After reading the prologue and the first chapter my first impression of Dana is that she is an extremely logical person. When she is first trasported back in time (though she doesn't know this is what has happened yet) she returns to the present and analyzes the details of her ordeal. Key phrases like "I know what I saw, and what I did-my facts" and "not that what happened to me made sense, but I could tell it coherently" show that she is a logical person trying to work out something illogical that has happened to her. Rather than scream or have some other dramatic reaction she chooses to calm herself down and go over the facts. Kevin seems like an understanding person who is able to operate well in stressful situations. Again rather than taking an illogical approach to the situation he wraps a towel around Dana and comforts her. Even in the prolgue when Dana is laying in the hospital and Kevin has just been released by the police they manage to keep themselves composed. Both seem like intellegent and logical human beings.
My sense of the novel as a whole, at this very early point in the book, is that it is going to be less of a science fiction novel and more of a novel dealing with the human experience. What stood out to me more was how the characters reacted to the remarkable events and not the remarkable event itself. I feel for Dana mainly because it is hard for anyone to deal with a loss in security, and while her struggle is para-normal I feel anyone who has experienced a loss in security (job loss, break up, etc.) can relate to how she feels at the moment. It seems like it is going to be an interesting and thought-provoking novel.

Hey Everyone!

Ok so I hope I do all of this right because I am absolutely clueless when it comes to computers, but I am determined to learn! My name is Daniel Quentin, but I have always gone by my middle name of Quentin. I am not sure why my parents named me Daniel only to choose to call me Quentin, but hey I wasn't there to give input so its how I ended up. I'm 18 years old and I live with my mother in Texas. My father lives in Hong Kong and just got back from visiting my father and my two new twin brothers...so that was pretty exciting! I have a total of 5 siblings with another on the way in February so I come from a very large, very extended, very complicated family lol. I have 30 cousins alone on my Father's side and that seems to grow every year. I was on the debate team in high school, and I love discussing politics and politcal theory. I plan on majoring in Communications with a possible minor in English. My ultimate goal would be getting a job as a journalist so I could combine my love of politics with my love of writing. I suppose thats all to really say right now. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you in August and I'm sure next year is going to be a blast!

The Fight-- My thoughts of the book thus far

I read this section of the book while at a Youth Conference, the book has quickly become one of my escapes, as I read I would be approached by many, curious people thinking I had received the highly anticipated book 7 of Harry Potter... after I told them what I was actually reading and a brief summary, most claimed that they wanted to read the book.

I am so intrigued by the book... the story progresses at a rate that keeps my interest and keeps just enough hidden to peak my curiousity. My biggest surprise came when I read how Dana and Kevin met and it was revealed that Kevin was a white man, I feel this was a brilliant choice that Octavia made, I had hoped that Kevin would experience the time travel and when he was pulled back I knew the couple was in for an interesting time. The development of the Weylins was done so thoroughly that I could relate them to people I have met seamlessly, I especially enjoy how the Weylins fear Dana because they cannot explain her, it's very representative of how humans become uncomfortable around the unknown.

The questions that I have encountered have been resolved by the story's progress and there seem to be few loose-ends, I cannot wait to continue the book and find out how Dana loses her arm... I keep thinking each time she is pulled back it will be the time, but when it doesn't happen, I want to continue reading until it is uncovered.

The End

I am still uncertain as to how I feel about the book. There were parts of it I found really touching and a bit moving, but almost every feeling I got from these "touching parts" was eradicated by the reminder of how illogical it all was. Perhaps this is a fault on my part.

I was a bit disappointed by the absurdity of the ending. Yes, it was clever to end with the symbol of Dana "leaving part of herself behind," but the means by which Butler achieves this seem to me a tad comical. Again, everytime I started to feel something, I was numbed by the book's complete lack of logic. It's not even that irrationality bothers me, it's just that it seems to not fit well in this book. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most irrational, illogical books I have ever read, but its absence of logic is fitting because it is the foundation from which the book is built. There is quite the gap between dancing lobsters and nineteenth century slavery.

What I liked most about the book was the pure realism involved with Rufus. I think he is the most realistically developed character in the novel. He is a such a complex, confusing, and at times, unreadable character. He is a product of his father, yet still retains traits of his own. I wanted so badly for him to become good, but if my wishful thinking would've come true, he would not have been a very real character. He is walking proof of how strongly we are influenced by our environment and how truly unstable we are when we try to be ourselves while someone else is shaping us.

I am starting to think that traveling back in time is just a creative manifestation of the way we distort history by looking back on it from dishonest eyes. Dana goes back in time and things obviously do not happen as they did the first time it was the nineteenth century. Could this be symbolic of the way history changes each time we look back into it? We are biased in the sense that we will never be able to see first hand what took place in the past. We are constantly discovering new things and getting new perspectives about the past; our history books are always changing.

