The scene of the "Testimony" sharing meeting
In 2017, the TV series "The Handmaid's Tale" swept the world, sweeping the Emmy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics' Choice Award, which was hailed as the oscar weathervane, and with the popularity of the series, the author of the original novel of the same name, Margaret Atwood, finally succeeded in "going out of the circle" and began to become famous all over the world. In 2019, the novel "The Handmaid's Tale" has been published for more than 30 years, and the TV series has also aired a third season, and just as countless viewers are eagerly awaiting the fourth season, Margaret Atwood has launched the sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale", "Testimony".
As soon as the testimony was released, it attracted a lot of attention around the world and set several new book sales records. Testimonial was shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize before the physical book was officially published, and in the end, Atwood shared the award with British novelist Bernard Evaristo, becoming the fourth second-time winner. As the face of Canadian literature over the past few decades, Atwood has included almost every major literary prize except the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Atwood (left) shares the 2019 Booker Prize with British novelist Bernard Evaristo
The Chinese Simplified edition of Testimonials was recently published by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House. A few days ago, translator Yuan Xiaoyi, writer Mao Jian, literature professor Luo Gang, and the translator of this book shared their feelings after reading this new work with readers at the flagship store of the Shanghai Book Fair Duoyun Academy.
So I looked back at the origin of my translation of the book. She said that "The Handmaid's Tale" was written by Atwood in 1984 and published in 1985, although it was nominated for the Booker Prize at the time, but it was not awarded. In 1990, the novel was adapted into a movie, but few people knew about it, until 2017, when "The Handmaid's Tale" was remade into an American drama, suddenly becoming the most popular new drama. After the TV series became a hit, hundreds of millions of viewers and readers began to pay attention to the original book "The Handmaid's Tale" and explore ate atWood's original intentions. A lot of people asked Atwood, what did you think, how the Republic of Gilead worked, and so on, and asked a lot of detailed questions, which gave birth to Atwood's idea of writing a sequel. With this idea, the book was written very quickly. It is believed that Atwood's 2019 Booker Prize broke three records: "The first was the first time in the history of the Booker Prize that a book had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize before it was published." The second is that Atwood became the oldest writer to win the Booker Prize so far, because Last year Atwood was 80 years old and the Testimony was written when she was 79. The third is that Atwood herself broke a record in her own creative history, because this is the second time she has won the Booker Award, so it can be said to be the third record. “
Readers who have seen "The Handmaid's Tale" know that the novel ends with an open-ended ending. For more than 30 years, readers have been asking many questions about gileading and the development of the heroine's fate. In this regard, Atwood said: "These questions have become the inspiration for this book. The other part of the inspiration comes from the world we are in. "Testimony" sets the time 15 years after the finale of the previous game, through the experiences and perspectives of three different female characters, to break through the fog left by the previous work, and tell the truth behind the overthrow of Gilead. When Testimonials was released worldwide in the UK, the scene was very hot, and it is said that this kind of hot new book release scene has not been seen since Harry Potter.
The world premiere of Testimonials
Mao Jian believes that Atwood is the most deserving writer of the contemporary era who deserves the Nobel Prize in Literature. She has always held the view that first-rate novels are difficult to adapt into dramas, and third-rate or even fourth-rate novels are more suitable for adaptation into dramas. But she felt that in adapting the works of such a first-class writer as Atwood, the TV series "The Handmaid's Tale" was undoubtedly a success, especially the first season. Mao Jian analyzed the reasons why "The Handmaid's Tale" became popular: its success was because the time point came, when it was published in 1985, the novel did not have much impact, and the film remake was not particularly good, but in 2017, various factors made topics such as women's morality and feminism on the hot search, and "The Handmaid's Tale" became a very effective focus. Mao Jian also bluntly said that he was a little disappointed in the second and third seasons of this show, especially the third season, although the overall level was still there, but after there was no novel to rely on, it was a bit down. However, with the publication of Testimonials, she was immediately full of expectations for the fourth season: "When I watched this novel, I felt that it was too suitable for making a drama, especially at the end, it seems that the whole has prepared for the plot of the TV series in all aspects, and I think the fourth season should be particularly good." 」 ”
Rogan believes that the adaptation of the TV series, for Atwood, is to re-illuminate the value of this work that has been silent for many years. Atwood is a very penetrating writer, and if "The Handmaid's Tale" came out in 2019, you might not be surprised, because the problems inside are spread out, but the book came out in 1985 to prove Atwood's foresight, because she was not yet 40 years old. Therefore, Luo Gang felt that "The Story of the Handmaid" and "Testimony" should be re-viewed as a set to see clearly, "You can't just look at a "Testimony", because just reading "Testimony" has many questions that are not clear, and you will not even understand why she wrote like this. ”
The Handmaid's Tale, Testimony
Published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House
Yuan Xiaoyi pointed out that all the problems encountered by Atwood are real, even when she wrote "The Handmaid's Tale" in the 1980s, when the problem was not so sharp, but her imagination was still very real, and all the problems she presented in the novel, including the problem of fertility, including the problem of class no matter which system human beings entered, and this is also the case in "Testimony", no one society really solves this problem.
At present, the fourth season of "The Handmaid's Tale" is still being filmed, and it is reported that "Testimony" will also be adapted into a TV series, and the continuity between the two, as well as the linkage effect between novels and film dramas, is expected to continue to become the focus of everyone's attention and discussion.