Week Twelve Diverse Position Science Fiction

Week Twelve Diverse Position Science Fiction

I wanted to write about my take on reading Bloodchild by Octavia Butler for the blog post this week. This story was really repulsive to me, but it was also too interesting to stop reading. As we talked about in class, I think the male/female role reversal makes this story difficult to digest from a male perspective. Lomas is reduced to nothing more then a birthing vassal for his Tlic. And it is hard to get through the part where he is opened up and he is being eaten from the inside.

The relationship between Tlic and Terran (humans) is complex. I think on a surface level the Tlic seem to be slave masters over the Terran using people as nothing more then containers to store their young, however these relationships are not that simplistic. On some level the Terran Tlic relationship is a symbiotic one that is beneficial to both species. Politaclly the Terran have no voice. Is there something akin to love in all of this? T’Gatoi definitely cares for Gan and his family.

It is easy to draw parallels from the dystopian setting of Bloodchild with modern western civilization. As I mentioned in class, the use of drugs as an escape or sedative from the world around us shows up in the form of properties in the eggs the Tlic feed the Terran.

While butler insists this story has nothing to do with slavery it is easy to see how people might read that from the work. The Terran Tlic relationship definitely seems to have an imbalance of power in favor of the Tlic. There is also something distinctly colonial about the setting, the Terran live on a “preserve,” and have no political power or voice they are completely reliant on T’gatoi to help them.

I don’t think there is a “correct” interpretation this story, and it should make you feel uncomfortable. It speaks about issues like dominance, inequality, physical suffering, and sacrifice. This is for sure one of the more thought provoking works we have covered this semester.