THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C3
ing backstories — but readers
hoping for a complementary clas-
sic of dystopian literature may be
disappointed. “The Te staments”
is not nearly the devastating sat-
ire of political and theological
misogyny that “The Handmaid’s
Ta le” is. In t his new novel, Atwood
is far more focused on creating a
brisk thriller than she is on ex-
ploring the perversity of systemic
repression.
But, of course, that’s not a fair
complaint. Although the story of
Gilead has long been called to the
service of this or that contempo-
rary cause, it remains entirely
Atwood’s possession. In the new
introduction to “The Handmaid’s
Ta le,” she even pushes back again
on the question of whether it’s a
feminist novel: “If you mean an
ideological tract in which all
women are angels and/or so vic-
timized they are incapable of
moral choice, no.” That strikes me
as a straw-man argument — no-
body defines great feminist fic-
tion that way — but the fact that
Atwood keeps challenging such
categories is all part of her ex-
traordinary effort to resist the
chains we place on each other.
Gilead will never be the same.
Praise be.
[email protected]Ro n Charles writes about books for
The Washington Post and hosts
To tallyHipVideoBookReview.com.Aunt Lydia is a mercurial assas-
sin: a pious leader, a ruthless
administrator, a deliciously acer-
bic confessor. “Whoever said con-
sistency is a virtue?” she asks.
But Aunt Lydia is not the only
narrator of “The Te staments.” I n-
terlaced among her journal en-
tries are the testimonies of two
young women: one raised in
Gilead, the other in Canada. Their
mysterious identities fuel much
of the story’s suspense — and
electrify the novel with an extra
dose of melodrama. To gether, this
trio of voices allows Atwood to
include broader details about
how other countries respond to
the Republic of Gilead. Freed
from the intense but narrow con-
straints of Offred’s point of view
in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The
Te staments” sketches out protest
movements abroad, an under-
ground railroad to ferry women
north, the internecine conflicts
rotting out the center of Gilead,
and the Republic’s efforts to ma-
nipulate its image on the world
stage.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” fa-
mously ends with the line, “A ny
questions?” And last November,
Atwood told her 1.9 million Twit-
ter followers that “The Te sta-
ments” was inspired by “every-
thing you’ve ever asked me about
Gilead and its inner workings.”
That certainly appears to be the
case — the story is full of reveal-ruthless instincts, she has sur-
vived and thrived to become the
spider at the center of a vast web
of “shameful information” t o trap
female competitors and intimi-
date her male superiors. “Some
days I see myself as the Recording
Angel, collecting together all the
sins of Gilead,” s he says. “On other
days I shrug off this high moral
tone. Am I not, au fond, merely a
dealer in sordid gossip?” That’s
the genius of Atwood’s creation.conflicted complexity. S he has be-
come the supreme matriarch of
this masculine cult. “I control the
women’s side of their enterprise
with an iron fist in a leather glove
in a woolen mitten,” she says.
“A nd I keep things orderly: like a
harem eunuch.” As a living leg-
end, the very model of moral
perfection and feminine wisdom,
she enjoys a special position of
extraordinary power — and she
knows just how precarious that is.
“Only dead people are allowed
to have statues,” s he begins, “but I
have been given one while still
alive. Already I am petrified.”
That little pun is typical of
Aunt Lydia’s wry wit, which en-
dows “The Te staments” with far
more humor than “The Hand-
maid’s Tale” or its exceedingly
grim TV adaptation. This Aunt
Lydia is publicly devout but pri-
vately defiant, outwardly pious
but inwardly sardonic. Her arch
irony, even flippancy, provides a
markedly different interpretation
than Ann Dowd’s terrifying por-
trayal for Hulu.
Writing in a journal at night in
a library forbidden to all but a
chosen few, Aunt Lydia reveals
the story of her previous life, her
traumatizing transition to the Re-
public of Gilead and her crafty
political intrigue. She’s Sun Tz u
and Machiavelli with a cup of
cinnamon tea. Through a combi-
nation of good luck and her ownStates.
