美国国家公共电台 NPR Hulu's 'The Handmaid's Tale' Is Compelling — And Chilling

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

"The Handmaid's Tale" debuts¹ today on Hulu. It's an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel. I saw her once with fans. People love this story even though it is so troubling, a story of authoritarian² rule and female oppression of a sort that some people may find disturbing even within this review. Here's NPR TV critic Eric Deggans.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE³: Hulu's excellent adaptation of "The Handmaid's Tale" is a horror show revealed in slow motion.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HANDMAID'S TALE")

DEGGANS: "Mad Men" alum Elisabeth Moss⁴ is compelling and relatable as the lead character, a woman we see running from security forces with her daughter minutes before they're both captured.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HANDMAID'S TALE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Got her.

ELISABETH MOSS: (As Offred) No.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) Mommy.

MOSS: (As Offred) No.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) No.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Take her.

MOSS: (As Offred) No, you can't. Please, please don't take her. Please...

DEGGANS: Then time jumps forward to the near future. We learn Moss' character's now a handmaid, a woman forced to have babies. She sits in a simple room in a mansion⁵. She wears a white bonnet⁶, blood-red dress and a shroud⁷ of melancholy⁸ like a thick, suffocating⁹ blanket.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HANDMAID'S TALE")

MOSS: (As Offred) At a window with white curtains. And the glass says shatterproof, but it isn't running away they're afraid of. It's those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge. My name is Offred. I had another name, but it's forbidden now.

DEGGANS: Fans of Atwood's novel know Offred has only begun to describe the hideous¹⁰ world she's living in. A brutal¹¹, totalitarian theocracy¹² has replaced the U.S. government as sterility¹³ is rising and fewer women can have babies. Fertile women are captured and forced to serve as handmaids to society's leaders. Offred's name denotes the commander she serves, Fred Waterford, played by Joseph Fiennes.

Once searing scene features Offred's memory of Aunt Lydia, the abusive headmistress who trains new handmaids, explaining their duties as breeders.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HANDMAID'S TALE")

ANN DOWD: (As Aunt Lydia) You girls will serve the leaders of the faithful and their barren wives. You will bear children for them. Oh, you are so lucky.

DEGGANS: Hulu's show depicts¹⁴ women stripped of husbands, children, jobs, their own money and control over their sexuality. The scenes depicting¹⁵ the ceremony in which handmaids copulate with commanders is emotionally brutal without being overly explicit¹⁶. Even the most mundane¹⁷ activities come to carry the weight of dread¹⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HANDMAID'S TALE")

MOSS: (As Offred) A bath is required before the ceremony. I am to make myself clean, washed and brushed like a prize pig.

DEGGANS: In this nightmarish world, both prisoner and oppressor are forced into a brutal, dehumanizing ritual which pretends to be edifying¹⁹. Atwood's book was written in 1985, but its themes about reproductive rights resonate with today's generation, as seen in signs of the women's march in January saying, "The Handmaid's Tale" is not an instruction manual. Given that undercurrent, it's tough to imagine a better time for Atwood's story to come to television. It's a cautionary tale on how quickly liberties can vanish. It's a meditation²⁰ on how much of a woman's freedom can be connected to control of her reproductive rights. And it's a horror story for modern women who can see characters just like them have their independence ripped away.

As this speech by Aunt Lydia to the new handmaidens proves, it's all the more horrific for the way it seems absolutely normal.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HANDMAID'S TALE")

DOWD: (As Aunt Lydia) I know this must feel very strange. But ordinary is just what you're used to. This may not seem ordinary to you right now. But after a time, it will.

DEGGANS: In a country where sexual harassment²¹ scandals regularly land on the front page, the patriarchy of "The Handmaid's Tale" doesn't feel so far-fetched, which is the most horrific thing about it. I'm Eric Deggans.

1 debuts   

演员首次演出( debut的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He never really debuts the idea of taking money from his parents any longer. 他从此就再也没有认真起过向父母要钱的念头。
• This young soprano debuts next month at the metropolitan opera. 这位年轻的女高音歌唱家下个月将在纽约大都会歌剧院举行首演。

2 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

5 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

6 bonnet   

n.无边女帽；童帽

参考例句：

• The baby's bonnet keeps the sun out of her eyes.婴孩的帽子遮住阳光，使之不刺眼。
• She wore a faded black bonnet garnished with faded artificial flowers.她戴着一顶褪了色的黑色无边帽，帽上缀着褪了色的假花。

7 shroud   

n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏

参考例句：

• His past was enveloped in a shroud of mystery.他的过去被裹上一层神秘色彩。
• How can I do under shroud of a dark sky?在黑暗的天空的笼罩下，我该怎么做呢？

8 melancholy   

n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
• He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过，他感到很郁闷。

9 suffocating   

a.使人窒息的

参考例句：

• After a few weeks with her parents, she felt she was suffocating.和父母呆了几个星期后，她感到自己毫无自由。
• That's better. I was suffocating in that cell of a room.这样好些了，我刚才在那个小房间里快闷死了。

10 hideous   

adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的

参考例句：

• The whole experience had been like some hideous nightmare.整个经历就像一场可怕的噩梦。
• They're not like dogs,they're hideous brutes.它们不像狗，是丑陋的畜牲。

11 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

12 theocracy   

n.神权政治；僧侣政治

参考例句：

• Shangzhou was an important period for the formation and development of theocracy.商周时期是神权政治形成与发展的重要阶段。
• The Muslim brothers look as if they will opt for civil society rather than theocracy.穆斯林兄弟看起来好像更适合文明的社会，而非神权统治。

13 sterility   

n.不生育，不结果，贫瘠，消毒，无菌

参考例句：

• A major barrier to interspecific hybridization is sterility in the F1 progeny.种间杂交的主要障碍是F1代的不育性。
• Sterility is some permanent factor preventing procreation.不育是阻碍生殖的一种永久性因素。

14 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

15 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

16 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

17 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。

18 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。

19 edifying   

adj.有教训意味的，教训性的，有益的v.开导，启发( edify的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Young students are advised to read edifying books to improve their mind. 建议青年学生们读一些陶冶性情的书籍，以提高自己的心智。 来自辞典例句
• This edifying spectacle was the final event of the Governor's ball. 这个有启发性的表演便是省长的舞会的最后一个节目了。 来自辞典例句

20 meditation   

n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录

参考例句：

• This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
• I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉，我打断了你的沉思。

21 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。