In Kindred, Octavia Butler constructs a unique method in which time travel occurs: there is no DeLorean, no TARDIS, no futuristic watch. Time travel just happens. And we, as readers, are immediately thrown into this sudden occurrence of time travel, without rhyme or reason.
Take into account the opening of the first chapter, "The River": "...I began to feel dizzy, nauseated. The room seemed to blur and darken around me...I heard him move toward me, saw a blur of gray pants and blue shirt. Then, just before he would have touched me, he vanished."
We don't know why Dana is time travelling, nor does she. And as we find out, Dana seems to go back in time whenever Rufus, a distant ancestor of hers, finds himself in trouble. Dana also realizes that Rufus must have a child, Hagar, with Alice in order for her family lineage to go as planned, and for her to be born in the first place. Kinda like what happened in Back To The Future, though sans DeLorean/mad doctor/skateboards/what not. Oh well...though a DeLorean would be cool.
By constructing a time travel based in something that is largely unknown, to which there's only a vague reason behind it that we can comprehend, the novel manages to avoid one of the defining factors in most novels involving time travel: the science fiction behind the time travel mechanism. By doing so, Butler is able to focus a lot more on the development of characters, across time periods, as well as the historical plot and background of 1800s Maryland. In fact, despite being a time travel novel, Kindred comes across to me as more historical fiction than science fiction, a rarity in time travel novels. Heck, I don't know of a single time travel novel which I would classify as not being a sci-fi.
The nature of Dana's time travel also creates an interesting perspective through which Dana lives in the 1800s. Since Dana knows that she will return to the modern day if she finds herself in danger of being killed, many of the risks that she, as a black woman, would have in those times are either nullified or greatly lessened in their impact. She will not be killed as punishment, and if it seems possible that she might die, she returns. Similarly as we see in the end of "The Storm", Dana also has the power to bring herself back to the present by trying to kill herself, as seen when she slashes her wrists. This gives her, as Jonah mentioned in class, a sort of privilege that other blacks in Maryland at the time lacked, the ability to get away free from many of the punishments and hardships that others faced.
Then again, time travel novels have twists...and it wouldn't surprise me to see a twist in the end of this novel, ending up with Dana getting stuck in the past or something along those lines...maybe once Hagar is born, her danger/Rufus' dangers are irrelevant, and she's stuck wherever she is? We don't know. We can't use what's happened to certainly predict what will happen in the future, and it's quite possible that what ends up happening may not be like how it's happened in the past (Click this link for an example of that playing out.). We'll have to wait and see, and I think that Butler does something with the novel's time travel dynamic to shake it up a bit in the end, considering its unpredictable nature from the beginning.
I agree that the nature of time traveling in this book is certainly different than what we typically see. The point that you made about Dana being privileged over other blacks is definitely a theme we see throughout the book, not just in terms of being able to travel through time. Dana is treated very differently from other slaves on the plantation, especially by Rufus. Everyone knows this, and towards the end of the book we see the other slaves even making comments about it.
ReplyDeleteThe point about Dana's relative "privilege" in relation to the other slaves is important, and it reflects her strange insider-outsider dynamic throughout the 19th-century chapters. But it's also important to note how, in the end, she feels profoundly humbled by how much this experience--even the relatively "light" form of slavery she endures--has made an impact on her. She declares that she would never have been able to survive, that her ancestors were so much stronger and more resilient than she could ever be. She is aware of this privilege, to an extent, and it informs the meaning she ultimately draws from the experience--seeing her 20th-century self as not as mentally, emotionally, physically, and psychologically tough as her distant ancestors.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that the nature of time travel in this book is undeniably unique. I see this as Butler trying to put the focus on what is happening to Dana in the past compared to what is happening to her in the present. I feel as though Butler isn't explaining the time travel as much because she doesn't want it to be a major focus of the novel.
ReplyDeleteTo your other point, I can also see what Dana is privileged as you say compared to the other slaves. The slaves know it, we as readers know it, and even Dana herself knows it. I see this as a move on Butler's part to keep Dana partly in the 20th century and partly in the 19th century.
Butler's decision to go with the unexplained time-travel definitely gives her much more freedom to focus on the social/historical ideas in the story. Her privilege in escaping slavery and the ability to bring whatever she would like from the 21st century is an important advantage. Butler's decision in the end to also somehow trap Dana's arm in midst of time-travelling has similarly important implications, showing that even though Dana has these peculiar advantages, she must also take a lasting hit from her experience.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important aspects of Butler's chosen form of time travel, unlike the TARDIS or the other ones you mentioned above, is that while Dana does have some control over what time period she's in, she literally has to scare herself to the point where she thinks she will die in order to come back to the present. This is not a sacrifice one should take lightly, and I really don't think you can call it a privilege. If we called every limitation of someone's rights a privilege because slaves didn't have access to those rights at all, our current system would be no better than that of the 19th century antebellum south.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important aspects of Butler's chosen form of time travel, unlike the TARDIS or the other ones you mentioned above, is that while Dana does have some control over what time period she's in, she literally has to scare herself to the point where she thinks she will die in order to come back to the present. This is not a sacrifice one should take lightly, and I really don't think you can call it a privilege. If we called every limitation of someone's rights a privilege because slaves didn't have access to those rights at all, our current system would be no better than that of the 19th century antebellum south.
ReplyDelete