Margaret Atwood is not any stranger to guide banning. In accordance with the American Library Affiliation, her 1985 masterpiece “The Handmaid’s Story” was the twenty ninth most banned guide of the 2010s. When the ALA does its evaluation of the 2020s, I count on it to rank even increased since we have by no means been nearer to the patriarchal dystopia Atwood imagined 41 years in the past than we are actually. And the individuals who need “The Handmaid’s Story” to return true management all three branches of the U.S. authorities and have a great deal of birth-rate-obsessed billionaires of their nook. Of their view, ladies must step up their sport and bear genetically pure white infants. And the very last thing they need is for younger readers to be uncovered to Atwood’s related cautionary story.
Atwood is not shy about talking out when her work is faraway from cabinets, both. Final yr, she addressed the PEN Congress in Krakow quickly after “The Handmaid’s Story” was banned by the Edmonton faculty board. Two years prior, within the wake of “The Handmaid’s Story” being banned by Madison County, Virginia faculty board, she wrote an essay for The Atlantic titled “Go Forward and Ban My E book.” In each circumstances, the guide’s elimination was attributable to its express sexual content material. In her Atlantic article, Atwood appropriately noticed, “This episode is perplexing to me, partially as a result of my guide is far much less sexually express than the Bible, and I doubt the varsity board has ordered the expulsion of that.”
Atwood has at all times been fast to remind us that when books are focused for banning, readers, significantly younger ones, need nothing greater than to see what all of the fuss is about. However in her 2025 speech, she was extra involved than she’s ever been attributable to what she views because the doubtless collapse of america.
Margaret Atwood sees darkish instances forward for writers and readers in america
As Margaret Atwood put it in 2025:
“Externally, the U.S. appears to be abdicating its place because the dominant world energy. Internally, it seems to be turning its again on its one-time a lot celebrated standing as an open, liberal democracy — the torch-carrier for freedom, a beacon of sunshine to oppressed Soviet satellites throughout the Chilly Battle — and flirting with the very sort of autocracy that it as soon as stood so firmly in opposition to.”
This collapse is being hastened by the deeply unwell President Donald J. Trump, who caters to rich males determined for extra white infants to stave off the so-called “Nice Substitute.” This bare white supremacy neatly dovetails with reproduction-fixated evangelicals. And that is all dashing ahead whereas america is engaged in a pointless warfare with Iran the place Trump has not less than as soon as threatened to wipe out the Center Jap nation with a nuclear strike.
So, sure, it is totally different this time. Per Atwood, “One of many harbingers of autocratic takeovers is an try to manage writers and artists, both by censoring them and dictating to them what kind of artwork they need to produce.” She then added, “The levers are cash and lawsuits, however these have been fairly efficient. Most individuals with jobs are by nature petrified of difficult authority, or not less than any authority with the facility to fireside them.”
Will it grow to be against the law to possess subversive materials (à la “Fahrenheit 451”)? If that’s the case, studying “The Handmaid’s Story” or Atwood’s equally terrifying novel “MaddAddam” and different controversial books might price you your job or worse. It is a scary second in U.S. historical past, and Atwood is sounding an alarm. Take heed to her. And watch the “Handmaid’s Story” TV collection when you can.
