace, in good ways…
