5 ms·

"A worldwide cultural phenomenon"? I have never even heard her name, not a single time. Maybe your world is smaller then I thought.

dan-robertson 7y ago
What they mean is that her books were popular and read throughout the (developed I guess) world. And this is true. They were also made into tv series many people watched and radio plays. So obviously producers thought they would be popular. The books are also very critically acclaimed. I think it would be hard to somewhat regularly buy books or go to a (typical English language) bookstore without seeing anything about Margaret Atwood. But maybe there is a large world of English speaking people who don’t at all follow book releases or tv or even headlines in the mainstream news (where her winning of awards would be announced).
- Freak_NL 7y ago
  > I think it would be hard to somewhat regularly buy books or go to a (typical English language) bookstore without seeing anything about Margaret Atwood. The past month you cannot have entered any decently sized bookshop carrying new titles without encountering her name with The Testaments out. In my local bookshop I find the hardcover original English edition, its Dutch translation, The Handmaid's Tale in English and Dutch in editions ranging from paperback to luxury hardcover, and a bunch of her other works. Before that, The Handmaid's Tale has been prominently displayed ever since the TV series came out.
  - memsom 7y ago
    "The Handmaid's Tale" was all over Norwegian book stores when I was there in the summer.
- big_chungus 7y ago
  I read a ton of books, and recall only briefly hearing of it maybe a year ago. Didn't read it; too culturally-political for my taste, and didn't hear of it again. I'll admit, however, I don't go to bookstores much anymore.
  - astura 7y ago
    It? What is it? The Testaments? The Handmaid's Tale? Margaret Atwood has written much more than those two books - she is a prolific author. According to Wikipedia she's she has published 17 books of poetry, 16 novels, 10 books of non-fiction, eight collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and one graphic novel, as well as a number of small press editions in poetry and fiction. Her works are popular, both with the general public and with critics.
    - big_chungus 7y ago
      _The Handmaid's Tale_, which seems to be her best-known work. See above as to why I didn't read it. I didn't specify an antecedent as I meant to reply to Freak_NL's comment; mea culpa.
      - bregma 7y ago
        She actually has other far more important and well-known books and has won many prestigious international literary awards for them. A few have even been made into successful TV shows, if your knowledge of literature is based on what is available on internet streaming services.
        big_chungus 7y ago
        Right. I've heard _of_ her in passing, but wasn't that interested in what I heard; that was my point. It seems her work is targeted at a different demographic, so fine. Most of her work appears to be "feminist literature", which is not how I prefer to spend my free time. Not necessarily bad, just not that high on my reading list. Anyway, my point was that there are plenty of people who aren't as familiar with this particular author. I don't subscribe to streaming services; that did not influence my opinion.
        detritus 7y ago
        Just read the book. It's not "Feminist literature", although I suppose it could be, it's just a damn good book, with a distinctly feminine perspective. As a not particularly 'woke' British bloke, it's one of my favourite ever books.
goto11 7y ago
I'm always amazed about why people brag about their ignorance. If you are curious you can google her name faster than you can write a comment complaining you haven't heard about her.
- 7777fps 7y ago
  Ironically enough in firefox the google search is broken when searching for that term: https://www.google.com/search?q=the+handmaid%27s+tale https://www.google.com/search?q=the+handmaid%27s+tale I see a large gray box and little else!
  - jjgreen 7y ago
    Wild, I've never seen that before ... but if you scroll to the bottom of the page you can see the navigation widget, and on page 2 of the results, no such problems
    - jjgreen 7y ago
      Now fixed, clearly some googlers reading this thread ...
  - SECProto 7y ago
    Works fine for me, looks like any standard google search results. I'm curious why yours does not.
telesilla 7y ago
When I was a young woman in the 90s, you couldn't go to another friend's house without seeing her catalogue on the bookshelves, or at least the Handmaid's Tale.
gotorazor 7y ago
There are probably plenty of people on HN who don’t know who the Kardashians are. Heck, I bet plenty of people in the US who can’t name a Democratic presidential candidate. But if you read English books in an English-speaking country and you semi-regularly visit a English language bookstore, she is a big deal. If you look at the first picture of this article in the New Statesman: https://www.newstatesman.com/%E2%80%8Beimear-mcbride-goldsmiths-lecture-why-the-novel-matters https://www.newstatesman.com/%E2%80%8Beimear-mcbride-goldsmi... She is the person right in the middle.
IAmEveryone 7y ago
How many living female writers do you know? She'd probably be #2 on some "most influential" list, and definitely in the top 10.

dan-robertson 7y ago

What they mean is that her books were popular and read throughout the (developed I guess) world. And this is true. They were also made into tv series many people watched and radio plays. So obviously producers thought they would be popular. The books are also very critically acclaimed. I think it would be hard to somewhat regularly buy books or go to a (typical English language) bookstore without seeing anything about Margaret Atwood. But maybe there is a large world of English speaking people who don’t at all follow book releases or tv or even headlines in the mainstream news (where her winning of awards would be announced).

