Ending Romanticization of Time Travel in Kindred

The aspect of time travel seems to be something that seems to be played with throughout most of popular culture in a variety of ways. Most of the time, it is used to bring in iconic figures to a show or literature that viewers or readers would know. Within Octavia Butler’s novel “Kindred,” we see the use of time travel as a means to serve a greater purpose. Instead of bringing in iconic figures, it instead brings in an important part of our history and gives commentary on it from the year of 1976. This novel allows for the reader to understand just how brutal and hard times were in the south before the civil war broke out. Butler uses time travel as a means of bringing the reader back into the past and to tell a small story in one of the darker moments of United States history.

We begin by being introduced to the main character of Dana, who is in the hospital after losing an arm. The reader is left wondering how the arm was lost, how her husband Kevin is not too blame, and what the truth is that no one would believe. Butler does a great job of playing with time in just the prologue. The reader is given a glimpse into the future and must travel through the linear narration of the novel to be able to find what had happened to our main character.

Butler’s play with time doesn’t end with the prologue, throughout the novel, our main character Dana is consistently pulled back to the year of 1815 to save one of her ancestors. Despite the fact that the ancestor is only a child at the beginning, any time he is in danger she is pulled through time to save his life and the future life of the family. The interesting play with time here is the situation that Butler puts on Dana. Dana is an african american while Rufus, her ancestor, is white. What’s worse for Dana is that Rufus is the son of a plantation owner in Maryland, who is growing up with a family that owns slave. Every time that Dana travels back to save Rufus, she is also then treated as a slave.

By telling the story with a modern black woman travelling back to the times of slavery, Butler is able to tell the stories and horrors that went along with this era while not directly living in it. Even though we meet several slaves, and the owners and other whites during the time, it is all shown through the modern lens thanks to Dana. Her often first person narration allows for the reader to understand what it was like for her to experience these times, the pain and hardships that were felt, and the struggles for both african americans and whites. For example, throughout the novel we get glimpses of both Tom and Rufus Weylin and the men that they are. As Dana consistently tells Kevin, they are simply “men of their time.” With both of them, they tend to show signs of good, whether it’s trying to avoid giving harsh punishments to Dana, or allowing certain actions to be done by slaves that would otherwise bring extreme punishment, they ultimately still are slave owners, treating people as property.

The travel between both times also leaves its mark on the characters, which again allows for the reader to gain a better sense of what it was like to travel back and forth within these two time periods. One of the things that Butler does well is having a white man, Dana’s husband Kevin, travel back with her and to end up being trapped in the time period for 5 years. By taking Kevin and trapping him within this time frame, the reader gets a better understanding that life was not just hard for african americans, but the entire time period itself was. By no means is Butler trying to say that white americans lived just as rough of a life, but she shows the perils that they face as well, if anything as a means to humanize them. Kevin struggles to find his foothold within this old society. He speaks of bouncing from place to place, trying to find a job. When he finally returns to Dana and Dana brings him home, his struggles then change to dealing with the real world. Despite showing the luxuries of 1976, Kevin is lost within himself and the time period that he faced then vs the current time. This again adds to the sentiment towards the time and to white men, which seems like it should be impossible to do given the era.

The novel also does a great job of showing the readers just the amount of danger that existed for everyone during the time, in specific african americans. The prime example would be Dana. The only conceivable way that has been found for her to get home is through danger. Whether it’s having a gun pointed at her, being nearly raped and then possibly caught attacking a white man, or slitting her own wrists, her life must be in peril for her to return. This speaks volumes to the danger that is evident through the rest of the novel. Every time Dana is called from 1976 back to 1800’s, it’s to save Rufus when his life's in danger. When she lives amongst the slaves, she hears about the horrors many of them faced in the hands of whites, and even has to endure a lot of the pain they felt as well. By having Dana travel back in time and face each of these dangers, the reader is left scared more and more for her life, and the idea of time travel becomes worse and worse.

