hii ok so at first, the ending (excluding the epilogue) felt rather abrupt, but it fits well the more I think about it. Offred thinking about killing Serena, herself or setting fire to the house, but not acting on it, only to be removed by something out of her control. Gilead completely stripped her of her agency, which ultimately overpowers her internal and small external struggles against the system. And it's so much more tragic, because Offred knew the time before and still, she isn't rescued because of personal resistance, but by outside forces (that is, if she is rescued at all)

I thought the epilogue could be a criticism against academia/intellectual First World culture, since the professor and conference attendees seem to dismiss Offred's trauma and belittle her as a mere crumb in a remote history, a means to study something 'grander' but abstract. May indicate the future society's continued partiarchal leaning as well as complacency, insinuating the danger of history repeating itself

march books!!

you're asking the traumatised frog scientist if she can get us out of the wilderness we've been struggling to survive in for months. I'm asking her if mulder and scully from the x files get together. we are not the same.

roman coins