Mid-Book Thoughts

As of right now, I still cannot bring myself to get past the irrationality of the method of time travel presented in this book. For everything that happens, there must be some sort of force acting behind it. Although time travel is an incredibly ambiguous thing, we must assume that the same basic rules apply to it as they do to other actions. I realize the novel is one of fiction, however, if we are to take it seriously should there not be a better way of juxtaposing two different times than by sending the novel's characters back and forth through time on a whim with no explanation? It is important to note that writing gives the one with the pen the ultimate ability to play God, but it seems as if Ms. Butler is abusing her powers in this particular novel. I was more content with the presentation of time travel in Chuck Palahniuk's newest novel Rant, simply because there is a means of achieving the ridiculous feat of traveling through time. Of course, any method of traveling across time may seem a bit absurd, but at least Palahniuk gives his characters a method; Butler does not. This is all rather insignificant though. I am no literary critic, nor am I even close to being on the same level as Octavia Butler mentally. This is just a small issue I have with the novel.

On a different note, I am really interested in the evolution of the relationship between Rufus and Dana. It seems as if their desire to help each other is now based not on an authentic feeling of compassion, but on the necessity of fulfilling the other's wishes to stay alive. It's like they are holding each other at gunpoint and are trying to agree on things to avoid getting shot. I think it's also really interesting that Rufus has aged quite a bit more than Dana during the book so far, yet they both seem to have gone through drastic changes in character. A few days for Dana have been a few years for Rufus, but it doesn't seem as if Rufus has changed his view of Dana more than Dana has changed her view of Rufus.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pass out and wake up in 1988 so that I can murder my parents prior to my conception as a means of achieving immortality.

Que Onda

Hey ya'll, I'm pretty sure that you've already figured out that I'm Hispanic from my title. If not it's ok..it'll come to you.Ne who, my name is JoseAlonso Jimenez.I'm 18, live with my mother(since my parents are divorced),have three siblings,was born and raised in Houston, TX and love sports.I guess if you were to know anything about me it would be that I recently formed a passion for the outdoors. This past summer I spent 45 days in the Canadian Yukon without any contact to the outside world. Because of this I came to appreciate nature for all the good and terrrible things it offers. Ok enough of that, I had narrowed my choices for college down to three schools. Two which were in Texas and another up in Maine. After I figured out that I wouldn't be able to handle to weather it was up to TCU and SU. Obviously I chose SU...TCU reminded me to much of Houston. So I guess that's all there is to say for a somewhat formal intro. Hope to meet you all and continue to have a good summer.

Ch. 1-- The River

I went into this book with many reservations... I was worried how the two generes would mesh together seamlessly, however when I finished the first chapter I realized that Octavia's writing (yes, we're on a first name basis) was extremely fluid. I rather enjoy the book and am looking forward to see how the storyline progresses. My favorite aspect of the story is how Dana actually disappears to the past instead of as if in a dream, and how she brings back the environment of the past, with the mud and wet dress, this will keep her somewhat credible, which is against the grain with most time-travel books.

Hey You Guys!

Hi,
I'm Tyler Fredregill, I was born and raised in Huntsville, Tx (most famously known for Prisons, SHSU, and a big tall statue), in other words... my hometown is LAME, but I made it work.

I had a blast in high school, I was captain of the Speech Team and a member of a group that went to the younger schools to teach about choices to make in High School and in life. I'm an avid member of my youth group and absolutely love having such an awesome God watching over me. I have a wonderful family who let me know everyday that I will not be living the luxurious life anymore... but I beg to differ. I have a twelve year-old brother named Tristan, he doesn't know it, but I look up to him just as much as he does to me. I plan on majoring in Biology and Spanish and want to become a Cosmetic/Reconstructive Surgeon and mission in Bangladesh or Africa. I LOVE traveling and Buffalo Wild Wings... so if there are any other B-Dubs lovers let me know! I think that covers enough... probably too much.

See you soon,
Tyler

The Fight Reaction Blog

Kindred, so far, has been an easy read. The unpredictable plot, complex characters, and untraditional approach to juxtaposing racial encounters (between the antebellum south and the late 1960s) captivate the reader, and simultaneously bring the issues of racism and slavery to the reader’s attention. The concept of time travel plays a major role in both the plot and the book’s overall effect on the reader. I find it interesting that even though days, weeks, months, and (in Kevin’s case) years go by during their journeys into the past, they find that once they return home, it has merely been from several seconds to a few minutes. I would have never guessed that Dana would be able to bring something (or someone) along with her during her transitions between the two time periods. I was even more surprised by the fact that she left Kevin behind while traveling back home. As a result, when they were finally together again, he had aged nearly five years.

