The strangest thing to ever happen to Offred, within the given context, has just occurred...the Commander breaking the law and playing word games with her. And wanting to kiss her (and wanting her to kiss like she meant it). So, she needs to get a good perspective on this situation and on her life as she now exists. She goes into an extended metaphor with the idea of “perspective.” In the Middle Ages (Dark Ages—or Darker Ages, as she puts it), painting was two-dimensional. There seemed to be no depth in the works. Sizes and body parts seemed distorted and pushed to the surface of the painting, like this one. When you are too near something — literally, like an object; or even metaphorically, like a situation—you can distinguish from the different elements of the composition. In two-dimensional paintings, it’s like your face is right up against the canvas with no way of understanding where each figure is in relation to the other. The same with a situation in life. If you’re in it and pressed up against it, you can’t...