document_title: Moana (soundtrack)

question_text: who sings you're welcome in the credits

question_tokens: who sings you 're welcome in the credits

text: Moana (soundtrack)

text: Recording[edit]

text: For the soundtrack, Disney wanted to combine traditional South Pacific culture with pop and Broadway sensibilities, which led to the hiring of Broadway playwright, songwriter and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer Mark Mancina and Tokelauan singer-songwriter Opetaia Foa'i. The first song they completed was "We Know the Way", which Foa'i began after his first meeting with Disney in December 2013. The trio worked together in New Zealand and in Los Angeles.[5][6] At the same time, Miranda was also developing and starring in the Broadway musical Hamilton, which meant he was able to recruit Hamilton stars Phillipa Soo, Christopher Jackson, and Renée Elise Goldsberry as well as In The Heights star Marcy Harriell to help him record demos of his songs.[7]

text: The songs feature Foa'i's New Zealand-based vocal group Te Vaka, as well as a choir from Fiji.[6] The soundtrack contains seven original songs, two reprises, and two end-credits versions of songs from the film.[8] Mancina composed the score and produced both the score and the songs. In addition to guitars and strings, the score features Polynesian vocals and percussion, woodwinds made from bamboo from the South Pacific, and traditional hide-covered Tyka drums.[5]

text: According to Miranda, "Shiny" was inspired by the Flight of the Conchords' tribute to David Bowie at the Aspen Comedy Festival in 2004, as well as listening to Bowie's songs on a loop shortly after the singer's death in January 2016.[9]

text: Commercial performance[edit]

text: "How Far I'll Go" appears during the film performed by actress Auli'i Cravalho, and during the end credits performed by Canadian singer-songwriter Alessia Cara.[10] A music video for Cara's version of the song was released on November 3, 2016.[11] It reached number 88 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of December 17, 2016.[12] South African singer Lira[13] and Filipino singer Janella Salvador[14] recorded two English-language versions of “How Far I’ll Go” that will play over the end credits on the South African and Filipino release of the film, while Indonesian singer Maudy Ayunda and Malaysian singer Ayda Jebat recorded their own versions of the song respectively in Indonesian[15] and Malaysian[16] language.

text: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jordan Fisher sing a duet on "You're Welcome", which plays over the end credits. The song as performed by Dwayne Johnson appears in the film.[17] Johnson's version of "You're Welcome" peaked at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of December 17, 2016.[18] The soundtrack also features Jemaine Clement, who voices the coconut crab Tamatoa.[19]

text: The album has so far sold a total of 509,000 copies in the United States making it the third soundtrack to surpass a half-million in sales in 2017, following Suicide Squad and Trolls.[20]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: At the 74th Golden Globe Awards, "How Far I'll Go" was nominated for Best Original Song.[3] It also received a nomination for Best Original Song at the 89th Academy Awards.[4]

text: Track listing[edit]

text:
[show]Disc one

No.
Title
Lyrics
Music
Performer(s)
Length

1.
"Tulou Tagaloa"
Opetaia Foa'i
Opetaia Foa'i
Olivia Foa'i
0:51

2.
"An Innocent Warrior"
Opetaia Foa'i
Opetaia Foa'i
Vai Mahina, Sulata Foai-Amiatu & Matthew Ineleo
1:37

3.
"Where You Are"
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, Mark Mancina
Christopher Jackson, Rachel House, Nicole Scherzinger, Auli'i Cravalho & Louise Bush
3:30

4.
"How Far I'll Go"
Miranda
Miranda
Auli'i Cravalho
2:43

5.
"We Know the Way"
Opetaia Foa'i, Miranda
Opetaia Foa'i
Opetaia Foa'i & Miranda
2:21

6.
"How Far I'll Go (Reprise)"
Miranda
Miranda, Mancina
Auli'i Cravalho
1:27

7.
"You're Welcome"
Miranda
Miranda
Dwayne Johnson
2:43

8.
"Shiny"
Miranda
Miranda, Mancina
Jemaine Clement
3:05

9.
"Logo Te Pate"
Opetaia Foa'i
Opetaia Foa'i
O. Foa'i, Op. Foa'i & Talaga Steve Sale
2:10

10.
"I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)"
Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i
Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, Mancina
House & Cravalho
2:42

11.
"Know Who You Are"
Opetaia Foa'i, Miranda
Opetaia Foa'i, Miranda, Mancina
Cravalho, Mahina, O. Foa'i, Op. Foa'i & Ineleo
1:12

12.
"We Know the Way (Finale)"
Opetaia Foa'i, Miranda
Opetaia Foa'i
Miranda & Op. Foa'i
1:09

13.
"How Far I'll Go" (Alessia Cara version)
Miranda
Miranda
Alessia Cara
2:55

14.
"You're Welcome" (featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda)
Miranda
Miranda
Jordan Fisher (produced by Illmind)
2:17

15.
"Prologue"

Mancina
Mancina
2:25

16.
"He Was You"

Mancina
Mancina
0:50

17.
"Village Crazy Lady"

Mancina
Mancina
0:45

18.
"Cavern"

Mancina
Mancina
2:05

19.
"The Ocean Chose You"

Mancina
Mancina
1:17

20.
"The Hook"

Mancina
Mancina
1:09

21.
"Tala's Deathbed"

Mancina
Mancina
2:00

22.
"Battle of Wills"

Mancina
Mancina
3:10

23.
"Kakamora"

Mancina
Mancina
4:33

24.
"Wayfinding"

Mancina
Mancina
1:52

25.
"Climbing"

Mancina
Mancina
0:54

26.
"Tamatoa's Lair"

Mancina
Mancina
2:45

27.
"Great Escape"

Mancina
Mancina
0:59

28.
"If I Were the Ocean"

Mancina
Mancina
3:01

29.
"Te Ka Attacks"

Mancina
Mancina
1:41

30.
"Maui Leaves"

Mancina
Mancina
2:05

31.
"Heartache"

Mancina
Mancina
0:39

32.
"Tala Returns"

Mancina
Mancina
1:01

33.
"Sails to Te Fiti"

Mancina
Mancina
5:46

34.
"Shiny Heart"

Mancina
Mancina
0:36

35.
"Te Fiti Restored"

Mancina
Mancina
1:03

36.
"Hand of a God"

Mancina
Mancina
0:30

37.
"Voyager Tagaloa"

Mancina
Mancina
0:57

38.
"Toe Feiloa'i"

Mancina
Mancina
1:25

39.
"Navigating Home"

Mancina
Mancina
0:47

40.
"The Return to Voyaging"

Mancina
Mancina
1:01

Total length:
1:15:48

text:
[show]Disc two

No.
Title
Music
Performer(s)
Length

1.
"Unstoppable" (outtake)
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa'i, Mark Mancina
Miranda
3:59