Octavia Butler has done a great job making the reader feel as though they are a part of the story. I understood Dana’s anger towards Rufus for lying to her, making Alice a slave, and acting irrationally for selfish reasons; but I also empathized with Rufus when he saw she was just going to leave without a word. As a result, he felt the need to use violence in order to ensure that things went his way. I am also intrigued by the complexity of the characters, namely Rufus and his father. Initially, I thought I would like Rufus, but, throughout the book, I have felt both anger and an admiration (and unconditional love) towards him. Contrastingly, I was initially repulsed by Rufus’s father; the fact that he honored his word to any man (or woman in this case; black or white) was a surprising character trait to give a slave owner.

I had no idea that Dana’s journeys into the past would lengthen and become more dangerous, to the point that she has no idea whether she will return home or not. Not only does Dana’s life become more dangerous, but Rufus is getting into more trouble and danger. Although he does summon Dana to help him whenever he is in trouble, it reaches a point where Dana isn’t sure she can help him anymore (which could end his life, and consequently, her own life).
Both Kevin and Dana has adapted very well to the time period, which is, in a sense, both good and bad. They seem to be able to accept the way things are which could cause trouble for them when they return home. I am wondering if Kevin was able to return home with Dana right before the gun was fired…

Conclusion

At the end of the book, I wondered to myself what the point of it all was. The two have come to the end of the story, rationalized that it was all real, and now they have to piece their lives together again. Butler doesn't say outright how or if the two are going to live any differently than they did before. I don't know if I see the change, myself. Which leads me to believe that the story was really more of an exposition aimed at the reader. Maybe it didn't matter to Butler what Dana took away from her experience. What we, as readers, take away from it is the real focus point. Hence the use of the first-person "I" form. It's almost hippie-esque: "the journey is the destination, man." I use that phrase a lot and I think it applies here. The two, Dana and Kevin, are essentially back where they started from at almost the same exact time they left and all they have to show for it are the scars. So the lessons learned along the way are the crucial elements not the endpoints.
There were definitely points in this novel that got my ire up. The worst examples were actually not the scenes of physical violence, but examples of the cowardice of the slave owners in their attempts to justify slavery and violence. For example, Mrs. Weylin's offhanded remark about how "impudent" Dana use to be and how someone must have "taught her a lesson" as if she were a little child in need of a spanking.
Another important observation is the growth of Rufus and how he is corrupted by his environment. At the beginning, Rufus calls Dana a "nigger" and then is shocked that she finds the term offensive. He had never thought about it before and he agrees to refer to her as "black" when she tells him to. I wrote in the margins: "Children must be taught to hate, but a desire to get along seems to be innate." Or something like that. Any way, as the years pass for Rufus, he becomes "more like his father." Even Kevin seems to get a little sucked into the comfortable position of superiority as a white male. He thinks that 1814 would be "a nice time to live in." Butler is pointing out the precarious relationship between cultures. We need to watch the state of equality in our own time because we are all constantly jockeying for position in the hierarchy trying to "get ahead". A current example, one especially relevent to us Texans, is the status of Mexican immigrants. Look at the way we tend to view Mexicans as a workforce of a more "manual labor" sort. It's interesting that the "flood of illegal immigration" has not innundated our white collar, managerial occupations. We are far more use to seeing Mexicans mowing our lawns, cleaning up our trash, and ringing up groceries at the gas station. What Octavia Butler taught me is to watch closely that our job hierarchy doesn't become totally based on race. But it scares me today when I hear people say something like "we need Mexicans to do the jobs that Americans won't accept." That to mean sounds eerily like segregationist-talk and we should keep an eye open.

Middle

Octavia Butler’s kindred demonstrates every social inequality since the 1800’s. There is the race discrimination, which is the most prominent, but also the limitations of women and even class. I’m enjoying the character Dana. I love the way she establishes her and Rufus’s equality; at least as much as she dares in antebellum south.
Here are a couple of notes I jotted down while reading.

-The book even includes modern day racism. Sort of the after effect of 1800’s.
-I’m assuming the book will end around the time Hagar is born (1831). So 16 years will go by.
-Since Kevin has been stuck in the 1800’s he might spend too long there and learn to adapt and maybe except their way of living. Why doesn’t he attempt to kill Rufus? Though that might make things dangerous for Dana when she returns.
-Rufus feels slavery is essential to social acceptance
-I don’t think Rufus sent the letters. He is used to controlling, or at least having some degree of authority over, the women around him. His mother included.
-Throughout the book Dana has such perfect grammar. Even Rufus called her a walking book. (To which she said, “Then I hope Kevin did a good job teaching you to read”! Ha, I love it!) Well on page 180 Dana says “She forgave him nothing.” Guess she gave in to the southern accent!
-Kevin loves Dana as a mother figure. At one point I found myself pitying him.

