Margaret Atwood is not an Oracle but Simply an Author
*disclaimer: this article will discuss pregnancy as a woman's right issue only, however it is recognised that everyone with a uterus is affected.
Since the Roe v Wade decision, many people across the internet, particularly white women, are claiming that Margaret Atwood is an 'oracle' based on her best-selling novel The Handmaid's Tale. Many black and brown folks on Tiktok have already stated why this is not the case. They cite incidents throughout US history that targeted racial minorities that reflect the abuse towards the main character. Along with history, creative writing and the definition of dystopia itself can lend an answer to why Atwood is not an oracle. This will be the article's focus; however, if you are curious about the history, look towards the cited Tik Tok videos.
Let's begin by diving into what makes a dystopia a dystopia. Masterclass defines the genre as offering [1] "a vision of the future…. [it] is a form of speculative fiction that began as a response to utopian literature." (2021). A good way to think about speculative fiction is "what if" books. So, with this knowledge, we see that dystopias are what the author presumes the future of a particular issue will look like. For example, Margaret Atwood focuses on "what if the patriarchy won?" and then draws on history to build Gilead. Later in the same Masterclass article, Atwood states: [1] "If you're interested in writing speculative fiction, one way to generate a plot is to take an idea from current society and move it a little further down the road. Even if humans are short-term thinkers, fiction can anticipate and extrapolate into multiple versions of the future." (2021), which further supports how authors create a sense of speculation by using history.
Furthermore, another Masterclass article, which gives tips on writing a dystopia, states that the first step is creating a reflection on modern-day anxieties [2] (2021). We see this in many YA dystopias that Gen Z has grown up on. Titles such as Divergent and The Hunger Games. While Divergent takes a more sci-fi approach, she is still answering the questions generated from sociology classes she took in university. We see a more literal approach to these definitions in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, where she combined aspects of Greek mythology, the Iran war, and reality tv. Throughout the novel and these combinations of actual life events, we see an emerging examination of capitalism. Since then, capitalism has only spread further into our society.
Margaret Atwood took a similar approach which she discusses in an interview with Penguin while going through files of newspaper clippings and talking about how they inspired her. Some such headings were 'Women forced to have babies.' (2019) to which Atwood explained that it was an article about Ceaușescu and Romania wherein the leader passed laws that said women had to have four babies. [The women] had to have pregnancy tests every month, and if they weren't pregnant, they had to explain why. We see a direct representation of this in the books and the status of fertile women in this society.
In the same article from Penguin, she states how people would ask, 'how does she come up with this.' She rebuts, "like many books, The Handmaid's Tale began with the question, What if? I guess I was tired of having people say, 'It can't happen here.'" (2019). There are two very telling statements here. The first is, as a writer, the most basic prompt you can give yourself is "what if" regarding a particular idea or inspiration from life. The second is the final statement saying 'it can't happen here,' which could more appropriately say 'it can't happen to people like me.' Many social media creators have explained how this has been happening, just not to white women.
When approaching the conversation surrounding the overturning of Roe, it is best to stray away from references to dystopias as outlined here. It is craft, the job of the writer, and history that creates them. The very point of dystopia is to play on society's fears and hopefully encourage readers to stand up before we get to that point. Most of all, though, dystopian fiction is just that… fiction. What's happening now is real and should be treated as such. The authors are not oracles; they are just people trying to tell a good story.
Cited + further reading
Collins S. & Levithan D. (2018). Suzanne Collins Talks About ‘The Hunger Games,’the Books and the Movies. [online]. Available from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/books/suzanne-collins-talks-about-the-hunger-games-the-books -and-the-movies.html. [accessed: 28 February, 2022]
[1] Masterclass. (2021). What is Dystopian Fiction? Learn About the 5 Characteristics of Dystopian Fiction With Examples. [online]. Available from:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-dystopian-fiction-learn-about-the-5-characteristics-of-d ystopian-fiction-with-examples#what-is-the-significance-of-dystopian-fiction. [Accessed: 3 July, 2022].
[2] Masterclass. (2021). How to Write a Dystopian Story: 3 Tips for Writing Dystopian Fiction. [online]. Available from:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-dystopian-story#what-is-a-dystopian-story. [Accessed: 3 July, 2022]
Nadworny E. (2018). For Teens, Dystopian Fiction Seems Pretty Real — And That's Why They Like It. [online]. Available from:
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/07/05/623292216/for-teens-dystopian-fiction-seems-pretty-real and-thats-why-they-like-it?t=1644942655850 [accessed: March 1, 2022]
Penguin Features. (2019). Margaret Atwood on the real-life events that inspired The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments. [online]. Available from:
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2019/09/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-testaments-real-life-ins piration. [Accessed: 3 July, 2022]
Stuart T. (2021). ‘We’ve Seen This Before’: Margaret Atwood on ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and How History Repeats Itself. [online]. Available from:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/margaret-atwood-interview-season-4-hand maids-tale-1171567/. [Accessed: 3 July, 2022]
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