Myself and Mags.
It's refreshing to think of people like Noam Chomsky (currently age 86) and Margaret Atwood (75) who are relatively old, whose faculties of the skull are the opposite of decayed. By this I mean Atwood's always thinking, and well at that. According to myself, anyway.
Yesterday she popped in at Akademibokhandeln, a book store in the heart of Stockholm city, where she spoke a bit and answered questions. Her talk of genetics, how the research in the area has evolved rapidly from the time around when she wrote "Oryx and Crake" (2001) until today, where most of the theoretical genetics she wrote about in said tome has turned into everyday truth; sounds a bit like hyperbole to me, but that's what she said. Still, that's a magnificent triumph of a book. Have you read it? If not, fucking do. It's a rush to the head, dystopic a holler from a genre that to me usually is hollow and boring. ((not that I actually know much of it, it's just that I usually loathe fantasy and post-apocalyptic reads.))
Half an hour before the event, a person explained, slowly and by using a mic, that we would be handed postit-notes on which we'd need to write our names in ALL CAPS if we wanted anything signed. Most of the books in English were gone, so I skulked to the fore and snatched the last copy of "Oryx and Crake" and "The Handmaid's Tale", to my benefit.
I waited for my mate Mattias to show up. He's one of my few in-real-life friends who actually digs Atwood. Speaking of which, she spoke softly and assuredly about a variety of subjects, like HBO - notably, Darren Aronofsky! - turning her Oryx and Crake trilogy into a TV series; she noted that HBO said they'd show "everything", by which she meant nudity. Knowing HBO, however, that will mean breasts and arse, not penises. Atwood noted that she had no clue as to when the series is supposed to air. She also spoke about genetics and how the "Crakers" - which are human-like creatures that do not eat meat and do not tan from being exposed to sunlight - from said trilogy, work; as they don't eat meat, no skins from animals are required, which means the environment is spared considerably. This rang a bell in me. I mean, I really think humanity is supposed to be vegan, at the very least if we are to stay alive on this planet. And for the animals to stay alive, naturally! It was interesting to listen to Atwood all around. She's a prolific writer and spoke about how she's not a fetishistic one; she said that the last chapters of "MaddAddam" were written on a train, on which she bought a chocolate train...which she thought was funny. She told the audience of how her publisher didn't like her posting stuff for free online when it should be profitable; little wonder.
While in queue to get books signed, I tried out a white ink pen. It said "press nib onto rough surface before first use", which is what I did; subsequently, white goo was suddenly spilled all over the sticky note on my copy of "The Handmaid's Tale". I told Atwood the residue was ink, not anything due to my excitement in regards to genetics. Thank Bog, she laughed. She actually signed my Kindle!
I told her I usually avoid giving Amazon money for books and instead opt for different sources that provide more money for authors. She added that paper books gives more back to the environment in terms of oxygen and paper degradation in collaboration (somehow; I can't remember) which didn't sound...right, considering how many paper books I've "saved" on e-books. Anyway, she was kind. And told me to blow on the ink, so that it would stick and not smudge. She suddenly felt like a grandma. I was only starstruck for a little bit.
When I attended university to study English - for a full month or two, woo! - I had to read two books, one of which was "The Handmaid's Tale". I hated the first quarter of it, but then got into it in a big way, hating dictatorships, et cetera. Wonderful stuff. Read ouwn.