Margaret Atwood, Canadian author of 1985’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” is one of the honorees at Variety’s Power of Women luncheon this weekend, and the magazine published a lengthy interview with her Tuesday.
Atwood covered a lot of ground in the interview, including the impact of Hulu’s TV adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale” now that Donald Trump has been elected president. (Surprisingly, she says Trump’s election is “not the end of the world.”)
However, Variety decided the best pull quote for clicks was one in which Atwood claims the 9/11 hijackers got the idea from “Star Wars.”
Margaret Atwood says 9/11 terrorists "got the idea from #StarWars" https://t.co/SS39QbevGW pic.twitter.com/a7CLNU0R6I
— Variety (@Variety) April 10, 2018
“Remember the first one? Two guys fly a plane in the middle of something and blow that up? The only difference is, in ‘Star Wars,’ they get away,” she says.
The interviewer even asks, “Do you really believe that?”
I CALLED IT https://t.co/3EHixfyPAf
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) April 10, 2018
Damn you George Lucas! ?️ https://t.co/QBdnpLmNfr
— Persnickety (@Dawnsfire) April 10, 2018
"Remember the first one? Two guys fly a plane in the middle of something and blow that up? The only difference is, in “Star Wars,” they get away."
The only difference? Sure. https://t.co/QrBelMTGcq
— Amir Sariaslan (@AmirSariaslan) April 10, 2018
They did what now? https://t.co/Lkoyek1dtX
— Javi Alonso (@Javs42) April 10, 2018
Not only is this a terribly careless statement for her to make, which reads more like a nut job conspiracy theory, she doesn’t even get the scene or movie/episode she’s describing right. https://t.co/r2WozpT4Bq
— Rachel King (@rachelking) April 10, 2018
I think Margaret Atwood just created the worst Star Wars hot take ever https://t.co/cM8GEv7pte
— JJ’s burner acc (@sithobserver) April 10, 2018
Never forget the victims of the Death Star. All those Storm Troopers had families…
(Not really) https://t.co/ZCECXIDjaC— Jorge Sanchez (@AGameofPwns) April 10, 2018
I was thinking this was taken out of context, but no. No she is indeed a crazy person. https://t.co/06D0Zklu2P
— BWH (@BWH85) April 10, 2018
i’ll have whatever margaret atwood’s having https://t.co/hPxGtgIs9M
— eve peyser (@evepeyser) April 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/USInGodWeTrust/status/983806175220137985
https://twitter.com/OriginalLudious/status/983805307926216704
https://twitter.com/c__spam/status/983809033483120645
Well this is a thing https://t.co/i8jZxQ6MzW
— Chris Taylor (@FutureBoy) April 10, 2018
congratulations to infowars' new senior canadian correspondent https://t.co/ndxx8k347W
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 10, 2018
Lol was just talking with classmates a couple hours ago about how she wasn't exactly dwelling in reality https://t.co/qpuKbhE4ot
— Zach Faria (@ZacharyFaria) April 10, 2018
No.
Sorry.
You're fully insane. https://t.co/gx1QdTS05f
— ❌??Sarah??Rachel??Jacobs?️❌ (@QueenSarahSatur) April 10, 2018
T-Minus 5 until the next "I now choose to live as a gay man" apology. https://t.co/nLZzl9nUfC
— Proud Texan (@BecomeATexan) April 10, 2018
Before we all freak out about this, her actual comments are pretty mundane and clearly not very serious. Torqued headlines designed to spark rage are the worst headlines. https://t.co/nrmu7OksvH
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) April 10, 2018
Paul has a point — there’s plenty more to the interview that’s slightly less, um, controversial, such as Atwood’s take on Hillary Clinton citing “The Handmaid’s Tale” in a speech for Planned Parenthood:
It’s true that if people are that keen on babies, they should support women who are having them. If governments are that keen on them, do you think it’s fair to force them to have babies, provide no healthcare, provide no hospital care? I don’t think those people are serious about babies at all.
Variety probably didn’t use that as a pull quote for their tweet because it never struck them as controversial.
Related:
'Cannot stop laughing'! WATCH: Handmaids put on a 'special' performance at Wisc. State Capitol https://t.co/b44UbWBJh9
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 14, 2018
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