2.
"More" (outtake)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina
Marcy Harriell
3:16

3.
"More (Reprise)" (outtake)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina
Harriell
2:38

4.
"Warrior Face" (outtake)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina
Miranda
2:16

5.
"Where You Are" (demo)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina
Miranda
3:01

6.
"You're Welcome" (demo)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina
Miranda
2:37

7.
"Shiny" (demo)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina
Miranda
3:04

8.
"Prologue" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
2:26

9.
"Village Crazy Lady" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
0:45

10.
"Cavern" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
2:05

11.
"Kakamora" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
3:58

12.
"It's Called Wayfinding" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
0:53

13.
"Maui Leaves" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
2:04

14.
"Sails to Te Fiti" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
1:37

15.
"Maui Battles" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
1:57

16.
"Sea Monsters" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
0:45

17.
"Tala Returns" (score demo)
Mancina
Mancina
1:15

18.
"How Far I'll Go" (instrumental)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina

2:44

19.
"You're Welcome" (instrumental)
Miranda, Foa'i, Mancina

2:44

Total length:
44:04

text: Charts[edit]

text: Weekly charts[edit]

text:
Chart (2016–17)
Peak
position

Australian Albums (ARIA)[21]
2

Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[22]
Vaiana
8

Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[23]
Vaiana
49

Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[24]
Vaiana
48

Canadian Albums (Billboard)[25]
4

Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[26]
Vaiana
12

Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[27]
Vaiana
50

French Albums (SNEP)[28]
Vaiana
20

German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[29]
Vaiana
11

Irish Albums (IRMA)[30]
9

New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[31]
1

Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[32]
Vaiana
5

Polish Albums (ZPAV)[33]
Vaiana
39

Scottish Albums (OCC)[34]
5

Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[35]
Vaiana
61

Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[36]
Vaiana
18

Taiwanese Albums (Five Music)[37]
12

UK Albums (OCC)[38]
7

UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC)[39]
1

US Billboard 200[40]
[2]
2

US Soundtrack Albums (Billboard)[41]
1

text: Tracks[edit]

text:
Track title
Performer(s)
Peak positions

US
[12][18][42]
AUS
[43]
CAN
[44]
NZ
[45]
UK
[46][47]

"How Far I'll Go"
Auli'i Cravalho
41
49
58
—[A]
84

"How Far I'll Go"
Alessia Cara
56
15
46
3
49

"You're Welcome"
Dwayne Johnson
65
77
85
—[B]
—

"We Know the Way"
Opetaia Foa'i & Lin-Manuel Miranda
93
—
—
—[C]
—

"Shiny"
Jemaine Clement
—[D]
—
—
—[E]
—

"Where You Are"
Christopher Jackson, Rachel House, Nicole Scherzinger, Auli'i Cravalho & Louise Bush
—
—
—
—[F]
—

"I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)"
Rachel House & Auli'i Cravalho
—
—
—
—[G]
—

"—" denotes a recording that did not chart.

text: Certifications[edit]

text:
Region
Certification
Certified units/Sales

Australia (ARIA)[49]
Gold
35,000^

Canada (Music Canada)[50]
Platinum
80,000^

France (SNEP)[51]
Gold
50,000*

Mexico (AMPROFON)[52]
Gold
30,000^

New Zealand (RMNZ)[53]
Gold
7,500^

United Kingdom (BPI)[54]
Gold
100,000^

United States (RIAA)[55]
Platinum
1,000,000

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ "How Far I'll Go" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number one on the NZ Heatseekers Singles Chart.[45]
Jump up ^ "You're Welcome" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number three on the NZ Heatseekers Singles Chart.[45]
Jump up ^ "We Know the Way" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number two on the NZ Heatseekers Singles Chart.[45]
Jump up ^ "Shiny" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.[48]
Jump up ^ "Shiny" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number five on the NZ Heatseekers Singles Chart.[45]
Jump up ^ "Where You Are" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number six on the NZ Heatseekers Singles Chart.[45]
Jump up ^ "I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number eight on the NZ Heatseekers Singles Chart.[45]


document_title: The Handmaid's Tale

question_text: when do more handmaid's tale come out

question_tokens: when do more handmaid 's tale come out

root

text: The Handmaid's Tale

text: Plot summary[edit]

text: The Handmaid's Tale is set in the Republic of Gilead, a theonomic military dictatorship formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America.[5]

tag: p

text: Beginning with a staged attack that kills the President and most of Congress, a fundamentalist Christian Reconstructionist movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launches a revolution and suspends the United States Constitution under the pretext of restoring order.[7] They are quickly able to take away women's rights, largely attributed to financial records being stored electronically and labelled by sex. The new regime, the Republic of Gilead, moves quickly to consolidate its power and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical model of Old Testament-inspired social and religious fanaticism among its newly created social classes. In this society, human rights are severely limited and women's rights are even more curtailed; for example, women are forbidden to read.

text: The story is told in the first person by a woman called Offred. She has an odd name which is explained as the book progresses. The character is one of a class of women kept for reproductive purposes and known as "handmaids" by the ruling class in an era of declining births due to sterility from pollution and sexually transmitted diseases. Offred describes her life during her third assignment as a handmaid, in this case to Fred (referred to as "The Commander"). Interspersed in flashbacks are portions of her life from before and during the beginning of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, through her failed attempt to escape with her husband and daughter to Canada, to her indoctrination into life as a handmaid. Offred describes the structure of Gilead's society, including the several different classes of women and their circumscribed lives in the new theonomy.

text: The Commander is a high-ranking official in Gilead. Although he is supposed to have contact with Offred only during "the ceremony", a ritual of sexual intercourse intended to result in conception and at which his wife is present, he begins an illegal and ambiguous relationship with her. He offers her hidden or contraband products, such as old (1970s) fashion magazines, cosmetics and clothes, takes her to a secret brothel run by the government, and furtively meets with her in his study, where he allows her to read, an activity otherwise prohibited for women. The Commander's wife, Serena Joy, also has secret interactions with Offred, arranging for her secretly to have sex with Nick, the Commander's driver, in an effort to get Offred pregnant. In exchange for Offred's cooperation, Serena Joy gives her news of her daughter, whom Offred has not seen since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead.

text: After Offred's initial meeting with Nick, they begin to meet more frequently. Offred discovers she enjoys sex with Nick, despite her indoctrination and her memories of her husband. She shares potentially dangerous information about her past with him. Through another handmaid, Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance, an underground network working to overthrow Gilead. Shortly after Ofglen's disappearance (later revealed as a suicide), the Commander's wife finds evidence of the relationship between Offred and the Commander. Offred contemplates suicide. As the novel concludes, she is being taken away by the secret police, the Eyes of God, known informally as "the Eyes", under orders from Nick. Before she is put in the large black van, Nick tells her that the men are part of the Mayday resistance and that Offred must trust him. Offred does not know if Nick is a member of the Mayday resistance or a government agent posing as one, and she does not know if going with the men will result in her escape or her capture. She enters the van with her future uncertain.