A feeling that this novel also gave me was the fact that time travel would not be as great as it is romanticized in popular culture. So often we see the hero travel back in time, whether it’s to meet a historical figure, chase down a villain, or save all of history. Rarely though is the reader or viewer ever shown the true dangers of the time period. With “Kindred,” the romanticizing stops. The main characters are constantly subjected to violence and the lines between heroes and villains are blurred. Despite the fact that Rufus can be a cruel man, he is given small redemptions. Tom Weylin has proven to be worse than his son, but at the same time, he also gives some pity to the slaves that he owns. With Dana, she tries to do what she can with what little power she has to help the slaves, but the more power she gains with the family, the more she is despised by others. The advice she gives is often based around trying to help others survive, but it’s at the advantageous point that she would not continuously endure with the others. In the end we see Dana kill Rufus, which seems like the heroic choice, but at what cost? She loses her arm returning to her time and finds in the end that none of the slaves are truly freed. So in the end, the reader is left questioning whether or not her time was well spent, and was that time used to truly help others or to simply be selfish enough to save herself.

Joe Trace's Engagement with Cyclical Temporality

Even the face of the clock and the way it functions—the instrument we use to measure time—implies just how valued cyclical temporality is to humans.

As mentioned in About Time, Paul Davies recognizes the interest in and discussion of cyclical time across numerous cultures and eras. So what is it that draws humans to this concept? The want to break from linear timeline? Is it the want to be more than human—timeless like the gods? Is it an excuse to escape from reality or the “time” we experience and must live with in the present?

Whatever the case may be, the concept of cyclical temporality has long been a topic of interest explored within both scientific and humanities fields. Toni Morrison’s Jazz grapples with the above ideas through both the characters’ experiences and the narration style itself. The narrator addresses readers about life:

I started out believing that life was made just so the world would have some way to think about itself, but that it had gone awry with humans because flesh, pinioned by misery, hangs on to it with pleasure[…] I don’t believe that anymore. Something is missing there. Something rogue. Something else you have to figure in before you can figure it out. (227-28)

Perhaps what humans have always needed to “figure in” in order to “figure it out” is the ability to experience time cyclically somehow to make connections and relations between these experiences that life consists of. Plato suggests that “the fleeting world of daily experience is only half real, an ephemeral reflection of a timeless domain” (Davies 24). It seems we search for this timelessness in cyclical patterns as a means to understanding reality, or the “fleeting world” we see before us. In some ways being always somehow “stuck” in the present can feel constricting, intimidating, even controlling.

In Jazz, readers are told the story of Joe Trace (and others) through cyclical narration. (For the purposes this essay, we’ll be focusing specifically on Mr. Trace.) The narrator refuses to expose their experiences in a linear fashion or recount those experiences in their entirety at one time. We are given bits and pieces of information, flashes of memories that return again and again in different contexts and points in Violet and Joe’s “reality,” or current place in time.

Joe Trace describes reality as a musical track, or more specifically and aptly associated, a jazz track. He expresses that no matter how hard we try, we are stuck on this track of life experiences, a track of our own reality that, like jazz, feels improvised and continually unexpected. Reality brings us the highs and lows of experience just as jazz provides a wide range of notes and melodies within a song.

Cyclical temporality allows us to step outside of this track, outside of time, and reflect on memories and experiences that mean the most to us. Davies quotes Mircea Eliade by stating that humans yearn “for a periodical return to the mythological time of the beginning of things” and later that perhaps the attraction to cyclical temporality is “the prospect of resurrection in subsequent cycles” (28-29). This most certainly seems true for Joe, as the narrator brings us through these cycles of experiences that Joe is so enthralled with and seems to have a hard time making any meaning of: his “wild” mother, his deteriorating relationship with his wife, his short-lived fling with Dorcas, his changing jobs and locations.

Over again, Joe ruminates cyclically on these experiences, wondering how and why he got to where he is (trying to "figure it out"), perhaps hoping for some sort of resurrection from the life he is now living, the musical track he is eternally bound to. Cycling through these experiences, however, often leads him to make similar decisions later, which can be seen in his attempt to reconnect with his wife, in his blossoming interest for Dorcas’ young friend, and in his major life changes (he confesses there to have been at least seven of them so far). This leads Joe to realize that even though he can cycle through these experiences and attempt to gain clarity and timelessness, he still is, just as we all are, “bound to the track” (Morrison 120).

Davies, Paul. About Time: Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Print.

Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Print.

Thinking "About Time"

Thinking “About Time”

            What are we without time? How do we recall memories and events without thinking of them in terms of time? We are a society, one of many, who are completely controlled by time. How much time we have to get ready in the morning, can we even afford the time it takes to eat breakfast? How much time will it take to study, to be in class, to work? How much time do we have to relax before bed? Ours is a world controlled and divided by time.  Are we passive inmates in this prison of time, or do we dare to question time itself? Does time have a beginning? An end? Does time last forever?

            In “About Time”, Davies charts the history of time for readers, giving us a jumping off point for asking questions, making connections and thinking about time in ways our minds had never been open to before.  Davies breaks this excerpt down into sub chapters. It is my mission to represent some of these sub chapters and share my own questions and insights.

“The Quest for Eternity”

            In this chapter, debates founded in religion and philosophy are called into question as Davies tries to untangle the many views of eternity.  

            According to Plotinus, a third century pagan, to exist in time is to exist

imperfectly. Pure being (i.e. God) must therefore be characterized by the utter absence of any relation to time.  For Plotinus, time represents a prison for human beings, separating us from the divine realm—the true and absolute reality(p.24).

As I am with a lot of elements in my life, I sit in the middle of the argument mentioned in this chapter, that there can be no eternal God if there is a temporal universe. I believe that eternity and time can coexist, as one represents our mortal, physical lives and the other represents the realm of what is possible and what lies beyond. Living a life of faith opens the doors even wider to questions relating to eternity and timelessness. As I read the bible, I ponder, when did time begin? Will it end? Did God create time or did man? I can’t possibly know the answers to these questions but beginning to question these concepts, I believe, is the first step to understanding the possibilities.  In the essay, Davies states that “in this existence, time does not pass, rather, God perceives all times at once (p.24)”.

“Newton’s Time and the Clockwork Universe”

            This chapter discusses the major scientific advancements made in timekeeping. What follows is what I think is the most interesting passage of the chapter:

On 8 July 1714, the government of Queen Anne determined “That a Reward be settled by Parliament upon such Person or Persons as shall discover a more certain and practicable Method of Ascertaining Longitude than any yet in practice.” The prize offer was the princely sum of 20,000 pounds, to be awarded for the construction of a chronometer that was capable of determining longitude at sea within thirty miles after a six- week voyage. No event better symbolizes the transition from the organic, rhythmic time of traditional folklore to the modern notion of time as a functional parameter with economic and scientific value (p.30).

This is when time begins to become a scientific quest into the future as scientific demands are made, as well as becoming a commodity. What is interesting here is that the western people are recognizing that they need an accurate method of timekeeping, as time itself becomes more valuable. It is at this same time that Newton begins to push out the idea that time is not just a manmade construct, but an entity that exists free of external factors in the entirety of the universe. It is exciting to me, that with this commission from the Queen and Newton’s explorations in the meaning of time, westerners are warming to a society bound by time, creating a train of motion so powerful that it will never be stopped. This demand for keeping and understanding time will eventually go on to become or work and train schedules, the best times to buy and sell on Wall Street and the way we are programmed to remember significant events in our lives.

“Is The Universe Dying?”

            This chapter discusses types of time: the arrow of time, linear time, pessimistic time and optimistic time, and asks the direct question, “is the universe getting better or worse?”

            Biblically speaking, we might come to understand that the universe, or our world, at least, is getting worse: “The Bible tells the story of a world that starts in a state of perfection—the Garden of Eden—and degenerates as a result of man’s sin”. (p.34).  Even scientists agree that the universe is slowly getting worse, as the sun burns its own fuel away, never to be replenished, which would lead to a “cosmic heat death”. It’s a little scary to think about, but that’s where optimistic time comes into play. This way of thinking states that biology creates order out of chaos and is progressive. I’m not sure what I believe, whether the universe is getting better or worse, but in terms of time, the universe is aging, which to me suggests degradation and wear and tear. And society may certainly be making the world, if not the universe a less than amazing place to exist.

            When I think about time, I think about the hands on a clock or the days on a calendar page. I recall events in terms of time, almost as though the when supersedes the importance of the where and why. I am a product of my world, a slave to time.