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Moving Targets
The most precious treasure of this collection is that it gives us the rich back-story and diverse range of influences on Margaret Atwood's work. From the aunts who encouraged her nascent writing career to the influence of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four on The Handmaid's Tale, we trace the movement of Atwood's fertile and curious mind in action over the years.Atwood's controversial political pieces, Napoleon's Two Biggest Mistakes and Letter to America -- both not-so-veiled warnings about the repercussions of the war in Iraq -- also appear, alongside pieces that exhibit her active concern for the environment, the North, and the future of the human race. Atwood also writes about her John Updike, Marina Warner, Italo Calvino, Marian Engel, Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mordecai Richler, Elmore Leonard, and Ursula Le Guin.This is a landmark volume from a major writer whose worldwide readership is in the millions, and whose work has influenced and entertained generations. Moving Targets is the companion volume to Second Words.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2004
20 people are currently reading
471 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Atwood
640 books88.3k followersMargaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 10, 2022
Inspirujące, dowcipne, ujmujące i szczere teksty na wszelkie możliwe tematy, z głównym wskazaniem jednak na literaturę oraz wczesne lata życia autorki. Niektóre eseje ominęłam - nie lubię czytać o książkach, których jeszcze nie znam (zwykłe recenzje to jednak co innego). Ale te, które przeczytałam, podobały mi się bardzo.
September 11, 2021
Although far better known as a writer of fiction (and poetry), she is a very clear-minded and joyful to read essayist-reviewer and Moving Targets offers a selection from over 20 years of book reviews, conferences, open letters, eulogies, and travel recollections. In many ways (as the author of the introduction points out), this is also a biography of sorts (and a very literary biography, it must be said), as Atwood seems to be a firm believer that writing an essay shouldn't be a cold-blooded academic pursuit. Regardless of the context in/for which each particular essay was written, we get glimpse or whole panoramas of her personal life, whether as the books she read as a child, the authors who became long-life friends and collaborators, or her complex and rich family life. Some themes and authors become recurrent themes and, for example, we can rejoice at how her early encounter with George Orwell's Animal Farm (read by mistake when she thought it was an "animal book" in the vein of The Wind in the Willows) and 1984 --along with her travels to Afganisthan in the late 1970s-- ultimately bear fruits in her own novel The Handmaid's Tale and her distrut of any real-world utopian proposals (dystopias in the making, of course). Other recurring subjects in this essay include CanLit --both as background and context for her own historical novel Alias Grace or in her recollections of encounters and relationship with fellow Canadian writers-- and environmentalism and the future of mankind. As I said earlier, her own personal life always seem to find its way into her essays, but one particularly endearing essay ("Great Aunts") focuses exclusively in her family life and how it shaped (and continues to shape) her literary calling. And Atwood's life has indeed been a literary journey and one that she gladly share with her readers. This anthology allow the reader to enjoy the maturity and maturation of her literary skills (sentences become longer and more ambitious as the years go by) and, by the end of Moving Targets, you will find that your own "to read list" has vastly expanded and you will feel that you have been allowed a privileged glimpse into a real person's life.
October 1, 2017
«живі мішені» – це зібрані за дві (з хвостиком) декади есеї з різних приводів: передмови й післямови, рецензії, біографічні фрагменти, некрологи, реакції на поточні події. найцікавіша в них, звісно, сама етвуд, але на доволі близькій другій сходинці – канада. погляд цих есеїв на місце канади у світі дуже відрізняється від, наприклад, позиції робертсона девіса в «голосі з горища», опублікованому в 1960 році: якщо він цілковито занурений у традицію великої англо-американської літератури, то етвуд уже пише з локальної точки зору, скоріше відштовхуючись від традиції, ніж перебуваючи в ній, – і не втрачає від того ні цікавості, ні важливості.
January 20, 2022
Ciężko jest mi jednoznacznie ocenić tę książkę, bo w moich odczuciach była nierówna. Bardzo podobały mi się te eseje w których autorka dawała nam szerszy kontekst dla „Opowieści podręcznej”, albo pisała o książkach które znam, np. „Do latarni morskiej” Wolf czy do Orwella. Niestety wielu z dzieł które omawiała były dla mnie obce, przez co nie mogłam w pełni zrozumieć co chciała przekazać. Najbardziej zapamiętam chyba esej o baśniach i ten o istocie sci-fi, bo wzbudziły we mnie chęć przeczytania książek Warner i Le Guin.
Zbiór polecam fanom twórczości Atwood oraz literackim freakom, którzy znają się na klasykach literatury. Mam nadzieję, że sama kiedyś nim będę. :D
Zbiór polecam fanom twórczości Atwood oraz literackim freakom, którzy znają się na klasykach literatury. Mam nadzieję, że sama kiedyś nim będę. :D
December 25, 2021
Te eseje to źródło inspiracji czytelniczych. Jestem pod wrażeniem, że tak krótka forma sprawiła mi tyle przyjemności
September 21, 2014
Margaret Atwood hasn’t spoken to me in 40 years (for that story, see http://sextile.com/2012/11/19/the-bas...) but I haven’t held it against her. I’ve continued reading her books, like any Canadian bibliophile who hopes that someday she’ll receive a Nobel in recognition for her impressive body of work. Until then, let me add this positive review for one of her non-fiction books.
