Confessions of an Atwood superfan
As ‘The Testaments’ goes on sale amid a rapturous fanfare, Hannah Betts says the ‘Handmania’ is justified
‘I’m afraid you’re my favourite human so I will pretend to be objective, but I can’t be.” These were my first words to Margaret Atwood when I interviewed her in 2017 and, having wept when I saw the image on her Instagram account of the author standing prophet-style, hand raised, to mark the publication of her new book, The Testaments, this strength of feeling endures. Indeed, I’m weeping now, along with the legions of Atwood superfans lining the streets of London to salute the celebrated Canadian author as the global heroine she is.
Because while UK politics is lurching from one crisis to another, and the police are recommending citizens assemble emergency “grab bags”, something larger and more magnificent is taking place; something green and bonneted and beautiful.
For Britain is coming together in celebration of Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale sequel, The Testaments, meaning Tuesday was Testaments Day, and the capital Testaments Town.
As midnight struck, hundreds gathered outside Waterstones’ flagship store; inside were emerald mocktails, bonnet cupcakes and acolytes embroidering “Nolite te b--------carborundorum” (“Don’t let the b------grind you down”), the motto that galvanises Handmania. Later, at the National Theatre, our icon read extracts from the new novel – an event screened live to over a thousand cinemas worldwide – while an emerald light beamed across the city.
How do I love Margaret Atwood? Let me count the ways. I received one (unslept) night’s warning before our encounter two years ago. No matter: I had spent my entire life preparing. This was no small task as Atwood, at 79, is the author of over 60 books, an endlessly awardwinning novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, short-story writer, children’s author, graphic novelist and zombie-fiction guru.
During nine years at Oxford, hers was
the only lecture series I attended in full. As an editor, I attempted to commission her. I even attended the premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale opera, at which I planted myself opposite my idol, grinning like a loon. This week, I will be presenting copies of The Testaments to my sisters, nieces, friends, old school, and any oppressedlooking woman I come across.
When my copy arrives, I will vanish off the face of the earth until it’s read. After all, The Handmaid’s Tale was
As midnight struck, hundreds queued for a copy of the book – and bonnet cupcakes
released in 1985, meaning some of us have been waiting for this day for 34 years. Atwood identified me as being part of that generation; “born in 1971 – just in time to be walloped by The Handmaid’s Tale when it came out”. But, really, we’re all superfans now. Atwood’s admonitory fiction has been translated into over 40 languages and never been out of print. Not only has it become a critically acclaimed television series, it has been a feature film, ballet, and is a stalwart of school and university syllabuses. My brother, who studied it at A-level, refers to me as Ofterence (after my “commander”, à la its heroine). The handmaids’ salutation “Blessed be the fruit” has become an ironic greeting.
Moreover, Atwood-mania is entirely merited. Not only is there no greater living writer, “Peggy Nature”, as friends refer to her for her ecoactivism, is our beloved sage. Nothing has taken flight like her patriarchal dystopia, and nowhere more so than among women.
For her story is our story and, although not living in Gilead, it is in every gendered slight received, every violence endured; our horror of the past, wariness about the present, and trepidation about the future. As Atwood informed me: “I put nothing in that people had not done at some time, in some place.” As fellow superfan Jeanette Winterson observed, our oracle keeps an eye on who is “moving the edges in”.
Because, to many, it feels as if those edges are closing in now, with reproductive rights contested, a self-declared pussy-grabber leader of the free world. Elisabeth Moss, who stars as Offred in the series, has talked about the way Atwood’s fiction is “bleeding into reality”. Ann Dowd, who plays Aunt Lydia, urged that its lesson is “to stay awake”. The author said of The Testaments: “Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead… is the inspiration for this book.” The other inspiration, she noted, being “the world we’ve been living in”.