As a number of sources report, author Margaret Atwood and her publisher Penguin Random House have come up with an unburnable version of her 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale. This version of the book is prepared as a protest against censorship and book bans.
My Modern Met notes, in recent years, Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale resurged in popularity due to a TV adaptation on Hulu and rising fears about the fate of reproductive rights in the United States.
Since its publication, the work has often been placed high on lists of most-banned books. These banned book lists have been exploding of late, with the inclusion of sweet children’s books and honest conversations on the history of racism in America. That is the reason Penguin Random House created an unburnable copy of Atwood’s tome—a book that could survive a bonfire.
The book is crafted with a black Cinefoil dust jacket, white heat shield foil pages, a phenolic hardcover, stainless steel head and tail bands, Kapton high-temperature adhesive, and bound with nickel wire. These impressive materials can withstand a flamethrower, as Atwood herself demonstrates in a video released by the publishers. An “unburnable book,” the volume references the book burnings of oppressive regimes which have oft heralded scary, intolerant political developments. This message parallels the dystopian world inside the novel—one where women are used as red-cloaked birthers.
