Margaret Atwood and Science Fiction

Image via WikipediaI first began reading the poems of Margaret Atwood a Canadian author in the very early 1980's starting with her collection of poems entitled "Two-Headed Poems," which came out in 1978. These poems were written well before her novel "The Handmaid's Tail." In these poems she is not afraid to use subjects such as black holes in her poems but they relate more to inner space rather than outer space. The poems are what you would expect from poetry, the author's unique view on situations in life. It is a wonderful read and I re-read it on occasion.
When we get to her novel "The Handmaid's Tail" written in 1985, now we are treading in science fiction territory even though she will deny that she has ever written anything related to that genre. Looking closely at her novel, it becomes clear she is writing about the future and describing a dystopian society.
A dystopian society from the Meriam-Webster dictionary is defined as an imaginary place in the future where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives.
In other words, dystopia is the opposite of utopia.
Since her novel takes place in the future and describes a dystopian society, this definitely falls within the genre of science fiction. Margaret Atwood thought sci fi was just about aliens and space travel, however, describing future existence of humanity does fall within the sci fi genre.
A brief synopsis is that the extreme pseudo-Christian right overthrows the American government and sets up a caste system where the subjugation of women is the main theme. All classes of men and women are denoted by the color of clothes they wear. She is making a social commentary on the dangers of extreme fundamentalism and how easy it is to make a slow social transformation into a fascist society where your life is totally controlled first by fear and eventual every aspect is truly controlled to the point where you have no rights. (Is this beginning to sound familiar?)
The novel is very poetic and disticntly in the style of Atwood. Her commentary is very relevant today and is a very interesting read.
The reasons that made me re-visit the novel are twofold:
One, her denial it is science fiction. I find this curious and wonder why she denies the science fiction aspect.
Two: todays events in the US feel very dystopian. I feel her insight into future events is wonderful and I agree that extremism in any form is dangerous.
I love any science fiction but soft -science fiction that gives us an author's perspective into the future, especially a negative one always peaks my curiosity.