Moving Targets is a broad-ranging compilation of book reviews, critical essays, and reflections on the writing life. Amazingly enough, I found a signed first edition in my neighborhood bookstore, proving once again that the world is indeed small. But since we both live in Toronto, maybe someday she’ll see me on the street; hopefully I’ll see her first and dodge her car if she tries to run me over.
Reading Moving Targets reminded me once again what a magnificently erudite woman she is. It goes without saying that she knows Can Lit inside out, and in a number of essays and reviews pays homage to Canadian writers Margaret Laurence, Carol Shields and Mordecai Richler, plus many other lesser northern luminaries.
Her admiration also ranges from the crime fiction of Dashiell Hammett and Elmore Leonard to the speculative dystopias of Ursula Le Guin and George Orwell. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether she’s writing about dark fairy tales, modern literature or the folly of nations at war, she brings to every piece the focus of her wit and intelligence, like someone with a flashlight showing us where to find the best books in a vast unlighted library.
As I read this book I soon found myself infected by her own enthusiasm, and started a list of other authors I should read. And although I had not thought of it until now, she seems to me like a Professor of Zoology who could never be content to lecture from the podium. Rather, she must don her hiking boots and camouflage jacket, and lead her class into the woods to see first-hand the denizens inhabiting the vast forest of literature and, if one were so inclined, learn how to live among them.
As the book flap says, Moving Targets is an essential collection for Atwood fans everywhere.
Moving Targets is a broad-ranging compilation of book reviews, critical essays, and reflections on the writing life. Amazingly enough, I found a signed first edition in my neighborhood bookstore, proving once again that the world is indeed small. But since we both live in Toronto, maybe someday she’ll see me on the street; hopefully I’ll see her first and dodge her car if she tries to run me over.
Reading Moving Targets reminded me once again what a magnificently erudite woman she is. It goes without saying that she knows Can Lit inside out, and in a number of essays and reviews pays homage to Canadian writers Margaret Laurence, Carol Shields and Mordecai Richler, plus many other lesser northern luminaries.
Her admiration also ranges from the crime fiction of Dashiell Hammett and Elmore Leonard to the speculative dystopias of Ursula Le Guin and George Orwell. And it doesn’t seem to matter whether she’s writing about dark fairy tales, modern literature or the folly of nations at war, she brings to every piece the focus of her wit and intelligence, like someone with a flashlight showing us where to find the best books in a vast unlighted library.
As I read this book I soon found myself infected by her own enthusiasm, and started a list of other authors I should read. And although I had not thought of it until now, she seems to me like a Professor of Zoology who could never be content to lecture from the podium. Rather, she must don her hiking boots and camouflage jacket, and lead her class into the woods to see first-hand the denizens inhabiting the vast forest of literature and, if one were so inclined, learn how to live among them.
As the book flap says, Moving Targets is an essential collection for Atwood fans everywhere.
March 1, 2020
Really a must read for any Atwood fan, it is a collection of her non-fiction short pieces and includes book reviews and forwards written for both contemporary authors and classic authors, personal pieces about her family and friend influences and the occasional political diatribe skewering its targets as only Atwood can.
August 31, 2022
Na każdy temat
Gdybym miała sporządzić swój prywatny ranking ulubionych pisarzy, to na jego podium na pewno znalazłaby się Margaret Atwood, jako jedna z najwybitniejszych współczesnych prozaiczek. Choć sławę przyniosły jej publikowane na całym świecie powieści, postanowiłam sięgnąć po zbiór esejów jej autorstwa. I tym razem się nie zawiodłam.
W "Ruchomych celach" zamieszczono teksty o różnorodnej tematyce – ekologiczne, społeczne, recenzje książek, wspomnienia innych autorów, ale w dużej mierze teksty o doświadczeniu pisania. Niezależnie od podjętej tematyki eseje są napisane z polotem, więc nawet czytanie o pisarzach, z którymi wcześniej nie miałam styczności nie było nużące, a wręcz przeciwnie – zachęciło mnie do odszukania kilku tytułów i dopisania ich do listy książek, które mam w planach przeczytać.
"Ruchome cele" przemycają więcej informacji o samej autorce niż jest ona w stanie wpleść w swoich powieściach, a momentami mówią o niej więcej niż niejedna biografia. Czytelnik ma możliwość poznać przemyślenia Margaret Atwood na tematy, które w jej twórczości są poruszane tylko pośrednio lub wcale. Najciekawsze jest przede wszystkim jej spojrzenie na sam akt pisania, ale również czytania (recenzowania) powieści, kulisy powstawania powieści, a także walkę ze sztywnym wpisywaniem ich w jeden gatunek.
Nie wydaje mi się, żeby zbiór esejów Atwood był najlepszym wyborem na pierwsze spotkanie z autorką – w takim przypadku zawsze będę zachęcać do sięgnięcia po którąś z jej powieści. Jednak dla miłośników jej pióra, inteligencji, bystrości i poczucia humoru "Ruchome cele" mogą okazać się lekturą, która da im sporo satysfakcji – nawet jeśli momentami będzie niełatwa.
