One of the more interesting, under-discussed aspects of the buzzworthy columns surrounding Hulu’s adaption of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is not the controversy over whether the dystopian, misogynist themes mirror our current culture (they don’t), but that everyone is reacting like, “Oh my word, this story! On Hulu! Can you even!”
Actually, this story has been around for several decades, since 1985, to be exact. But this happens almost every time a well-known novel, that’s been around for years, decades, or even centuries, finally makes its way to the silver screen (streaming or theater). Hello, millennials: These stories are from books. You may have heard of them?
Reading is good—it provides perspective
As an English literature major in college we studied many of the world’s literary masterpieces: From Dickens to Tolstoy, Shakespeare to Fitzgerald. My syllabi was so full of literature, short fiction, poetry, nonfiction and the like, it wasn’t unusual to read two novels a week. As such, we often learned as much about the author as their works, including the period, place, and historical happenings of where and how they lived.
While many novels can often reflect what the future was like—take 1984, for instance—those prophetic gems are few and far between. It’s far more common (notice I didn’t say unlikely) for novels to either reflect on the past, or present periods in history, when the author penned the work.
For example, in my 19th century British literature class—my favorite period of all time—classmates would often freak out about the setting of Charles Dickens novels: “Oh my gosh, people are throwing urine out the windows! London is so dirty! This must be what Republicans are like! Freaking Communists! I bet George W. Bush wants to make the United States like that!”
No, actually.
Upon further research, one realizes Charles Dickens was a poor but talented fellow who wrote like the dickens (heh, I’ll be here all week with the veal) to make ends meet and that’s what England was actually like at the time. I’m sure he didn’t like it much either but his work reflected what he knew. This knowledge is helpful when reading any type of literature.
Reading allows for proper criticism
I’m not saying Atwood’s work reflected 1985 — after all, it is dystopian. But reading the novel itself, not just relying on the on-screen version, can still provide valuable perspective. While the disadvantages of reading are plenty — lack of time being the number one culprit — the advantages are more so.
In this case, if millennials, or other generations, had read “The Handmaid’s Tale” in high school or college instead of watching it this week on Hulu, they might be in a better place to view the work independently, with a critical eye and balanced perspective, rather than watching the story and letting the emotion of that visual experience bathe, even taint, how they feel in this present moment, especially once the commentary on this began to let loose, therefore perhaps misinterpreting its themes.
Now some folks say millennials are actually out-reading older generations due to various apps serving up short-stories. But I’d question whether reading short-stories by B-list authors is the kind of reading that impressionable young people should be reading. I still tend to believe the classics are a great place to start — it’s not for naught are they referred to as such.
Other studies, like this British one, show millennials are not only not reading, but lying about what they are reading, when in fact, they’ve just watched the film or television show based on the book. I tend to think that’s far more common.
There’s nothing wrong with watching the film version of literature, but imagining Gollum before ever seeing his slimy, hairless noggin, or critically analyzing what To Kill A Mockingbird said about race before hearing Atticus make his lawyerly pleas, provides an important way of developing thought, analytical skills and imagination. Not to mention, you know most books are still better than the movies, right?
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
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