Attempt to ban The Handmaid’s Story and face the literary scorn of Margaret Atwood, as Alberta’s authorities realized from its now paused censorship measure.
In a brief story printed on-line this previous weekend, Atwood slammed MAGA-ish Premier Danielle Smith, “egocentric rapacious capitalism,” Ayn Rand fanboys, and the hypocrisy of paying “no consideration to what Jesus truly stated concerning the poor and the Good Samaritan and forgiving your enemies.” For former radio host Smith, Atwood saved a particular little bit of Serena Pleasure (for those who’ve seen the Emmy winning Hulu series that ran from 2017 to 2025, you’ll actually get it): “So that they lived fortunately ever after. However whereas they have been doing that The Handmaid’s Story got here true and Danielle Smith discovered herself with a pleasant new blue costume however no job. The top.”
Proving you must by no means doubt the ability of the pen (or on this case, the put up), and {that a} bully can by no means take a punch, Premier Smith’s authorities at present introduced by way of an e-mail to highschool boards the guide banning was being halted “till additional discover.” Training and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said that extra information concerning the ban/not ban would turn out to be clear over the subsequent week or so.
The extensively acclaimed and extra chilling than ever Handmaid’s Story was among the many 200 books slated to be pulled from the varsity cabinets within the oil-rich province due to alleged sexually specific materials.
In July, the Training and Childcare Ministry of Smith’s authorities ordered native college boards to have the coverage (read the original NSFW Ministerial Order here) instituted by October, a month into the varsity 12 months. Below the coverage, ninth Graders and beneath wouldn’t be allowed any entry to such books, whereas these in Grade 10 and up would solely be allowed to learn such materials if it was deemed educationally applicable.
The customarily specific Bible was exempt, however together with Atwood’s 1985 novel on a theocratic takeover of the USA , Aldous Huxley’s basic Courageous New World, and Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Hen Sings have been among the many 200 books the Edmonton Public Faculty board stated final week have been going underneath lock and key due to the brand new provincial coverage.
That simply wasn’t on with Margaret Atwood.
The prolific 85-year-old scribe took to social media on August 31 to supply a “piece of literature by me, appropriate for seventeen-year-olds in Alberta colleges, not like — we’re instructed — The Handmaid’s Story. (Sorry, children; your Minister of Training thinks you might be silly infants.)”
That prologue of kinds may be probably the most blunt, actually and figuratively a part of the 196-word yarn, which was picked up, reposted and preferred all around the globe – as you may learn right here:
Not lengthy after her authorities walked again its guide ban measure, for now, Premier Smith Tuesday stated the revamped aim was :to take books with pornographic photographs out of the libraries and to go away the classics alone.”
On the streaming display on this facet of the border, the classics and shortly to be classics will not be being left alone, in a probably great way.
Handmaid’s Story star and EP Elisabeth Moss will govt produce a sequel based mostly on Atwood’s 2019 guide The Testaments alongside THT collaborators Bruce Miller and Warren Littlefield. Hulu hasn’t given a release date yet for the series, however manufacturing on Season 1 began again in April.
Surprise if a sure Western Canadian politician could also be making an inadvertent cameo?
