Octavia E. Butler, Kindred
Apr. 9th, 2009 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelle posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
50books_pocPeople who know me know that I like sci fi. Octavia Butler is pretty much the classic PoC sci fi author. Aside from this, all I knew about her was that she writes vampire books and she wrote Kindred. I did not read anything about Kindred before I requested it from the library. I kept waiting for the vampires to show up, and only realized 35 pages in that it was not, in fact, a vampire book. D'oh!
Kindred is instead the story of Dana, a black woman married to a white man in 1976, who keeps traveling back to the nineteenth century at moments that allow her to save the life of her white, slave-owning ancestor Rufus.
I read the first thirty-some pages on Monday, another forty-some pages on Tuesday, and the rest of the book in one sitting yesterday, a sitting where I kept thinking, "At the next section break, I'll get up and do my weight lifting," but didn't. That's a pretty good sign that it's an engrossing, compelling story.
I have this idea in my head that Octavia Butler is a Serious Writer who deals with Serious Issues, which she does. The book clearly tackles both the issue of white slave owners fathering children with their black slaves via rape and the issue of how easily people adapt to their circumstances, even if those circumstances mean they become slaves. The Serious Issue that seemed hinted at but not directly addressed is how their time in the past changes Dana and Kevin's relationship in the present of 1976.
Some of the dialogue is a little stilted, and not the nineteenth-century dialogue, either, but the 1976 dialogue. I suspect most of that is simply the formula of writing in the 70s (I can't remember the last time I read a non-children's book written before 1990, so I don't really have anything to compare it to), but there's at least one spot where the message is showing a little too clearly.
In terms of broadening my experience of the world, I have to admit that I had a hard time really accepting how easily Dana adapted to being a slave. I'm not sure how much of this is the writing not pulling me far enough into her head and how much of it is my white privilege that means I've never had to think about what it would be like to be a slave, which is clearly something Dana lives with even before her time travel experiences. I was skimming Racialicious earlier today, and in recounting a discussion about BDSM race play, Andrea Plaid says, "Personally, I think of race play and, yeah, I feel the body memories of slavery, too," which makes me more convinced it's my white privilege showing.
Kindred is instead the story of Dana, a black woman married to a white man in 1976, who keeps traveling back to the nineteenth century at moments that allow her to save the life of her white, slave-owning ancestor Rufus.
I read the first thirty-some pages on Monday, another forty-some pages on Tuesday, and the rest of the book in one sitting yesterday, a sitting where I kept thinking, "At the next section break, I'll get up and do my weight lifting," but didn't. That's a pretty good sign that it's an engrossing, compelling story.
I have this idea in my head that Octavia Butler is a Serious Writer who deals with Serious Issues, which she does. The book clearly tackles both the issue of white slave owners fathering children with their black slaves via rape and the issue of how easily people adapt to their circumstances, even if those circumstances mean they become slaves. The Serious Issue that seemed hinted at but not directly addressed is how their time in the past changes Dana and Kevin's relationship in the present of 1976.
Some of the dialogue is a little stilted, and not the nineteenth-century dialogue, either, but the 1976 dialogue. I suspect most of that is simply the formula of writing in the 70s (I can't remember the last time I read a non-children's book written before 1990, so I don't really have anything to compare it to), but there's at least one spot where the message is showing a little too clearly.
In terms of broadening my experience of the world, I have to admit that I had a hard time really accepting how easily Dana adapted to being a slave. I'm not sure how much of this is the writing not pulling me far enough into her head and how much of it is my white privilege that means I've never had to think about what it would be like to be a slave, which is clearly something Dana lives with even before her time travel experiences. I was skimming Racialicious earlier today, and in recounting a discussion about BDSM race play, Andrea Plaid says, "Personally, I think of race play and, yeah, I feel the body memories of slavery, too," which makes me more convinced it's my white privilege showing.
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Date: 2009-04-10 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 10:13 pm (UTC)The whole thing gave me mental hives in a weird way that I am not sure I can explain without spoiling the book!
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Date: 2009-04-12 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 03:35 am (UTC)