Gdybym miała sporządzić swój prywatny ranking ulubionych pisarzy, to na jego podium na pewno znalazłaby się Margaret Atwood, jako jedna z najwybitniejszych współczesnych prozaiczek. Choć sławę przyniosły jej publikowane na całym świecie powieści, postanowiłam sięgnąć po zbiór esejów jej autorstwa. I tym razem się nie zawiodłam.
W "Ruchomych celach" zamieszczono teksty o różnorodnej tematyce – ekologiczne, społeczne, recenzje książek, wspomnienia innych autorów, ale w dużej mierze teksty o doświadczeniu pisania. Niezależnie od podjętej tematyki eseje są napisane z polotem, więc nawet czytanie o pisarzach, z którymi wcześniej nie miałam styczności nie było nużące, a wręcz przeciwnie – zachęciło mnie do odszukania kilku tytułów i dopisania ich do listy książek, które mam w planach przeczytać.
"Ruchome cele" przemycają więcej informacji o samej autorce niż jest ona w stanie wpleść w swoich powieściach, a momentami mówią o niej więcej niż niejedna biografia. Czytelnik ma możliwość poznać przemyślenia Margaret Atwood na tematy, które w jej twórczości są poruszane tylko pośrednio lub wcale. Najciekawsze jest przede wszystkim jej spojrzenie na sam akt pisania, ale również czytania (recenzowania) powieści, kulisy powstawania powieści, a także walkę ze sztywnym wpisywaniem ich w jeden gatunek.
Nie wydaje mi się, żeby zbiór esejów Atwood był najlepszym wyborem na pierwsze spotkanie z autorką – w takim przypadku zawsze będę zachęcać do sięgnięcia po którąś z jej powieści. Jednak dla miłośników jej pióra, inteligencji, bystrości i poczucia humoru "Ruchome cele" mogą okazać się lekturą, która da im sporo satysfakcji – nawet jeśli momentami będzie niełatwa.
March 15, 2022
Można lubić Margharet Atwood. Za mądrość ukrytą pomiędzy słowami, za poczucie humoru, piękne pióro, którym się posługuje - a przede wszystkim za niewątpliwą inteligencję i błyskotliwość, które czuć w jej dziełach.
„Ruchome cele” to zbiór esejów, recenzji, prywatnych przemyśleń autorki pisanych w latach 1982-2004; zgodzę się tutaj z @windismystylist - to angażująca lektura, którą czyta się wolno, ale z wielką dozą satysfakcji i spełnienia.
Dla fanów autorki jest to totalny musi read i spytana raz o to, od której pozycji zacząć czytanie (@Wielkalitera rozpieściła nas dwoma tytułami w tym samym czasie. Na świeczniku była jeszcze „Zbójecka narzeczona”! ), nie wahałam się ani sekundy. Cele pozwalają nam poznać autorkę od zupełnie innej strony. To jak podróż przez jej twórczość, jak wciśnięcie się w najgłębszy zakamarek jej głowy. Fascynująca, ciekawa i przede wszystkim szczera książka, którą można by nazwać autobiografią…Gdyby, rzecz jasna, rzeczywiście nią była.
Tytuł jest o wszystkim; o pisaniu, o czytaniu, o znanych nam autorkach, których Atwood poddała własnej krytyce. Zainteresowani powstaniem „Opowieści Podręcznej” będą w siódmym niebie, a Ci, którzy szukają kolejnego autorskiego nazwiska do poznania - znajdą ich całą masę!
Autorka bowiem przywołuje ogrom tytułów, dzieł i nieznanych mi wcześniej autorów, których już zapisałam na listę do koniecznego zapoznania.
Osobiście czuję jednak pewien dysonans pomiędzy twórczością a samą autorką i trudno mi uplasować ją na jakiejś konkretnej pozycji wśród moich ulubionych pisarek.
„Ruchome cele” to zbiór esejów, recenzji, prywatnych przemyśleń autorki pisanych w latach 1982-2004; zgodzę się tutaj z @windismystylist - to angażująca lektura, którą czyta się wolno, ale z wielką dozą satysfakcji i spełnienia.
Dla fanów autorki jest to totalny musi read i spytana raz o to, od której pozycji zacząć czytanie (@Wielkalitera rozpieściła nas dwoma tytułami w tym samym czasie. Na świeczniku była jeszcze „Zbójecka narzeczona”! ), nie wahałam się ani sekundy. Cele pozwalają nam poznać autorkę od zupełnie innej strony. To jak podróż przez jej twórczość, jak wciśnięcie się w najgłębszy zakamarek jej głowy. Fascynująca, ciekawa i przede wszystkim szczera książka, którą można by nazwać autobiografią…Gdyby, rzecz jasna, rzeczywiście nią była.
Tytuł jest o wszystkim; o pisaniu, o czytaniu, o znanych nam autorkach, których Atwood poddała własnej krytyce. Zainteresowani powstaniem „Opowieści Podręcznej” będą w siódmym niebie, a Ci, którzy szukają kolejnego autorskiego nazwiska do poznania - znajdą ich całą masę!
