Student Zone

Octavia Butler’s short story “Bloodchild” is told by a young man named Gan. He lives with his family on a Preserve. There seems to be three types of life forms in the world: Terrans which is what Gan and his family are (I picture them looking like humans). Tlic government which is a “higher” life form that keeps the Terrans in the preserve (they are triple the Terran size with lots of claws, a velvet underside and a tail amongst many other characteristics.) The third life form is either the same thing as a Tlic accept not in the government, or it is a different higher life form, either way this third life form wants the Terrans. So Gan lives with his mother Lien who seems to be a special or chosen Terran. T’Gatoi is a female Tlic government official who is very sought after and an important part of protecting the Terrans on the reserve. T’Gatoi sort of “grew up” with Lien and they had a special bond that most Terrans don’t have. T’Gatoi was spending the day with the family and suddenly they heard something outside. T’Gatoi went to look and told only Gan to come with her. Once she got out there she found a man named Bram Lomus, who is a Terran, but he is N’Tlic. N’Tlic is comparable to a pregnancy in our world. There are a few difference though, one is that the men are the ones to get pregnant (women can but they aren’t used commonly). Secondly it’s not through Terran to Terran intercourse; it is through a strange egg transfer from Tlic to Terran. Bram Lomus was “delivering” when they found him and T’Gatoi told Gan it would be ugly because she is not his Tlic. She sent them off on various tasks to ease the situation. Finally when the time came it was only T’Gatoi and Gan. T’Gatoi must insert her claws and pull out little squirming grubs from inside him. Once it was all over Gan seemed traumatized. T’Gatoi told him that the process wasn’t supposed to be so painful, and that he wasn’t supposed to see that. Gan spent most of the day thinking about what he saw. He was then confronted by T’Gatoi who needs to use one of the family members soon to N’Tlic. He had a fight within himself, but eventually chose to be the one because he wanted to spare his sister what he had seen earlier. The story ends with T’Gatoi pushing her eggs into Gan in his bedroom.

The late French philosopher Michel Foucault has said that Power is not just repressive it is productive. Butler’s story has some good examples of how power doesn’t just punish us but produces our very pleasures. A simple example is when the family indulges on eggs, which are pretty much a feel good drug, that were given to them from T’Gatoi who is technically in control of them. She is an authority figure and she gives the family both discipline and pleasure. Another example is a little more embedded in the writing. Gan goes through an emotional rollercoaster in the story. He saw what no Terran is supposed to see, and the image is very powerful in his mind. This image makes him sick immediately afterwards. But towards the end this image and the power he holds having been one of few to see an N’Tlic happen is ultimately what makes him be the one to receive T’Gatoi’s eggs.

When you take out the strange creatures and circumstances, such as the Preserve, does this story in any way relate to a human level experience?

Sub-genre: Science Fiction has the almost dubious honor of being the bastard child of literature. It is an almost illegitimate spin-off that deals with the same core issues as many legitimized literary works. I say it is an honor to be the bastard child of literature because it allows most sci-fi work to be considered left-handed to a non sci-fi work. In other words (much less grandiose) the local Border’s decision to categorize sci-fi literature apart from the literature section is a good excuse not to compare sci-fi works to those in the literature section. You’ll find Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in the sci-fi section (which is a sin) but all those Star Trek and Star Wars sequels, prequels, and what ifs… can’t invade even the fiction section (one step closer to the hallowed shelves of the precious Literature section). It is a trade-off that is unjust in every respect, limiting, trivial, necessary, and irrelevant.
With few exceptions, it wasn’t until the development of the novel that sci-fi could be distinguished from metaphysics. The basis of sci-fi is that it is plausible and/or possible. The plausible and possible is what metaphysical discourse really is (the “fiction” of philosophy). Metaphysics may be the bastard child’s mother. Metaphysics descended from the philosophy shelves, made a child with fiction, and then protected its child with all of the human energy that had created metaphysics in the first place...
"Literature is that which denounces and slashes apart the repressing machine at the level of the signified."

