The Handmaid's Tale, Part 1: Crash Course Literature 403 - YouTube (2)
And that her story survives but aside from that we can only speculate which makes a kind of sense because The Handmaid's Tale is
speculative fiction. In a 2005 interview Atwood defined the genre I'd like to make a distinction between science fiction proper and
speculative fiction
For me the science fiction label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do such as going through a wormhole in
Space to another universe and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand such as DNA
identification and credit cards and that takes place on planet earth as to the point of speculative literature Atwood writes
Literature is an utter or outering of the human imagination it lets the shadowy forms of thought and feeling heaven hell
Monsters angels and all out into the light where we can take a good look at them and perhaps come to a better understanding
Of who we are and what we want and what the limits of those wants may be
Understanding the imagination is no longer a pastime
But a necessity
Because increasingly if we can imagine it we'll be able to do it part of the magic of The Handmaid's Tale
Is that it feels so
real. It belies the old-line that it can't happen here and reminds us it can always happen here. In short The Handmaid's Tale
Is speculative and it is fiction, but that doesn't mean it's untrue. Thanks for watching
I'll see you next time crash course is filmed here in the chad and stacey emigholz studio in indianapolis
And it's made possible by your support at patreon
Patreon is a voluntary subscription service where you can support crafts sports
Directly through a monthly donation to help us keep it free for everyone forever
We make crash course with Adobe Creative Cloud. You can get a free trial at a line to the description
Thanks to everyone who supports us on patreon and to all of you for watching and as we say in my hometown
Don't forget to be awesome
