Relative Distance

Though Kindred does explore the terror that is slavery in vividly graphic terms guaranteed to make most squirm in their seats, I think it is more important to take notice of what Butler says by including time travel in her plot. As I read it, Time travel is just a device employed to show the reader how close he or she still is to biases that have supposedly been disposed of as time has moved on. Kindred’s plot is cyclical and repetitive, but there’s intent behind what at first might seem monotony. Butler, through these manipulations, shows the reader that people might not have progressed as much as they think. It was a valid point in 1979, and unfortunately, I think it is still valid today.  This is a good idea, and it is, for the most part, well executed. Butler’s clunky dialogue and less than gripping characters do at times distract the reader from the gritty points being made.  However, I will admit that Butler is rather adept at keeping your attention, especially considering the fact that the text has, at least for me, no real suspense. The Novikov self-consistency principle will do that. Almost all I can think of while reading is that Dana is going to do what she did, and that will be all. This story has a predetermined ending, one that is easy to discern after first discovering the elements of the plot. While it may not be beautifully written (much like this blog post), Kindred does succeed in showing the danger in ideologies and reminding the reader that one is much, much closer to those old biases than one might like to think.