I just realized that I never posted about finishing James Joyce’s Dubliners. I can’t remember when I even finished it, but I very much enjoyed it. Something about the way Joyce writes, he captures a mood, and makes the characters seem so real, even though these are short stories, so there’s less time for character development. I highly recommend it. Maybe I’ll try Ulysses or Finnegans Wake soon. Or uh, maybe not.
Anyways, I was up late finishing The Handmaid’s Tale last night. It was quite a page turner, and I found it frighteningly interesting. Seeing how easily the balance of power could shift – between men and women is a bit scary, and entirely possible, when you look at the type of religious fanaticism that’s out there these days. There’s one passage where Offred discusses the point in time when she first loses her job and all of her rights to make any choices about her life (due to the take-over of the government by these hardliner religious fanatics) simply because she’s a woman, and how that affects her relationship with her husband:
He doesn’t mind this, I thought. He doesn’t mind it at all. Maybe he even likes it. We are not each other’s, anymore. Instead, I am his.
Unworthy, unjust, untrue. But that is what happened.
So Luke: what I want to ask you now, what I need to know is. Was I right? Because we never talked about it. By the time I could have done that, I was afraid to. I couldn’t afford to lose you.
Good stuff. I need to read me some more Margaret Atwood.
