美国国家公共电台 NPR Why Margaret Atwood Said 'No' To A 'Handmaid's Tale' Sequel — Until Now

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Margaret Atwood has written a sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale." Now, that sentence alone will move millions of readers to buy the book ASAP. The final act of that book, published in 1985, saw its unnamed heroine Offred step off the pages and into the unknown. Margaret Atwood's new novel is "The Testaments¹," and it returns us, 15 years later, to the fictional² totalitarian theonomy of Gilead - with its handmaids, Marthas, wives, commanders and aunts.

The publishing event of the fall, of the year, of many years, begins next week. Margaret Atwood joins us now from Toronto. Thanks so much for being with us.

MARGARET ATWOOD: My pleasure.

SIMON: And what moved you to write a sequel 34 years after the original?

ATWOOD: Well, it seemed like time. People had been asking me to write a sequel for a long time, and I'd always said no because I thought they meant the continuation of the story of Offred, which I couldn't do. But then I thought, what if somebody else were telling the story? And what if it were, oh, 15 or 16 years later?

And it was also time because for a while, we thought we were moving away from "The Handmaid's Tale." And then we turned around and started going back towards it, ominously³ close in many parts of the world. And I felt it was possibly time to revisit the question of how do regimes like Gilead end because we know from "The Handmaid's Tale" that it did end.

SIMON: Tell us about these new narrators that pick up the action 15 years later.

ATWOOD: Oh, so there are three narrators. Two of them are young and not unrelated to Offred. And one of them has grown up inside Gilead, and the other one has grown up outside Gilead. And the third one is someone that we have already seen, but we have only seen her in "The Handmaid's Tale" from outside - that is, through the eyes of Offred herself. And that would be Aunt Lydia, the head of the aunts contingent⁴ in Gilead.

The other question that interested me reading back through the history of totalitarian regimes was how do the people who get into the higher positions in such regimes, how did they get there? Like, what has motivated them? Are they true believers in whatever the totalitarianism is flogging? Are they opportunists who hope to profit by it? Or are they there out of fear, as people were a lot in - under Stalin - if I don't rise in the organization and annihilate⁵ my rivals, they will annihilate me. So what are the motivations of such people?

SIMON: Thematically, a lot of this book has to do with the bond between parents and children, even when it's broken, even when it's strained.

ATWOOD: Yes, that's very true. And as you know, I put nothing into the first book for which there was not a precedent⁶ in real life, and the same has been true of the second.

And when you go back through periods of war, disruption, totalitarian regimes, there has been a lot of baby stealing over the years. Argentinean generals, during their reign⁷, would - if they had some prisoners who were female and pregnant, they would wait until the woman gave birth, and then they would drop her out of a plane and give the baby to - guess what? - some Argentinean generals. And those children are now discovering their antecedents - in a few words, hey, my parents killed my parents.

SIMON: I think - is this why you've referred to these books, not as science fiction, but speculative⁸ fiction?

ATWOOD: Yes. There are two strands¹⁰ of this kind of future story, and one is descended¹¹ from Jules Verne, who wrote about things that he thought were really going to happen, such as submarines. And the other was H.G. Wells, who wrote about Martians invading the earth in a very large canister. And when Jules Verne read that, he said (speaking French) - but he made things up (laughter). So he felt he was writing about a future that could really happen, like, pretty soon. And he felt H.G. Wells was writing about something quite fantastical.

But it was H.G. Wells who gave rise to interplanetary travel, spaceships, Martians, that whole group of characters with which we became quite familiar through B-movies of the '50s, at least I did. And then the other strand⁹ that led to "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Brave New World" and "Fahrenheit¹² 451" - so nothing in those books that we didn't have the technology for or couldn't actually do, and so it is with "The Handmaid's Tale."

SIMON: Is there a tension in Gilead between those who want to redeem¹³ a society that they think has gone off the rails and those who want it torn down because it, by definition, has been corrupt¹⁴ and oppressive?

ATWOOD: OK, so how do these regimes fall apart? So let us suppose there's a founder¹⁵ generation. And then other people get born, and they grow up within the regime. And let us suppose, also, that those who have won their violent regime change are now in charge of things, and they have power. And you know what they say about power. So of course, they're going to create exceptions for themselves, which they already have done in "The Handmaid's Tale." Rules are for other people.

