The dystopias that elevated Margaret Atwood (Ottawa, Canada, 1939), revealing her as one of the most subversive writers on the international scene, are not incompatible with a ductile character. Awarded by the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2008 and author of the intemporel The Handmaid’s Talea novel which enjoyed a second life with its transfer into a television series, Atwood returns to fiction after having published, five years ago, Willsa continuation of his most famous work.
This time, he arrives at the bookstore with a book of stories, Lost in the forest (Salamandra), and the creation of some of them corresponds to the satisfaction of requests made by certain readers. One of the fifteen stories that make up this selection is dedicated to George Orwellone of his great references.
The most acclaimed science fiction author of recent years recreates a interview with the author of 1984 through a mediuman adventure that will surely dazzle his followers. “In history you will realize that Orwell still smokes“Atwood joked during the online press conference that served to introduce her book to Spanish-language media.
In another story, inspired – also at the request of some readers – by the Decameron by Boccaccio, reverses the character of the obedient Griselda to emphasize her impatience. This type of story corresponds to the second part of the book, in which we find snails dressed as humans and mothers transformed into witcheswhile “others come from materials you thought you might include in a novel and end up not making it in”, as the author acknowledged.
The first and third sections, which close the book, are largely personal experiences and include important reflections on marriage, aging, loss, and death. Dystopian tensionhowever, continues to be a distinctive mark in Atwood’s literature, and she has spoken about it extensively. “To what extent do we exist in a space that is no longer here? And in a future that has not yet arrived? We can also ask ourselves if the present exists,” he said.
In a crazy era like the one we live in, have dystopias lost their meaning? “No, because it could always be worse“, he says. Even if he smiles, he is aware of the seriousness of his prognosis and explains that “the 19th century was an era of utopias, because they always believed that it could be better.” They were moving towards medical progress, they dreamed of being able to fly, they had created the sewer system, the bicycle, the automobile, the typewriter appeared… Why wouldn’t things get better and better ? Utopias “It can be a bit boring,” he concedes, because “there is no crisis.”
The situation changed, according to him, with the Great War. “The future was not going to be as rosy as they had imagined in Europe and North America,” says Atwood, who points to the appearance of the first science fiction novel, war of the worldswhich presents a horrible future. And then there is the novel Wewhich predicts the Stalinist horror, and at the same time the Second World War takes place. By mid-century, dystopias proliferated because “people believed that at any moment they could die from an atomic bomb.” Soon after, the dystopian fever subsides, while “now there’s a flood,” Atwood says.
“Kamala Harris didn’t have much time and, what’s more, she’s a woman. A lot of people were afraid of having a woman president”
Climate change, the situation of women and the risk of totalitarianism They are among the most popular subjects of this new wave. The evaluation of the American elections was therefore a subject to take into account at this afternoon’s press conference. “The campaign was brief and Kamala Harris “She didn’t have much time,” justified the writer. “Plus, she’s a woman and a lot of people were afraid of having a female president, and a black one at that. She was afraid that he would do to them what they had done to people like her,” he said. he declared.
Regardless, “class affiliations have changed. Before, Democrats represented working people and Republicans represented rich people; now it’s the other way around,” Atwood says. And what about the consequences of Trump’s victory? “It depends on whether we can believe what Trump says, because he lies so much…” slips the author. And he adds: “He says he’s going to build concentration camps to bring in Democrats and immigrants. It remains to be seen whether the American people will accept him and how much truth there is in everything he says. he said. I think people are not ready to accept a dictatorship.
Atwood concedes that “the implications for Europe don’t look good” and that “it’s going to create a lot of anxiety for people who live near Ukraine.” But in general, she wants to be reassuring: “It’s not a question of jumping off a bridge, there is nothing lost.”
