What is Margaret Atwood best known for?
I suppose I am best known for my novels, particularly those that explore what we might call 'speculative fiction.' This is not science fiction in the sense of rockets and aliens, though those can be present. Rather, it’s about looking at where we are now, our current social and political trajectories, and asking, 'What if?' What if these trends continue? What might that world look like? *The Handmaid's Tale* is an example of this, extrapolating from historical patterns of oppression and control to imagine a future society. It's a way of holding up a mirror to the present, to see its potential, and often its dangers, more clearly.
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