Postmodern Eyes

A few days ago in class we talked at length about history and the relationship between studying historical facts and the emotional implications of those facts. There were discussions on how one should study history, whether investing emotionally in the history is the right way to study the past or not. While studying history at that depth might become mentally detrimental later on, I think it's an important thing to do, for everyone, to understand the lives of others. Octavia Butler does a wonderful job of fully immersing her main character Dana into her ancestral past. Dana comes out of her experience without an arm and (probably) PTSD as a result of visiting her past. While this is pretty severe, I feel as if Dana now really understands what her past had to go through to survive. The way Dana handles herself throughout the book is a testament to how she accepts her fate yet finds a way to fight back. While she is a slave, she still treats Rufus as a human is meant to be treated...

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler provides an exclusive and in depth look into the lives of slaves during the Ante Bellum South. What I find interesting about this book is the way Butler encapsulates the spit image of slavery from the dialogue down to the smells and textures. For me, this is the trade of a good historical novel, one that can bring to life the horrors of the past by enveloping the reader in every possible sense. One scene Butler does an amazing job of bringing to life is the scene in The Fire where she hides in the bushes while some white people beat up Alice's mom and dad. While this scene is so gruesome by itself, Butler adds descriptions of the beating of the man tied to the tree. "The man's body convulsed, but the only sound he made was a gasp. He took several more blows with no outcry, but I could hear his breathing, hard and quick." (page 36). These two sentences capitalize mostly on sound and while there is no dialogue added, the description is eno...