"Bloodchild" Reaction Post
1. What is your reaction to the text?
I've read "Bloodchild" for a class earlier in the year, and at the time I didn't understand it. Even after an intense group discussion, I had a hard time reading the language. For some reason, reading it again, knowing the basic premise, helped my reading of it. Butler's writing is very fluid, it didn't feel like I was reading 18 pages of hard dystopian sci-fi.
I think the text does something I haven't seen much of before, which is reverse otherization. Where instead of the oppressed party being "otherized"/depicted as alien or wildly strange, the oppressor is. In this instance I think otherization is an okay thing to do, because it's not capitalizing on the pain of a marginalized group. Instead, it's critiquing the behavior of an abusive force.
2. What connections did you make? Discuss the elements.
I felt like I could connect to the emotional abuse present in the story. It was very raw, and there were lots of emotions from the Tlic and the terrans (as it usually goes in abusive environments, there are strong emotions from both ends, which makes it harder to break off from each other). I couldn't help but make the connection between this story and slavery, and the treatment of slaves on plantations, or even the treatment of First Nation's people on reservations. (I mean, come on, the Preserve? Reserve? Mind. Blown.) Though I remember Butler saying this story isn't about slavery, the elements of slavery are definitely there. Maybe this story is supposed to represent emotional slavery rather than physical? Or the mental aspect of it rather than the legal? Who knows, I'm not Butler, but what I got from "Bloodchild" was a clear image of an abusive relationship.
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium/what changes?
I think an animation of this would be pretty cool. I can totally see an artist going all out with the fluid motions of T'Gatoi. I think it would be a good medium because adult animation is always frowned upon, and not taken seriously, but I think this would be a good chance to change that. Also, animated gore is always super cool looking, and it's something that, when done well, is very effective.
Not sure what I would change, though. I think maybe I would include less characters just to make the story more succinct? Because, on my first read a while ago, the amount of names I had to remember threw me off. So I think I would get rid of Hoa, and instead of T'Gatoi saying she'll implant Hoa she says she'll implant Gan's mother. I feel like this would have more of an emotional impact since I didn't get much of a connection between Gan and Hoa as I did with his mother or with Qui.
I've read "Bloodchild" for a class earlier in the year, and at the time I didn't understand it. Even after an intense group discussion, I had a hard time reading the language. For some reason, reading it again, knowing the basic premise, helped my reading of it. Butler's writing is very fluid, it didn't feel like I was reading 18 pages of hard dystopian sci-fi.
I think the text does something I haven't seen much of before, which is reverse otherization. Where instead of the oppressed party being "otherized"/depicted as alien or wildly strange, the oppressor is. In this instance I think otherization is an okay thing to do, because it's not capitalizing on the pain of a marginalized group. Instead, it's critiquing the behavior of an abusive force.
2. What connections did you make? Discuss the elements.
I felt like I could connect to the emotional abuse present in the story. It was very raw, and there were lots of emotions from the Tlic and the terrans (as it usually goes in abusive environments, there are strong emotions from both ends, which makes it harder to break off from each other). I couldn't help but make the connection between this story and slavery, and the treatment of slaves on plantations, or even the treatment of First Nation's people on reservations. (I mean, come on, the Preserve? Reserve? Mind. Blown.) Though I remember Butler saying this story isn't about slavery, the elements of slavery are definitely there. Maybe this story is supposed to represent emotional slavery rather than physical? Or the mental aspect of it rather than the legal? Who knows, I'm not Butler, but what I got from "Bloodchild" was a clear image of an abusive relationship.
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium/what changes?
I think an animation of this would be pretty cool. I can totally see an artist going all out with the fluid motions of T'Gatoi. I think it would be a good medium because adult animation is always frowned upon, and not taken seriously, but I think this would be a good chance to change that. Also, animated gore is always super cool looking, and it's something that, when done well, is very effective.
Not sure what I would change, though. I think maybe I would include less characters just to make the story more succinct? Because, on my first read a while ago, the amount of names I had to remember threw me off. So I think I would get rid of Hoa, and instead of T'Gatoi saying she'll implant Hoa she says she'll implant Gan's mother. I feel like this would have more of an emotional impact since I didn't get much of a connection between Gan and Hoa as I did with his mother or with Qui.
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