text: The novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue that explains that the events of the novel occurred shortly after the beginning of what is called "the Gilead Period". The epilogue is "a partial transcript of the proceedings of the Twelfth Symposium on Gileadean Studies" written in 2195. According to the symposium's "keynote speaker" Professor Pieixoto, he and his colleague Professor Knotly Wade discovered Offred's story recorded onto cassette tapes. They transcribed the tapes, calling them collectively "the handmaid's tale". Through the tone and actions of the professionals in this final section of the book, the world of academia is highlighted and critiqued, and Pieixoto discusses his team's search for the characters named in the Tale, and the impossibility of proving the tapes' authenticity.[8] Nevertheless, the epilogue implies that, following the collapse of the theonomic Republic of Gilead, a more equal society—though not the United States that previously existed—re-emerged, with a restoration of full rights for women and freedom of religion.

text: Characters[edit]

text: Offred[edit]

text: Offred is the protagonist and narrator. She was labeled a "wanton woman" when Gilead was established because she had married a man who was divorced. All divorces were nullified by the new government, meaning her husband was now considered still married to his first wife, making Offred an adulteress. In trying to escape Gilead, she was separated from her husband and daughter. She is part of the first generation of Gilead's women, those who remember pre-Gilead times. Proved fertile, she is considered an important commodity and has been placed as a handmaid in the home of the Commander Fred and his wife Serena Joy, to bear a child for them (Serena Joy is believed to be infertile).[9]

text: Offred is a slave name that describes her function: she is "of Fred", i.e. she belongs to Fred, her commander, and is considered a concubine. In the novel, Offred says that she is not a concubine, but a tool; a "two legged womb". The Handmaids' names say nothing about who the women really are (Offred Of Fred, Ofglen Of Glen); their only identity is as the Commander's property. "Offred" is also pun on the word "offered", as in "offered as a sacrifice". And it is a play on the words "off-red", referencing the color that handmaids wear and the character's frustrations with her assigned position.[6] It is implied that her birth name is June. The women in training to be handmaids whisper names across their beds at night. The names are "Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June", and all are later accounted for except June. In addition, one of the Aunts tells the handmaids-in-training to stop "mooning and June-ing".[10] Miner suggests that "June" is a pseudonym. As "Mayday" is the name of the Gilead resistance, June could be an invention by the protagonist. The Nunavit conference covered in the epilogue takes place in June.[11] Atwood wrote that it was not her original intention to imply that Offred's real name is June "but it fits, so readers are welcome to it if they wish."[6]

text: The Commander[edit]

text: The Commander says that he is a sort of scientist and was previously involved in something similar to market research, pre-Gilead. Later, it is hypothesized, but not confirmed, that he might have been one of the architects of the Republic and its laws. Presumably, his first name is "Fred", though that, too, may be a pseudonym.

text: He engages in forbidden intellectual pursuits with Offred, such as playing Scrabble, and introduces her to a secret club that serves as a brothel for high-ranking officers. Offred learns that the Commander carried on a similar relationship with his previous handmaid and that she killed herself when his wife found out. In the epilogue the academics speculate that one of two figures, both instrumental in the establishment of Gilead, may have been Fred, based on his first name. It is strongly suggested that the Commander was a man named Frederick R. Waterford who was killed in a purge shortly after Offred was taken away, charged with harboring an enemy agent.

text: Serena Joy[edit]

text: Serena Joy is a former televangelist and the Commander's wife in the fundamentalist theonomy. The state took away her power and public recognition, and tries to hide her past as a television figure. Offred identifies her master's wife by recalling seeing her on TV when she was a little girl early on Saturday mornings while waiting for the cartoons to air. Believed to be sterile (although the suggestion is made that the Commander is sterile - Gileadean laws attribute sterility only to women), she is forced to accept that he has use of a handmaid. She resents having to take part in the monthly fertility ritual. She strikes a deal with Offred to arrange for her to have sex with Nick in order to become pregnant. According to Professor Pieixoto in the epilogue, "Serena Joy" or "Pam" are pseudonyms; the character's real name is implied to be Thelma.

text: Ofglen[edit]

text: Ofglen is a neighbour of Offred's and a fellow Handmaid. She is partnered with Offred to do the daily shopping. Handmaids are never alone and are expected to police each other's behaviour. Ofglen is a member of the Mayday resistance. In contrast to Offred, she is daring. She knocks out a Mayday spy who is to be tortured and killed in order to save him the pain of a violent death. Offred is told that when Ofglen vanishes, it is because she has committed suicide before the government can take her into custody due to her membership in the resistance, possibly to avoid giving away any information.

text: A new handmaid, also called Ofglen, takes Ofglen's place, and is assigned as Offred's shopping partner. She threatens Offred against any thought of resistance. She breaks protocol by telling her what happened to the first Ofglen.

text: Nick[edit]

text: Nick is the Commander's chauffeur, who lives above the garage. By Serena Joy's arrangement, he and Offred start a sexual relationship to increase her chance of getting pregnant. If she were unable to bear the Commander a child, she would be declared sterile and shipped to the ecological wastelands of the Colonies. Offred begins to develop feelings for him. Nick is an ambiguous character, and Offred does not know if he is a party loyalist or part of the resistance, though he identifies himself as the former. The epilogue suggests that he really was part of the resistance, and aided Offred in escaping the Commander's house.

text: Moira[edit]

text: Moira has been a close friend of Offred's since college. A lesbian, she has resisted the homophobia of Gilead society. Moira is taken to be a Handmaid soon after Offred. She escapes by stealing an Aunt's pass and clothes, but Offred later finds her working as a prostitute in a party-run brothel. She was caught and chose the brothel rather than be sent to the Colonies.

text: Luke[edit]

text: Luke was Offred's husband prior to the formation of Gilead. He had divorced his first wife to marry her. Under Gilead, all divorces were retroactively nullified, resulting in Offred being considered an adulteress and their daughter a bastard. Offred was forced to become a Handmaid and her daughter was given to a loyalist family. Since their attempt to escape to Canada, Offred has heard nothing of Luke.

text: Professor Pieixoto[edit]

text: Pieixoto is the "co-discoverer [with Professor Knotly Wade] of Offred's tapes". He talks in his presentation about "the 'Problems of Authentication in Reference to The Handmaid's Tale'".[9]

text: Setting[edit]

text: The novel is set in an indeterminate future, speculated to be around the year 2005,[12] with a fundamentalist theonomy ruling the territory of what had been the United States but is now the Republic of Gilead. Individuals are segregated by categories and dressed according to their social functions. The complex sumptuary laws (dress codes) play a key role in imposing social control within the new society and serve to distinguish people by sex, occupation, and caste.

