Kindred goes graphic

I was very excited when I saw this news via Feministing. There are plans in the works to make a graphic novel of Kindred.

According to Racialicious, Beacon is celebrating the 30^th anniversary of Kindred with a proposal to create a graphic novel of Kindred. If done correctly, this could be really awesome.

For those unfamiliar, Kindred is about a woman who time travels between the 1970s and the south when slavery was at its height. She finds herself pulled back in time every time her ancestor (a white son of a slaveholder who had her ancestor with a slave) is in danger.

You can read my take on it here: http://dearreader-bookworm.blogspot.com/2008/12/kindred.html

Announcement: Beacon Press Seeks an Illustator for Kindred

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/03/03/announcement-beacon-press-seeks-an-illustator-for-kindred/

Kindred

This was the second book that I've read by Octavia Butler and like Fledgling, it almost defies description.

Kindred centers around Dana, an African-American woman in the 1970s. When Dana and her white husband, Kevin, are moving into their new home, Dana finds herself transported in time/space. When she sees a child drowning, she jumps in and saves his life. That boy is Rufus -- one of Dana's ancestor -- and the son of plantation owner/slave owner.

Dana keeps finding herself transported back in time every time Rufus' life is in danger. While she may be there for months, her time away from home is only hours. She needs to keep Rufus at least until her ancestor -- Hagar -- is born.

The novel, although it's considered science fiction, never delves into the mystery of time travel or how it is that Dana is transported back in time. It does focus on Dana's experiences of being treated like a slave. While she's there she goes through many of the hardships slaves went through -- working in the fields, being whipped, seeing close friends sold away. When her husband is transported with her once they have to lie about their relationship, since interracial marriage was illegal.

Dana's life on the plantation is grim and Butler explores the true brutality of slavery. I thought it was interesting that the time travel aspect was downplayed and the book focused more on race and slavery.

fledgling - Octavia Butler

For some reason it's taking me forever to finish a book lately. I'm so tired by the time I get home, that I'm ready for tv. We'll play an "old person's card" and chalk it up to the change in the weather.

I finally finished fledgling by Octavia Butler, which I learned about watching a HBO special before True Blood.

Fledgling centers around Shori, a 53 year old vampire, who wakes up hungry, alone and badly injured. Someone is targeting Shori's family and anyone who tries to protect her. While Shori is a vampire (or Ina), she's also the product of genetic engineering. A mixture of human and vampire, it's believed her black skin and human DNA enable her to stay awake during the day and also go into the sunlight (although her exposed skin does burn).

I really found Butler's take on vampires interesting - unlike some books vampires can have children and mate, live in communities - men and women do live in separate communities and have a unique relationship with the humans surrounding them. Ina are bound to the humans they regularly take blood from and suffer a horrible loss if that human (symbiont) dies. This is a far cry from the dangerous, blood thirsty vampire who callously discards humans after feeding on them.

There were some parts of the book that dragged a little for me, but that might have been my reading state of mind. Overall, I found this an interesting take on vampires and a stirring look at racism and bigotry.