<P> Hugo - winning science fiction critic David Langford observed in a column: "The Handmaid's Tale won the very first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987 . She's been trying to live this down ever since ." He says: </P> <P> Atwood prefers to say that she writes speculative fiction--a term coined by SF author Robert A. Heinlein . As she told the Guardian, "Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen ." She used a subtly different phrasing for New Scientist, "Oryx and Crake is not science fiction . It is fact within fiction . Science fiction is when you have rockets and chemicals ." So it was very cruel of New Scientist to describe this interview in the contents list as: "Margaret Atwood explains why science is crucial to her science fiction ."... Play it again, Ms Atwood--this time for the Book - of - the - Month Club: "Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction proper . It contains no intergalactic space travel, no teleportation, no Martians ." On BBC1 Breakfast News the distinguished author explained that science fiction, as opposed to what she writes, is characterized by "talking squids in outer space". </P> <P> In distinguishing between these genre labels science fiction and speculative fiction, Atwood acknowledges that others may use the terms interchangeably . But she notes her interest in this type of work to explore themes in ways that "realistic fiction" cannot do . </P> <P> Fitting with her claims that The Handmaid's Tale is a work of speculative fiction, not science fiction, Atwood's novel offers a satirical view of various social, political, and religious trends of the 1980s United States . Further, Atwood questions what would happen if these trends, and especially "casually held attitudes about women" were taken to their logical end . Atwood continues to argue that all of the scenarios offered in The Handmaid's Tale have actually occurred in real life--in an interview she gave regarding Oryx and Crake, Atwood maintains that "As with The Handmaid's Tale, I didn't put in anything that we haven't already done, we're not already doing, we're seriously trying to do, coupled with trends that are already in progress...So all of those things are real, and therefore the amount of pure invention is close to nil ." Atwood was also known to carry around newspaper clippings to her various interviews to support her fiction's basis in reality . Atwood has explained that The Handmaid's Tale is a response to those who claim the oppressive, totalitarian, and religious governments that have taken hold in other countries throughout the years "can't happen here"--but in this work, she has tried to show how such a takeover might play out . </P>

What is the premise behind the handmaid's tale