BOOK
The Handmaid's Tale
THE GIST
The gist
In the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic regime that has overthrown the U.S. government, women have been stripped of their rights, and a woman called Offred tells the story of life as a Handmaid (1985).
ON THE SHOW
On the show.
- Ep 1 — Why Does SciFi Matter? (09:45–11:26): Caitlin explains Atwood's rule that everything in the book has a historical precedent. It looks different enough from our world that readers don't feel attacked, then "you turn around" and see it happening. Rob: sci-fi takes one aspect of the now and asks what happens if it keeps going.
- Ep 3 — Science Fiction isn’t about the future (16:16–17:11): Caitlin returns to Atwood's rule that everything in the book has a historical precedent, calling it an extreme example of writing about the present. Rob: nobody wants it to be real ("zero out of ten"), but knowing these things already happened makes it feel like it could be.
TERMS
Terms it runs on.
- Cognitive Estrangement — Critic Darko Suvin's term for what makes science fiction work: it pulls us out of the familiar world with a new idea, then follows that idea with consistent logic so we can see our own world more clearly.