Margaret Atwood
Last night I went to a book signing and interview with Margaret Atwood at the Borders in D.C.
My friend Laura got me hooked on Margaret Atwood about 6 years ago when she told me that I had to read The Handmaid's Tale. I couldn't put it down. In fact, I had nightmares where I was one of the handmaids stuck in a furistic United States with all of my rights taken away by extreme religious leaders. I could hold no job, own no property, couldn't marry whom I chose. The scary thing is that there are so many women around the world where this is a reality. Whenever a book or movie seeps so far into my subconscious that it invades my dreams, I know it's a good story. My other favorite books by her are Oryx and Crake and The Blind Assassin. She is a poet, so her prose is very lyrical and her descriptions of feelings, life, everyday objects, scenes, and people are anything but ordinary. The book reviewer from the Washington Post interviewed her and had asked her about how she could write about mundane subjects (in her new book Moral Disorder there is a breakfast scene) and make them interesting. She said that people tend to leave out the good parts when relating everyday life events. Every scene has to work to move the story. Every instance in life moves our lives forward. It's all in how you perceive it.
Quote of the week:
"Read, read, read. Read everything—just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! Then write." William Faulkner
My friend Laura got me hooked on Margaret Atwood about 6 years ago when she told me that I had to read The Handmaid's Tale. I couldn't put it down. In fact, I had nightmares where I was one of the handmaids stuck in a furistic United States with all of my rights taken away by extreme religious leaders. I could hold no job, own no property, couldn't marry whom I chose. The scary thing is that there are so many women around the world where this is a reality. Whenever a book or movie seeps so far into my subconscious that it invades my dreams, I know it's a good story. My other favorite books by her are Oryx and Crake and The Blind Assassin. She is a poet, so her prose is very lyrical and her descriptions of feelings, life, everyday objects, scenes, and people are anything but ordinary. The book reviewer from the Washington Post interviewed her and had asked her about how she could write about mundane subjects (in her new book Moral Disorder there is a breakfast scene) and make them interesting. She said that people tend to leave out the good parts when relating everyday life events. Every scene has to work to move the story. Every instance in life moves our lives forward. It's all in how you perceive it.
Quote of the week:
"Read, read, read. Read everything—just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! Then write." William Faulkner
posted by J.T. Bock at 7:23 PM
2 Comments:
WOW! You met Margaret ATwood??? SHe's a goddess. Like meeting Ayn Rand. You lucky you. WHat was she like? What does she look like?
I didn't know you liked her. I would've sent you the information.
She's a little woman. Older but fiesty with short white hair. She was so smart. She would sometimes speak like she writes with metaphors and flowing descriptions. I'll have to let you know when she's in town next time. She joked how Hugh Hefner was the beginning of feminism. She said it was because when men were off fighting in WWII, the women held down the homefront and went out into the workforce. Then the men returned and the women went back home to have kids and tend house. Soon Hef came out with Playboy and the Playboy clubs. Men started to go out and leave their wives to have a good time. So the women got pissed and wrote The Feminie Mystique.
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