The novel blurs the line between science fiction, historical fiction, dystopian fiction, and nonfiction so much that even Dana cannot tell the difference sometimes. She is caught between what she learned about slavery from history books and what she is actually experiencing in the past. The events in history books really happened, but it is hard to connect with that distant reality because we were not there to live it. Therefore, it becomes a kind of abstract fiction. In this case, Dana is living it, so it becomes truly real for her, which becomes confusing:

I felt as though I were losing my place here in my own time [1976]. Rufus's time was a sharper, stronger reality […] That was a stark, powerful reality that the gentle conveniences and luxuries of this house, of now, could not touch (191).

She fluctuates between historical immersion to detached observation constantly and in both times, which distorts reality.

Considering Butler is a Black woman entering the arena of science fiction in a time when it was mostly white and male, this distortion of reality and genre experimentation is critical and very much postmodern. The novel is Butler’s postmodern attempt to show that we must not forget the past in the name of futurity and progress.