FILE - Margaret Atwood talks to journalists as she arrives on the pink carpet for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize, in Toronto, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Younger
TORONTO --
Margaret Atwood would not consider there's a "incorrect" aspect of historical past, so she would not pay a lot thoughts to the way it will bear in mind her.
"I do not care. I will be lifeless," mentioned Atwood, 82. "We could be shocked about that. Have an open thoughts. But it surely sort of would not matter. And I've no management over it."
The Canadian literary legend added a brand new e-book of essays, "Burning Questions," to her prolific bibliography this month. The gathering consists of articles, speeches, e-book opinions, political commentary and different musings penned between 2004 and 2021 -- masking a tumultuous interval when, as Atwood sees it, the historic stakes of the problems we face appear extra excessive and instant, between the gradual burn of the local weather disaster and threats to the way forward for consultant democracy.
However Atwood mentioned she would not write with posterity in thoughts, regarding herself extra with the destiny of the residing moderately than the caprices of legacy.
"What often occurs is instantly after you die, there is a large flurry of curiosity, and other people do options on you.... Then you definitely're outdated. Individuals go, 'eye roll, eye roll, eye roll. Oh, her,"' mentioned Atwood.
"They do this to a sure extent while you're outdated, anyway, roll the eyes. Until you develop into immediately related, resembling having a TV present that everyone thinks is prophetic. They do not roll their eyes proper then. They wait a short time and roll them later."
This eye-rolling serves as a countervailing power towards the "idolatry" of artists, Atwood mentioned. It is an issue that is dogged the Toronto writer for the reason that hit TV adaptation of "The Handmaid's Story" and her 2019 sequel, "The Testaments," ushered in her late-career renaissance because the "prophet of dystopia."
"I have been proper too usually," she mentioned with amusing. "They've forgotten all of the instances I have been incorrect."
Other than a leisure curiosity in tarot card studying, Atwood insisted she's not within the future-predicting enterprise. If something, "Burning Questions" exhibits her to be an astute reader of historical past, extrapolating insights into the present second. Something past that's as much as us to resolve, she mentioned.
"You possibly can search for indicators and signs, and you'll say, if we proceed on this highway, we're most likely going to fall right into a gap," Atwood mentioned. "That isn't to say that we are going to proceed alongside that highway."
In "Burning Questions," Atwood confronts the cascade of crises which have characterised the twenty first century -- from the U.S.-led warfare on terror, to the monetary collapse of 2008, to Donald Trump's polarizing rise to the White Home, to the COVID-19 disaster -- with an unsparing sagacity that makes the essays each well timed and timeless.
Atwood's drumbeat of admonitions holds regular over the practically twenty years the gathering covers; the world modifications to present new resonance to her observations in regards to the risks of environmental damage, creeping totalitarianism and social unrest throughout pandemics.
All through her profession, this readability of conviction appears to have inured Atwood to the whims of the zeitgeist, putting her constantly forward of her time. However in recent times, that very same unbiased streak has put her out of step with sure circles of the up to date feminist motion.
Her newest dust-up surrounded a tweet final fall sharing a Toronto Star op-ed titled, "Why cannot we are saying 'lady' anymore?" The article by Rosie DiManno argued that the rising embrace of gender-inclusive language, resembling "one that menstruates," raises issues in regards to the lexical "erasure of ladies." Some critics accused Atwood of amplifying anti-transgender canine whistling.
In an interview final month, Atwood shrugged off the controversy.
"I do not care. I am properly on file of claiming trans rights are human rights," she mentioned. "Once I was (tweeting about) trans rights ... and the science on it, I used to be getting trolled by individuals who disagreed with that. And that is the way it goes."
Atwood mentioned she's confirmed resilient within the tradition wars as a result of she's extra within the fact than pandering to the dogma du jour.
Some individuals are inclined to think about time as a linear march towards progress, Atwood mentioned. However in her view, there's nothing inevitable about how historical past unfolds, so there is not any level in making an attempt to be on the "proper" aspect of it at present when you possibly can end up on the "incorrect" one tomorrow.
That is notably true of posthumous inventive reputations, she mentioned, which are likely to rise and fall with the ever-churning cultural tides.
"You've a interval wherein folks would ignore your terrible issues that you simply did and focus on the nice ones. After which you might have one other interval wherein your seeming missteps are dredged up and held towards you," Atwood mentioned.
"If issues cool down, then you definately go into oblivion for some time after which somebody makes a miraculous discovery of you. Dig up your pyramid. And lo and behold, look who we have been overlooking all these years."
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed March 10, 2022.
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