Fans of Atwood’s dystopian
classic w ill remember that Offred,
the narrator of “The Handmaid’s
Ta le,” concluded her secret testi-
mony by acknowledging,
“Whether this is my end or a new
beginning I have no way of know-
ing.”
Now we know.
“The Te staments” opens in
Gilead about 15 years after “The
Handmaid’s Tale,” but it’s an en-
tirely different novel in form and
tone. Inevitably, the details are
less shocking — at least in part
because the horrors of Gilead’s
male-centered theocracy are al-
ready so well known. When Of-
fred first told her “sad and muti-
lated story,” we were hearing
about the hangings, the Unbabies
and the Sons of Jacob for the first
time. But by now, Gilead’s breed-
ing Ceremony is a creepy cultural
touchstone.
Atwood responds to the chal-
lenge of that familiarity by giving
us the narrator we least expect:
Aunt Lydia. It’s a brilliant stra-
tegic move that turns the world of
Gilead inside out. In “The Hand-
maid’s Tale,” Aunt Lydia is the
orthodox teacher whose plati-
tudes and instructions cycle
through Offred’s mind. But in
“The Te staments,” Aunt Lydia
speaks directly to us in all her
BOOK WORLD FROM C1
and giving him a day to respond.
Grisham notified Karem last
month that he would be sus-
pended as a result of his ex-
change in July with Sebastian
Gorka, a former White House
aide who is a talk-radio host.
The incident — recorded by
multiple witnesses — followed
remarks by Trump in the Rose
Garden after a “summit” of the
president’s social-media sup-
porters. When Karem asked
Trump whether he would take
questions and received no an-
swer, he was taunted by some in
the audience. He retorted that
its members were “eager for
demonic possession.” He said
later the comment was meant in
jest.
Gorka t hen jumped in, shout-
ing across the audience at Kar-
em, who invited Gorka to “go
outside and have a long conver-
sation.” Although Karem later
said he meant that comment in
earnest, Gorka took it as an
offer to fight and stormed
across the grounds to confront
Karem.
He called Karem “a punk.”
Trump later praised Gorka,
tweeting “@SebGorka Wins Big,
No Contest!”
Karem’s case drew support
from journalism organizations
and free-speech advocates, who
said the White House was acting
in an authoritarian manner.
pa [email protected]Lawyers for the Justice De-
partment argued in court last
week that the White House took
appropriate steps before booting
Karem, such as notifying him
that he was facing suspensionpass. The White House’s suspen-
sion of his press credentials
violated the First Amendment
and due process and was a
blatant attempt to chill vigorous
reporting about the president.”actions were “arbitrary and un-
fair.”
On Tuesday, Boutrous said:
“We are very pleased with the
court’s order directing the resto-
ration of Brian Karem’s hardinto a physical one to the point
that a Secret Service agent inter-
vened, clearly breached well-un-
derstood norms of professional
conduct. The press secretary
must have the ability to deter
such unacceptable conduct.”
She declined to comment on
any further action against Kar-
em.
Contreras’s decision was the
second judicial ruling to go
against the White House in its
attempts to punish reporters for
what it has deemed misconduct.
Karem’s lawsuit over the loss of
his pass followed a similar suit
last fall by Jim Acosta of CNN.
Acosta was suspended on an
indefinite basis by the White
House after engaging in a heated
exchange with Trump at a news
conference. A federal judge
quickly sided with Acosta, ruling
that the White House had over-
stepped its authority. His pass
was restored.
Both reporters were repre-
sented by the same lawyer, Theo-
dore Boutrous Jr., and both m ade
similar arguments in their law-
suits: that Trump was essentially
seeking to punish the press in
violation of the First Amend-
ment and had done so without
any notice or established pro-
cedure in violation of the Fifth
and 14th amendments’ guaran-
tee of due process. In a response
to Grisham, B outrous argued last
month that the White House’sfailed t o provide f air notice o f the
fact that a hard pass could be
suspended” as a result of his
actions on July 1 1. He o rdered t he
White House to restore the hard
pass — a credential that enables
journalists to come and go on a
daily basis — while his lawsuit
proceeds.
