Time-Traveler as "Other"?

One of the interesting ideas that surfaces when Claire is back in the 20th C is the "difference" of the time traveler.  Before Dragonfly in Amber, the only other time traveler besides Claire is Geilie Duncan--late of 1968.  She and Claire recognize each other by means of their vaccination scars.  In Dragonfly, two others with time travel potential are added to the roster, notably Claire's daughter Brianna.

Brianna is striking, first and foremost, because of her physical appearance, which strongly favors her 18th Century father, Jamie.  When the narrative describes Brianna, most often through the consciousness of Roger Wakefield, her strangeness is emphasized--she is savage, and timeless, and Other.  The timeless quality is particularly interesting, since Brianna is a 20th Century/18th Century hybrid who carries forward a lineage that otherwise had died out in the 19th Century (Voyager ).

But Brianna is characterized by something a bit less visible--her immediacy:

She and her mother both gave that odd impression of having been outlined somehow, drawn with such vivid strokes that they stood out from their background as though they'd been engraved on it.  But Brianna had that brilliant coloring, and that air of absolute physical presence that made Bronzino's sitters seem to follow you with their eyes, to be about to speak from their frames. (Dragonfly 16)

Compared to Claire and Brianna, the 20th C is muted, somehow.  Here, Claire shares in the strangeness--either because she has experienced the 18th Century, which, as emphasized by the contrasts between 20th Century and 18th Century men in particular, is more vital, or because this immediacy is a characteristic of a time traveler.

When I read this, my initial reaction is to think--a man comparing a woman to a painting.  How cliché.  So cliché that it was an indictment of Gabriel Conroy's pretention and lack of imagination in "The Dead" by Joyce.  And it might be that this reflects badly on Roger's imagination.  But what about this particular 16th Century painter?  A quick Google search points to the likely image:  Portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi.  She is Italian, not Scots, but here is as long and straight a nose as one could wish, red hair, brilliant coloring, and that sense that she will "follow you with [her] eyes, [and] be about to speak from [her] frame." From the metaphor, the reader is asked to take away a few crucial details:  that "they stood out from their background," and that Brianna has an air of "absolute physical presence" that is not characteristic of her 20th Century background.

In an ironic gesture, Roger realizes Brianna's Scots savagery as she defends Frank Randall as the father of her body as well as her heart:

The girl that stood on the hearthrug, hissing and spitting in defense of her paternity, flamed with the wild strength that had brought the Highland warriors down on their enemies like shrieking banshees.  Her long, straight nose lengthened sill further by the shadows, eyes slitted like a snarling cat's, she was the image of her father--and her father was patently not the dark, quiet scholar whose photo adorned the jacket of the book on the table. (Dragonfly 898)

Certainly Brianna's difference is related to her real parentage--an 18th Century Highland warrior rather than a 20th Century English scholar.  But these descriptions that single out Brianna for her difference also tap into the question of why some people are time travelers and some aren't.  In Voyager, Geilie posits an answer-- that time travelers have the ability to travel through time so that they can change things.  Her own insanity--which undermines her credibility--and Claire's experience suggest otherwise.

But descriptions of Brianna tap into what the essence of the difference is.  Heredity is a factor.  But time travelers are. . . well. . . timeless.  Like a painting, or an illuminated manuscript:

     Fiona laughed up at Brianna, who towered over the small Scottish girl by nearly a foot. Fiona was nineteen, prettily charming and slightly plump; next to her, Brianna looked like a medieval carving, strong-boned and severe. With her long, straight nose and the long hair glowing red-gold beneath the glass bowl of the ceiling fixture, she might have walked out of an illuminated manuscript, vivid enough to endure a thousand years unchanged. 

    Roger was suddenly conscious of Claire Randall, standing near his elbow. She was looking at her daughter, with an expression in which love, pride, and something else were mingled— memory, perhaps? He realized, with a slight shock, that Jamie Fraser too must have had not only the striking height and Viking red hair he had bequeathed to his daughter, but likely the same sheer physical presence. 

    It was quite remarkable, he thought. She didn’t do or say anything so out of the ordinary, and yet Brianna undeniably drew people. There was some attraction about her, almost magnetic, that drew everyone near into the glow of her orbit. (Voyager 43)

Brianna has Jamie's charisma, but more than that, she demonstrates that time travelers are different--timeless--and gives further evidence that something important--vital, "vivid"--is missing from the 20th Century that did (or does) exist in the 18th.

Gabaldon, Diana (2004-10-26). Voyager (Outlander) (p. 43). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.