My understanding of the teaching thing in high schools comes from talking to my students who have been teachers and to students just out of high school. They indicate that assigning anything designated science fiction or fantasy involves special permissions. Kindred stands outside of that. And most of the time when entire school boards have to decide on something that addresses race and black people, they decide on something dealing with slavery rather than race in the contemporary context. Most students won't get to talk about the marriage in the book until at least college or maybe even grad school. Teachers will ignore it.
It's interesting what you say about Butler's use of men. I remember being struck by the fact that she was one of the few "literary" writers who wrote relationships for black women at all. In a lot of novels, the woman had a great love who was already dead by the time the action started, or the novel led to a marriage where the details were obscured, or there was abuse. Nothing good, or even mundane existed for a long time. Tracy On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 8:41 AM, Kelwyn <ravena...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > I find it suspect that "Kindred" is the Butler novel that is most taught in > schools. Due to her "passivity in the face of her increasingly horrific > subjugation and her fierce defense of her blond white husband when her > neighbors begin to suspect, erroneously, that he is abusing her, I wonder > what - exactly - is being taught here. > > ~(no)rave! > > --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com <scifinoir2%40yahoogroups.com>, Tracy > Curtis <tlcurti...@...> wrote: > > > > I like it a lot and taught both *Parable of the Sower* and the short > story > > "Bloodchild" last semester. Most of her work is not hard sci-fi. She > picks > > a set of circumstances (biological anomalies, time anomalies, different > > planetary settings, etc.) to explore primarily the ways that people treat > > each other as they are pushed to what they thought was their limit. > > "Bloodchild," for example, has humans inexplicably living as colonial > > subjects to an intelligent insect-like species that needs humans for > > reproduction. The story tests ideas of compelled closeness and familial > > responsibility. Much of her work has black women at the center, which is > > nice. *Kindred* is the novel most often taught in schools. Butler herself > > insisted that it wasn't sci-fi at all. The set-up is that the main > > character, a black woman married to a white man in 1976 finds herself > > transported to the pre-Civil War South where she has to contend with and > > insufferable white boy/man and has to offer him care. > > > > I hope that helps. I wasn't sure exactly what you wanted to know. > > > > Tracy > > > > On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 3:46 AM, George Arterberry < > > brotherfromhow...@...> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Noir, > > > > > > > > > Thoughts on her writings? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
