The Handmaid's Tale Author, Margaret Atwood, Auctions A Special Unburnable Edition Of Her Novel To Protest Book Burning In America

"Because powerful words can never be extinguished."

Chelsi

• Published in Interesting
• July 1, 2022

The Handmaid's Tale foretold a dystopian Gilead society where women were treated as the government's property. In the book, the Republic of Gilead used to be the United States until an extremist religion took power to deal with the world's infertility crisis.

The few fertile women were captured and forced to bear the children of the rich. They are called handmaidens based on a bible base from the book of Genesis.

In an attempt to repopulate the devastated planet, the handmaidens are made to rotate in different households. They are basically treated as human incubators for different rich families.

The themes of the book are impactful enough to be made into a hit television series. Its popularity also means the book has been subjected to a different kind of scrutiny.

The thought-provoking ideas of the book are considered controversial by some. It has been a consistent part of The Most Challenged Books of the American Library Association.

The Handmaid's Tale is arguably one of the most powerful pieces of literature at the forefront of the feminist movement. It is eerily prophetic where it foreshadowed society's attempt to chip away at women's rights little by little.

While no copies of The Handmaid's Tale have been literally burned yet, Margaret Atwood thought it prudent to raise awareness about censorship. She did it in the best way possible.

Margaret Atwood along with the publishing giant, Penguin Random House, released a special edition of The Handmaid's Tale

To protest the archaic book banning happening in America right now

They published an "unburnable" version of Atwood's classic

This is not the first time The Handmaid's Tale was put under immense heat so to speak

But this is the first time the book actually cannot be burned

The production of this book took two months

They had to carefully plan which materials to use in this symbolic version

With the help of master craftsman, Jeremy Martin, Atwood's dystopian classic was forged anew

The book can reportedly withstand heat up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit or 1,426 degrees Celcius

To test the book's fireproof durability, the author herself ignited the flames

With flamethrower in hand, 87-year-old Margaret Atwood burned her most beloved yet most contested work

The moment couldn't be captured better than this

It took months of planning before the unburnable version can be successfully published

They had to do multiple trials and errors before finding the right materials — first for the fire-resistant pages, next is the cover, and the ultimate test was finding a binding that wouldn't fall apart once the book burning commences.

Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum

The special unburnable edition of The Handmaid's Tale was put in auction

If the novel is strong enough to fight for feminism then it's definitely strong enough to raise awareness about the rampant book censorship in America

You can watch the whole clip below:

The fireproof edition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was put in auction for several days. The entire proceeds from the auction were donated to PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists) America which is leading the charge against the censorship crisis.

The winning bid was $130,000. Margaret Atwood is not one to back down from a fight; they weren't successful at trying to keep her quiet before, this time, fire can't put a damper on her indomitable spirit.

Chelsi