Precisely
The yesterday's book meme, (interestingly first brought to my attention by both quicktongue and fpb who have never met, who live on separate continents, but whose conversation about books and history I would love to eavesdrop on) included a title that caused a bit of discussion on fpb's page and prompted him to link to an article that I will excerpt part of here:
(Excerpted from: "The Bigot’s Opera" by Michael Linton
Copyright First Things, November 2003
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=544).
[The "Opera" in the article title refers the opera version of the story by Danish composer Poul Ruders]
"Although Atwood's story is a fantasy, she seeks to give it a sense of plausibility by basing it upon real elements of American fundamentalism. But she gets almost all of these wrong. Most fundamentalists aren't that interested in politics (much to the chagrin of some politicians). They are interested in the Rapture. Should cataclysmic disasters befall America, fundamentalists wouldn't rise up and seize the government. They would most likely be in a deep crisis of faith, since according to their most popular understanding of biblical prophecy, calamities like that shouldn’t happen, or at least the saved shouldn’t be there to endure them.
"Similarly out of joint is the notion that Rachel's example in Genesis 30 would be taken by fundamentalists as justification for concubinage. Anybody who reads Scripture-and fundamentalists read quite a lot of it-knows that Rachel's faithless desperation and Jacob's complicity in it sets off a domestic disaster, eventually resulting in the attempted murder of Joseph. It isn't a precedent to be followed. It's one to be avoided. And the notion that fundamentalist women would ever let their men run roughshod over them in the way suggested by The Handmaid's Tale shows that Atwood knows nothing about her subjects."
[snip a short discussion of the use of "Amazing Grace" in the opera and even shorter discussion of Marshall Field's endorsement of the Minnesota performance of the opera]
"Yet there’s something more troubling than Atwood's and Ruders', and apparently even Marshall Fields’, twisted view of fundamentalists. The real scandal that The Handmaid's Tale lays bare is the left's conviction that Christian fundamentalists lie outside the social contract of society. Norms of decency for dealing with other subcultures are apparently not applicable to treatment of fundamentalists. For the smart set, they are fair game. Diversity, tolerance, and respect for 'the other' have boundaries. Christian fundamentalism can be found on the other side.
"In a remarkable passage in the opera's program, Dale Johnson, the Minnesota Opera’s artistic director, writes that he sees The Handmaid's Tale as 'a warning of the effects of intolerance in all its forms. Intolerance dehumanizes people, forcing their humanity underground. The best art holds up a mirror to its audience, and The Handmaid’s Tale does that brilliantly using the operatic genre.' His comments echo those of Atwood when describing her story as a work about 'what happens when people condemn without understanding.' Precisely."
Michael Linton heads the division of composition and theory at the McClain School of Music at Middle Tennessee State University.
(Excerpted from: "The Bigot’s Opera" by Michael Linton
Copyright First Things, November 2003
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=544).
[The "Opera" in the article title refers the opera version of the story by Danish composer Poul Ruders]
"Although Atwood's story is a fantasy, she seeks to give it a sense of plausibility by basing it upon real elements of American fundamentalism. But she gets almost all of these wrong. Most fundamentalists aren't that interested in politics (much to the chagrin of some politicians). They are interested in the Rapture. Should cataclysmic disasters befall America, fundamentalists wouldn't rise up and seize the government. They would most likely be in a deep crisis of faith, since according to their most popular understanding of biblical prophecy, calamities like that shouldn’t happen, or at least the saved shouldn’t be there to endure them.
"Similarly out of joint is the notion that Rachel's example in Genesis 30 would be taken by fundamentalists as justification for concubinage. Anybody who reads Scripture-and fundamentalists read quite a lot of it-knows that Rachel's faithless desperation and Jacob's complicity in it sets off a domestic disaster, eventually resulting in the attempted murder of Joseph. It isn't a precedent to be followed. It's one to be avoided. And the notion that fundamentalist women would ever let their men run roughshod over them in the way suggested by The Handmaid's Tale shows that Atwood knows nothing about her subjects."
[snip a short discussion of the use of "Amazing Grace" in the opera and even shorter discussion of Marshall Field's endorsement of the Minnesota performance of the opera]
"Yet there’s something more troubling than Atwood's and Ruders', and apparently even Marshall Fields’, twisted view of fundamentalists. The real scandal that The Handmaid's Tale lays bare is the left's conviction that Christian fundamentalists lie outside the social contract of society. Norms of decency for dealing with other subcultures are apparently not applicable to treatment of fundamentalists. For the smart set, they are fair game. Diversity, tolerance, and respect for 'the other' have boundaries. Christian fundamentalism can be found on the other side.
"In a remarkable passage in the opera's program, Dale Johnson, the Minnesota Opera’s artistic director, writes that he sees The Handmaid's Tale as 'a warning of the effects of intolerance in all its forms. Intolerance dehumanizes people, forcing their humanity underground. The best art holds up a mirror to its audience, and The Handmaid’s Tale does that brilliantly using the operatic genre.' His comments echo those of Atwood when describing her story as a work about 'what happens when people condemn without understanding.' Precisely."
Michael Linton heads the division of composition and theory at the McClain School of Music at Middle Tennessee State University.