1st thoughts

I really like the character Dana; so far she appears to be your typical heroine. I’m not quite sure what to make of the husband yet. He was affectionate and seemed genuinely concerned for her at the hospital. Then the first chapter begins with him frustrated at his writer’s block and Ms. Butler uses words like malevolent, colorless and intimidating.
Here are a couple notes I wrote while reading.
-“Trip” was involuntary.
-Few minutes vs. 10-15 seconds.
-After being spontaneously transported to strange location her maternal instincts immediately kick in to save Rufus. Impressive. Not that I’ve been in such a situation and would have done otherwise, but it did seem sort of abrupt.
-So she must lose her arm in the alternate time. Dad looks like a prime candidate for that sort of violence.
I’m curious to see how she develops a plot centered on time travel.

Introductions

Hi, my name is Lauren Tedmon.
I’m a Leo, my birthstone is peridot and I was born in the year of the snake. Sorry, I’m not that interesting; I’m just having a difficult time describing myself. I’ve been sitting for a while working on this. Not because I’m some sort of narcissist, I'm just not much of a writer. I apologize ahead of time to Alexis (the walking grammar book) my writing is bound to horrify you. It’s second only to my abysmal spelling. Thank God for spell check!
I have 7 animals, four of which are humans. My family and I are not really from anywhere, one of the perks of being a military brat. My dad’s is a pilot, which makes my fear of planes sort of ironic. He originally wanted me to join the military, but I convinced him that there are other ways to serve our country, many of which don’t require boot camp. So now I’m enrolled at SU and I’m planning on majoring in chemistry, assuming I can survive it.
That’s all I can think of, guess I’ll resort to likes and dislikes.
Likes:
Piano
The show, House
Time with friends
Theatre
Skiing
Dislikes:
Excessive use of the word “like”
planes

Chapter 1: The River ~ First Reaction

I have to admit that at first, I felt that it was all too coincidental that I ended up in the seminar about cultural encounters, as an African American female. After learning more about the seminar itself and the required summer reading, I became less apprehensive about the class and intrigued by the reading assignment.
Despite the contrast between my sense of organization and Octavia Butler's beginning in media res, I was, in a sense, glued to the book (not even wanting to pause in order to write this blog). I was both surprised and amazed at Octavia Butler's ability to captivate her reders so early in the story, especially in such an unconventional method. The sense of time travel further enables the reader to compare cultural encounters with African Americans in the antebellum south with those of a more modern world.
Although I tpically view the idea of time travel as juvenile, namely compared to the issues of racism and tolerance, I am intrigued by Butler's integration of the two to emphasize the latter and its change over time.
I am uncertain about the remainder of the book, but I can hardly wait to pick it up again.

The Flight

Well I seem to have guessed correctly that Dana's stays in the past were going to progressively longer. However, I did not see that her time (1976) was going to stay roughly the same. Not much of a chance for living a double life. I still don't care for the dialogue. However, I have to give major credit to Ms. Butler for creating two incredibly complex characters. Not Dana nor Kevin; they seem pretty simple. But Rufus and his father are hard to figure out. Mr. Weylin's sense of fairness totally took me by surprise. I couldn't believe it when he honored the promise his son made to a slave and even had disdain for his son for breaking that promise. Rufus I just can't figure out, though. He does something decent and then immediately nullifies it by doing something terribly cruel. When I read "The Fight," I was ready to hate Rufus for trying to rape Alice. The chapter starts terribly. Then we learn that Rufus paid a white preacher to preside over Nigel and Carrie's wedding with all the same respect as a "legitimate" white-person's wedding. And then later in that same chapter, when Dana asks Rufus if he would ever sell a slave, Rufus says "I don't think so." He's clearly trying to fight his upbringing and society, but I fear that it will ultimately beat him in the end.

First Chapter Reaction

Well it's good to be reading a true fiction again. If the rest of the story is like the first chapter, this thing is going to read really fast. I like that. I'm not sure if I like our two characters' (Kevin and Dana's) ability to rationalize their emotions so easily after a shocking event. But that's a criticism of writing style, not plot.
I think it will be interesting to hear Octavia Butler's perspective on race considering her main character is of my parents' generation. I know their perspectives and I think I know the opinions of kids my own age that I know. It's not usually my style, but if fantasy can work as a medium for a racial dialogue I'm willing to give it a shot.
I think Dana's jumps are progressively going to get more frequent and her stays in the "other dimensions" are going to get longer. I don't know whether she'll eventually have to give up her 1970's life, but I do believe that she's going to be living a double life throughout this story taking knowledge she acquires from each one and using it in the other.