The Handmaid’s Tale is a satirical commentary on extremism, but the Historical Notes of the novel are a satirical commentary on the novel itself. The casual tone and businesslike manner in which the discussion takes place mocks the situations the members of Gilead were forced to endure. The speaker even mentions that the story itself could be a work of fiction, and the tapes found regarding Gilead could be forged as well, dismissing the possibility of Gilead. The speaker says “Our job is not to censure but to understand” (Atwood 302), yet by mocking the society, the scholars are not understanding the society. In order to fully understand the society, the scholars should not label the tapes as possible forgeries, but to study them as if they were tablets from the Pyramids of Egypt. Throughout the Historical Notes, the jokes regarding the society show that the novel is not just a satirical commentary on extremism, but to the reactions towards that extremism.
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