In the world of Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” power and control become extensions of survival through the relationship of symbiosis. Butler makes us look at dependence and freedom through the eyes of a child on a distant planet where intelligent insects, or Tlic, are the dominant species. The Tlic use humankind as living incubators to hatch their young. The relationship between insects and humans is kept in check by the insect’s creation of special preserves where humans are raised. The preserve serves to balance the unstable relationship between Tlic and human. Without the preserve Tlic would overproduce and decimate the human population. The humans, in return, live in relative peace, share the land with the Tlic, and are allowed to corral animals and cultivate the land with as little Tlic involvement as possible. And then again in return for this the Tlic are allowed to choose offspring from each of the human families to propagate their own species. The incubation of the insects is dangerous. The Tlic must cut their young out of the human hosts before the larvae devour them whole. For this the Tlic are equipped with scorpion-like stingers that deliver a mild narcotic.
The child of “Bloodchild” is Gan, a young boy, who like many young men has been chosen to carry Tlic offspring. Tlic prefer boys to carry their offspring so that women can be allowed to carry human offspring. Through Gan’s eyes the points and counterpoints of the symbiotic relationship are explored. He finds the insects familiar and grotesquely strange at the same time. He marvels at their movements and their power. “She had bones—ribs, along spine, a skull, four sets of limb bones per segment. But when she moved that way, twisting, hurling herself into controlled falls, landing running, she seemed not only boneless but aquatic—something swimming through the air as though it were water.” The Tlic D’Gatoi is like a second mother to Gan and he has eaten of her infertile eggs many times, hypnotically dreaming on her belly and providing her with his warmth on too many occasions to find discomfort with her on a personal level.
In the first part of the story Gan thinks of the relationship between human and Tlic as a sympathetic symbiosis whereby mutual advantage is reached through the relationship. However, after witnessing the horror of Tlic birth, Gan begins to question the nature of the relationship. He begins to see the subtle distinctions and wonders if a mutual balance of power is really reached if the Tlic can easily kill their human hosts. In one sense (propagation) the humans are the host and the Tlic the parasites. In another (survival) the Tlic are the hosts and the humans the parasites. Gan fears that the entire symbiosis is beneficial only as long as he decides to continue it. He sees that the Tlic have been ready to devour the humans on the planet for generations but have stopped themselves and created sanctions from respect for human intelligence. If he decides to forego impregnation the Tlic will take his sister and his family will suffer. When finally D’Gatoi gives him the choice he decides to take her children within himself, thereby allowing the cycle to continue. By the end of the story young Gan again sees the Tlic as benevolent beings and the story ends with D’Gatoi telling him, “I’ll take care of you.”
The idea that “Bloodchild” is a story of slavery is really not so much of a leap and it has nothing to do with the race of the author. Adapting to a conqueror’s way of life is similar to the same Catch-22 Gan faces with the propagation of the Tlic within himself. New generations find that while they detest the new regimes they harm only themselves by not adapting and thriving within the conqueror‘s own culture. They hope to thrive so well that eventually they will overpower their conquerors and free themselves of control. The way the first generations of a conquered nation feel toward their conquerors brings about the same power structures and symbiosis. The way Gan has adapted to the Tlic presence coincides with the assimilation of new customs, languages, and beliefs by the conquered state. Rome conquered half of Europe spreading Latin throughout the world. Today all romance languages share the Latin roots but also show the symbiotic relationship between what originally existed and what Rome replaced, adapted, and evolved the original tongues into. These power struggles run throughout “Bloodchild” and the ‘preserve’ is the prime example of the conquerors limiting the success of their conquests until a balance of control is reached by assimilation. Gatoi would have this assimilation be hidden from humans, “Terrans should be protected from seeing.” Gan would have the assimilation be conscious, “Not protected…shown when we’re young kids, and shown more than once…”