text: The action takes place in what once was the Harvard Square neighbourhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts;[13][14] Atwood studied at Radcliffe College, located in this area.

text: Politics[edit]

text: In Gilead, the bodies of fertile women are politicized and controlled. The North American population is falling as more men and women become infertile (though in Gilead, legally, it is only women who can be the cause of infertility). Gilead's treatment of women is based upon what the author portrays as a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible, meaning that women are the property of and subordinate to their husband, father, or head of household. They are not allowed to do anything that would grant them any power independent of this system. They are not allowed to vote, hold a job, read, possess money, or own anything, among many other restrictions. A particular quote from The Handmaid's Tale sums this up: "The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you" (HT 5.2). This describes that there is no way around the societal bounds of women in this new state of government. Handmaids, being not allowed to wed, are given two-year assignments with a commander, and lose their own name: they are called "Of [their Commander's first name]", such as the novel's protagonist, known only as Offred. When a handmaid is reassigned, her name changes with her. Their original identities before the revolution are suppressed, although while being reeducated as handmaids, they surreptitiously share their names with each other.

text: In this book, the government appears to be strong though "no one in Gilead seems to be a true believer in its revolution" (Beauchamp). The Commanders, portrayed via Commander Fred, do not agree with their own doctrines. The commander takes Offred at one point to a brothel in order to have sex with her in an informal setting apart from the Ceremony. The wives, portrayed via Serena Joy, former television evangelist, disobey the rules set forth by their commander husbands. Serena smokes black market cigarettes and expresses the forbidden idea that men may be infertile, and schemes to get Offred impregnated by her chauffeur.

text: Religion[edit]

text: Bruce Miller, the executive producer of The Handmaid's Tale television serial, declared with regard to Atwood's book, as well as his series, that Gilead is "a society that’s based kind of in a perverse misreading of Old Testament laws and codes".[15] The author explains that Gilead tries to embody the "utopian idealism" present in 20th-century régimes, such as Cambodia and Romania, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[16] Both Atwood and Miller stated that the people running Gilead are "not genuinely Christian".[17][15] The group running Gilead, according to Atwood, is "not really interested in religion; they're interested in power."[18] In fact, in her prayers to God, June (Offred), reflecting on Gilead, prays “I don't believe for an instant that what's going on out there is what You meant…. I suppose I should say I forgive whoever did this, and whatever they’re doing now. I’ll try, but it isn’t easy.”[19] Margaret Atwood, writing on this, says that "Offred herself has a private version of the Lord's Prayer and refuses to believe that this regime has been mandated by a just and merciful God."[20] Christian churches that do not support the actions of the Sons of Jacob are systematically demolished, and the people living in Gilead are never seen attending church.[15] Christian denominations, including Quakers, Baptists and Roman Catholics, as well as Jews, are specifically named as enemies of the Sons of Jacob.[18][15] To this end, the book includes a scene in which a Catholic Christian nun is "forced to renounce her vow of chastity in order to become a child-bearing handmaid."[17] Likewise, a Catholic Christian priest was hanged from a bridge for refusing to renounce his faith.[21] Atwood pits Quaker Christians against the régime by having them help the oppressed, something she feels they would do in reality: "The Quakers have gone underground, and are running an escape route to Canada, as—I suspect—they would."[20]

text: Caste and class[edit]

text: African Americans, the main non-white ethnic group in this society, are called the Children of Ham. A state TV broadcast mentions they have been relocated en masse to "National Homelands" in the Midwest, which are suggestive of the Apartheid-era homelands set up by South Africa. Roman Catholics are only briefly mentioned: nuns who refuse conversion are considered "Unwomen" and banished to the Colonies, owing to their reluctance to marry and refusal (or inability) to bear children. Priests unwilling to convert are executed and hanged from the Wall. Jews are called Sons of Jacob, also the name of the fundamentalist group that rules the Republic of Gilead. Offred observes that Jews refusing to convert are allowed to emigrate to Israel, and most choose to leave. However, in the Epilogue, Professor Pieixoto reveals that many of the emigrating Jews ended up being dumped into the sea while on the ships ostensibly tasked with transporting them to Israel, due to privatization of the "repatriation program" and capitalists' effort to maximize profits. Offred mentions that many Jews who chose to stay were caught secretly practicing Judaism and executed.

text: Gender and occupation[edit]

text: The sexes are strictly divided. Gilead's society values reproduction by white women most highly. Women are categorised "hierarchically according to class status and reproductive capacity" as well as "metonymically colour-coded according to their function and their labour" (Kauffman 232). The Commander expresses the prevailing opinion that women are considered intellectually and emotionally inferior to men.

text: Women are segregated by clothing, as are men. With rare exception, men wear military or paramilitary uniforms, which takes away their individualism as it does the women, but also gives them a sense of bravado and empowerment. All classes of men and women are defined by the colours they wear (as in Aldous Huxley's dystopian Brave New World), drawing on colour symbolism and psychology. All lower-status individuals are regulated by this dress code. All non-persons are banished to the "Colonies" (usually forced-labor camps in which they clean up radioactive waste, becoming exposed and dying painful deaths as a result). Sterile, unmarried women are considered to be non-persons. Both men and women sent there wear grey dresses.

text: Women[edit]

text: Six main categories of "legitimate" women make up mainstream society. Two chief categories of "illegitimate" women live outside of mainstream society:

text: Legitimate women[edit]

text: The division of labour among the women generates some resentment. Marthas, Wives and Econowives perceive Handmaids as promiscuous and are taught to scorn them. Offred mourns that the women of the various groups have lost their ability to empathize with each other. They are divided in their oppression.

text: Illegitimate women[edit]

text: Men[edit]

text: Men are classified into four main categories:

text: Men who engage in homosexuality or related acts are declared "Gender Traitors"; they are either hanged or sent to the "colonies" to die a slow death.

text: Babies[edit]

text: In this society, birth defects have become increasingly common.

text: There are two main categories of human children:

text: The Ceremony[edit]

text: "The Ceremony" is a non-marital sexual act sanctioned for reproduction. The ritual requires the Handmaid to lie on her back between the legs of the Wife during the sex act as if they were one person. The Wife has to invite the Handmaid to share her power this way; many Wives consider this both humiliating and offensive. Offred describes the ceremony:

text: My red skirt is hitched up to my waist, though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for.[22]

text: Language[edit]

text: In the novel's fictional fundamentalist society, sterile is an "outlawed" word.[23] In this society, there is no such thing as a sterile man anymore. In this culture, women are either fruitful or barren, the latter of which is declared to be an "unwoman" and is sent to the colonies with the rest of the "unwomen" to do life-threatening work until their death, which is, on average, three years.

