"The extremely brief story traces the lives of John and Mary, two very, very good children. They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits, she wrote in the opening lines, adding they were ardent Christians who paid no attention to what Jesus actually said about the poor and instead practised selfish rapacious capitalism in the vein of the conservative literary hero Ayn Rand."
"Atwood writes that while the pair lived happily ever, the ominous warnings in her 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale which describes a totalitarian fundamentalist regime in which enslaved women are forced to bear children came true came true and [Alberta premier] Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job a reference to the novel's elite wives who have power but are not permitted to work. The end."
"The Alberta ban emerged as a product of intense lobbying by socially conservative parents' rights groups in the province and mirrors a trend in the United States. Action4Canada and Parents for Choice in Education (PCE), have taken credit for the book ban and the latter sent an email to supporters after the ban was announced thanking them for their efforts in contacting government officials about graphic books."
A new short story satirizes elected officials for a wide-ranging book ban in Alberta that removed books cited for explicit sexual content, sweeping in numerous literary works including The Handmaid's Tale. The brief piece follows John and Mary, two impossibly perfect children who never had bodily functions, embraced ardent Christianity while ignoring teachings about the poor, and practiced rapacious capitalism. The narrative suggests dystopian warnings came true and imagines the premier with a dress but no job. The ban followed intense lobbying by socially conservative parents' rights groups such as Action4Canada and Parents for Choice in Education, which thanked supporters for contacting officials about graphic books.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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