![]() Bereft of the observational intimacy that made Dana’s story in the novel so heart-wrenching and shocking, this version of Butler’s story is a modern-day mystery-thriller-with a superficial exploration of racism for good (?) measure. The show, created by playwright Branden Jacobs Jenkins, plops Butler’s themes into a centrifuge and spits out a gray, cold, unappealing mush of an eight-hour drama. 13, is likely not what Butler fans have clamored for. But Hulu’s take on Kindred, whose eight-episode first season drops all at once Dec. Decades of acclaim made Kindred an obvious candidate for the first Butler adaptation. It’s a gripping story that mixes racial politics, historical fiction, and gender dynamics, with an enticing time-travel mystery at the center. The book follows Dana and, at times, Kevin (who is white), as she continues to be flung back and forth in history, trying to understand why and how to stop these horrifying journeys. Dana, who’s Black, is immediately thrust into a fight for survival-until she suddenly is transported back to her own time period. When she regains consciousness, she finds herself in a completely different place and time: a Maryland plantation in 1815. In 1976, Dana and her husband Kevin are unpacking their new home in Los Angeles, when Dana blacks out and falls to the floor. Kindred is one of the most highly regarded and widely read books in Butler’s oeuvre, in part because of its provocative premise. Which is why it’s a bit surprising that it’s taken this long for one of her classic books to be adapted-and extra disappointing that it’s such a misfire. Still, after her untimely death in 2006, at age 58, her legacy has only grown in influence and import her Afro-futuristic touches and subversions of the classically white male sci-fi canon continue to be themselves canonized. Butler didn’t live to see any of her seminal science fiction works transition from page to screen. Change and adaptation are central to the novel’s main character’s survival and perseverance-both in the past and present.Octavia E. ![]() Hampton argues that “the ability to change and adapt to nonconformity is often essential if a character wishes to survive in any of Butler’s narratives.” Kindred, her extremely popular 1979 novel, mixes time travel with historical fiction. In her works, Butler was both speculative and exploratory in considering distant, alternative, or probable futures. These terms are seen for what they are, arbitrary markers designed to give stability to that which is unstable and ambiguous.” Hampton notes that, “hrough her characters and narratives, readers are better able to explore the meaning of various identities such as race, sex, and gender. ![]() ![]() Butler has a persistent influence-one that spans well outside of the science fiction genre.Ī pioneer in science fiction, Butler not only helped to pave the way for future male and female African American sci-fi writers, but reshaped the genre itself, bringing it into the 21st century with her complex treatments of race, identity, and the body politic-all explored as changing, fluid constructs. Ten years after her death, the writing of Octavia E. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |