Dec 15, 2009

Kindred | Techniques

Kindred is narrated in the first person, Dana's, and employs the science fiction trope of time travel. However, no attempt is made to explain the physics of the time-travel effect. Indeed, Butler supplies quite precise calendar and clock time to the reader, in order to make it clear that neither clock time nor historical calendar time can explain the time travel. The reader is thus forced to attend rather to the substance of the social issues and moral forces the novel extracts from real history where the past and the present are superimposed. In practice, Butler's story is set in...