The only upside to being sick this past week was that I got to catch up on a show I had been wanting to continue watching for some time. The streaming channel, Hulu, adapted Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale into a series in 2017. I was able to watch the first season when it came out, but never found the time to watch the second season. After enjoying the novel, I thought the screen adaptation was well done. I was curious to see where the storyline would go as they went beyond the full scope of Atwood's writing.
If you haven't read Atwood's award-winning novel from the 1980s, it is a near-future speculative fiction piece that might also be seen as a post-apocalyptic work. The setting is in New England after the United States at least partially collapses after a series of terrorist attacks that eliminate most of the elected leaders in Washington. A radical theonomy is established with a literalistic Old Testament view of the world. Women, in particular, are stripped of most of their rights, relegated to "traditional" views of women's roles. A declining fertility rate has made procreation a religious and practical priority. The handmaid is a young woman who is still fertile, who is forced into a role as a handmaid, a surrogate womb as it were, for a ruling class couple unable to conceive. The story unfolds through her experiences and recollections of how the world came to be so troubling.
Like most stories in the post-apocalyptic genre, the worldview of The Handmaid's Taleis bleak. Except for the light in the darkness that we find in resistance and hope. It is these bright spots that endear me to the genre, frankly. I like these sorts of stories because, by and large, they tend to highlight the power of love, the human spirit, and perseverance. Although there are exceptions, most of these stories are inspirational because of the faith and effort of the protagonists who envision a world that is more in line with what seems right and just.
The irony in Atwood's world, not unlike the irony in our own, is that those in power who have black and white views about how the world should work, ultimately can't live within those clearly defined lines themselves. Ruling classes in these stories, in particular, warp and bend laws and rules to fit their needs and apply them when it is convenient, bending or breaking them when it is advantageous to do so. Underneath such attempts for strict, totalitarian utopias is an unmistakable reality that utopias can rarely be dictated. Despite Atwood's ruling class's intention for an orderly and religiously pure world, they end up finding that human nature doesn't respond so readily.
A similar dynamic exists in a favorite movie of mine, The Village. This M. Night Shyamalan thriller similarly tells the tale of a community that establishes itself to be a place of peace and love. While the actions of the leaders in Shyamalan's story are not nearly as sinister as Atwood's, their folly is the same. They assume that they can wall off the decay of the world around them and live a kind of utopian life that protects them and their children from the evils of the world. What they learn is that evil cannot be kept at bay. It is a part of human nature and finds its way into the midst of people's lives no matter what.
Shyamalan's story is stand-alone, while Atwood's is ongoing. Certainly, as Hulu prepares to release season three, we will continue to see how that story unfolds, but she has also announced that she is releasing a sequel novel to A Handmaid's Talelater this year. I don't think either the book or the show will bring the full story to a conclusion. Such stories can only point us towards a hopeful vision. Their art is in inspiring us to either prevent the downfall or work for rebuilding the broken places that already exist. It's not nearly as entertaining to describe the ending as it is to narrate the struggle and the journey. Authors and playwrights have known this for a thousand years.
The Gospels themselves are not dissimilar. None of them tells a great deal about the risen Jesus or the aftereffects. As stand-alone books, they tell the story that leads to resurrection. In Mark's case, the author never even says Jesus was raised from the dead, but leaves it open for the hearer to decide what it's about. But the Gospel as a whole, the telling of God's Good News, certainly describes to us how God learned to deal with the shades of gray his beloved human creation brought into the world.
Somewhere along the way, God learned that humans can't be trusted to live within hard and well-defined walls. Call it free-will, call it sin, call it any number of things, but we will always find a way to muddy up things and create shortcuts and paths to the places we want to go, regardless of the path laid out for us. We are willful, sometimes ignorant, often selfish, and naturally self-absorbed, which means that oppressive rule and punishment would never work. Enter the gift of grace, God's mercy, and the forgiveness that we find in the redeeming story of God's son. None of it gives us permission to do whatever we want, but it does demonstrate how God chooses to be flexible with humanity, and put relationship over obedience.
I hope to never have to live through a post-apocalyptic period. This world is challenging enough in so many ways. Reading about them makes me thankful for the blessings we have and the light that chases the darkness away here and now. I won't give away the plots and the twists of The Handmaid's Taleor The Village, but I am grateful for their cautions and their assurances. I can't give away the plot of the Gospel either, for you already know it so well. Even so, I have no doubt God will continue to surprise us with God's love and grace. I'm counting on it.
Tom+
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.