Autorka bowiem przywołuje ogrom tytułów, dzieł i nieznanych mi wcześniej autorów, których już zapisałam na listę do koniecznego zapoznania.
Osobiście czuję jednak pewien dysonans pomiędzy twórczością a samą autorką i trudno mi uplasować ją na jakiejś konkretnej pozycji wśród moich ulubionych pisarek.
May 2, 2024
[3.75] Niekotre fragmenty bardzo mnie zaciekawiły, a inne mniej❗
October 24, 2014
"But some latitude may be accorded you as well: the kind of thing that might have got you called a mean, dangerous, radical redtoothed bitch when you were thirty may now be treated as the scatterbrained utterance of a cute old biddy. I’m not quite there yet, but I can see the turnoff." (p.2)
"...what may be common sense to one person is annoying polemic to another." (p.3)
"...a collection of trajectories." (p.5)
"What a culture has to say about witchcraft, whether in jest or in earnest, has a lot to do with its views of sexuality and power, and especially with the apportioning of power between the sexes. The witches were burned not because they were pitied but because they were feared. (p.20)
It is the artist’s love for the “real” world that drives him to transform it into an artifact, and, paradoxically- according to logic- to deny it. As the photographer says, “The minute you start saying of something, ‘Ah, how beautiful! We must photograph it!’ you are already close to the view of the person who thinks that everything that is not photographed is lost, as if it never existed.”" (p.25)
"She had, among other things, a sense of decorum, and it was hard for her not to let that stifle her as a writer." (p.28)
"There was always that conflict- the ‘lady’ she’d been taught to be, and the bohemian thing. (p.28)
I am not a scholar or historian, but a writer of fiction and poetry, and such people are notoriously subjective in their reading." (p.34)
"The question is, would the trees save us, given the chance? Would the water, would the birds, would the rocks? In the north, we have our doubts. (p.53)
What bits of our daily junk- our toasters, our pocket computers- will soon become obsolete, and therefore poignant?" (p.54)
"...how to acknowledge our own human and necessary limitations, our own foolishness. How to say both No, and Yes." (p.69)
"Unless we begin somewhere, we will never begin at all. An absence of small beginnings will spell the end." (p.70)
"In Nova Scotia, it’s not what you do or even who you know that is the most important thing about you. It’s which town you’re from and who you’re related to." (p.76)
"These events may have taken place years, decades before, but they were still current in the area. It appeared that the Valley was more like The Mountain and the Valley than I had suspected." (p.81)
"...in the Valley, there were those who drank, and then there were decent people.
Also: there were those who wrote, and then there were the decent people." (p.82)
"I suppose any person, but especially any woman, who takes up writing has felt, especially at first, that she was doing it against a huge largely unspoken pressure, the pressure of expectation and decorum." (p.83)
"Perhaps this is what writers are: those who never kicked the habit. We remain tale bearers. We learned to keep our eyes open, but not to keep our mouths shut." (p.89)
"Expressing yourself is not nearly enough. You must express the story." (p.91)
"Utopia is an extreme example of the impulse to order, it’s the word should run rampant. Dystopia, its nightmare mirror image, is the desire to squash dissent taken to inhuman and lunatic lengths. Neither are what you’d call tolerant, but both are necessary to the imagination: if we can’t visualize the good, the ideal, if we can’t formulate what we want, we’ll get what we don’t want, in spades." (p.106)
"Writing about writing requires self-consciousness; writing itself requires the abdication of it." (p.131)
"A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason. Think of it as the altar of the Muse Oblivion, to whom you sacrifice your botched first drafts, the tokens of your human imperfection. She is the tenth Muse, the one without whom none of the others could function. The gift she offers you is the freedom of the second chance. Or as many chances as you’ll take." (p.132)
"Tell what is yours to tell. Let others tell what is theirs." (p.133)
(Why do you write?): "Because I want to discover the patterns in the chaos of time. Because I must. Because someone has to bear witness." (p.134)
"Man Does, Woman Is, as Robert Graves so dauntingly put it; and if women insisted on doing rather than being, they were likely to end up with their heads in the oven." (p.148)
"Create a flawless character and you create an insufferable one, which may be why I’m interested in spots." (p.158)
"...every artist is, among other things, a con artist.