Freak_NL 7y ago
> I think it would be hard to somewhat regularly buy books or go to a (typical English language) bookstore without seeing anything about Margaret Atwood. The past month you cannot have entered any decently sized bookshop carrying new titles without encountering her name with The Testaments out. In my local bookshop I find the hardcover original English edition, its Dutch translation, The Handmaid's Tale in English and Dutch in editions ranging from paperback to luxury hardcover, and a bunch of her other works. Before that, The Handmaid's Tale has been prominently displayed ever since the TV series came out.
- memsom 7y ago
  "The Handmaid's Tale" was all over Norwegian book stores when I was there in the summer.
big_chungus 7y ago
I read a ton of books, and recall only briefly hearing of it maybe a year ago. Didn't read it; too culturally-political for my taste, and didn't hear of it again. I'll admit, however, I don't go to bookstores much anymore.
- astura 7y ago
  It? What is it? The Testaments? The Handmaid's Tale? Margaret Atwood has written much more than those two books - she is a prolific author. According to Wikipedia she's she has published 17 books of poetry, 16 novels, 10 books of non-fiction, eight collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and one graphic novel, as well as a number of small press editions in poetry and fiction. Her works are popular, both with the general public and with critics.
  - big_chungus 7y ago
    _The Handmaid's Tale_, which seems to be her best-known work. See above as to why I didn't read it. I didn't specify an antecedent as I meant to reply to Freak_NL's comment; mea culpa.
    - bregma 7y ago
      She actually has other far more important and well-known books and has won many prestigious international literary awards for them. A few have even been made into successful TV shows, if your knowledge of literature is based on what is available on internet streaming services.
      - big_chungus 7y ago
        Right. I've heard _of_ her in passing, but wasn't that interested in what I heard; that was my point. It seems her work is targeted at a different demographic, so fine. Most of her work appears to be "feminist literature", which is not how I prefer to spend my free time. Not necessarily bad, just not that high on my reading list. Anyway, my point was that there are plenty of people who aren't as familiar with this particular author. I don't subscribe to streaming services; that did not influence my opinion.
        detritus 7y ago
        Just read the book. It's not "Feminist literature", although I suppose it could be, it's just a damn good book, with a distinctly feminine perspective. As a not particularly 'woke' British bloke, it's one of my favourite ever books.

goto11 7y ago

I'm always amazed about why people brag about their ignorance. If you are curious you can google her name faster than you can write a comment complaining you haven't heard about her.

7777fps 7y ago
Ironically enough in firefox the google search is broken when searching for that term: https://www.google.com/search?q=the+handmaid%27s+tale https://www.google.com/search?q=the+handmaid%27s+tale I see a large gray box and little else!
- jjgreen 7y ago
  Wild, I've never seen that before ... but if you scroll to the bottom of the page you can see the navigation widget, and on page 2 of the results, no such problems
  - jjgreen 7y ago
    Now fixed, clearly some googlers reading this thread ...
- SECProto 7y ago
  Works fine for me, looks like any standard google search results. I'm curious why yours does not.

telesilla 7y ago

When I was a young woman in the 90s, you couldn't go to another friend's house without seeing her catalogue on the bookshelves, or at least the Handmaid's Tale.

gotorazor 7y ago

There are probably plenty of people on HN who don’t know who the Kardashians are. Heck, I bet plenty of people in the US who can’t name a Democratic presidential candidate. But if you read English books in an English-speaking country and you semi-regularly visit a English language bookstore, she is a big deal. If you look at the first picture of this article in the New Statesman: https://www.newstatesman.com/%E2%80%8Beimear-mcbride-goldsmiths-lecture-why-the-novel-matters https://www.newstatesman.com/%E2%80%8Beimear-mcbride-goldsmi... She is the person right in the middle.

IAmEveryone 7y ago

How many living female writers do you know? She'd probably be #2 on some "most influential" list, and definitely in the top 10.