The story shows that surviving slavery-and all the sacrifices that required-was an act of bravery on its own. In order to ensure the existence of her future self, she must endure abuse from her white enslaver ancestor and help him survive. In the book, the violence Dana faces in the Antebellum South is brutal and often inescapable. Kindred shows how Butler felt about this narrative. In the Black Power era, it had become popular for some young people to look down on their enslaved ancestors and insist they would have never put up with the same mistreatment. Butler wanted to defend the integrity of enslaved people.īutler wrote Kindred in response to statements she heard from Black college students in the 1960s and ‘70s.

When her fellow novelist Walter Mosley once asked her why, she replied, as Mosley tells it: “There’s no science in it!” She instead categorized her most famous work as a “grim fantasy.” Critics have also placed it under the labels of neo-slave narrative and psychological horror.

But while it does include time travel, Kindred doesn’t fall under the science fiction genre, according to Butler. Kindred is not science fiction.īutler is one of the most esteemed science fiction authors of the 20th century, known for her high-concept series set in the future. Here are some facts about Kindred, as seen in Mental Floss's book The Curious Reader. Butler wrote numerous speculative fiction classics before her death in 2006, but her 1979 novel remains her best-known work. In order to ensure her existence, Dana continues to jump between the present and the past, saving her ancestor’s life numerous times while enduring abuse. There, she meets the white enslaver destined to become her great-great-great-grandfather. The book follows Dana, a 26-year-old Black woman from California who travels back in time to an Antebellum plantation in Maryland. I write Bestselling Books … So Be It! See To It.” Her vision came true with the success of Kindred. While working as a writer, Octavia Butler famously wrote herself the motivational note: “I am a Bestselling Writer.

Kindred octavia butler