“What is deemed ‘profession-
al’ behavior in the context of a
state dinner may be very differ-
ent from what is considered
‘professional’ behavior during a
performance by James Brown,”
the judge said.
Karem, in an interview Tues-
day night, said the ruling “is
good for me, but it’s really for
everyone in the free press. [The
judge] didn’t buy anything the
White House was selling.... As
much as this president has
tried to bully us, we’re not
going away. As much as he’s
called us the enemy of the
people, the Constitution is
cl ear about what free speech is
all about.”
In a statement, Grisham said:
“We disagree with the decision of
the district court to issue an
injunction that essentially gives
free reign to members of the
press to engage in unprofession-
al, disruptive conduct at the
White House. Mr. Karem’s con-
duct, including threatening to
escalate a verbal confrontation
KAREM FROM C1
White House argues that suspension of journalist’s credential was warranted
Praise be. A glimpse of the sly interior beneath Aunt Lydia’s gru≠ exterior.
BY MICHAEL DIRDAExcept for the masquerade
ball — about which more in a
moment — there aren’t any
costumes at NecronomiCon,
“the international festival of
weird fiction, art, and aca-
demia.” Held in Providence,
R.I., every two years, this wide-
ranging “horror” convention
originally focused on the city’s
most famous native son, the
Weird Ta les writer H.P. Love-
craft. Its unusual name echoes
the title of an ominous book of
spells, frequently alluded to by
Lovecraft and other writers in
his circle, “The Necronomicon”
of Abdul Alhazred. Miskatonic
University Library owns a copy,
but only the foolhardy ever ask
to see it.
This year’s con ran from
Aug. 22 through Aug. 25 at two
hotels, the Omni and the Grad-
uate. The programming began,
appropriately enough, in a
darkened, candlelit room. With
a few simple props, the English
actor Robert Lloyd Parry per-
formed two of M.R. James’s
most chilling “ghost stories of
an antiquary”: “The Ash-Tree”
and “ ‘Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come
to You, My Lad.’ ” Afterward,
Parry told me that he had 10 of
James’s tales of demons and
revenants in his repertoire —
his own favorite being “Canon
Alberic’s Scrap-Book” — and
was currently memorizing his
11th and 12th. If you ever have a
chance to see his one-man
show, don’t miss it, though
DVDs of his performances are
available through Nunkie Pro-
ductions.
Way too early on Friday I
hurried to the Omni, having
agreed to join two morning pan-
els. The first focused on Welsh
writer Arthur Machen, whose
complete fiction Hippocampus
Press has just issued in three
hefty volumes. In his finest work,
Machen blends the sinister and
numinous, most unforgettably in
“The White People,” the first-
person account of an adolescent
girl drawn inexorably into an
evil, yet strangely magical Other
World. Lovecraft maintained
th at t his chilling story and Alger-
non Blackwood’s “The Willows”
were the two supreme master-
pieces of cosmic horror.
Following the Machen panel
came “Songs the S andman S ings:
The Legacy and Influence of
E.T.A. Hoffmann.” An early-19th-
century German pioneer of the
weird tale, Hoffmann created
characters who are pulled back
and forth between the world of
the everyday and realms of
dream or nightmare. His stories
later inspired Tc haikovsky’s “The
Nutcracker,” Offenbach’s opera
“Tales o f Hoffmann” and much of
Freud’s essay “The Uncanny.”
While I spoke briefly about “The
Sandman” and that phantasma-
goric mind-boggler “The Golden
Pot,” one of the con’s s even g uests
of honor, Sonya Ta affe, dazzled
with her insights into Hoff-
mann’s influence on contempo-
rary film.
Because NecronomiCon runs a
half dozen simultaneous tracks,
you can’t help but miss wonder-
ful-sounding panels and events.
On Friday alone I would have
liked to have heard “Unsung
Authors,” “Pulp History,” “Provi-dence in Weird Fiction,” “Chil-
dren’s Horror Anthologies of the
196 0s and 70s,” and a discussion
of the lushly decadent fantasist
Ta nith Lee, which featured,
among others, her bibliographer
Allison Rich, science fiction writ-
er and critic Paul Di Filippo andpopular Washington author
Craig Laurance Gidney.
Still, along with my friend
Robert Knowlton — a Toronto
book collector who has read
more weird fiction than anyone
else alive — I did catch the
program devoted to the specialty
publisher Arkham House. Its
participants included Donald
Sidney-Fryer, who in his youth
got to know that most poetical of
Weird Ta les writers, Clark Ash-
ton S mith. Donaldo, as he likes to
be called, generously inscribed
my copy of “The Sorcerer De-
parts,” his memoir of that friend-
ship. Not surprisingly, a mong the
many films shown during the
con was Darin Coelho Spring’s
superb documentary “Clark Ash-
ton Smith: The Emperor of
Dreams.”
Two outstanding panels were
moderated by prominent Wash-
ington scholars of the weird.
“Post-Lovecraftian Cosmic Hor-ror” was led by Douglas E. Win-
ter, author of books on Ste-
phen King and Clive Barker and
editor of the groundbreaking
anthology “Prime Evil.” Later
that afternoon, Rusty Burke —
president of the Robert E. How-
ard Foundation, which honors
the creator of Conan of Cimme-
ria — oversaw “Eldritch Excava-
tions: Weird Archaeology and
the Mythos Writers.” In a mes-
merizing slide-show, archaeolo-
gist Jeffrey H. Shanks surveyed
the use of ancient ruins and lost
civilizations in h orror f iction a nd
crackpot scholarship.
After touring the bustling
merchants’ room, I bought two
NecronomiCon prints from their
creator, Dean Kuhta, who lives in
Richmond, as well as — I
couldn’t resist — a “Make Cthul-
hu Great Again” button. For the
uninitiated, Cthulhu is the most
powerful and loathsome of Love-
craft’s demonic aliens. I also
acquired “The C hronology Out of
Time: Dates in the Fiction of H.P.
Lovecraft” by another guest of
honor, Peter Cannon, author of
that notorious mash-up of Love-
craft and P. G. Wodehouse,
“Scream for Jeeves.”
Late Friday night I groggily
meandered into the “Dreaming
in Carcosa” masquerade ball,
named for an imaginary city in
Robert W. Chambers’s “The King
in Yellow.” If you’ve never read
this melancholy and terrifying
1895 classic, seek out publisher
Delta Green’s new edition with
annotations by yet another
NecronomiCon guest of honor,
Kenneth Hite, and haunting il-
lustrations by Samuel Araya. At
the ball itself Victorian explor-ers, steampunk aeronauts and
Edwardian courtesans, as well
gender indeterminate figures
wearing antlers, long commedia
dell’arte noses and yellow feath-
ers, danced the night away to the
eerie, pagan music of Alec K.
Redfearn and the Eyesores.
And so closed the first full day
of NecronomiCon. Saturday and
Sunday brought just as much
fun, what with a panel on
shrunken heads in popular cul-
ture, programs devoted to Ed-
ward Gorey and Japanese writer
Edogawa Rampo, a discussion of
weird fiction from the African
diaspora — featuring still an-other guest of honor, Victor La-
Valle — and the launch of Les
Klinger’s “New Annotated H.P.
Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham.” And
did I mention the author read-
ings and the art show?
Anyone who attended Necro-
nomiCon 2019 will certainly
agree: Cthulhu really should
have arisen from the ocean
depths, where he lies dreaming
and waiting, f or — in Providence,
this August — the stars were
right again.
[email protected]Michael Dirda reviews books each
Thursday in Style.BOOK WORLD
The call of the weird leads a horror fan to Providence and NecronomiCon
THE
TESTAMENTS
The Sequel to
The
Handmaid’s
Tale
By Margaret
Atwood
Nan A. Talese.
432 pp. $28.95LIAM SHARP
Margaret Atwood uses three narrators to give “The Handmaid’s
Tale’s” sequel a less claustrophobic point of view than the original.ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
Brian Karem, center left, a correspondent for Playboy magazine, became involved in a heated
argument with talk-radio host Sebastian Gorka after a July 11 gathering at the White House.The programming
at NecronomiCon
began, appropriately
enough, in a darkened,
candlelit room.
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