Avatar. The Avengers. Iron Man 3. Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The Dark Knight Rises.
These are five of the top ten all-time highest grossing movies. Their (arguable) inclusion in the Science Fiction canon begs a question of the genre: is it just the spectacle that we shell out to witness, or is there some more primitive itch that these kinds of events scratch?
This blog is dedicated to figuring out how it is that Science Fiction addresses the problem of defining "human."
This is hands down the weirdest and most disturbing thing that I have ever read. I have no idea what T’Gatoi would actually look like. There are some descriptions, but what I pictured wasn’t pretty. The many limbs and the fluid-like movement just make me think of a centipede. Also, we talk about ovipositors in my medical parasitology class all the time, and they are quite sharp so that just grossed me out even more. This whole really twisted idea of a young male being chosen at birth as a deposit site for some existing female’s eggs (of another species mind you) to be carried and eventually C-sectioned right out of him by none other than that female herself – is just so incredibly weird that I don’t know what to do with it. Its weird that to some extent he even wants to keep him to herself at the end? Like he was raised to have some sort of feelings for her enough so to be willing to carry her parasitic young? They are just bringing in a whole different element that does not exist in regular human female pregnancy. Normally there is choice and time and there is always a single species at play. In the Afterword, the author mentions that this entirely horrifying story stemmed from the mere thought of a botfly. A botfly is gross, yes, but it is also easily removed if the wound is painted with nail polish and then covered in duct tape (this poisons them and then suffocates them), a fun fact from my other class. They are then pushed out of the skin. That such a miniscule and simple parasite of all the parasites out there caused the author to write something like this just seems so completely extreme. To some extent this was as freaky as if aliens came here, raised you and made you carry their young, and by some long-term brainwashing in your formative years made you somewhat want to.
This was simultaneously one of the most disturbing and most entertaining things I've ever read. I'm completely repelled by the disturbing content, but at the same time utterly drawn in. Even though the first scenes of the story are rather unusual, the drinking of from the eggs and the description of T'Gotai specifically, the reader is kind of lulled into a false sense of normalcy but, very quickly the direction of the story shifts in a much more sinister direction. The normal scene inside the home quickly turns into a nightmare when T'Gotai has to remove the alien eggs from Lomas. I found the description of the events to be repulsing, but for some reason I couldn't stop reading.
Looking past the more gruesome aspects of the story there is a very interesting relationship between Gan and T'Gotai going on. I suppose their relationship is indicative of the relationship between the Tlic and the Terrans as a whole. It's strange to view this relationship as a reader because when we read about how the Tlic reproduce by laying eggs inside human hosts we are immediately repulsed. I would be hard pressed to come up with a more horrifying experience, but by the end of the story, Gan willingly agrees to let T'Gotai use his body as a host for her eggs. He does this because of the strong bond he and T'Gotai have developed since he was a child, but I still can't imagine myself, or anyone else for that matter, willingly subject themselves to such grotesque torture.
This story leaves me with far more questions than it does answers unfortunately. The briefness of it, coupled with the fact that the reader is dropped into this alien society with no real back-story makes me wonder about the history between the Tlics and Terrans. I would be very interested in knowing how the two species came to coexist, the story behind the preserve, how the reproductive arrangement came into being, what the hell an N'Tlic is, what exactly the Tlics look like, and what T'Gotai's role in society is, we're told she went into politics but I have no idea what that entails.
Like the past commentors have said, this story was both interesting and disturbing to read. This story would be bookmarked as a weird but interesting science fiction story to read. Overall I enjoyed reading the BloodChild by Octavia Butler because the story line was unique and out of the ordinary. This story was kind of disturbing to me because it was the first story about male pregnancy that I read. While I was reading this story, the movie "Aliens" came to my head because the worm like baby creature would be inside the human male and when it was time for it to come out, the worm creature would come out of the man's abdomen from a gruesome operation. Another part that I found strange was why the mother agreed to sacrifice her own son to be the carrier of a alien worm. I understand that it was the only way for her to have her own child but was it worth it, since Gan would be going through the whole being a "mother" to a worm. I don't know what gotten into Gan's head in accepting to be impregnated by T'Gotai because he did witness an alien birth one time and I thought that would change his mind about the whole thing, but I guess not. This story would have like the "Aliens" if it wasn't for the love story and the dependence of both the aliens and humans to each other. I guess I should expect to read these types of stories because science fiction has all sorts of interesting and disturbing texts for all readers.
