{"id":155502,"date":"2023-04-14T23:01:43","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T23:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=155502"},"modified":"2023-04-14T23:01:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T23:01:43","slug":"celebrating-25-years-of-octavia-butlers-kindred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/art-and-culture\/celebrating-25-years-of-octavia-butlers-kindred\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 25 Years of Octavia Butler&#8217;s &#8220;Kindred&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"           <!--  <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n                jQuery(document).ready(function() {\r\n                    jQuery(\".key-accordion-item .key-menu\").on(\"click\", function() {\r\n                        if (jQuery(this).parent().hasClass(\"active\")) {\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                        } else {\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-content\").slideUp();\r\n                            jQuery(\".key-accordion-item\").removeClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).parent().addClass(\"active\");\r\n                            jQuery(this).next().slideDown();\r\n                        }\r\n                    });\r\n                })\r\n            <\/script> -->\r\n\r\n\r\n            <!-- start html -->\r\n\r\n            <div class=\"news-key-takeaway-wapper\">\r\n                                <span style=\"background-color:#4db2ee;\">Key Takeaways<\/span>\r\n                <ul class=\"news-key-nbox\" style=\"border-color:#4db2ee;background-color:rgba(77, 178, 238, 0.1);\">\r\n                                                        <li>Transcending genre: Although often categorized as science fiction, \"Kindred\" defies this label due to its focus on a modern-day Black woman navigating the antebellum South and the horrors of slavery.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Personal connection: Butler's family stories and experiences provided valuable insight into the historical context of \"Kindred,\" enabling her to authentically portray the time period in her novel.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Significance of protagonist's missing arm: The character's missing arm symbolizes the lasting impact of slavery on Black people in America and the protagonist's struggle to write about her experiences.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Octavia Butler's lasting influence: Sixteen years after her death, Butler's work continues to resonate with new readers, inspire various forms of art, and be included in academic syllabuses.<\/li>\r\n                                                                    <li>Themes and ideas remain relevant: Butler's themes of the climate crisis, political and societal upheaval, and power hierarchies are sobering and prescient, inspiring readers to seek a way forward in today's world.<\/li>\r\n                                                <\/ul>\r\n            <\/div>\r\n            \n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year marks the 25th anniversary of the groundbreaking novel &#8220;Kindred&#8221; by Octavia Butler, first published in 1979.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The novel has made a significant impact on readers and has even been adopted by cities as part of their reading programs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, Rochester chose &#8220;Kindred&#8221; as their city read, similar to Los Angeles selecting Fahrenheit 451.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Beyond the Label of Science Fiction<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although both &#8220;Kindred&#8221; and &#8220;Fahrenheit 451&#8221; are often categorized as science fiction, Butler&#8217;s work defies this classification.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, the author herself clarified that &#8220;Kindred&#8221; is not a science fiction novel due to its lack of scientific elements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather, it focuses on a modern-day Black woman who travels back in time to the antebellum South and must struggle to survive the horrors of slavery.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Journey to Writing &#8220;Kindred&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Butler started writing at the age of ten, finding solace in the craft and eventually realizing that it could be a way to make a living.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her first three novels were published under the science fiction label, with Doubleday publishers taking a chance on her as an unknown author.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, these early works did not achieve the same level of success as &#8220;Kindred.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To research her novel, Butler initially turned to libraries, specifically the history room of the Los Angeles public library.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, she soon realized that she did not know how to properly research a historical novel, struggling to find details about daily life in the antebellum South.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was only after talking to older family members, including her mother, that she discovered how close history truly was.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her family&#8217;s stories and experiences provided valuable insight into the time period she wanted to portray in her novel.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Greyhound Bus Trip to Maryland<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To further immerse herself in the world of &#8220;Kindred,&#8221; Butler used the money she received from selling her third novel, &#8220;Survivor,&#8221; to take a three-and-a-half-day Greyhound bus trip to Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This journey allowed her to walk the roads and absorb the atmosphere of the region, inspiring her writing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, she wrote what would become the first and last chapters of the novel during a layover at a bus station in Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>                        <!-- <div class=\"container-c\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"row justify-content-between\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- <div class=\"col-post-800\"> -->\r\n                        <!-- start html -->\r\n                        <div class=\"blockquote-wapper\">\r\n                            <div>\r\n                                <span class=\"text_quot\">\r\n                                    <p>&#8220;Kindred,&#8221; remains a portal through which many readers first encounter Butler&#8217;s work and continues to shape discussions about the untended wound of slavery and its influence on our present-day environment, connections, and communities.<\/p>\n                                <\/span>\r\n\r\n                                <div class=\"quot_icon\">\r\n                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                                <\/div>\r\n                            <\/div>\r\n\r\n                            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"quot_tick\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot_tri.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n                        <\/div>\r\n                        <!-- end html -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                        <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n                                    <\/h2>\n<h2><strong>The Significance of the Missing Arm<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the most striking aspects of &#8220;Kindred&#8221; is the protagonist&#8217;s missing arm, which she loses upon her final return from the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Butler explains that the character could not come back from the brutal experience of slavery unmarked and whole.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The loss of the arm symbolizes the lasting impact of slavery on Black people in America, as well as the protagonist&#8217;s struggle to write about her experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>A Lasting Legacy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Kindred&#8221; remains an influential and powerful novel that transcends genre and offers a unique exploration of the African American experience in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of its publication, it is clear that Octavia Butler&#8217;s work continues to resonate with readers and inspire discussions about identity, heritage, and the power of storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sixteen years after her death, science fiction writer Octavia Butler is experiencing a renaissance, as her work continues to resonate with new readers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her imaginative stories have been recognized with the highest honors in science fiction, including the MacArthur &#8220;genius&#8221; grant in 1995.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Butler&#8217;s personal journals reveal her aspirations to buy a beautiful home, help poor Black youngsters, travel the world, and have her books read by millions of people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She was also a prominent influence in the Afrofuturist movement before the term even existed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, her novels have inspired various forms of art and are included in university syllabuses and high school reading lists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five adaptations of her fiction are currently in development for film and television, with producers like J.J. Abrams, Issa Rae, and Ava DuVernay attached.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2020, during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, her 1993 novel &#8220;Parable of the Sower&#8221; became a New York Times best-seller, fulfilling her lifelong dream 14 years after her death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout her career, Butler demolished walls as a Black woman and writer, focusing on themes that seemed uncategorizable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her work is celebrated for its predictive qualities, as her vision of the climate crisis, political and societal upheaval, and power hierarchies is both sobering and prescient.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year marks the 75th anniversary of her birth, and her themes, ideas, and characters continue to inspire readers seeking a map for a way forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Kindred,&#8221; remains a portal through which many readers first encounter Butler&#8217;s work and continues to shape discussions about the untended wound of slavery and its influence on our present-day environment, connections, and communities.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":155503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-and-culture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}