Well, he actually kind of did… there’s a passing reference in Part 3, where O’Brien is torturing/lecturing Smith:
I gather Orwell saw these totalitarian forms as just early versions of what could be. Plus there’s a brief reference in the book about the evolution of the current global political divide:
… but there’s an argument that within the context of the novel, this is a fabrication. In any case, the prevailing political philosophy of the regime is Ingsoc, named for “English Socialism”, rather than anything suggesting a direct American or Soviet influence. I don’t know if Orwell viewed the U.S. as anything more than a plot device when writing 1984.
This reminds me of an amusing C. S. Lewis observation, possibly pertaining to Screwtape. He said he directed his criticisms at Americans because British readers would accept the message better if they could look down their nose at someone else’s behavior rather than their own.
The appeal of The Handmaid’s Tale is that some people simply like to fancy that things are much worse, or will be much worse, nationwide, than they really are. They love imagining how awful something will be. They *like *bad.
It reminds me of right-wingers who claimed Obama was a socialist Muslim who’d take everyone’s guns away. I think at some point they were *disappointed *that Obama didn’t turn out to be anything like that.
Clarification: do you mean that the appeal is primarily to people who love imaging how awful something will be, or do you mean that the work appeals to a broad audience of which a subset love imagining how awful something will be?
Yes, it was Idaho, not Indiana. My mistake, but it is still the state injecting religion into women’s reproductive rights.
Let’s look at some more examples of theocracy in today’s America:
In Kentucky, a judge has recused himself from all gay adoption proceedings. Seems his religion trumps our laws:
Well, you’re first example isn’t theocracy because the judge recused himself. It might be close to* theocracy if the judge didn’t recuse himself, and ruled based on his religion. The 2nd example isn’t theocracy because it’s protecting the religious freedom of a private organization. The 1st amendment cuts both ways. No establishment, and free exercise.
*one judge in one state does not a theocracy make.
Those were my thoughts too. It’s NOT a theocracy when the judge states that his own bias would hinder ability to do his job fairly so he isn’t going to rule on those cases.
Definitely not plausible, and it’s also grating that the people most strenuously wringing their hands about it seem to gloss over or completely ignore that something similar really is happening to millions of women in countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
I don’t normally endorse National Review op-eds, but I fully cosign this one.
The story wouldn’t work in Saudi Arabia because the target audience doesn’t give a shit about Saudi Arabia. Those are brown people who speak weird languages.
Again, the problem with “The Handmaid’s Tale” from a plausibility point of view is that everything in the show happens in less than ten years. Seventy years? Sure, now maybe. But then you cannot have one character remember being a free woman and also being a handmaid.
I just (as in, 2 days ago) finished Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day. Not bad, one of his better efforts. As I understand it, it had been out of print for several decades. The utopia/dystopia is rather left-wing, although in the context of 1969 when he wrote it, it’s a bit hard to lay it on a party line. Nevertheless, the protagonist (very) slowly fights against the genetically and psychologically programmed ideals (everyone looks the same, acts the same, no occupation is better than another, conflict is to be avoided at all cost, family is no more important than the community, and all ideological sins are to be confessed to your counselor, who will soup you up with a larger dose of ~antidepressants) in strong favor of rugged individualism. Which, incidentally and finally, just demonstrates your leadership potential over the proles.
By the by…I find “Handmaid’s Tale” scarily possible. My weird old dad converted to a (not small) religious sect in Indiana who undoubtedly would read that novel as a sort of inspirational text. I also could see the possibility of the society evolving that way in a sci-fi sense, just given the parameters, and what sort of group would be most likely to respond passionately to them.
AK84, when comparing Pakistan to the USA and Canada exclusive of sub-continent and mid-east immigrant families, what are the rates of purdah, child marriage exclusive of vani, vani, watta satta, dowry deaths, and honour killings?
Animal Farm qualifies in the “left wing dystopia” category, as does Orwell’s other classic 1984. Others that come to mind, although I dislike both of them: The Giver by Lois Lowry, and Anthem by Ayn Rand.
That’s hilarious, but while no country in the world has the exact conditions described in this work of science fiction, I dare say it’s worse to be a woman in Pakistan than in Gilead.
Before anyone clicks one of those links and says “but hey: they were working on reforming the system and outlawing child marriage”, you should know that this effort failed. Per the Washington Post:
Tell me the murder rates in those countries and we will compare. The difference I suppose is that for someone like you when child abuse or partner murder happens in the US of Canada you say “what a horrible person”. When it happens elsewhere you say “what horrible people”.
Canada: Gender Based Violence in Canada | Learn the Facts rate of of women killed by intimate partners: 0.00018852% (a bit less than two per million per year, as compared to over five and a half honour killings per million per year in Pakistan.). As far as the religious/cultural practices mentioned in my post, we don’t track them because the rates are miniscule. Very rarely will one hear of an honour killing, and even then it will be in a sub-continent or mid-eastern immigrant family. There is a problem with child marriage which is being run through the courts (refer to Blackmore in Canada and Jeffs in the USA).
So yes, there is a very strong difference between the murder rates of women in Canada and Pakistan that is based on culture.