This was not “fun”, this was a mess. First of all, I’ll get my little issues with this story out of the way. There were missing commas and quotation marks, which made certain sentences difficult to read. It was also a tad difficult to understand the family relations at first. Near the beginning, it seemed like Gan had three sisters, not two. Secondly, this was a disturbing story that I made the mistake of reading out loud to my boyfriend. I was not prepared for that, he was not prepared for that. But reading it out loud made me finish it. If I hadn’t been doing that, I would have stopped when Gan started describing the maggots being taken out of Lomas. I’m really glad I finished it, because in a really twisted way, I loved it. I’m writing this about 24 hours after first reading so I’ve had time to think about how I feel about this story. It’s still not “fun”, but it’s trippy and crazy. I love how there wasn’t a full description of T’Gatoi. That makes this alien thing a lot scary than just a cross between an octopus and a millipede. That’s kind of what Shelley did with Frankenstein’s monster, it’s a really effective way to let an audience scare themselves. But the whole premise was fucked up. I’m still fucked up. I’m sharing it with everyone.
I only have one question, and that question is why? Why did I read this? Why does this exist? Why? Anyways, for quite a bit of the story I couldn’t decide whether this T’Gatoi character was good or bad, a burden or a gift, or whether I should be rooting for it. To be honest I’m still kind of torn. // So, we can obviously see what this society values; youth and consumption. Thinness is seen as weak and undesirable. Also considering the drone of the government [T’Gatoi] is trying to keep this family in an ideal state of body; it’s possible that Butler is trying to express his distrust towards the government. This story was really hard for me to wrap my head around. It’s just so strange that its almost uncomfortable to think about, if that makes any sense. // I think the mother seems very eager to die. Perhaps she is tired of living and trying to stay youthful. This is to say, if you could live forever, would you really want to? Forever is a very long time, [Said every concerned Mom to their teenage daughters at some point]. I believe, eventually, we would all get sick of living. But I digress. // I feel like the slaughtering of the animal represents a milestone of maturity. All in all, this story is just messed up. It’s well-written, but it is just an awful event. It reminds me of the Silent Hill video game series where its literally just video games meant to scare the shit out of you and gross you out. Everyone should search “Silent Hill PT” on youtube for something SPOOKY! (and uncomfortable, like this story).
This was a shocking reading. If it wasn’t for the short afterword at the end, it all would have gone over my head. For the first half of the piece, the names Tlic, N’Tlic, and T’Khotgif were meaningless to me, the author does not describe them in a direct way. I started to understand a little of what was happening when Lomas entered, and everyone starts to open him up. While it is a story about aliens using humans as hosts for their parasitic young, the male pregnancy aspect of the story seemed normal in comparison to the horrific birthing process.
As far as the aliens, like T’Gatoi, I had trouble creating a mental image of what they looked like. After reading what descriptions Butler gives of them, I couldn’t help but think of this piece as somewhat similar to aspects of the story in District 9, just with the humans and aliens switching places. In both works, aliens and humans must coexist, although in Bloodchild we are the foreign species. I even used the aliens from the movie as a starting point for imagining what these aliens could look like, with some more millipede/insectesque appendages and features.
While I really enjoyed this piece at face value, the story begs of you to create the conditions that led to this birthing arrangement. I think that we arrived on their planet in the unspecified future for our usual human drive toward what we would call imperialism, for dominion over all other species. And in a weird turn of events, we have ended up as victims, with the aliens committing much more heinous, gory, and biological version of imperialism.
I found this story, as everyone else who has responded so far, incredibly disturbing. I mean it was definitely an interesting read, but man was it freaky. I read the afterward from the author on how she never intended it to be a piece about slavery, but I don't see how that element of the piece can be ignored. She wanted it to be about coming of age and a man "choosing pregnancy in spite of as well as because of surrounding difficulties" which I guess it was, but the choice Gan made didn't seem to be much of a choice. He could either follow through with the horrible thing he agreed to, or make someone else a rape victim, and he obviously wasn't going to do that. He seems to have a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome, because I really don't get why he would think that the relationship between the Terran and Tlic was anything other than slavery, or abuse. Offering a choice between being raped and having someone else get raped isn't exactly freedom, and it's weird that for me that that's how it's presented in this story.
