Margaret Atwood, author of the dystopian novel A Handmaid’s Tale, travels to a book fair in Cuba where everything is censored by the totalitarian Castro dictatorship and berates the Trump White House for having what she deems to be totalitarian tendencies. But the irony doesn’t stop there.
As a VIP guest of Cuba’s Castro dictatorship, which has murdered dissident women and on a weekly basis beats, sexually assaults, and imprisons members of Cuba’s Ladies in White, Atwood decried what she believes to be President Trump’s lack of support for women’s rights.
The irony here is so rich…
Author of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: It was ‘farfetched’ when I wrote it — but Trump is making it real
Margaret Atwood, whose dystopian 1985 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” describes a a totalitarian theocracy that has taken over the U.S. and subjugated women for the ruling class, claims the election of Donald Trump is making her book all too real now.
In an interview at Cuba’s international book fair, the Canadian-born Atwood said sales of “The Handmaid’s Tale” have jumped with the election of Trump, while admitting interest has also grown due to a remake of the 1990 film as a miniseries to be shown on Hulu.
According to Reuters, Atwood told the audience the idea behind the book seemed “far-fetched” when she wrote it.
“When it first came out it was viewed as being farfetched,” Atwood explained. “However when I wrote it I was making sure I wasn’t putting anything into it that human beings had not already done somewhere at sometime.”
According to Atwood, the rise of Trump with his boasting of sexually assaulting women on whim — as well as once saying women should face punishment if they get an abortion — is making her book more relevant now than ever with the book once again becoming a best seller.
“You are seeing a bubbling up of it now,” Atwood said, referencing Trump. “It’s back to 17th century puritan values of new England at that time in which women were pretty low on the hierarchy”.
You can read the rest of the irony HERE.
But she’s so very with it, you see, so totally au courant. It’s utterly delicious. This is even better than Meryl Streep, who’s just some actress who memorizes other people’s lines. This woman has written a book, and she’s, you know, an intellectual. Why, she’s a visionary, even. You think she’s gonna pass up such a prime opportunity to get on the PC bandwagon, get media attention and promote her books? Please. Besides, if a Brit can’t be a twit, what is this world coming to? As for doing it in Cuba, pretty much everybody does it in Cuba, one way or another, including the titular Vicar of Christ, so let’s not embarrass ourselves by being even slightly surprised, though we can certainly be disgusted.
Still, one should give credit where credit is due. That scarf is just to die for. I expect it cost more than the annual salary of an average Cuban, but obviously little tropical island savages don’t need scarves.