We con artists do tell the truth, in a way; but, as Emily Dickenson said, we tell it slant." (p.160)
"Did we face a situation in which women could do no wrong, but could only have wrong done to them? Were women being confined yet again to that alabaster pedestal so beloved by the Victorian age, where Woman as better-than-man gave men the licence to be gleefully and enjoyably worse than women, while all the while proclaiming that they couldn't help it because it was their nature? Were women condemned to virtue for life, slaves in the salt mines of goodness? How intolerable." (p.166)
"This is a complex tapestry of many yarns, and you shouldn't try to unravel all of its threads at once." (p.186)
"History may intend to provide us with grand patterns and overall schemes, but without its brick-by-brick, life-by-life, day-by-day foundations it would collapse. Whoever tells you that history is not about individuals, only large trends and movements, is lying." (p.198)
"If you’re after the truth, the whole and detailed truth, and nothing but the truth, you're going to have a thin time of it if you trust to paper; but with the past, it’s almost all you've got." (p.213)
"Poems do not belong to those who write them. Poems belong to those who need them." (Quoting Il Postino) (p.216)
"By the pressures of the market economy we live in, (Lewis Hyde) says, we've been fooled into believing that there is only one way in which things are exchanged: through money transactions, or buying and selling. Yet on some level we know there’s another economy at work in human societies: the gift economy, which has quite different rules and consequences." (p.219)
"There is freedom to and freedom from. But how much of the first should we have to give up in order to assure the second?" (p.244)
"For if oppression is economic, and the bank has grabbed your farm and turfed out your family, isn't it at least slightly heroic to stick your hand in the till?" (p.265)
"The business of gambling is nothing if not the successful selling of illusion." (p.268)
"Although I've been guilty of many artistic failures, such was my callowness that I did not yet recognize them as such." (p.279)
"No one but a lunatic, or someone brainwashed by the Girl Guides into thinking she had to do Good Deeds For Others, would have stayed in the situation for long." (p.297)
"A writer’s own voice is not of course a real voice. It’s a way of putting words on the page that is convincing, first to the writer himself and then to at least some readers." (p.309)
"The position of odd man out is always an uneasy one, but the moment we look around and find that there are no longer any odd men among our public voices is the moment of real danger" (p.337)
"A housewife’s skill was measured by the number of times she could serve up the same thing without your knowing it." (p.351)
"The problem with the luminous is that their very luminosity obscures the shadows it depends on for its brilliance." (p.363)
"Unfortunately, although we continue to dream of heaven, we aren't very good at creating it. We’re so much better at hell." (p.371)
"...what may be common sense to one person is annoying polemic to another." (p.3)
"...a collection of trajectories." (p.5)
"What a culture has to say about witchcraft, whether in jest or in earnest, has a lot to do with its views of sexuality and power, and especially with the apportioning of power between the sexes. The witches were burned not because they were pitied but because they were feared. (p.20)
It is the artist’s love for the “real” world that drives him to transform it into an artifact, and, paradoxically- according to logic- to deny it. As the photographer says, “The minute you start saying of something, ‘Ah, how beautiful! We must photograph it!’ you are already close to the view of the person who thinks that everything that is not photographed is lost, as if it never existed.”" (p.25)
"She had, among other things, a sense of decorum, and it was hard for her not to let that stifle her as a writer." (p.28)
"There was always that conflict- the ‘lady’ she’d been taught to be, and the bohemian thing. (p.28)
I am not a scholar or historian, but a writer of fiction and poetry, and such people are notoriously subjective in their reading." (p.34)
"The question is, would the trees save us, given the chance? Would the water, would the birds, would the rocks? In the north, we have our doubts. (p.53)
What bits of our daily junk- our toasters, our pocket computers- will soon become obsolete, and therefore poignant?" (p.54)
"...how to acknowledge our own human and necessary limitations, our own foolishness. How to say both No, and Yes." (p.69)
"Unless we begin somewhere, we will never begin at all. An absence of small beginnings will spell the end." (p.70)
"In Nova Scotia, it’s not what you do or even who you know that is the most important thing about you. It’s which town you’re from and who you’re related to." (p.76)
"These events may have taken place years, decades before, but they were still current in the area. It appeared that the Valley was more like The Mountain and the Valley than I had suspected." (p.81)
"...in the Valley, there were those who drank, and then there were decent people.
Also: there were those who wrote, and then there were the decent people." (p.82)
"I suppose any person, but especially any woman, who takes up writing has felt, especially at first, that she was doing it against a huge largely unspoken pressure, the pressure of expectation and decorum." (p.83)
"Perhaps this is what writers are: those who never kicked the habit. We remain tale bearers. We learned to keep our eyes open, but not to keep our mouths shut." (p.89)
"Expressing yourself is not nearly enough. You must express the story." (p.91)
"Utopia is an extreme example of the impulse to order, it’s the word should run rampant. Dystopia, its nightmare mirror image, is the desire to squash dissent taken to inhuman and lunatic lengths. Neither are what you’d call tolerant, but both are necessary to the imagination: if we can’t visualize the good, the ideal, if we can’t formulate what we want, we’ll get what we don’t want, in spades." (p.106)
"Writing about writing requires self-consciousness; writing itself requires the abdication of it." (p.131)
"A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason. Think of it as the altar of the Muse Oblivion, to whom you sacrifice your botched first drafts, the tokens of your human imperfection. She is the tenth Muse, the one without whom none of the others could function. The gift she offers you is the freedom of the second chance. Or as many chances as you’ll take." (p.132)
"Tell what is yours to tell. Let others tell what is theirs." (p.133)
(Why do you write?): "Because I want to discover the patterns in the chaos of time. Because I must. Because someone has to bear witness." (p.134)
"Man Does, Woman Is, as Robert Graves so dauntingly put it; and if women insisted on doing rather than being, they were likely to end up with their heads in the oven." (p.148)
"Create a flawless character and you create an insufferable one, which may be why I’m interested in spots." (p.158)
"...every artist is, among other things, a con artist.
