Kindred Meeting

Where: The Friendly Toast
When: Aug 24, I think.
Book: Kindred by Octavia Butler (and published by Beacon Press)
In Attendance: Anne, Beth, Cynthia, Donna, Manda, Paula, and Rachel
Missing: Wendy - I think she was in Canada at this point handing out Dark and Stormies all over New Brunswick. Or maybe she was in Maine. And really, what is the difference between Maine and New Brunswick anyway?

Anne, Rachel, and Cynthia and I arrived a little early and we got the best seat in the house - a semi-circular booth next to a life sized hamburger. I promptly lost all interest in the revolving Schlitz globe. While waiting for the others, we went a little crazy and ordered some appetizers. The sweet potato fries with Tabasco sauce and brown sugar seemed like a good idea at the time. They were weird, but I couldn't stop eating them.

Since it's been like 3 weeks I can't really remember enough to create a coherent narrative so I'm just going to list things:

• Lots of photos were taken and they are all on Facebook. I love Donna's fierce face photo.
  
• Everyone was disappointed with their food, but not their drinks
• I totally copied what Cynthia ordered. I can admit that now.

As for the book, everyone liked it, even Anne's niece, but we didn't get to really discuss it since it was so loud. Since I can't remember what was said, I am just going to talk about me and what I think. One thing that struck me was that Dana was worried about getting some sort of stomach virus or worms from eating bad meat. It's details like that really made me love this book. (Yes, I said love.) I am constantly thinking about going back in time - what it would be like and where would I want to go, but bad meat was not something I ever considered. I also thought that I would be a genius if I went back in time because I would know so much stuff - I can read, write, do algebra,swim and ride a bike but I'm not sure now if that would help, because it only helped Dana a little bit. Most of what I know is really only relevant to our current time period. Most going back in time books are a bit glamorous - the protagonists go to interesting, vibrant places and they meet famous figures from history and get caught up in major historic events like the French Revolution. But this book turned that concept on it's head - Dana went back to a horrific time period filled with violence and she didn't get even leave the farm. Saving stupid Rufus' life was the only excitement that she got. (At least she got to wear pants) So even though time travel is not real (not yet, anyway) this book cleared up my naive ideas of what it might be like.