The Handmaid's Tale author responds to Alberta book ban with satirical short story
This is the second time Margaret Atwood has commented on the proposed book ban in the Canadian province.
Two-time Booker Prize winning author Margaret Atwood has written a new satirical short story after her most famous work, The Handmaid's Tale, seemed set to be pulled from some schools in a Canadian province which issued new rules against sexually explicit books.
In a social media post, Atwood said she had written a short story for 17-year-olds about two "very, very good children" named John and Mary, since her literary classic was no longer available.
"They never picked their noses or had bowel movements or zits," she said.
An unburnable edition of The Handmaid's Tale was auctioned off to raise awareness about book censorship in American schools in 2022.
Sotheby's / AFP
"They grew up and married each other, and produced five perfect children without ever having sex."
John and Mary ignored the poor and "forgiving your enemies and such; instead, they practised selfish rapacious capitalism".
While the pair were living happily ever after, "The Handmaid's Tale came true and [Premier] Danielle Smith found herself with a nice new blue dress but no job".
The blue dress appears to be a reference to the garb in The Handmaid's Tale where the wives of high-ranking commanders wear blue but the "handmaids", whose role is to reproduce, must wear red.
This is the second time Atwood has commented on the proposed book ban in the province of Alberta.
Last week, she encouraged people to get copies of The Handmaid's Tale before "they have public book burnings of it".
But she added, "don't read it, your hair will catch on fire!".
Atwood has put a focus on the ban which the Premier of Alberta has called a misunderstanding.
The Edmonton Public School Board was revealed as intending to pull books from library shelves after a new directive from the provincial government.
A document was obtained by the Canadian public broadcaster, CBC, which listed The Handmaid's Tale and other books including The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the directive was to keep out sexually explicit content and is due to be enforced by 1 October.
But she said the school board was practising a form of "vicious compliance" and had gone over the top in following the directive.
She told reporters that the province was happy to reissue its directive to those school boards which misunderstood it.
In a statement, school board chairperson Julie Kusiek said the list met the criteria set out by the government and anyone unhappy with it should contact Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides.
Other school divisions were working on their lists.
