The publisher puts forth that this special version of the book was “designed to protect this vital story and stand as a powerful symbol against censorship.” So we created a special edition of a book that’s been challenged and banned for decades,” said Penguin Random House in a statement. “Across the United States and around the world, books are being challenged, banned and even burned. It’s printed on fire-resistant paper and bound with a flame retardant cover, which is enough that it can withstand Atwood’s flamethrower and presumably anything else that information-averse politicians can throw at it. The “unburnable book” edition of The Handmaid’s Tale is so resilient that Atwood and publisher Penguin Random House announced the auction with a video where the author tries to destroy the book with a literal flamethrower. Margaret Atwood tries to burn The Handmaid’s Tale with a flamethrower So it should come as no surprise that the 82-year-old author ain’t scurred of the current book banning craze in the U.S., and is auctioning off a special “unburnable” edition of The Handmaid’s Tale to raise money for fighting back against these types of archaic censorship measures. Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale - about a dystopian future where the government subjugates women to help deal with an infertility crisis - first released in the United States in 1985, and since then it’s been banned in various countries around the world.
Clearly someone skipped class the day they read Fahrenheit 451.įor some authors, the threat of having their books banned or burned is such old news that they don’t bat an eye. It’s gotten to the point where last month a Tennessee lawmaker openly suggested burning banned books, which sounds like an idea right out of a dystopian science fiction novel.
From books about controversial topics to those that merely feature LGBTQIA+ characters, some state legislators have decided that people need to be shielded from stories about worlds where books are burned, women don’t have the right to control their bodies, or gay people exist. Over the past few years, banning books has been gaining popularity across the United States. By Daniel Roman 5 minutes ago Follow Tweet