I very much enjoyed reading this essay by Alissa Wilkinson about two fictional places called Gilead: the eponymous town in Marilynne Robinson’s book Gilead and the nation run by a pseudo-Christian cult in Margaret Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale. The latter, recently adapted into a TV series for Hulu, seems to have garnered a particular interest among those who fear that the Republican party will lead America into some kind of theocracy. (Given that they haven’t managed to defund Planned Parenthood despite nearly two years of holding Congress and the Presidency, I wouldn’t be too concerned about this.) Wilkinson artfully describes the two Gileads and what we might learn from each one, particularly Robinson’s sleepy little town:
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