I did like the scene between Gan and T'Gatoi where he insisted on keeping the gun, because it showed the imbalance of power in their relationship. T'Gatoi "takes care" of her Terran, but any illusion they have of freedom or power is just that-an illusion. So when she is presented with a time when she is not completely in control, when she cannot guarantee how Gan will act around her, she is unhappy.
From Katrina: This was actually not as grotesque and disturbing as I anticipated from hearing your description in class. Still lots of weird happening, but I was stricken with a sense of familiarity from having seen most of the alien movies. I found Blood Child to be a less violent and invasive version of Alien. Only slightly less disturbing.
I do wish there was more background to the world these people are living in. All the reader is given is this "Preserve" where human families mesh together with the Tlic. Why are these people there? Is this still earth? If not, what planet are they on and why the hell did they choose to inhabit it?
I think what struck me the most about this story was T'Gatoi's human trait of wanting to produce and protect her young. She gave off a motherly vibe throughout the story, watching over the family and feeding them this strange egg substance. And then when Gan almost refuses to allow her to implant him, she doesn't get frustrated necessarily, but clearly is determined to reproduce that night. And she attempts to guilt-trip Gan by placing the "life" of her offspring in his hands, asking Gan for 'her children's lives.'
Could a creature such as T'Gatoi have the motherly instincts that humans do? T'Gatoi is clearly very protective of the family, but she cuts open Lomas and as Gan describes 'feels nothing.' It's difficult to say, it makes me wonder that if given the choice, would T'Gatoi choose against implanting a human and not reproducing? Or perhaps her species is so driven by the need to reproduce that that thought never crosses her mind.
Also another question lurking in the back of my head while reading this, can the male Tlic produce eggs and implant as well? Again for I wish the author had provided a little more background information, one can not simply start talking about alien/human rape and reproduction without explaining oneself.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is hands down the weirdest and most disturbing thing that I have ever read. I have no idea what T’Gatoi would actually look like. There are some descriptions, but what I pictured wasn’t pretty. The many limbs and the fluid-like movement just make me think of a centipede. Also, we talk about ovipositors in my medical parasitology class all the time, and they are quite sharp so that just grossed me out even more. This whole really twisted idea of a young male being chosen at birth as a deposit site for some existing female’s eggs (of another species mind you) to be carried and eventually C-sectioned right out of him by none other than that female herself – is just so incredibly weird that I don’t know what to do with it. Its weird that to some extent he even wants to keep him to herself at the end? Like he was raised to have some sort of feelings for her enough so to be willing to carry her parasitic young? They are just bringing in a whole different element that does not exist in regular human female pregnancy. Normally there is choice and time and there is always a single species at play. In the Afterword, the author mentions that this entirely horrifying story stemmed from the mere thought of a botfly. A botfly is gross, yes, but it is also easily removed if the wound is painted with nail polish and then covered in duct tape (this poisons them and then suffocates them), a fun fact from my other class. They are then pushed out of the skin. That such a miniscule and simple parasite of all the parasites out there caused the author to write something like this just seems so completely extreme. To some extent this was as freaky as if aliens came here, raised you and made you carry their young, and by some long-term brainwashing in your formative years made you somewhat want to.
ReplyDeleteThis was simultaneously one of the most disturbing and most entertaining things I've ever read. I'm completely repelled by the disturbing content, but at the same time utterly drawn in. Even though the first scenes of the story are rather unusual, the drinking of from the eggs and the description of T'Gotai specifically, the reader is kind of lulled into a false sense of normalcy but, very quickly the direction of the story shifts in a much more sinister direction. The normal scene inside the home quickly turns into a nightmare when T'Gotai has to remove the alien eggs from Lomas. I found the description of the events to be repulsing, but for some reason I couldn't stop reading.