text: Atwood emphasises how changes in context affect behaviours and attitudes by repeating the phrase "Context is all" throughout the novel, establishing this precept as a motif.[24] Playing the game of Scrabble with her Commander illustrates the key significance of changes in "context"; once "the game of old men and women", the game became forbidden for women to play and therefore "desirable".[25] Through living in a morally rigid society, Offred has come to perceive the world differently from earlier. Offred expresses amazement at how "It has taken so little time to change our minds about things".[26] Wearing revealing clothes and makeup had been part of her former life, but when she sees Japanese tourists dressed that way, she now feels the women are inappropriately dressed.[26]

text: Offred can read but not translate the phrase "nolite te bastardes carborundorum" carved into the closet wall of her small bedroom; this mock-Latin aphorism signifies "Don't let the bastards grind you down".[27] The significance of this phrase is intensified by the challenges the book has faced, creating a "Mise en abyme" as both the protagonist and the reader decipher subversive texts.

text: Genre classification[edit]

text: In interviews and essays Atwood has discussed generic classification of The Handmaid's Tale as "science fiction" or "speculative fiction", observing:

text: I like to make a distinction between science fiction proper and speculative fiction. For me, the science fiction label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do, such as going through a wormhole in space to another universe; and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand, such as DNA identification and credit cards, and that takes place on Planet Earth. But the terms are fluid.[3]

text: 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:

text: 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".[4]

text: 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.[3]

text: Historical context[edit]

text: 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.[28] 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."[29] Atwood was also known to carry around newspaper clippings to her various interviews to support her fiction's basis in reality.[30] 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.[31]

text: Atwood's inspiration for the Republic of Gilead came from her time studying early American Puritans while at Harvard, which she attended on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.[28] Atwood argues that the modern view of the Puritans—that they came to America to flee religious persecution in England and set up a religiously tolerant society—is misleading, and that instead, these Puritan leaders wanted to establish a monolithic theocracy where religious dissent would not be accepted.[28] Atwood also had a personal connection to the Puritans, and she dedicates the novel to her own ancestor Mary Webster, who was accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England but survived her hanging.[32] Due to the totalitarian nature of Gileadan society, Atwood, in creating the setting, drew from the "utopian idealism" present in 20th century régimes, such as Cambodia and Romania, as well as earlier New England Puritanism.[16] Atwood has argued that a coup, such as the one depicted in The Handmaid's Tale, would misuse religion in order to achieve its own ends:[33]

text: ... if you wanted to seize power in the US, abolish liberal democracy and set up a dictatorship, how would you go about it? What would be your cover story? It would not resemble any form of communism or socialism: those would be too unpopular... Nations never build apparently radical forms of government on foundations that aren't there already. Thus China replaced a state bureaucracy with a similar state bureaucracy under a different name, the USSR replaced the dreaded imperial secret police with an even more dreaded secret police, and so forth. The deep foundation of the US – so went my thinking – was not the comparatively recent 18th-century Enlightenment structures of the republic, with their talk of equality and their separation of church and state, but the heavy-handed theocracy of 17th-century Puritan New England, with its marked bias against women, which would need only the opportunity of a period of social chaos to reassert itself. Like any theocracy, this one would select a few passages from the Bible to justify its actions, and it would lean heavily towards the Old Testament, not towards the New.[16]

text: Atwood, with respect to those leading Gilead, further stated:[18]

text: I don't consider these people to be Christians because they do not have at the core of their behavior and ideologies what I, in my feeble Canadian way, would consider to be the core of Christianity … and that would be not only love your neighbors but love your enemies. That would also be 'I was sick and you visited me not' and such and such …And that would include also concern for the environment, because you can't love your neighbor or even your enemy, unless you love your neighbor's oxygen, food, and water. You can't love your neighbor or your enemy if you're presuming policies that are going to cause those people to die. … Of course faith can be a force for good and often has been. So faith is a force for good particularly when people are feeling beleaguered and in need of hope. So you can have bad iterations and you can also have the iteration in which people have got too much power and then start abusing it. But that is human behavior, so you can't lay it down to religion. You can find the same in any power situation, such as politics or ideologies that purport to be atheist. Need I mention the former Soviet Union? So it is not a question of religion making people behave badly. It is a question of human beings getting power and then wanting more of it.[18]

text: In the same vein, Atwood also declared that "In the real world today, some religious groups are leading movements for the protection of vulnerable groups, including women."[20] Atwood also draws connections between the ways in which Gilead's leaders maintain their power and other examples of actual totalitarian governments. In her interviews, Atwood offers up Iran and Afghanistan as examples of religious theocracies forcing women out of the public sphere and into their homes, as in Gilead.[30][28] The "state-sanctioned murder of dissidents" was inspired by the Philippines, and the last General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceausescu's obsession with increasing the birth rate led to the strict policing of pregnant women and the outlawing of birth control and abortion.[30] However, Atwood clearly explains that many of these deplorable acts were not just present in other cultures and countries, "but within Western society, and within the 'Christian' tradition itself".[16]

text: The Republic of Gilead struggles with infertility, making Offred's services as a Handmaid vital to producing children and thus reproducing the society. Handmaids themselves are "untouchable", but their ability to signify status is equated to that of slaves or servants throughout history.[16] Atwood connects their concerns with infertility to real-life problems our world faces, such as radiation, chemical pollution, and venereal disease (HIV/AIDS is specifically mentioned in the "Historical Notes" section at the end of the novel, which was a relatively new disease at the time of Atwood's writing whose long-term impact was likely still unknown). Atwood's strong stance on environmental issues and their negative consequences for our society has presented itself in other works such as her MaddAddam trilogy, and refers back to her growing up with biologists and her own scientific curiosity.[34]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: The Handmaid's Tale was well received by critics, helping to cement Atwood's status as a prominent writer of the 20th century. Not only was the book deemed well-written and compelling, but Atwood's work was notable for sparking intense debates both in and out of academia.[35] Atwood maintains that the Republic of Gilead is only an extrapolation of trends already seen in the United States at the time of her writing, a view supported by other scholars studying The Handmaid's Tale.[36] Indeed, many have placed The Handmaid's Tale in the same category of dystopian fiction as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World,[31] with the added feature of confronting patriarchy, a categorization that Atwood has accepted and reiterated in many articles and interviews.[37] Even today, many reviewers hold that Atwood's novel remains as foreboding and powerful as ever, largely because of its basis in historical fact.[38][39] Yet when her book was first published in 1985, not all reviewers were convinced of the "cautionary tale" Atwood presented. For example, Mary McCarthy's New York Times review argued that The Handmaid's Tale lacked the "surprised recognition" necessary for readers to see "our present selves in a distorting mirror, of what we may be turning into if current trends are allowed to continue".[40]

text: In the aftermath of the television series' debut in 2017, there was much debate on whether parallels could be drawn between the series (and by extension, this book) and American society following Donald Trump's and Mike Pence's election as President of the United States and Vice President of the United States, respectively.[41][42]

text: Feminist reading[edit]

text: Much of the discussion about The Handmaid's Tale has centered on its categorization as feminist literature. Atwood does not see the Republic of Gilead as a purely feminist dystopia, as not all men have greater rights than women.[16] Instead, this society presents a typical dictatorship: "shaped like a pyramid, with the powerful of both sexes at the apex, the men generally outranking the women at the same level; then descending levels of power and status with men and women in each, all the way down to the bottom, where the unmarried men must serve in the ranks before being awarded an Econowife".[16] Additionally, Atwood has argued that while some of the observations that informed the content of The Handmaid's Tale may be feminist, her novel is not meant to say "one thing to one person" or serve as a political message—instead, The Handmaid's Tale is "a study of power, and how it operates and how it deforms or shapes the people who are living within that kind of regime".[31][37] Some scholars have offered such a feminist interpretation, however, connecting Atwood's use of religious fundamentalism in the pages of The Handmaid's Tale to a condemnation of their presence in current American society.[43][44] Yet others have argued that The Handmaid's Tale critiques typical notions of feminism, as Atwood's novel appears to subvert the traditional "women helping women" ideals of the movement and turn toward the possibility of "the matriarchal network ... and a new form of misogyny: women's hatred of women".[45]

text: Awards[edit]

text:
1985 – Governor General's Award for English language fiction (winner)
1986 – Booker Prize (nominated)
1986 – Nebula Award (nominated)
1987 – Arthur C. Clarke Award (winner)[a]
1987 – Prometheus Award (nominated)[b]

tag: ul

text: Academic reception[edit]

text: Atwood's novels, and especially her works of speculative fiction The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, are frequently offered as examples for the final, open-ended question on the North American Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition exam each year.[46] As such, her books are often assigned in high-school classrooms to students taking this Advanced Placement course, despite the mature themes the work presents. Atwood herself has expressed surprise that her books are being assigned to high-school audiences, largely due to her own censored education in the 1950s, but she has assured readers that this increased attention from high-school students has not altered the material she has chosen to write about since.[47]

text: Many people have expressed discontent at The Handmaid's Tale's presence in the classroom, as it has been frequently challenged or banned over the last 30 years. Some of these challenges have come from parents concerned about the explicit sexuality and other adult themes represented in the book. Others have argued that The Handmaid's Tale depicts a negative view of religion, a view supported by several academics who propose that Atwood's work satirizes contemporary religious fundamentalists in the United States, offering a feminist critique of the trends this movement to the Right represents.[43][44]

text: The American Library Association (ALA) lists The Handmaid's Tale as number 37 on the "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000".[48] Atwood participated in discussing The Handmaid's Tale as the subject of an ALA discussion series titled "One Book, One Conference".[49]

text: Some complaints have included:

text:
1990: Challenged at Rancho Cotate High School, Rohnert Park, California, as too explicit for students.
1992: Challenged in schools in Waterloo, Iowa, reportedly because of profanity, lurid passages about sex, and statements defamatory to minorities, God, women, and the disabled.
1993: Removed because of profanity and sex from the Chicopee, Massachusetts, high-school English class reading list.
1998: Challenged for use in Richland, Washington, high-school English classes, along with six other titles determined to be "poor quality literature and [that] stress suicide, illicit sex, violence, and hopelessness".
1999: Challenged because of graphic sex, but retained on the advanced placement English list, at George D. Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Florida.
2000: Downgraded from "required" to "optional" on the summer reading list for eleventh graders in the Upper Moreland School District near Philadelphia due to "age-inappropriate" subject matter.
2001: Challenged, but retained, in the Dripping Springs, Texas, senior Advanced Placement English course as an optional reading assignment. Some parents were offended by the book's descriptions of sexual encounters.
2006: Initially banned by Superintendent Ed Lyman from an advanced placement English curriculum in the Judson independent school district in Texas, after a parent complained. Lyman had overruled the recommendation of a committee of teachers, students, and parents; the committee appealed the decision to the school board, which overturned his ban.[50]

text: According to Education Reporter Kristin Rushowy of the Toronto Star (16 January 2009), in 2008 a parent in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, wrote a letter to his son's high school principal, asking that the book no longer be assigned as required reading, stating that the novel is "rife with brutality towards and mistreatment of women (and men at times), sexual scenes, and bleak depression".[51] Rushowy quotes the response of Russell Morton Brown, a retired University of Toronto English professor, who acknowledged that

text: "The Handmaid's Tale wasn't likely written for 17-year-olds, but neither are a lot of things we teach in high school, like Shakespeare... And they are all the better for reading it. They are on the edge of adulthood already, and there's no point in coddling them," he said, adding, "they aren't coddled in terms of mass media today anyway"... He said the book has been accused of being anti-Christian and, more recently, anti-Islamic because the women are veiled and polygamy is allowed... But that "misses the point", said Brown. "It's really anti-fundamentalism."[51]

text: In her earlier account (14 January 2009), Rushowy reported that a Toronto District School Board committee was "reviewing the novel". While noting that "The Handmaid's Tale is listed as one of the 100 'most frequently challenged books' from 1990 to 1999 on the American Library Association's website", Rushowy reports that "The Canadian Library Association says there is 'no known instance of a challenge to this novel in Canada' but says the book was called anti-Christian and pornographic by parents after being placed on a reading list for secondary students in Texas in the 1990s."[52]

text: In November 2012 two parents in Guilford County, North Carolina protested against inclusion of the book on a required reading list at a local high school. The parents presented the school board with a petition signed by 2,300 people, prompting a review of the book by the school's media advisory committee. According to local news reports, one of the parents said "she felt Christian students are bullied in society, in that they're made to feel uncomfortable about their beliefs by non-believers. She said including books like The Handmaid's Tale contributes to that discomfort, because of its negative view on religion and its anti-biblical attitudes toward sex."[53]

text: Other use in academia[edit]

text: In institutions of higher education, professors have found The Handmaid's Tale to be useful, largely because of its historical and religious basis and Atwood's captivating delivery. The novel's teaching points include: introducing politics and the social sciences to students in a more concrete way;[54][55] demonstrating the importance of reading to our freedom, both intellectual and political;[56] and acknowledging the "most insidious and violent manifestations of power in Western history" in a compelling manner.[57] The chapter entitled "Historical Notes" at the end of the novel also represents a warning to academics who run the risk of misreading and misunderstanding historical texts, pointing to the satirized Professor Pieixoto as an example of a male scholar who has taken over and overpowered Offred's narrative with his own interpretation.[58]

text: In other media[edit]

text: Film[edit]

text: The 1990 film The Handmaid's Tale was based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. It stars Natasha Richardson as Offred, Faye Dunaway as Serena Joy, and Robert Duvall as The Commander (Fred).

