Margaret Atwood

Yes, I wouldn't call it a gift.

Yes, I wouldn't call it a gift.

Well, gifts from the gods usually have a catch. Somebody asked me the other day, would you like to live forever? And I said, well, I've heard that story. Don't ask for eternal life unless you also ask for eternal youth, because it's not going to work out well. They have to be treated with care, gifts from the gods.

Well, gifts from the gods usually have a catch. Somebody asked me the other day, would you like to live forever? And I said, well, I've heard that story. Don't ask for eternal life unless you also ask for eternal youth, because it's not going to work out well. They have to be treated with care, gifts from the gods.

So there are certain areas where I pay quite a lot of attention, but other areas where I probably just don't. Like everybody else, there are certain things that I just don't know much about them. I don't know what goes on. Therefore, they're not my focus.

So there are certain areas where I pay quite a lot of attention, but other areas where I probably just don't. Like everybody else, there are certain things that I just don't know much about them. I don't know what goes on. Therefore, they're not my focus.

So the talent for insatiability kicks off around 1950, the most recent wave of it. In the 30s, the virtue was not to waste things. And in the 40s, that became very much more accentuated because not only did you not waste things, but you saved certain things up because it was the war effort. So you saved elastic bands. You saved fat in little tin cans. I don't know what they did with it.

So the talent for insatiability kicks off around 1950, the most recent wave of it. In the 30s, the virtue was not to waste things. And in the 40s, that became very much more accentuated because not only did you not waste things, but you saved certain things up because it was the war effort. So you saved elastic bands. You saved fat in little tin cans. I don't know what they did with it.

You saved newspaper. You saved tinfoil. You saved all of those things up. And then they had war salvage drives, and you donated all of those things. You saved up your clothes. You donated them to Europe, to people that didn't have clothes. You never threw things out.

You saved newspaper. You saved tinfoil. You saved all of those things up. And then they had war salvage drives, and you donated all of those things. You saved up your clothes. You donated them to Europe, to people that didn't have clothes. You never threw things out.

And then in came the consumer society, and that is pretty much driven, too, because everything is joined at the hip with the energy force driving that civilization. And if you want to read about that, you can get a book called Art and Energy by Barry Lord. So every energy source produces a culture which is connected to that energy source.

And then in came the consumer society, and that is pretty much driven, too, because everything is joined at the hip with the energy force driving that civilization. And if you want to read about that, you can get a book called Art and Energy by Barry Lord. So every energy source produces a culture which is connected to that energy source.

And what you saw between the 19th and the 20th centuries was the shift from coal a very worker-intensive form of energy, gave us labor unions, gave us Karl Marx, thanks a lot, gave us this emphasis on jobs. So controlling the means of production was supposed to solve everything. I can tell you that it does not.

And what you saw between the 19th and the 20th centuries was the shift from coal a very worker-intensive form of energy, gave us labor unions, gave us Karl Marx, thanks a lot, gave us this emphasis on jobs. So controlling the means of production was supposed to solve everything. I can tell you that it does not.

When I was in Poland, before the Iron Curtain came down, they had a big pile of overshoes. Because the workers controlled the means of production and they were producing overshoes, but nobody wanted to buy them. Uh-oh. So yeah, just making things doesn't necessarily work in and of itself. So you had coal shipped over to oil. Oil is cheap. It's cheap to produce.

When I was in Poland, before the Iron Curtain came down, they had a big pile of overshoes. Because the workers controlled the means of production and they were producing overshoes, but nobody wanted to buy them. Uh-oh. So yeah, just making things doesn't necessarily work in and of itself. So you had coal shipped over to oil. Oil is cheap. It's cheap to produce.

It doesn't take a lot of workers compared to coal. And suddenly you had all of this cheap energy. And not only that, there are all these other things you could make out of it. So middle of the 1950s, in came nylon, those horrible nylon shirts, never mind. We don't have them anymore, they really stank. But new stuff, hula hoops, plastic things, and they were really cheap.

It doesn't take a lot of workers compared to coal. And suddenly you had all of this cheap energy. And not only that, there are all these other things you could make out of it. So middle of the 1950s, in came nylon, those horrible nylon shirts, never mind. We don't have them anymore, they really stank. But new stuff, hula hoops, plastic things, and they were really cheap.

So a metal pail, a plastic pail, which are you gonna have? How many metal pails have you got?

So a metal pail, a plastic pail, which are you gonna have? How many metal pails have you got?