[Newsbot]

Title: The Handmaid's Tale and its alarming relevance in the Trump era
Category: Showbiz
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2017-04-26 07:27:10
Canadian

[DrCaleb]

Wait . . what? Banned in some parts of the US? Why is that?

[DrCaleb]

To answer my own question -

$1:

It’s been banned. Of course it’s been banned, appearing on the American Library Association’s list of the top 100 banned books of the decade, for both the 1990s and 2000s. People said it was anti-Christian. (It’s not, just anti-crazy fundamentalist — or had too much disturbing sex.) Astute readers might point out that anyone who singled out the sex as the disturbing element wasn’t paying enough attention. The true terror of the book isn’t the acts people commit, but the mind-set — the brainwashed masses lulled into accepting the unthinkable as the ordinary — that allows people to commit them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... story.html

Hit too close to home for some, I guess.

[BartSimpson]

$1:

The Handmaid's Tale and its alarming relevance in the Trump era

Dr. Caleb, the marketing department and the advertisers behind this dreck deeply appreciate your susceptibility to being manipulated into promoting their product for them.

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

$1:

The Handmaid's Tale and its alarming relevance in the Trump era

Dr. Caleb, the marketing department and the advertisers behind this dreck deeply appreciate your susceptibility to being manipulated into promoting their product for them.

I read the book back in the 80's. That's why the article piqued my interest. It wasn't as racist as many things that had been banned at the time, which is why I wondered.

And if you haven't read it, it's a bout a dystopian future where people in the US see Canada as the last bastion of freedom. I though for a minute that's why it was banned in parts of the US. /s

And the miniseries won't be on CBC or WaPo, so it's not a marketing thing.

[herbie]

The spouse is excited to watch it.
She must be the only woman left in Canada who hasn't read it or seen the 1990 movie version. That version managed to be disturbing even though poorly done.

[BartSimpson]

The movie version with Robert Duvall was poorly written and it maintained the old axiom that you can't make a good movie with a bad script.

The book is an assault on Christianity and in what seems to be a typical line of thinking in Canada these days it makes shit up about Christianity and then its readers outrage themselves at figments of the author's imagination.

And now a story that was released in 1985 is supposed to be about Trump?

[Thanos]

The book is an entirely accurate description about how religious fundamentalist "alpha" males view women and society in general - everything and everyone is to be broken and re-arranged until it matches the god-approved desires of the elite chosen. Totality without end, cruelty without limit, hell on earth for anyone who isn't one of the ones at the top. Never seen a fundamentalist male of any religion yet who isn't so openly desirous of this outcome that they're practically drooling when the fantasize about it.

[N_Fiddledog]

Here's one case of the banning:

$1:

A Judson, Tex., school superintendent banned the novel from an advanced placement English curriculum after a parent complained that it was sexually explicit and offensive to Christians. In doing so, the superintendent overruled the recommendation by a committee of teachers, students, and parents. The committee appealed the decision to the school board, which overruled the superintendent in 2006.

I saw another one where a kid was complaining the book had been banned from his library for a scene of violent sex against a woman and misogyny.

Funny if true, because it would be a case of the side outraged by the banning being responsible for it. You know like if the SJWs were to complain about the time they banned Huckleberry Finn when it was them who banned it. Actually I'm not sure, did they succeed? I know they tried.

But book banning needs to be made public and debated no matter who's doing it. Even when the cases are rare, scattered and just involve things like school libraries.

[N_Fiddledog]

$1:

The Handmaid's Tale envisions a dark future wherein women's rights have been stripped and those who are fertile are forced to bear children for powerful men and their wives. Women's bodies are not their own and they are watched, controlled and harshly reprimanded for disobedience. The story is told from the perspective of Offred, a forced surrogate played by Moss.

I didn't know Trump was doing all that!

Jeez...he must be as bad as the culture barons keep telling us.

I tried to read the book one time. It was boring.

Also I thought projecting a Christian theocracy was kind of gutless. There's no reason today and there was none at the time of the writing of the book to believe that is or was likely. I mean if Maggie really wanted to impress us with some kind real-world based fear of theocracy she should have nutted up and used Islam.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

The book is an entirely accurate description about how religious fundamentalist "alpha" males view women and society in general - everything and everyone is to be broken and re-arranged until it matches the god-approved desires of the elite chosen. Totality without end, cruelty without limit, hell on earth for anyone who isn't one of the ones at the top. Never seen a fundamentalist male of any religion yet who isn't so openly desirous of this outcome that they're practically drooling when the fantasize about it.

Curious, when are you going to start rounding up all of these crazed fundamentalists who are oppressing you and then gas them to death?

[Thanos]

That's more like something they'd do to me for not believing in their fairy tales and people like you would happily do all the dirty work for them.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

That's more like something they'd do to me for not believing in their fairy tales and people like you would happily do all the dirty work for them.

I ask because you're clearly working yourself up to killing someone with all that hate and rage you have on board.

[Thanos]

You've been pretty harsh lately yourself, and you haven't bothered to hide anymore how much you'd really like to bring the hammer down hard on pretty much anyone who you've decided is your enemy. If you don't like that kind of talk being aimed back at you then quit firing off these sorts of shots at other people.

[fifeboy]

Well thanks. I haven't read it or seen the movie. It's now on my read list, perhaps even scooted to the top.