Atwood Quotes

quiet talking

we learned to whisper almost without sound

fairytale forest

like a path through the forest

serena at the door

she didn’t step aside to let me in

POV wives

Try and think of it from their point of view, it isn’t easy for them

standard greeting

blessed be the fruit

news

Im ravenous for news, any kind of news

having small forms of power

I enjoy the power of a dog bone, passive but there

surveillance knowing they are there

I don’t see the floodlights and pillboxes, because of the wings around my face, I just know they are there

heart of Gilead

This is the heart of Gilead, where the war cannot intrude

Gilead inside you

Gilead is within you

gilead freedom

freedom to and freedom from

janine pregnant

her belly under her loose garment swells triumphantly

infatalising + silencing

we hush like schoolgirls

technology

compucheck/compubite

is luke alive?

luke wasn’t a doctor, isn’t

internal clarity

I need to be very clear in my own mind

ordinary

it will become ordinary

night time

the night is mine

believing story

I would like to believe this story I’m telling. I need to believe it, I must believe it

boiled

in a gradually heated bathtub you would be boiled to death before you knew it

unfamiliarity with body

My nakedness feels strange to me, my body feels outdated

luke meat

he said men needed more meat than women did

false self

My self is a thing I must now compose…What I must present is a made thing, not something born

fed like a pig

fed like a prized pig

pig balls and where did she learn

I wish I had a pig ball

introduction to psychology

danger with own body

treacherous ground, my own territory

familiarity with body

I sink down into my body, only I know the footing

expectations of other

I have failed once again to fulfil the expectations of other, which have become my own

centre of body

I am a cloud congealed around a central object, the shape of a pear, which is hard and more real than I am

period

every month there is a moon, gigantic, round, heavy, an omen. It transits, pauses, continues on and passes out of sight, and I see despair coming towards me like famine

what stealing would give

it would make me feel like I have power

serena joy flowers

you can’t use them anymore, you’re withered. They’re the genital organs of plants

special knowledge of name

I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I will come to dig back up one day

sitting room

the sitting room is supposed to be serena joy’s territory

uniform of commander

looks like a museum guard

key commnader

he inserts the key and opens the box

bedtime story

here comes out bedtime story

phallic imagery

his delicate stalked slug’s eye

making love

i do not say making love, because this is not what he is doing

curtains sureillance

my white curtains are like gauze bandages

natural vs artifical

cast by the searchlight that illuminates this house at night, or is there a moon?

moon action

a goddess, a wink

moon description

the moon is a stone and the sky is full of deadly hardware

out of place in own home

I am out of place. This is entirely illegal

become natural in the dark

letting the pupils of my eyes dilate like a cats or owls

i believe

here is what I believe

luke’s fading face

his face was beginning to fade, possibly because it wasn’t always the same

sanity

sanity is a valuable possession

toxic molecules and water

the water swarmed with toxic molecules

reconstruction

this is a reconstruction

inner fear

a jittering of the brain, and inner jeering

x3 of bad things women can’t do

Now it’s forbidden for us. Now it’s dangerous. Now it’s indecent

relishing words

I hold the glossy counters with their smooth edges

quiet house

dimmed hall with muffled stairs

inner affirmations

I am 33 years old. I have brown hair

rat in maze

A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays within the maze

prayer wheels

toneless metallic voice

different faith from prayer wheels

it’s faith of a kind, like Tibetan prayer wheels

luke patronising job

its only a job

luke patronising after job lost

I’ll always take care of youwh

why she didn’t protest

luke said it would be futile

why she had to cling onto luke when it was too late

I couldn’t afford to loose you

commander about the changes

better never means better for everyone

clean lawns

not a dandelion in sight, the lawns are picked clean

what did we overlook?

love

love is not the point

why she mocks them

it deflates them, reduces them to the common denominator

fragmented story

I’m sorry it’s in fragments, like a body caught in crossfire

hatred

hatred fills my mouth like sput

title of the talk Pieixoto

title of my little chat implies

undermining underground resistance pieixoto

underground frailroad

comparing handmaids to pieixoto?

surrogate mothers

undermining tone about her education pieixoto

she appears to have been an educated woman

pieixoto bigging up commander

waterford in his prime, was a man of considerable ingenuity

criticizing Offred’s work

had she had a different turn of mind

denial

it’s amazing what denial can do

fairytale outfit

some fairytale figure in a red cloak

toxic body bird dies

maybe a vulture would die of eating you

why the radiation happened

uncontrolled use of chemical insecticides

toxic chemicals creeping in

creep into your body and camp out in your fatty cells