The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood
by Zia ~ March 24th, 2006. Filed under: Books.
First, a little detour through the travesty that is becoming our school system and public policy (and making me think about moving either to Canada or Holland).
A Texas school superintendent removed Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale from a curriculum after a parent complained about its sexually explicit content. The Handmaid’s Tale is a feminist retelling of Orwell’s 1984 in which the oppressor is a fundamentalist Christian regime. The few fertile women left are pressed into bondage as surrogate mothers for infertile couples. If you haven’t read it, you should — it’s one of Atwood’s most chilling and memorable novels (second only to Oryx and Crake).
And prescient too. It was written about twenty years ago, but according to the San-Antonio Express News:
Lyman said he found some of the descriptions in the book too sexually explicit for high school students. He said his beliefs as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints didn’t influence his decision.
(He went on to say, “The tone of the book does not support, in my opinion, the effort by our state Legislature to encourage abstinence outside the bonds of marriage.” What does THAT have to do with anything? Literature isn’t about reading about something you agree with — it’s about being exposed to ideas that make you think. Apparently, not something he feels the need to do.)
The parent who complained claimed to feel “responsibility to the country and our community to speak up for the values that will strengthen our society.”
We, of course, don ‘t need to bother pointing out the irony. Atwood is a feminist. Lyman is a Mormon. So too, I’m sure, is the complaining mother. And the two are diametrically opposed.
Which leads me right into what this post is supposed to be about: Atwood’s The Penelopiad, a feminist retelling of the Iliad and Odyssey told from Penelope’s perspective. I have to say, I was terribly disappointed by this. Oh sure, it was beautifully-written and imaginative, with flashes of humor. It even made use of a Greek chorus — the 12 maidens Odysseus slayed on his return and who form the basis of Atwood’s story. I like the idea. I like the execution, even. But somehow it fell flat. It was a slim little book that really didn’t say that much.
Actually, what it really felt like was a copout, like she had this deadline and left it to the nth degree (not that I would know anything about that) because she was focused on that ridiculous book signing device.
And perhaps I’m displaying nothing so much as my own ignorance. Perhaps this is a brilliant rendition that takes on certain forms of the homeric tradition and turns them on their heads. So be it. Here’s my opinion: Don’t bother.
But I seem to be alone in this. Call me Cassandra.