The Handmaid’s Magazine

I do not regularly interact with magazines but I know that many people do and I think it would be an interesting thing to write about. Magazines come out very quickly one after another and there are so many different kinds. They are all meant to be read and then discarded. The magazine industry relies on the fact that people will quickly consume the information within before moving onto the next one. The interesting thing about magazines is that the information is also disposable. I realized this while reading the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The narrator is thinking about her life from before and is given a magazine. She says “I read them in dentists’ offices, and sometimes on planes; I’d bought them to take to hotel rooms, a device to fill empty space while I was waiting for Luke. After I’d leafed through them I would throw them away, for they were infinitely discardable, and a day or two later I wouldn’t be able to remember what had been in them” (Handmaid’s Tale, Chapter 25, Margaret Atwood). Not only is the physical thin brightly colored paper disposable but too is the information within. The quizzes, tips and tricks, new styles, and celebrity drama is all disposable too, it may be interesting in the moment even worth a mention to a friend but after only a few days the memory of the magazine will fade and with it all of the information and bright pictures as well. The paper will go from production line to trash can in only a matter of days and the information will drift off to wherever forgotten information ends up and it will be as if the magazine never existed at all. The Handmaid’s Tale on the other hand is completely in-disposable. The book has had an impact on dystopian literature and feminism. It was published in 1985 and is still relevant today, maybe even more so. Not to mention the fact that because of how many times the book has been a part of book banning and book burning the author Margaret Atwood commissioned a flame proof version of the book.