And then things start getting more and more corruptibly pear-shaped. It is the ameliorist versus¹⁶ the Trotskyites, let's put it that way. It's the Mensheviks versus the Bolsheviks. It's the reform the church from the inside versus the split off from it and form a different sect¹⁷. So time and again, we've seen these patterns happening. And why would they not happen in Gilead?

SIMON: Am I wrong to finish this book "The Testaments" and have a sense of hope?

ATWOOD: I don't think you're wrong at all because after all, as we knew from book one, Gilead does end. And one of my models for that was "Nineteen Eighty-Four" itself, which does not end with Winston Smith about to be shot in the back of the head, but it ends with an essay on Newspeak written in the past tense in standard English, which means that the world of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" ended.

SIMON: Oh, my gosh. I mean, you're right, of course, but that reading of it had never occurred to me until now.

ATWOOD: Well, he did that very deliberately¹⁸. He doesn't tell us how it ends, but he gives us the signal that it has ended.

SIMON: Yeah. My feeling of hope is not just that Gilead was ending but that...

ATWOOD: That people aren't total rats...

SIMON: Yeah.

ATWOOD: ...Universally.

SIMON: Exactly.

ATWOOD: They're not universally total rats.

SIMON: Yes, exactly.

ATWOOD: So it may not surprise you to know that I was pretty interested in double agents and people working from inside totalitarian regimes against those regimes while I was writing this book. And there's lots of instances of that.

SIMON: You know, as I don't have to tell you, Ms. Atwood, we Americans have a hard time thinking that our - the society we know - we know it'll change and grow, but we have a hard time thinking of a world without the United States.

ATWOOD: And so do we all have a hard time thinking of a world without the United States. When are you going to put it back?

SIMON: Margaret Atwood. The sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale" is called "The Testaments." Thank you so much for being with us.

ATWOOD: And thank you.

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1 testaments   

n.遗嘱( testament的名词复数 )；实际的证明

参考例句：

• The coastline is littered with testaments to the savageness of the waters. 海岸线上充满了海水肆虐过后的杂乱东西。 来自互联网
• A personification of wickedness and ungodliness alluded to in the Old and New Testaments. 彼勒《旧约》和《新约》中邪恶和罪孽的化身。 来自互联网

2 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

3 ominously   

adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地

参考例句：

• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mammy shook her head ominously. 嬷嬷不祥地摇着头。 来自飘（部分）

4 contingent   

adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队

参考例句：

• The contingent marched in the direction of the Western Hills.队伍朝西山的方向前进。
• Whether or not we arrive on time is contingent on the weather.我们是否按时到达要视天气情况而定。

5 annihilate   

v.使无效；毁灭；取消

参考例句：

• Archer crumpled up the yellow sheet as if the gesture could annihilate the news it contained.阿切尔把这张黄纸揉皱，好象用这个动作就会抹掉里面的消息似的。
• We should bear in mind that we have to annihilate the enemy.我们要把歼敌的重任时刻记在心上。

6 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

7 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。

8 speculative   

adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的

参考例句：

• Much of our information is speculative.我们的许多信息是带推测性的。
• The report is highly speculative and should be ignored.那个报道推测的成分很大，不应理会。

9 strand   

vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地）

参考例句：

• She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears.她把一缕散发夹到了耳后。
• The climbers had been stranded by a storm.登山者被暴风雨困住了。

10 strands   

n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Twist a length of rope from strands of hemp. 用几股麻搓成了一段绳子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She laced strands into a braid. 她把几股线编织成一根穗带。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

12 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

13 redeem   

v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等）

参考例句：

• He had no way to redeem his furniture out of pawn.他无法赎回典当的家具。
• The eyes redeem the face from ugliness.这双眼睛弥补了他其貌不扬之缺陷。

14 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

15 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

16 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

17 sect   

n.派别，宗教，学派，派系

参考例句：

• When he was sixteen he joined a religious sect.他16岁的时候加入了一个宗教教派。
• Each religious sect in the town had its own church.该城每一个宗教教派都有自己的教堂。

18 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。