Although I would not have called these great selections for bedtime stories, they were entertaining. In Octavia Butler’s, “Bloodchild”, we are introduced to the symbiotic relationship that humans share with their “alien” counterparts. The story focuses on the life cycle and shares with us how a youth is selected to continue the process. More specifically we are introduced to Gan, his brothers and sister, his mother Lien, and their government official T’Gatoi. This creature was one who had multiple limbs, a tail, and teeth and claws. This creature also produced eggs that were given to the family in order to restore youth and keep them living.
In Acker’s excerpt from, “Empire of the Senseless”, we meet two terrorists named Abhor and Thivai. We are first told about Abhor’s terrible upbringing and how her father raped her and his relentless obsession of her. This explains her lifestyle and obsessions as well. Her partner Thivai narrates the second section and walks us through his daily struggle with drugs and sex. This takes him through a drug-induced panic where he cannot tell reality from fiction.
Both of the authors like to incorporate gender blurring and power reversals into their pieces. With “Bloodchild” we are faced with first the role reversal of animals and humans. Although there is a symbiotic relationship present, it is apparent that the Tlic, or group of these creatures, are in control. They are the ones who are in charge of the government run Preserves. They are also larger and have far more power to control the humans. For example T’Gatoi is able to sting the humans but also to feed them her poisonous eggs to create submission due to a drug related hypnosis.
This story also shows us how men and women’s roles can be reversed. Here men can be also and most of the times are the ones that are selected as the hosts for the creature’s offspring. This is almost to much for me to think about although at times I wish it were an option.
In the second piece there is more or less a change in power reversals. In the beginning we are told the story of Abhor’s family. We learn that her mother came from poverty and was forced into prostitution. This is then followed up by her becoming successful and marrying a rich man. Don’t know many cases of this happening. This story also has creatures instead of humans. There are even super human creatures that are walking the streets with no eyes or limbs yet are still “alive”.
I will admit that not having read science fiction before this was not as easily enjoyable for me. I have come to slowly appreciate the room for creativity that this subgenre allows. In regards to the Burble Fink link, I am catholic as well and constantly wonder about the controversy that religion and science present to each other. My question for class is in regards to Butler’s readers assuming the story is about slavery, why do people jump to so many conclusions? And also would people have even made that assumption if they had not known the race of the author?

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=17460

Implications, anyone, anyone?

Octavia Butler, in her short story, “Bloodchild,” certainly proves what she states in the second to last paragraph of “Positive Obsession,” that science fiction “consider[s] alternative ways of thinking and doing…it examin[es] the possible effects of science and technology, or social organization and political direction.” For this reason alone, the subgenre of science fiction is useful in opening up the minds of the populace about social circumstances, political endeavors, and the modernizing of our culture. In general it tends to find errors in what we are told are means of progress.

In reading “Bloodchild,” one gets the strong sense that while political power is oppressive, it is, in most cases, also beneficial. In a very true way, from this story one can argue that while nobody should be subjected to a the kind of authority where a human isn’t able to express himself in the most natural way possible, to do so would be detrimental to society as a whole. So we begin to realize that power, and especially political power, tends to have the betterment of society at the root of its dogma. And ideally, we’d be able to take the word “tends” out of the last sentence.

Specifically, Butler shows the oppressive nature of power in the relationship between this isolated colony of humans on another world and the species that rule the world, the Tlic. The Tlic hold not only political power on this world, but we are made to assume that they strongly outnumber the population of humans, and on an individual basis, are much more powerful, physically, than humans. The fact that the humans ever survived as long as they have is due to the fact that the Tlic discovered how useful human beings (or Terrans) can be—their bodies being perfect incubators for the Tlic young. This relationship of power is akin to a country’s needing its citizens in order to keep power—without production, it would hold no power in relation to the rest of the world. However, the Tlic need to be governed as well. Without a form of government amongst themselves, the Tlic would be overcome by their own greed and probably kill off the useful Terrans in a short time. Thus, we have a justification for rules amongst ourselves on Earth. If not for the rules, we couldn’t propagate as a species as well (allowing us to inhabit the earth to the point where we destroy its balance…But, that’s another topic altogether). However, because the humans arrived to the new world seeking refuge, they know that in order to survive, they must cooperate with the Tlic. They must allow the Tlic to inhabit their bodies, to be cut from throat to pelvis when the young get big enough. They must abide in this way to propagate the species. Again, this is loosely akin to government on Earth in that the citizens of, say, The United States, need its government to protect them from the evils that may come to harm them otherwise. Because of this—survival of the individual, and thus the species—its citizens agree to pay taxes, agree to be ruled, agree to be oppressed.