"Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Atwood said she believed the plot was bonkers when she first had the concept for the novel as the US was the democratic ideal at the time. It was the land of freedom and people in Europe just didn't believe that it could ever go like that, she said. Despite this, Atwood added: I've always been somebody who has never believed it can't happen here. It can happen anywhere, given the circumstances."
"Well it's a perennial possibility, right? Then in 2016 everything changed again, and we are now in that period where The Handmaid's Tale has become much closer. Not the outfits. I don't think we're going to get the outfits, but the rest of it seems more and more plausible. The red cloaks worn by the handmaids have become a symbol of US protest against Donald Trump and the decision to overturn the Roe v Wade ruling on abortion."
The Handmaid's Tale depicts a totalitarian, religiously fundamentalist regime called the Republic of Gilead that seizes power in the US and subjugates women, forcing them into slavery and compelled childbearing. The plot was initially seen as implausible when the US was regarded as the democratic ideal, but perceptions shifted and 2016 marked a turning point that made the scenario feel closer. The narrative remains a perennial possibility under certain circumstances, with many elements increasingly plausible even if the iconic red handmaid cloaks are unlikely to appear. A 2017 television adaptation starred Elisabeth Moss, and the red cloaks have become a US protest symbol.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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