B L O O D C H I L D
"How could I put my children into the care of one who hates them?"
"Bloodchild" is a short story written by Octavia E. Butler. The short story is set in what seems to be another planet - inhabited by Terrans (humans), Tlics and several other animals.
While following the story's main character, Gan, we are introduced to this mysterious creature called T'Gatoi. She is described to have multiple limbs, a long spine, ribs, a skull, three meters tall and has a velvet underside. As we dig deeper into the story, we are told that she, among many others, is a Tlic. Tlics are gigantic worm-like creatures that live alongside the Terrans (humans); using them as their host animals for their young. When Tlics are ready to lay their eggs, they look for a host animal with enough fat to take care of their babies and Terrans who have Tlic eggs implanted inside them are called N'Tlics. They usually prefer women to keep their babies, but women are not usually used as the Tlic's host animals, as they are there to provide the next generation of host animals. Gan then watches the birth of a few Tlics, which involved blood, flesh, terror and what looked like agonizing pain. In the end, what had to be done had to be done. Gan didn't want his sister, Xuan Hoa, to end up like Lomas, another N'Tlic, and eventually lets T'Gatoi implant her eggs into Gan.
When T'Gatoi implants her eggs into Gan he says,
"No Terran ever sees a birth [of a Tlic] that goes right. All we see is N'Tlic - pain and terror and maybe death."
In which T'Gatoi responds to with;
"It is a private thing. It has always been a private thing."
T H E O R I E S
While the author herself has stated that the story was not intended to come off as some sort of master-slave relationship, the way that the Tlics treated Terrans sounded oddly similar to the concepts of slavery and enforcing them with the young. We can link this to many historical events in history involving slaves, where the slaves would not be able to object against being impregnated, discriminated against and vice versa - it was how society worked at the time. In "Bloodchild", Butler portrays the implanting of eggs into a Terran as some sort of mandatory act - it had to be done one way or another and the host animal could do nothing about it as it would help the Tlics as a species to thrive and continue to multiply.
There is also another theory that suggests what Butler is trying to represent in this story, which is a racial difference. Butler was an African-American woman, and she could've written this story as an exaggeration of the relationship between white people and people of color in America in the 1980's (when the short story was first published). We can see that the relationship between T'Gatoi and Gan's family was very loving and inclusive - they treated her as their own. However, we could also observe that there was a little bit of tension between Gan's family and T'Gatoi - which can happen when a racial difference is present, especially in the late 1900's when everyone was just starting to get along - as they always had that little bit of fear that T'Gatoi would someday implant her eggs into one of their bodies - and she did - with the birth of her young would make him/her go through such agonizing pain.
Another theory that could relate to this in someway is that this story was meant to represent the dominating gender in society. Here on Earth, males do not have to worry about pregnancy and giving birth to babies, but in the Preserve, males were the ones that were usually worrying about how someday a Tlic - possibly one that joined families with theirs - would implant their eggs into them, as the young Tlics would slowly hatch inside of them and eat their flesh and skin. I personally do not believe this theory represents the meaning behind the story because it is stated that many Tlics prefer women to become their host animals, as they are said to have more fat to protect the young Tlics. However, they are not usually used as host animals, shown in this short excerpt of the story:
"'She has always expected to carry other lives inside her.' Human young who would someday drink at her breasts, not at her veins."
Which does open up an option for this theory to actually be another possible way to interpret the fascinating story.
"Bloodchild" is a short story written by Octavia E. Butler. The short story is set in what seems to be another planet - inhabited by Terrans (humans), Tlics and several other animals.
While following the story's main character, Gan, we are introduced to this mysterious creature called T'Gatoi. She is described to have multiple limbs, a long spine, ribs, a skull, three meters tall and has a velvet underside. As we dig deeper into the story, we are told that she, among many others, is a Tlic. Tlics are gigantic worm-like creatures that live alongside the Terrans (humans); using them as their host animals for their young. When Tlics are ready to lay their eggs, they look for a host animal with enough fat to take care of their babies and Terrans who have Tlic eggs implanted inside them are called N'Tlics. They usually prefer women to keep their babies, but women are not usually used as the Tlic's host animals, as they are there to provide the next generation of host animals. Gan then watches the birth of a few Tlics, which involved blood, flesh, terror and what looked like agonizing pain. In the end, what had to be done had to be done. Gan didn't want his sister, Xuan Hoa, to end up like Lomas, another N'Tlic, and eventually lets T'Gatoi implant her eggs into Gan.
When T'Gatoi implants her eggs into Gan he says,
"No Terran ever sees a birth [of a Tlic] that goes right. All we see is N'Tlic - pain and terror and maybe death."
In which T'Gatoi responds to with;
"It is a private thing. It has always been a private thing."
T H E O R I E S
While the author herself has stated that the story was not intended to come off as some sort of master-slave relationship, the way that the Tlics treated Terrans sounded oddly similar to the concepts of slavery and enforcing them with the young. We can link this to many historical events in history involving slaves, where the slaves would not be able to object against being impregnated, discriminated against and vice versa - it was how society worked at the time. In "Bloodchild", Butler portrays the implanting of eggs into a Terran as some sort of mandatory act - it had to be done one way or another and the host animal could do nothing about it as it would help the Tlics as a species to thrive and continue to multiply.
There is also another theory that suggests what Butler is trying to represent in this story, which is a racial difference. Butler was an African-American woman, and she could've written this story as an exaggeration of the relationship between white people and people of color in America in the 1980's (when the short story was first published). We can see that the relationship between T'Gatoi and Gan's family was very loving and inclusive - they treated her as their own. However, we could also observe that there was a little bit of tension between Gan's family and T'Gatoi - which can happen when a racial difference is present, especially in the late 1900's when everyone was just starting to get along - as they always had that little bit of fear that T'Gatoi would someday implant her eggs into one of their bodies - and she did - with the birth of her young would make him/her go through such agonizing pain.
Another theory that could relate to this in someway is that this story was meant to represent the dominating gender in society. Here on Earth, males do not have to worry about pregnancy and giving birth to babies, but in the Preserve, males were the ones that were usually worrying about how someday a Tlic - possibly one that joined families with theirs - would implant their eggs into them, as the young Tlics would slowly hatch inside of them and eat their flesh and skin. I personally do not believe this theory represents the meaning behind the story because it is stated that many Tlics prefer women to become their host animals, as they are said to have more fat to protect the young Tlics. However, they are not usually used as host animals, shown in this short excerpt of the story:
"'She has always expected to carry other lives inside her.' Human young who would someday drink at her breasts, not at her veins."
Which does open up an option for this theory to actually be another possible way to interpret the fascinating story.
I agree with your perspective on how this story partially reflects the previous generations of people and how they acted. Although I disagree with how you say that this story is unconnected with the relationship between a slave and master, since many of the Terrans likely don't agree to what the Tillics are doing and they are likely forced to do this and they aren't even warned. Also it shows how some of the Terrans feared the Tillic, such as Gan's brother who saw a birth and was deeply scared and started to fear the Tillic.
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