Margaret Atwood releases satirical short story critiquing book bans in Canada | Canada

Margaret Atwood has launched a brand new brief story critiquing elected officers for a wide-ranging e-book ban within the Canadian province of Alberta. The controversial choice to take away books purportedly containing “specific sexual content material” has seen quite a few works of literature swept up within the dragnet, together with Atwood’s dystopian work The Handmaid’s Story.In a social media submit, Atwood wrote that since her famed work was now not permissible in Alberta faculties, she had written a “appropriate” brief work for teenagers, including the work was crucial as a result of the province’s minister of training thought college students have been “silly infants”.The extraordinarily transient story traces the lives of John and Mary, two “very, excellent” kids.“They by no means picked their noses or had bowel actions or zits,” she wrote within the opening traces, including they have been ardent Christians who “paid no consideration to what Jesus truly mentioned in regards to the poor” and as an alternative “practised egocentric rapacious capitalism” within the vein of the conservative literary hero Ayn Rand.“Oh, they usually by no means died, as a result of who needs to dwell on, , loss of life and corpses and yuk?”Atwood writes that whereas the pair “lived fortunately ever”, the ominous warnings in her 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Story – which describes a totalitarian fundamentalist regime during which enslaved ladies are compelled to bear kids – “got here true got here true and [Alberta premier] Danielle Smith discovered herself with a pleasant new blue gown however no job” – a reference to the novel’s elite wives who’ve energy however usually are not permitted to work.“The tip.”The Alberta ban emerged as a product of intense lobbying by socially conservative “dad and mom’ rights” teams within the province and mirrors a development in the US.Action4Canada and Mother and father for Selection in Schooling (PCE) have taken credit score for the e-book ban and the latter despatched an e mail to supporters after the ban was introduced thanking them for his or her efforts in contacting authorities officers about “graphic” books.The Alberta authorities defines “specific sexual content material” in its coverage as “content material containing an in depth and clear depiction of a sexual act”. College students from kindergarten to grade 12 can’t entry any “content material” in a faculty library that meets this definition.Alberta’s public faculties have till October to adjust to the order, however some faculties have already launched their lists of banned books. The Edmonton college board mentioned it will take away 200 books from college libraries, together with The Handmaid’s Story.Different books to be pulled from cabinets embody George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, which officers say incorporates passages that debate sexual activity and rape; Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Fowl Sings and Aldous Huxley’s Courageous New World.Final week, Smith criticised officers for drawing up such a wide-ranging listing of books to be eliminated, describing the transfer as “vicious compliance”.Smith confirmed reporters excerpts from graphic novels – together with Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe – that prompted the brand new guidelines within the first place for the specific illustrations of sexual acts they include. The e-book is a globally acclaimed coming-of-age story about teenage life and younger maturity. Critics of the ban say more and more highly effective foyer teams are focusing on books that affirm LGBTQ+ identities.Forward of the ban, Atwood additionally posted on social media warning towards studying The Handmaid’s Story as a result of “your hair will catch on hearth!”“Get one now earlier than they’ve public e-book burnings of it.”