We con artists do tell the truth, in a way; but, as Emily Dickenson said, we tell it slant." (p.160)
"Did we face a situation in which women could do no wrong, but could only have wrong done to them? Were women being confined yet again to that alabaster pedestal so beloved by the Victorian age, where Woman as better-than-man gave men the licence to be gleefully and enjoyably worse than women, while all the while proclaiming that they couldn't help it because it was their nature? Were women condemned to virtue for life, slaves in the salt mines of goodness? How intolerable." (p.166)
"This is a complex tapestry of many yarns, and you shouldn't try to unravel all of its threads at once." (p.186)
"History may intend to provide us with grand patterns and overall schemes, but without its brick-by-brick, life-by-life, day-by-day foundations it would collapse. Whoever tells you that history is not about individuals, only large trends and movements, is lying." (p.198)
"If you’re after the truth, the whole and detailed truth, and nothing but the truth, you're going to have a thin time of it if you trust to paper; but with the past, it’s almost all you've got." (p.213)
"Poems do not belong to those who write them. Poems belong to those who need them." (Quoting Il Postino) (p.216)
"By the pressures of the market economy we live in, (Lewis Hyde) says, we've been fooled into believing that there is only one way in which things are exchanged: through money transactions, or buying and selling. Yet on some level we know there’s another economy at work in human societies: the gift economy, which has quite different rules and consequences." (p.219)
"There is freedom to and freedom from. But how much of the first should we have to give up in order to assure the second?" (p.244)
"For if oppression is economic, and the bank has grabbed your farm and turfed out your family, isn't it at least slightly heroic to stick your hand in the till?" (p.265)
"The business of gambling is nothing if not the successful selling of illusion." (p.268)
"Although I've been guilty of many artistic failures, such was my callowness that I did not yet recognize them as such." (p.279)
"No one but a lunatic, or someone brainwashed by the Girl Guides into thinking she had to do Good Deeds For Others, would have stayed in the situation for long." (p.297)
"A writer’s own voice is not of course a real voice. It’s a way of putting words on the page that is convincing, first to the writer himself and then to at least some readers." (p.309)
"The position of odd man out is always an uneasy one, but the moment we look around and find that there are no longer any odd men among our public voices is the moment of real danger" (p.337)
"A housewife’s skill was measured by the number of times she could serve up the same thing without your knowing it." (p.351)
"The problem with the luminous is that their very luminosity obscures the shadows it depends on for its brilliance." (p.363)
"Unfortunately, although we continue to dream of heaven, we aren't very good at creating it. We’re so much better at hell." (p.371)
December 30, 2024
Izgalmas, és terjedelmes gyűjtemény, Margaret Atwood különféle tematikáj
tényirodalmi írásaival: nagyrészt egyes könyvekről és/vagy íróikról szóló esszék, elő- és utószók, alkalmi írások, köztük nekrológok, és beszámolók saját életéről és írásairól.
A kanadai és angolszász (és világ-) irodalmi kitekintések már önmagában érdemlegessé teszik ezt az olvasást, és biztosan fölírtam magamnak vagy féltucat bepótlandó címet - ugyanakkor sok mindent meg is ismertetett, főleg a nagyrészt rejtőzködő kanadai irodalom és irodalomtörténetre vonatkozólag. Atwood tájékozott, szellemes, és empatikus leírásokat ad, nagyjából bármibe is vág bele: vagy felkelti az érdeklődésem, vagy simán öröm olvasni a szövegét, annyira egyben van, mintha beszélgetnénk vagy hallgatnám - mintha úgy beszélne, hogy kitalálja előre a kérdéseim mielőtt megfogalmaznám magamban. Aztán időnként ledob valami szabatosan illetlen, poénnak erős marhaságot, hogy nyerítsek. Gets me every time...
Így kell, így jó beszélni a legeldugottabb irodalomról, szellemről és politikáról, (emberi) természetről és tudományról és kultúráról: a legkomolyabb dolgainkról.
tényirodalmi írásaival: nagyrészt egyes könyvekről és/vagy íróikról szóló esszék, elő- és utószók, alkalmi írások, köztük nekrológok, és beszámolók saját életéről és írásairól.
A kanadai és angolszász (és világ-) irodalmi kitekintések már önmagában érdemlegessé teszik ezt az olvasást, és biztosan fölírtam magamnak vagy féltucat bepótlandó címet - ugyanakkor sok mindent meg is ismertetett, főleg a nagyrészt rejtőzködő kanadai irodalom és irodalomtörténetre vonatkozólag. Atwood tájékozott, szellemes, és empatikus leírásokat ad, nagyjából bármibe is vág bele: vagy felkelti az érdeklődésem, vagy simán öröm olvasni a szövegét, annyira egyben van, mintha beszélgetnénk vagy hallgatnám - mintha úgy beszélne, hogy kitalálja előre a kérdéseim mielőtt megfogalmaznám magamban. Aztán időnként ledob valami szabatosan illetlen, poénnak erős marhaságot, hogy nyerítsek. Gets me every time...
