(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Contemporary Fiction Views: Atwood on the times of a woman's life [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-04 Photo by Jody Parks At the age of 83, Margaret Atwood has experienced most phases of being a girl and a woman in modern society. She brings the wisdom gained from these phases in her latest story collection, Old Babes in the Wood. The title of the collection encompasses part of the underlying experiences that help ground that wisdom. When it comes to the woods, Atwood's early novel Cat's Eye comes to mind, with the main character growing up with an entomologist father and knowing the woods. And then there are the woods and female fairy tale characters. But, instead of innocent young females in the woods, ready to fall prey to fairy tale villains, many of the women in these stories are not ingenues. They have lived. Oh, how some have lived! And at least one died violently. Some of the stories are connected, about a long-together couple. Nell marvels years later that in their youth, "obliviousness had served them well." Not so any longer. Once you know things, you can't not think of them. Other stories add to the premise of the collection as women characters in various situations reflect on whether what happened to them in the past would affect their present. The most drastic of these fates is in "Death by Clamshell”. In this story, the spirit of Hypatia of Alexandria recounts her violent death, the political repercussions and her legacy. Hypatia was one of the first women to study and teach math, astronomy and philosophy. To make her standing even less secure, she was a paganist during another time of great religious strife with Christian sects battling each other. A current GOP-approved court would probably rule she had asked for her fate. So, the political aspect of this story is, of course, dreadfully recognizable. Also recognizable is the reduction of an educated woman to an object to be shamed before being tortured and murdered. There is no doubt Atwood is equating this horrific act to what's happening today: Many in your world have the idea that there has been progress since my day, that people have become more humane, that atrocities were rife back then but have diminished in your era, though I don't know how anyone who has been paying attention can hold such a view. She notes that it was the business of wives then to keep their mouths shut, even if they had to try to clean the blood-soaked tunics of their Christian husbands. Really, do we need to give the Huckabees of this world any more ideas? As the centuries have gone on this Hypatia notes the ups and downs of culture: But though old art is destroyed, new art is created, and some of it has been created from me. And she's down with the most stylistic representations: Ask yourself if you would rather be memorialized as your actuality, warts and all, or as an enhanced version? Be honest now. Then comes the kicker to the story. Does she consider she made the right choices in how she lived her life? Well, she might not have met such a violent end. Then again: Many obscure women have been done to death merely for existing. So, is it better, she asked, to be a puddle or a sunset? Each has its charms. Is that a cop-out? Or an acknowledgement of a woman's lot, regardless of her choices, her society, her era? Atwood also has an updated version of Gilead in “Freeforall”. Because of widespread decimation due to a new disease, matriarchs arrange "marriages" between young people who are uncontaminated. Since there are far more young females and young males who are disease-free, the males only have to stay with their first "bride" for the birth of two children. Then they are free to try another female, live alone or go back into the war games that all males are brought up to conduct. As chilling as this is, it is the descriptions of how society collapsed that are more horrifying -- again, because they mirror what current society appears to be on the brink of tipping into. Freeforall itself is where infected people live and die. Food is dropped in. There is no one to rescue anyone. Again, let's quit giving the Huckabees of our time more ideas. While Atwood is masterful at dystopia, she also has a sly sense of humor. And that is on display in other stories. In "Bad Teeth", two longtime friends one up each other for afternoon tea in their yards. Csilla is writing history books, chronicling a decade at a time, and has decided to include narrator Lynne's affair with Newman Small, a book reviewer with bad teeth. Csilla has no idea how her friend could have stomached those bad teeth. The only thing is, Lynne didn't have that affair. Csilla made it up. The two have been friends since the late 1960s, when go-go boots and free love flourished. Lynne would have admitted the affair had it taken place. After all: She never tells her age, whereas Lynne flourishes hers. Clock up enough years, she’s in the habit of saying, and you can dance on a table provided you can still clamber up there. You can have sex with the mailman and nobody will care. You can flush away your push-up bras—not literally, you wouldn’t want plumbers involved, asking how the bra got into the toilet—but you get the idea. You don’t have to hold in your stomach anymore. You can make six kinds of a fool of yourself because you’re a fool just for being old. You’re off the hook for almost everything. Csilla finally comes close to admitting she made it all up. "A story isn't great because it's true,,," Csilla says. "It's great because it's good." And of course, it's such a great story that Csilla has spread it around, even to one of Lynne's ex-husbands. She doesn't know whether to be enraged or amazed at Csilla's outlandish behavior. Whereas in Cat's Eye, the protagonist Elaine has overcome years of being teased and bullied by mean girls, in "Bad Teeth", friendship wins out. If you know someone well, friendship forgives. No buts about it. Atwood also writes movingly about another kind of female empowerment, when a mother appears to be a bit loony but is doing a magnificent job of raising a secure daughter. For most of the story "My Evil Mother", the reader sees how off the rails this single mother is, pretending to be a witch, insisting the gym teacher is a centuries-old rival witch, warning her daughter that if she stays with her first boyfriend he will die, and she turned her daughter's father into the garden gnome outside the door. Eventually it is revealed what power and gifts this "evil" mother gave her daughter. As a teen, the daughter tells her mother she is evil. Mom agrees. "But I use my evil powers only for good." And for love. A lot of love. "I didn’t want you to feel defenceless in the face of life. Life can be harsh. I wanted you to feel protected, and to know that there was a greater power watching over you. That the Universe was taking a personal interest.” I kissed her forehead, a skull with a thin covering of skin. The protector was her, the greater power was her, the Universe that took an interest was her as well; always her. “I love you,” I said. 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