bloodchild

[illuvium]

i read bloodchild a few months back and it's stuck to me ever since. partially since my friends allege i'm a freak, but mostly since it was genuinely good. i think the thing about african american literature is that people tend to read into it an incredible amount, which is not saying that that's bad in all cases, but it is saying that sometimes the identity of the writer clouds the reader's approach way too much. this is self-admitted by the author, octavia butler, in things she's written while reflecting on the writing of bloodchild. bloodchild as a short story is really great. the essential premise is that some rather vague event has resulted in humans flooding to the land of the t'lic, and this sort of societal conflict is represented through gan and t'gatoi, who i'd consider perhaps the most important characters. this isn't really a summary, but if i'm discussing what i liked about it, i think it has to go into spoilers.

regardless, i think the dynamic butler was able to set up was so intriguing. again, i don't think this short story is a commentary on slavery, but i do think it reflects certain tenets of misogyny. the men in universe are treated as (essentially) livestock (though there are complications the story brings up with this!), hosting parasitic brood from the t'lic, who choose humans as humans produce better results for the allegedly previously faltering t'lic species. the reason women aren't chosen is really rather simple. it's since they're seen as potential carriers for new humans, basically new livestock. it still keeps traditional impressions of misogyny with the human girls being seen as, you know, meant to have children, but there's the added societal aspect of this sort of feeling applied onto the t'lic and the humans. i really liked it. it was super delightfully messed up; the manipulation between gan and t'gatoi was fantastic and i enjoyed how t'gatoi, given all of those pretty evident flaws to the reader, is also stated to be one of the more caring if not better t'lic towards the terrans. it's just written so well...!!!

this is also from my own perspective, but i liked the details given regarding past terran-t'lic conflicts. the terrans are set up to be sort of attempted colonizers, trying to kill the t'lic using guns and whatnot, which provoked the first rudimentary breeding pens (though t'lic society has evidently progressed beyond that, though this is up for debate given the persisting obligations and roles of terrans in universe). that detail personally just felt extremely real to me, since, yeah. that's what humans would be doing if our planet suddenly became uninhabitable and there was some alien planet seemingly great for habitation. delightful! honestly, this might be one of the death of the author scenarios. i don't really know what core tenets butler wanted to impart if anything. all i have are my own experiences and values to find within the story, but i just found it really delightful. and in general i just like it when authors make no effort to hide the things they're into. it's pretty cute. the tl;dr is just that i liked bloodchild, and that it's quite short so i'd encourage reading it