Így kell, így jó beszélni a legeldugottabb irodalomról, szellemről és politikáról, (emberi) természetről és tudományról és kultúráról: a legkomolyabb dolgainkról.
November 12, 2024
Atwood, at her usual sharp observations of everything - be it gender, morality, politics, or literature's power to probe the full spectrum of human behaviour. What I liked was the essay "Spotty-Handed Villainesses" on the portrayal of women in literature - especially those who behave "badly." Atwood asks 👁️🗨️"But is it not, today - well, somewhat unfeminist - to depict a woman behaving badly? Isn't bad behaviour supposed to be the monopoly of men? … When bad women get into literature, what are they doing there, and are they permissible, and what, if anything, do we need them for?” (p. 158). Well, the answer is clear: we absolutely need these "bad" women since the stereotypes of virtue are boring AF. There is something irresistible about a morally flawed heroine who throws convention to the wind, even though she may not be aware of what she is doing. Give me one good, messy female character any day - she's what makes a story worth sticking around for.
January 7, 2019
Pas lu tous les textes de ce recueil, mais ceux que j'ai lus m'ont appris que Margaret Atwood est née à Ottawa, dans une famille où il y a de nombreux scientifiques, d'où son intérêt pour la recherche et les progrès de la science. Il est fort possible qu'un séjour en Afghanistan quelques semaines avant la guerre (1978), avec son conjoint et leur fillette de 18 mois, et l'essayage et l'achat d'une burqa dans une boutique tenue seulement par des hommes, soient à l'origine de sa dystopie « The Handmaid's Tail ». L'intelligence de Margaret Atwood donne à toutes ses réflexions et analyses une perspicacité remarquable que j'apprécie énormément.
January 11, 2023
Eseje biograficzne, rozprawy o naturze i warsztacie pisania super ciekawe. Recenzje książek, z których większości nie znam, mowy pogrzebowe niekoniecznie. Dałabym dwie gwiazdki, ale lubię jej poczucie humoru, dystans i błyskotliwość, która bije z tej książki. Dla literaturoznawców bardziej.
September 28, 2025
Big Love. Zbiór z gatunku „jeszcze tylko jeden esej i pójdę spać”. Zrobił robotę, bo teraz mam ochotę rzucić się na wszystko, co Atwood kiedykolwiek napisała. I znając moje hiperfiksacyjne tendencje – pewnie tak właśnie zrobię.
April 24, 2014
This book is a collection of some of Atwood’s writing from 1982-2004, a companion piece to “Second Words” in which a selection of her work was published in 1982.
The pieces selected for this book include speeches, short essays or pieces written for special occasions, some advocacy writing and book reviews. In defense of her book reviews, she states that it is important to remember that the impression a book makes on you is often tied to your age as well as your circumstances at the time you read it. She also says she still will not review a book she doesn’t like.
The book is divided into three chronological sections: Part 1 covers the 1980s during which she wrote “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a period during which she progressed from being well known in Canada, to be known internationally, and ends in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. Part Two collects pieces from the 1990s to the year 2000 and Part Three runs from 2001, the year of the notorious 9/11 disaster to the present time. This last section includes two very interesting political pieces.
Among my favourites in the first section is the one titled “My Great Aunts” about her mother’s family who lived in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. They were an important support to her during the initial stages of her literary career and the piece also includes some funny moments about a young person travelling many miles from the large city to visit aging family members in the country .
“Reading Blind” is the introduction to a book on American short stories and provides an interesting approach to how she choose selections for the book. Having been given one hundred and twenty preselected short stories from which to choose, she had to develop some methodology to make her choices.
In Part 2, the years 1990 to 2000, she describes in “Nine Beginnings” the difficulty she has writing about her writing, a frequently requested task. She makes several attempts but feels she really has nothing to say. Certainly when she does, we are all ears.
In “Afterword to Anne of Green Gables” she shares some interesting thoughts on the character of both Anne and Marilla.
I also thoroughly enjoyed “The Grunge Look” about her "coming of age" escape trip to Europe, a trip many young people make as part of the process of growing up.
In the piece titled “In Search of Alias Grace” she reminds us that this well-known book is a novel and not a documentary, although she did an enormous amount of research before writing it. She details the challenge of writing historical fiction, when there is no complete factual information in the written record, and even the newspaper and trial records contain different information. There are always conflicting details and several versions of every event and what is told is based on the different tellers of the story as well as the different audiences. Given these facts, Atwood acknowledges that it is important to keep in mind that her version of the story is based on one in which Grace is the story teller with an audience of one man, Dr.Simon Jordan. He was more educated than her and had more influence in this 19th century time period, to help her. What may happen to her depends on what she remembers or what she says she remembers, which can be two different things. It is a good reminder for our engagement with everyday life. No account of anything can be absolutely factual, it depends entirely on the teller and the audience, who have enormous influence on what is ultimately said.
In Part Three from 2001 to 2004, she provides an interesting analysis of today’s political conundrums in “Napoleon’s Two Biggest Mistakes” and “Letter to America”. They are quite prescient given when she wrote them.