ReplyDeleteLooking past the more gruesome aspects of the story there is a very interesting relationship between Gan and T'Gotai going on. I suppose their relationship is indicative of the relationship between the Tlic and the Terrans as a whole. It's strange to view this relationship as a reader because when we read about how the Tlic reproduce by laying eggs inside human hosts we are immediately repulsed. I would be hard pressed to come up with a more horrifying experience, but by the end of the story, Gan willingly agrees to let T'Gotai use his body as a host for her eggs. He does this because of the strong bond he and T'Gotai have developed since he was a child, but I still can't imagine myself, or anyone else for that matter, willingly subject themselves to such grotesque torture.
This story leaves me with far more questions than it does answers unfortunately. The briefness of it, coupled with the fact that the reader is dropped into this alien society with no real back-story makes me wonder about the history between the Tlics and Terrans. I would be very interested in knowing how the two species came to coexist, the story behind the preserve, how the reproductive arrangement came into being, what the hell an N'Tlic is, what exactly the Tlics look like, and what T'Gotai's role in society is, we're told she went into politics but I have no idea what that entails.
Like the past commentors have said, this story was both interesting and disturbing to read. This story would be bookmarked as a weird but interesting science fiction story to read. Overall I enjoyed reading the BloodChild by Octavia Butler because the story line was unique and out of the ordinary. This story was kind of disturbing to me because it was the first story about male pregnancy that I read. While I was reading this story, the movie "Aliens" came to my head because the worm like baby creature would be inside the human male and when it was time for it to come out, the worm creature would come out of the man's abdomen from a gruesome operation. Another part that I found strange was why the mother agreed to sacrifice her own son to be the carrier of a alien worm. I understand that it was the only way for her to have her own child but was it worth it, since Gan would be going through the whole being a "mother" to a worm. I don't know what gotten into Gan's head in accepting to be impregnated by T'Gotai because he did witness an alien birth one time and I thought that would change his mind about the whole thing, but I guess not. This story would have like the "Aliens" if it wasn't for the love story and the dependence of both the aliens and humans to each other. I guess I should expect to read these types of stories because science fiction has all sorts of interesting and disturbing texts for all readers.
ReplyDeleteFrom Em:
ReplyDeleteThis was not “fun”, this was a mess.
First of all, I’ll get my little issues with this story out of the way. There were missing
commas and quotation marks, which made certain sentences difficult to read. It was also a tad difficult to understand the family relations at first. Near the beginning, it seemed like Gan had three sisters, not two.
Secondly, this was a disturbing story that I made the mistake of reading out loud to my boyfriend. I was not prepared for that, he was not prepared for that. But reading it out loud made me finish it. If I hadn’t been doing that, I would have stopped when Gan started describing the maggots being taken out of Lomas. I’m really glad I finished it, because in a really twisted way, I loved it.
I’m writing this about 24 hours after first reading so I’ve had time to think about how I
feel about this story. It’s still not “fun”, but it’s trippy and crazy. I love how there wasn’t a full description of T’Gatoi. That makes this alien thing a lot scary than just a cross between an octopus and a millipede. That’s kind of what Shelley did with Frankenstein’s monster, it’s a really effective way to let an audience scare themselves.
But the whole premise was fucked up. I’m still fucked up. I’m sharing it with everyone.
I only have one question, and that question is why? Why did I read this? Why does this exist? Why? Anyways, for quite a bit of the story I couldn’t decide whether this T’Gatoi character was good or bad, a burden or a gift, or whether I should be rooting for it. To be honest I’m still kind of torn. // So, we can obviously see what this society values; youth and consumption. Thinness is seen as weak and undesirable. Also considering the drone of the government [T’Gatoi] is trying to keep this family in an ideal state of body; it’s possible that Butler is trying to express his distrust towards the government. This story was really hard for me to wrap my head around. It’s just so strange that its almost uncomfortable to think about, if that makes any sense. // I think the mother seems very eager to die. Perhaps she is tired of living and trying to stay youthful. This is to say, if you could live forever, would you really want to? Forever is a very long time, [Said every concerned Mom to their teenage daughters at some point]. I believe, eventually, we would all get sick of living. But I digress. // I feel like the slaughtering of the animal represents a milestone of maturity. All in all, this story is just messed up. It’s well-written, but it is just an awful event. It reminds me of the Silent Hill video game series where its literally just video games meant to scare the shit out of you and gross you out. Everyone should search “Silent Hill PT” on youtube for something SPOOKY! (and uncomfortable, like this story).
