Looking back on your long career as a writer, how would you sum it up? «Mmm… what can I say? It was fun, but I don’t often look back: I’m usually busy writing a new book…». Elegant, full of panache and irony (also about herself), Margaret Atwood, 83, speaks to the “Corriere” via video from her home in Toronto. She doesn’t even want to say which book she is closest to. “I can’t, the others would take it. They would say to me: But how did we spend so much time together and we’re not your love? It’s like asking which of your children you love the most.”
The Corriere begins publishing its books from the most famous novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopia that imagines women as simple reproductive machines. It’s been almost forty years since he wrote it. But in some countries the situation of women seems to have worsened…
“It’s not an impression, it really is: the facts prove it. In Afghanistan, in particular, things got worse. There is a fight going on in Iran, we don’t know how it will end, but it seems that people have no intention of stopping protesting and demanding more freedom for women. One of the good things about Iran is that it has given many girls access to education, albeit under strict religious rules. So there are now many educated women who feel unjustly oppressed. It’s different in Afghanistan: They completely refuse education to female students. In the US, we’ve seen what’s happening… One of the big problems is online attacks on female journalists, especially younger ones, and this is a symbolic form of male obsession. At best, I get attacked for being an old hag or something, but I don’t pay attention, also because I don’t have a job and can’t be fired. Also, these attacks come from all political sectors, not just one side. Obviously, a certain number of men think that women hold positions that should instead be their own. A record-breaking attitude.”
In your books you have often anticipated crucial issues. That’s why she’s considered a kind of prophetess, which she might not particularly like…
“Exactly, we know what happens to prophets… Especially women. No thanks…”. (laughs)
The fact is, however, that he tackled many important issues before others and even before politics. Like climate change. Do you think literature can play a role in making people aware of big issues?
“Sure it could, but it depends on what people read. TV series reach more people. For example, readership of The Handmaid’s Tale skyrocketed when the series aired in 2017 to coincide with Donald Trump’s presidency. If Hillary Clinton had won the election, the show might have been popular, but not as much. Maybe people would have thought, well yes, good show, but this situation of female subservience will not happen as all dangers are avoided. With Trump and the whole debate about what the United States wanted to be — whether a democracy, an autocracy, or a dictatorship — the issue had a different weight instead. My Hollywood agent told me, “I hate to admit it, but you’re the only person who benefited from Trump’s election.”
What does the word engagement mean to you?
“Everyone is always trying to explain to the writers what their role should be. I say: let them write, then you read and decide. You shouldn’t make them feel guilty, you shouldn’t think that whoever makes art for art’s sake is a terrible person who contributes nothing to society. Who decides what a contribution is? Doesn’t it entertain people? Isn’t it good to make good art? I think so”.
The war in Ukraine, in the heart of Europe, seems a tragic throwback to the 20th century, to something we thought was gone forever…
“For someone my age, it really is. I mean, I feel like we’ve been there before. There’s a book called Bloodlands. Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder, which is about the part of the world, Central Europe, which suffered the most casualties during World War II as a result of two opposing forces. And one of the reasons why Poland is so strongly pro-Ukraine is that it was one of the countries that was attacked in this way from side to side with many casualties. Today they don’t want that to happen again. Had the people taken a stronger position at the time of the first invasion, perhaps there would have been no conflict, a line would have been drawn, and the cost of crossing it would have been considered excessive. Why are these things happening? There are many reasons, but I think there is a very simple one. You think you can win, and if you win, you get other people’s stuff.”
Last year, a special fireproof edition of The Handmaid’s Tale sold for $130,000 at Sotheby’s in aid of Pen Club America, which defends freedom of expression. Do you think it’s more at risk now than it used to be?
“Yes. The killing of journalists has increased worldwide, as has their imprisonment. There are countries where no journalists are imprisoned because they killed everyone or are in exile. So everything looks good on paper. It’s very worrying “I was at a meeting of the Canadian organization Journalists for Free Speech last night and they showed these kinds of statistics. There were also online attacks on women journalists, which are numerous in Canada. But the question is also: why is this number that high in Italy?Because there are more women journalists in Canada.The other hot point regarding censorship at the moment is the ban on many titles in US school libraries.The obvious reason is a return to puritanism since it’s mostly about books which contains sex. Which is ridiculous: the Bible is not banned, it is full of sex and violence. Which partly explains its enduring appeal.
It seems that she is always working. What does he do when he’s not writing?
“The laundry, I play golf, I garden, I cook. When Graeme (husband Graeme Gibson, died 2019, editor’s note) was still with us, I took care of the beginning at dinner, he took care of the middle and I took care of the end again. So he took care of the main course and I took care of the setting and the dessert».
What is he writing now?
“Mmm, I can’t seem to say anything. However, I can say that I write on my substack (newsletter platform, editor’s note). why did i start Well, like everyone else, I check Twitter to see how bad the situation is or if it will go up in smoke. The person running it now, whose name I don’t want to be named (Elon Musk, ed.), got his engineers to fix the algorithm to get more visibility from President Joe Biden. After all the talk of openness and fairness, all that blah blah blah blah…”
Every year, bookmakers place her among the contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature…
«Shhh… First you get the Nobel Prize, then you die (laughs). One of my favorite awards was for Swedish humor. My publisher went and got it for me. The ceremony took place in an open amphitheater and it was pouring rain so they got very wet. It was a large engraved crystal goblet and someone stole it so I don’t have it either.’
What scares you the most today?
“I don’t get scared easily, having grown up in Canada, but bears and thunderstorms are really scary. The climate crisis is what we all need to worry about the most. And the potential death of the oceans from the release of toxic substances, including many plastics. Put simply, if we kill the oceans, we will stop breathing. Because the oceans produce 60 to 80% of the oxygen that we breathe. And at 20-40% we probably wouldn’t do very well».
Will there be a third episode of «Ancella»?
“The question is, do we really need this?”
Essays, novels, poems: A cult author in 21 titles
The series dedicated to Margaret Atwood, edited by the Corriere della Sera in collaboration with the publishing house Ponte alle Grazie, envisages the publication of 21 novels, essays, short stories and poems. We begin with The Handmaid’s Tale on newsstands February 28th. The volume is available for EUR 8.90 excluding the newspaper, as are the weekly follow-up publications. The covers of the volumes are illustrated by Anna and Elena Balbusso. After the first three titles – The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments and The Other Grace, in the Corriere series in collaboration with Ponte alle Grazie, the novels Penelope’s Song, Cat’s Eye, Returning to the Float, The Woman to eat; the MaddAddam Trilogy: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, The Other Beginning. The novels The Blind Assassin, The Heart Last, Personal Injury will follow; the short story collection Microfiction; the wise negotiate with the shadows, giving and taking; the Moral Disorder stories, the Hot Issues essays. At the end of the novel Life before Man, the collections of poems Moltossimo and Short Scenes from Wolves.