Atwood calls her book “Oryx and Crake” speculative fiction. It is based entirely on the “what if” scenario: “What if we continue on the road we are already on? How slippery is the slope? What are our saving graces? Who has the will to stop us?” She was in the midst of writing this novel when 9/11 occurred. After the tragedy in NYC, she stopped writing for several weeks, as she found it deeply unsettling when she was writing about a fictional catastrophe to have a real one happen.
In ”George Orwell: Some Personal Connections” she writes about all the linking threads that stretch between “Animal Farm”, “1984” and her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”. And in ”Introduction to the Complete Stories, Volume 4 by Morley Callahan”, she shares her thoughts on another acclaimed Canadian writer she admires. Acknowledging that he may indeed be a misfit, it is interesting to see what she loves about his writing and what she believes he contributes to the Canadian literary landscape.
A fine read for anyone who enjoys Atwood’s writing. At times the way she writes seems to be almost dialogue between two people sitting at a kitchen table having a cup of coffee. In this way her writing is so accessible despite its intellectual rigor.
And if you want to be blown away by this prolific writer and prize winner, just review the number of her contributions to Canadian literature on the “Also by Margaret Atwood” section at the beginning of the book.
An enjoyable read.
The pieces selected for this book include speeches, short essays or pieces written for special occasions, some advocacy writing and book reviews. In defense of her book reviews, she states that it is important to remember that the impression a book makes on you is often tied to your age as well as your circumstances at the time you read it. She also says she still will not review a book she doesn’t like.
The book is divided into three chronological sections: Part 1 covers the 1980s during which she wrote “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a period during which she progressed from being well known in Canada, to be known internationally, and ends in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. Part Two collects pieces from the 1990s to the year 2000 and Part Three runs from 2001, the year of the notorious 9/11 disaster to the present time. This last section includes two very interesting political pieces.
Among my favourites in the first section is the one titled “My Great Aunts” about her mother’s family who lived in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. They were an important support to her during the initial stages of her literary career and the piece also includes some funny moments about a young person travelling many miles from the large city to visit aging family members in the country .
“Reading Blind” is the introduction to a book on American short stories and provides an interesting approach to how she choose selections for the book. Having been given one hundred and twenty preselected short stories from which to choose, she had to develop some methodology to make her choices.
In Part 2, the years 1990 to 2000, she describes in “Nine Beginnings” the difficulty she has writing about her writing, a frequently requested task. She makes several attempts but feels she really has nothing to say. Certainly when she does, we are all ears.
In “Afterword to Anne of Green Gables” she shares some interesting thoughts on the character of both Anne and Marilla.
I also thoroughly enjoyed “The Grunge Look” about her "coming of age" escape trip to Europe, a trip many young people make as part of the process of growing up.
In the piece titled “In Search of Alias Grace” she reminds us that this well-known book is a novel and not a documentary, although she did an enormous amount of research before writing it. She details the challenge of writing historical fiction, when there is no complete factual information in the written record, and even the newspaper and trial records contain different information. There are always conflicting details and several versions of every event and what is told is based on the different tellers of the story as well as the different audiences. Given these facts, Atwood acknowledges that it is important to keep in mind that her version of the story is based on one in which Grace is the story teller with an audience of one man, Dr.Simon Jordan. He was more educated than her and had more influence in this 19th century time period, to help her. What may happen to her depends on what she remembers or what she says she remembers, which can be two different things. It is a good reminder for our engagement with everyday life. No account of anything can be absolutely factual, it depends entirely on the teller and the audience, who have enormous influence on what is ultimately said.
In Part Three from 2001 to 2004, she provides an interesting analysis of today’s political conundrums in “Napoleon’s Two Biggest Mistakes” and “Letter to America”. They are quite prescient given when she wrote them.
Atwood calls her book “Oryx and Crake” speculative fiction. It is based entirely on the “what if” scenario: “What if we continue on the road we are already on? How slippery is the slope? What are our saving graces? Who has the will to stop us?” She was in the midst of writing this novel when 9/11 occurred. After the tragedy in NYC, she stopped writing for several weeks, as she found it deeply unsettling when she was writing about a fictional catastrophe to have a real one happen.
In ”George Orwell: Some Personal Connections” she writes about all the linking threads that stretch between “Animal Farm”, “1984” and her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”. And in ”Introduction to the Complete Stories, Volume 4 by Morley Callahan”, she shares her thoughts on another acclaimed Canadian writer she admires. Acknowledging that he may indeed be a misfit, it is interesting to see what she loves about his writing and what she believes he contributes to the Canadian literary landscape.
A fine read for anyone who enjoys Atwood’s writing. At times the way she writes seems to be almost dialogue between two people sitting at a kitchen table having a cup of coffee. In this way her writing is so accessible despite its intellectual rigor.
And if you want to be blown away by this prolific writer and prize winner, just review the number of her contributions to Canadian literature on the “Also by Margaret Atwood” section at the beginning of the book.
An enjoyable read.
July 16, 2022
Luty 2022
Fajne eseje. Różnorodne
Fajne eseje. Różnorodne
September 8, 2024
Bez znajomości niektórych kontekstów, autorów i książek, do których nawiązują eseje w tym zbiorze, stawał się on czasami męczący.
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