ReplyDeleteThis was a shocking reading. If it wasn’t for the short afterword at the end, it all would have gone over my head. For the first half of the piece, the names Tlic, N’Tlic, and T’Khotgif were meaningless to me, the author does not describe them in a direct way. I started to understand a little of what was happening when Lomas entered, and everyone starts to open him up. While it is a story about aliens using humans as hosts for their parasitic young, the male pregnancy aspect of the story seemed normal in comparison to the horrific birthing process.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the aliens, like T’Gatoi, I had trouble creating a mental image of what they looked like. After reading what descriptions Butler gives of them, I couldn’t help but think of this piece as somewhat similar to aspects of the story in District 9, just with the humans and aliens switching places. In both works, aliens and humans must coexist, although in Bloodchild we are the foreign species. I even used the aliens from the movie as a starting point for imagining what these aliens could look like, with some more millipede/insectesque appendages and features.
While I really enjoyed this piece at face value, the story begs of you to create the conditions that led to this birthing arrangement. I think that we arrived on their planet in the unspecified future for our usual human drive toward what we would call imperialism, for dominion over all other species. And in a weird turn of events, we have ended up as victims, with the aliens committing much more heinous, gory, and biological version of imperialism.
From Stephanie:
ReplyDeleteI found this story, as everyone else who has responded so far, incredibly disturbing. I mean it was definitely an interesting read, but man was it freaky. I read the afterward from the author on how she never intended it to be a piece about slavery, but I don't see how that element of the piece can be ignored. She wanted it to be about coming of age and a man "choosing pregnancy in spite of as well as because of surrounding difficulties" which I guess it was, but the choice Gan made didn't seem to be much of a choice. He could either follow through with the horrible thing he agreed to, or make someone else a rape victim, and he obviously wasn't going to do that. He seems to have a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome, because I really don't get why he would think that the relationship between the Terran and Tlic was anything other than slavery, or abuse. Offering a choice between being raped and having someone else get raped isn't exactly freedom, and it's weird that for me that that's how it's presented in this story.
I did like the scene between Gan and T'Gatoi where he insisted on keeping the gun, because it showed the imbalance of power in their relationship. T'Gatoi "takes care" of her Terran, but any illusion they have of freedom or power is just that-an illusion. So when she is presented with a time when she is not completely in control, when she cannot guarantee how Gan will act around her, she is unhappy.
From Katrina:
ReplyDeleteThis was actually not as grotesque and disturbing as I anticipated from hearing your description in class. Still lots of weird happening, but I was stricken with a sense of familiarity from having seen most of the alien movies. I found Blood Child to be a less violent and invasive version of Alien. Only slightly less disturbing.
I do wish there was more background to the world these people are living in. All the reader is given is this "Preserve" where human families mesh together with the Tlic. Why are these people there? Is this still earth? If not, what planet are they on and why the hell did they choose to inhabit it?
I think what struck me the most about this story was T'Gatoi's human trait of wanting to produce and protect her young. She gave off a motherly vibe throughout the story, watching over the family and feeding them this strange egg substance. And then when Gan almost refuses to allow her to implant him, she doesn't get frustrated necessarily, but clearly is determined to reproduce that night. And she attempts to guilt-trip Gan by placing the "life" of her offspring in his hands, asking Gan for 'her children's lives.'
Could a creature such as T'Gatoi have the motherly instincts that humans do? T'Gatoi is clearly very protective of the family, but she cuts open Lomas and as Gan describes 'feels nothing.' It's difficult to say, it makes me wonder that if given the choice, would T'Gatoi choose against implanting a human and not reproducing? Or perhaps her species is so driven by the need to reproduce that that thought never crosses her mind.
Also another question lurking in the back of my head while reading this, can the male Tlic produce eggs and implant as well? Again for I wish the author had provided a little more background information, one can not simply start talking about alien/human rape and reproduction without explaining oneself.