text: Television[edit]

text: Hulu has produced a 10-episode series of the novel starring Elisabeth Moss as Offred. The first three episodes were released on April 26, 2017, with subsequent episodes following on a weekly basis. Margaret Atwood served as consulting producer.[59] The show has been renewed for a second season, coming out in early 2018.

text: Radio[edit]

text:
A dramatic adaptation of the novel for radio was produced for BBC Radio 4 by John Dryden in 2000.
A Canadian dramatic adaptation for radio was written by playwright Michael O'Brien and produced on CBC Radio in 2002.

text: Audio[edit]

text:
An audiobook of the unabridged text, read by Claire Danes (ISBN 9781491519110), won the 2013 Audie Award for fiction.[60]
In 2014, Canadian band Lakes of Canada released their album Transgressions, which is intended to be a concept album inspired by The Handmaid's Tale.[61]

text: Stage[edit]

text:
The very first authorized stage adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale was written and directed by Bruce G. Shapiro and performed at Tufts Arena Theater, Tufts University, in 1989. The late actress Molly Glynn played "Offred." The production was very well received and highly regarded.[62]
An operatic adaptation, The Handmaid's Tale, by Poul Ruders, premiered in Copenhagen on 6 March 2000, and was performed by the English National Opera, in London, in 2003.[63] It was the opening production of the 2004–2005 season of the Canadian Opera Company.[64]
A stage adaptation of the novel, by Brendon Burns, for the Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, England, toured the UK in 2002.[65]
A ballet adaptation choreographed by Lila York and produced by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered on 16 October 2013. Amanda Green appeared as Offred and Alexander Gamayunov as The Commander.[66]
A one-woman stage show, adapted from the novel, by Joseph Stollenwerk premiered in the U.S. in January 2015.[67]


document_title: Belle and Sebastian

question_text: where did the name belle and sebastian come from

text: Belle and Sebastian

text: History[edit]

text: Formation and early years (1996–1998)[edit]

text: Belle and Sebastian were formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1996 by Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David.[5] Together, with Stow College music professor Alan Rankine, they recorded some demos, which were picked up by the college's Music Business course that produces and releases one single each year on the college's label, Electric Honey. As the band had a number of songs already and the label was extremely impressed with the demos, Belle and Sebastian were allowed to record a full-length album, which was titled Tigermilk. Murdoch once described the band as a "product of botched capitalism".[5] The band took their name from the television adaptation of the French novel Belle et Sébastien.[6][9]

text: Tigermilk was recorded in three days and originally only one thousand copies were pressed in vinyl.[6] These original copies now sell for up to £400.[10][11][12] The warm reception the album received inspired Murdoch and David to turn the band into a full-time project, recruiting Stevie Jackson (guitar and vocals), Isobel Campbell (cello/vocals), Chris Geddes (keys) and Richard Colburn (drums) to fill out the group.

text: After the success of the debut album, Belle and Sebastian were signed to Jeepster Records in August 1996 and If You're Feeling Sinister, their second album, was released on 18 November.[12] The album was named by Spin as one of the 100 greatest albums between 1985 and 2005,[13] and is widely considered the band's masterpiece.[14] Just before the recording of Sinister, Sarah Martin (violin/vocals) joined the band. Following this a series of EPs were released in 1997.[15] The first of these was Dog on Wheels, which contained four demo tracks recorded before the real formation of the band. In fact, the only long-term band members to play on the songs were Murdoch, David, and Mick Cooke, who played trumpet on the EP but would not officially join the band until a few years later. It charted at No. 59 in the UK singles chart.[12]

text: The Lazy Line Painter Jane EP followed in July. The track was recorded in the church where Murdoch lived[16] and features vocals from Monica Queen. The EP narrowly missed out on the UK top 40, peaking at No. 41.[12] The last of the 1997 EPs was October's 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light. The EP was made Single of the Week in both the NME and Melody Maker and reached No. 32 in the charts, thus becoming the band's first top 40 single.[12]

text: Critical acclaim and line-up changes (1998–2003)[edit]

text:
"The Boy with the Arab Strap"

The title of the album, The Boy with the Arab Strap caused some tension between Belle and Sebastian and fellow Scots band Arab Strap.[17]

Problems playing this file? See media help.

tag: table

text: The band released their third LP, The Boy with the Arab Strap in 1998, and it reached No. 12 in the UK charts.[18] Arab Strap garnered positive reviews from Rolling Stone[19] and the Village Voice,[16] among others; however, the album has its detractors,[20] including Pitchfork, who gave the album a particularly poor review, calling it a "parody" of their earlier work (Pitchfork has since removed the review from their website).[21] During the recording of the album, long-time studio trumpet-player Mick Cooke was asked to join the band as a full member.[10] The This Is Just a Modern Rock Song EP followed later that year.[22]

text: In 1999 the band was awarded with Best Newcomer (for their third album) at the BRIT Awards, upsetting better-known acts such as Steps and 5ive.[23] That same year, the band hosted their own festival, the Bowlie Weekender. Tigermilk was also given a full release by Jeepster before the band started work on their next LP. The result was Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, which became the band's first top 10 album in the UK.[12] A stand-alone single, "Legal Man", reached No. 15 and gave them their first appearance on Top of the Pops.[24]

text: As the band's popularity and recognition was growing worldwide, their music began appearing in films and on television. The 2000 film High Fidelity mentions the band and features a clip from the song "Seymour Stein" from The Boy with the Arab Strap.[25] Also, the title track from Arab Strap was played over the end credits of the UK television series Teachers,[26] and the lyric "Colour my life with the chaos of trouble" from the song was quoted by one of the characters in the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer.

text: Stuart David soon left the band to concentrate on his side project, Looper, and his book writing, which included his The Idle Thoughts of a Daydreamer.[27] He was replaced by Bobby Kildea of V-Twin. The "Jonathan David" single, sung by Stevie Jackson, was released in June 2001 and was followed by "I'm Waking Up to Us" in November. "I'm Waking Up to Us" saw the band use an outside producer (Mike Hurst) for the first time.[28] Most of 2002 was spent touring and recording a soundtrack album, Storytelling (for Storytelling by Todd Solondz).[29] Campbell left the band in the spring of 2002, in the middle of the band's North American tour to pursue a solo career, first as The Gentle Waves, and later under her own name. She later collaborated with singer Mark Lanegan on three albums.[30][31]

text: Label change and return to success (2003–2010)[edit]

