A social media user who turned to Twitter for help in writing an essay on The Handmaid's Tale has received invaluable insight — from none other than author Margaret Atwood herself.
A Twitter user identified online as Momchil Gavrilov tweeted at the Canlit giant early Thursday morning with the plea: "My crazy English teacher is making us write essays on #TheHandmaidsTale where we are supposed to answer why @MargaretAtwood put the theme of power and control in the book," they write from an account with the handle @GavrilovMomchil.
"Because it's in the world," Atwood says in a tweet posted at about 5 a.m. ET Thursday.
"It's not just women who are controlled in the book. It's everyone except those at the top. Gilead is a theocratic totalitarianism, not simply a men-have-power women-do-not world. Lower-status men are told when and who (to) marry, eg."
The detailed response delighted online onlookers, who had retweeted the exchange hundreds of times and gave it thousands of "likes" within hours.
"I used to teach high school. I'd have totally given points for proven communication with the author. This is not to say that everyone should bother poor @MargaretAtwood with all of their questions. Oh, dear," tweeted Jess Faraday, with the handle @jessfaraday.
She took an extra moment between retweeting comments about U.S. President Donald Trump and a CNN reporter to defend the teacher's assignment as a worthy endeavour.
"Nor does that English teacher sound so crazy. Just sayin. Though it might be the admiring use of crazy, as in 'Crazy, man!"' adds Atwood in a subsequent tweet.