Kindred
The Time Travel
by: Pedro Oliveira de Miranda
Kindred, a novel published in 1979 by the African American writer Octavia E. Butler, important figure in the science fiction landscape, tells the story of Dana, a Black women from the 20th century who is mysteriously transported to a different period of time from the one she was present on. Dana appears inside of a plantation during the slavery era in the United States, forcing her to face the violence and oppression of the relations related to this period. However, Butler didn't use time travel merely as a narrative device, but instead a complex metaphor that exposes the connection between past and future.
One of the main functions of time travel in Kindred is its ability to eliminate the distance between the past and the present, used by the author to force both Dana and the reader to face and confront the history not as something distant and immutable, but as an ongoing reality. By presenting time travel as an unpredictable and uncontrollable force, Butler transforms history into an immediate threat, rather than just a static backdrop, making the past an active part of Dana's lived experience and directly connecting it to the present. This narrative strategy deeply exposes how the legacy of slavery permeates modern life, a connection that becomes even clearer when Dana starts to depend on the past to understand her own present, especially because her family roots were, unfortunately, inseparable from the history of slavery.
The use of time travel in the novel not only develops the characters but also puts the reader in an uncomfortable situation, collapsing the emotional and moral distance that usually separates modern audiences from the realities of slavery, and as a reader this completely changes the story course for something more immersive and able to make me connect with what is happening. By witnessing Dana's experiences, readers are compelled to confront the violence, hierarchies, and systemic oppression that the slavery imposed in the past, making it almost impossible to view this fact as distant or even abstract. Time travel here bridges the gap between historical events and the contemporary knowledge, encouraging a reflection on how the legacies of slavery continue to influence our contemporary social structures and inequalities.
In conclusion, time travel in Kindred is not merely a speculative element, but a narrative strategy adopted by Butler, which explores the persistent connections between past and present. It shapes the development of the characters, exposes the moral and ethical complexities of historical comprehension and oppression, immersing the reader in the horrifying realities of slavery. By connecting the temporal divide, Butler transforms the book into a deep reflection on history, and identify, demonstrating that the legacies of slavery continue to influences the contemporary society. Ultimately, Kindred shows that we need to understand the past essentially to understand the present, and that literature can make history tangible in a way that challenges the audience.
Work Cited
Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Beacon Press, 1979.
I think it's interesting that Butler doesn't try to explain how the time travel in Kindred works, and I think it's one of the things that places the novel more in the realm of speculative finction than science fiction; it doesn't matter how the time travel works, and that isn't the point, the point is the events Dana sees, participates in, and is victim to, in both in 1976 and 1815. I think that as a question, I would be interested in the consequences of Dana pulling Alice or Nigel into the future and how they would react to that, but I think that while it would be interesting, it would be a fundamentally different novel, because that isn't what Kindred chooses to focus on.
ReplyDeleteYou mention at the end of Kindred that there is an effort made to get the reader to connect the past and the present and weigh the present as tainted by the past. At the end of Kindred, Dana herself tries to connect these two times, as seen in her attempt to trace the lives of those on the plantation after Rufus's death. She also expresses some ambivalence about the Fourth of July but still ends up going with Kevin to celebrate it. I don't know if the Fourth of July is something we should celebrate. I suppose it depends on whether we celebrate the history of America (something that seems clear given the date) or America in the present, and the people currently living there.
I had no clue there was a graphic novel adaptation of Kindred, so thank you for including that amazing sequence of panels! It's really nicely incorporated into the essay.
Hey Pedro, I like how you pointed out that time travel blends the past with the present, especially considering the unpredictable nature of the time travel. Like you said, this prompts Dana to view aspects of the modern day with some more context (like the slave patrols leading to the creation of highway patrols, for example) and makes it clear just how much slavery has impacted the modern world. The time travel can be jarring and confusing at times, with no real explanation for it, but Butler treats it very casually and uses it as a device to get her point across, which it does so quite effectively. Overall, great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Pedro! I really like your interpretation on the deeper meaning of time travel in Kindred. I was drawn to your blog post because you offer a different thought on how Butler uses time travel to explain the emotional impact that slavery has had on the present. You connect the emotions that Dana experiences to the emotions that a reader might feel while reading Kindred. I think that this connection deepens your argument and provides a more meaningful interpretation of Kindred. Good Job Pedro!
ReplyDeleteHey Pedro! I like how you highlighted the uniqueness of Butler's use of time travel. It wasn't a sci-fi gimmick or just a simple plot device. It emphasized the connections between slavery and Dana's modern day. It shows how we can connect aspects of slavery to things today, and how aspects of slavery unfortunately built the foundation of this country (1619 project reference!!!) Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting to see the connection between past and present and how the past vitally effects the present. I agree that the fact that Rufus and Dana coming from different time-periods transforms their relationship into a very complex situation. Dana is progressive for her time and Rufus is capable of change. Dana is hopeful. Rufus is becoming more and more of his time as time passes. The question of progress belonging to a certain time is stupid, but how much progress exists-- whether progressiveness is mainstream-- that's interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou say a lot about the unique uses of time travel as a device in this novel, and how different these are than more common uses of time travel in science-fiction narratives: there's nothing "fun" or exciting about these trips, and as we discussed a bit in class, they even mirror many of the dynamics of slavery itself. Dana is "kidnapped" from her familiar world and thrust involuntarily into a radically unfamiliar world, a dystopian nightmare past. I especially like the formulation that the novel uses this conspicuously fictional device to "eliminate the distance" between the periods. Dana is in many ways a figure for the historian in this novel, with her trips to the past analogous to the difficult kind of research that a historian of slavery would have to undertake, trying to imagine the lives of the people living under this system. I especially think of the moments where Dana is back in 1976 but working to heal her significant, violent *wounds* from her time in the past. What a powerful illustration of this "eliminated distance"--she is still *bleeding* when she returns to the present. Her clothes are muddy from the river. The past literally is brought into the present, and with the lost arm, we see that some of these wounds won't fully heal.
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