text: The band left Jeepster in 2002, signing a four-album deal with Rough Trade Records.[32] Their first album for Rough Trade, Dear Catastrophe Waitress, was released in 2003, and was produced by Trevor Horn.[33] The album showed a markedly more "produced" sound compared to their first four LPs,[34] as the band was making a concerted effort to produce more "radio-friendly" music.[33] The album was warmly received and is credited with restoring the band's "indie cred".[6] The album also marked the return of Murdoch as the group's primary songwriter, following the poorly received Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant and Storytelling, both of which were more collaborative than the band's early work.[35] A documentary DVD, Fans Only, was released by Jeepster in October 2003, featuring promotional videos, live clips and unreleased footage.[14] A single from the album, "Step into My Office, Baby" followed in November 2003; it would be their first single taken from an album.[32]

text: The Thin Lizzy-inspired "I'm a Cuckoo" was the second single from the album.[34][36] It achieved their highest chart position yet, reaching No. 14 in the UK.[31] The Books EP followed, a double A-side single led by "Wrapped Up in Books" from Dear Catastrophe Waitress and the new "Your Cover's Blown". This EP became the band's third top 20 UK release, and the band was nominated for both the Mercury Music Prize and an Ivor Novello Award. In January 2005, B&S was voted Scotland's greatest band in a poll by The List, beating Simple Minds, Idlewild, Travis, Franz Ferdinand, and The Proclaimers, among others.[37]

text: In April 2005, members of the band visited Israel and the Palestinian territories with the UK charity War on Want;[38] the group subsequently recorded a song inspired by the trip titled "The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House", which would first appear on the digital-download version of the charity album Help!: A Day in the Life and would later have a physical release as a B-side on 2006's "Funny Little Frog" single. Push Barman to Open Old Wounds, a compilation of the Jeepster singles and EPs, was released in May 2005 while the band were recording their seventh album in California. The result of the sessions was The Life Pursuit, produced by Tony Hoffer.[38][39] The album, originally intended to be a double album,[40] became the band's highest-charting album upon its release in February 2006, peaking at No. 8 in the UK and No. 65 on the US Billboard 200.[41][42] "Funny Little Frog", which preceded it, also proved to be their highest-charting single, debuting at No. 13.[14]

text: On 6 July 2006, the band played a historic[citation needed] show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.[43] The opening act at the 18,000 seat sell-out concert was The Shins.[44] The members of the band see this as a landmark event, with Stevie Jackson saying, "This is the biggest thrill of my entire life".[45] In October 2006, members of the band helped put together a CD collection of new songs for children titled Colours Are Brighter, with the involvement of major bands such as Franz Ferdinand and The Flaming Lips.[46]

text: On 18 November 2008 the band released The BBC Sessions, which features songs from the period of 1996–2001 (including the last recordings featuring Isobel Campbell before she left the band), along with a second disc featuring a recording of a live performance in Belfast from Christmas 2001.[47]

text: Recent years (2010–present)[edit]

text: On 17 July 2010, the band performed their first UK gig in almost four years to a crowd of around 30,000 at Latitude Festival in Henham Park, Southwold.[48] They performed two new songs, "I Didn't See It Coming" and "I'm Not Living in the Real World".[49]

text: Their eighth studio album, released in the UK and internationally on 25 September 2010, was titled Belle and Sebastian Write About Love.[50] The first single from the album, as well as the record's title track "Write About Love", was released in the US on 7 September 2010. Write About Love entered the UK albums chart in its first week of release, peaking at No. 8 as of 19 October 2010.[51] Norah Jones is featured on the track "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John".[52]

text: In December 2010 Belle and Sebastian curated the sequel to the Bowlie Weekender in the form of Bowlie 2 presented by All Tomorrow's Parties.

text: In 2013, Pitchfork TV released an hour-long documentary in February, directed by RJ Bentler which focused on the band's 1996 album If You're Feeling Sinister, as well as the formation and early releases of the band. The documentary featured interviews with every member that was present on the album, as well as several archival photos and videos from the band's early days.[53] The band compiled a second compilation album The Third Eye Centre which included the b-sides and rarities released after Push Barman to Open Old Wounds, from the albums Dear Catastrophe Waitress, The Life Pursuit, and Write About Love. In an interview at the end of 2013,[54] Mick Cooke confirmed he had left the band on good terms.

text: The band received an 'Outstanding Contribution To Music Award' at the NME Awards 2014.[55]

text: In 2014, the band returned to the studio, recording in Atlanta, Georgia for their ninth studio album,[56] along with announcing tour dates for various festivals and concerts across the world during 2014.[57] Their ninth album Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance was released on 19 January 2015.[58] The Belle and Sebastian song 'There's Too Much Love' forms much of the soundtrack for the Brazilian film 'The Way He Looks', about a blind, gay teenage boy and his friends, released in 2014.

text: Belle and Sebastian performed at the world-famous Glastonbury Festival on Sunday 28 June 2015, on 'The Other Stage' and at O2 Academy, Glasgow in March 2017 which was televised in the U.K. as part of the 'BBC 6 MUSIC Presents Festival'.

text: Collaborations and side projects[edit]

text: The Reindeer Section were a Scottish indie rock supergroup formed in 2001 by Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, which released albums and gigged in 2001 and 2002. It featured Richard Colburn, Mick Cooke and Bobby Kildea from Belle and Sebastian.

text: The Vaselines are an alternative rock band from Glasgow formed in Glasgow in 1986. Between 2008 and 2014 their lineup featured Stevie Jackson and Bobby Kildea from Belle and Sebastian and they performed at Bowlie Weekender 2 curated by Belle and Sebastian in December 2010.

text: Tired Pony is a country / Americana supergroup formed by Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol in 2010. It features Richard Colburn from Belle and Sebastian.

text: God Help the Girl is a musical project by Stuart Murdoch, featuring a group of female vocalists, including Catherine Ireton, with Belle and Sebastian as the accompanying band.

text: Members[edit]

text:
Stuart Murdoch – vocals, electric and acoustic guitar and keyboards (1996–present)
Stevie Jackson – vocals, electric and acoustic guitar (1996–present)
Chris Geddes – keyboards (1996–present)
Richard Colburn – drums and percussion (1996–present)
Sarah Martin – keyboards, electric and acoustic guitar, violin, flute and vocals (1996–present)
Bobby Kildea – guitar and bass (2000–present)
Dave McGowan - bass, guitar, and keyboards (2011–present)

text:
Stuart David – bass, guitar and vocals (1996–2000)
Isobel Campbell – vocals and cello (1996–2002)
Mick Cooke – trumpet, guitar and bass (1998–2013)

text: Discography[edit]

text:
Tigermilk (1996)
If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
The Boy with the Arab Strap (1998)
Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (2000)
Storytelling (2002)
Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
The Life Pursuit (2006)
Belle and Sebastian Write About Love (2010)
Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (2015)

text:
Push Barman to Open Old Wounds (2005)
The Third Eye Centre (2013)
The Jeepster Singles Collection (2016)