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Middlemarch Madness

Middlemarch Madness: Sweet Sixteen Final Vote

It was another record setting night for votes, and both races were so close I didn’t know who was going to win until the last possible minute.  Tonight we’ll vote in the final Sweet Sixteen battle, then tomorrow at this time I’ll reveal the Elite Eight.

The Winners

In YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Dystopia Meg Murray (55%)   sends Katniss (45%) on the great, silver hovercraft to the sky.

In Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Dystopia Esmerelda Weatherwax (54%) barely defeats Morgaine (46%).

I kind of love that so many of these badasses who are moving on are at least as capital-O Old as I am.

The Newest Bracket

Middlemarch Madness Bracket 16

The Newest Poll

 

By [E] Selena MacIntosh*

Selena MacIntosh is the owner and editor of Persephone Magazine. She also fixes it when it breaks. She is fueled by Diet Coke, coffee with a lot of cream in it, and cat hair.

19 replies on “Middlemarch Madness: Sweet Sixteen Final Vote”

Aww…I was pulling for Katniss to win the whole thing!

And I know this may put me directly in the line of fire, but am I the only person who really doesn’t get all the Offred love? I just read The Handmaid’s Tale a couple months ago, and I thought it was interesting, but I couldn’t STAND Offred. I thought she was wishy-washy, cold, and really, really boring. I had other issues with the book, but that was a big one. So…can anybody explain to me the Offred love? Because I’m actually quite surprised to see so much of it.

Maybe read it again in a few months? I read The Handmaid’s Tale in high school, and HATED it. I totally did not understand how anyone could enjoy it or think it was a classic. Everyone in it was just hateful and boring and awful.

Then I re-read it a year or so later, and that time, I saw Offred in a totally different light. She struggles so hard to persevere, to exist as a person, in that terrible world. It’s hard not to admire that now. But at first, I totally felt like you.

I actually liked the book alright. I didn’t love it, I thought it had a lot of issues, I’d choose 1984 or the Hunger Games over Handmaid’s Tale for my dystopian reading any day, but I didn’t hate the book by any means. Just Offred. I get that she was just trying to get through, persevere, etc. But it didn’t change the fact that I found her boring, a little on the cowardly side, and really selfish. Especially in the context of a contest that keeps referring to “badass” women, I just don’t get the love. I would characterize Offred as just about anything BUT badass.

Clearly I am not reading this book on the same level as a lot of people though, because she’s definitely popular here. Oh well. All I can do is vote for Lady Macbeth (who I DO think is pretty badass, in an evil-ish sense…)

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