How scary it is to watch handmaid’s tale today

First edition cover of the book. By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20132070

A once unbelievable story becomes believable

Back in the early 1990s, shortly after I graduated from college, at the suggestion of one of my feminist friends I read Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale. The book is a work of art, but it was clearly fiction. After all, our democratic institutions in the United States were far too strong to allow a theocratic takeover of our government. Right?

Fast forward thirty years. My wife and I have been streaming the Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. I remember reading the book way back when, but remembered few details. Out of curiosity, I decided to revisit the book to see how closely the new series followed it.

The theatrical release poster from the original movie. Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16654073

Amazingly, the series is surprisingly faithful to the book. I had forgotten many details of the book, such as the different colored uniforms for the women based upon their status. But it’s all there. Somehow, watching the series today is far more disturbing than reading the book was or even seeing the movie starring Natasha Richardson and Robert Duvall that was produced back in the early 1990s.