Blood Child

 (Blood Child by Octavia Butler - Reading Assessment)

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

    Shock is a pretty good descriptor in terms of my first reaction, as the story was so different from anything that I've ever read. I'd consider myself an avid reader and have encounters some strange elements in stories, but this takes the lead in the most bizarre. While the story brought some interesting elements into the narrative, it also felt incredibly disturbing and grotesque when the implications of the alien and human relationship had come into focus. I will say I was intrigued by the topics that Butler explored, but the overall concepts of male pregnancy and oviposition are pretty overwhelming topics to a common reader.

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?

    The main connection that I made to the story was when the protagonist, Gan, was talking about how it feels to be treated as a child and being overwhelmed by watching the "birth" of an alien worm from a fellow human being. I think every human can relate to the idea of having strong opinions about the world and how things work due to inexperience. Youth can believe anything is true and have unwavering opinions until they are exposed to something that defies their beliefs and causes them to question what is good and bad. While Gan is no longer a child, they have child-like views and underestimates what the pregnancy in this fictional world could be like. Gan also believes that young humans should be taught about what it's like to have these alien births to lessen the fears that humans may have towards the whole ordeal. While I'm not sure I'd educate youths on oviposition, I think there is a fundamental truth to teaching children about the world and elements within it so they have less fear for it in the future.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you choose; what changes would you make?

    Honestly, it would be pretty hard for me to speak about altering this story into another medium without having to censor some aspects of the narrative that are very grotesque and I have a personal distaste for. The only way to maintain a lot of the aspects of the story would be to adapt it into an adult short film, and the alterations I would make would be more of a clarification to the setting. I imagine from the context provided that this sequence takes place out on a farm, and I would want to highlight the futuristic/alien aspects within the architecture and local flora. The story even mentions a vehicle that was adapted for the alien species that is co-existing with the humans, so I'd like to highlight those aspects a lot more to ground the story. I'd also want to make sure that the alien figures remain accurate to their descriptions, but add a humanistic quality to them so that the audience could identify with them more. This element could be something like having similar human-like eyes or facial features.

4. Are there elements of this work that you would consider afro-futurist?

    Yes and no. I say yes as there are many ideas and concepts to indicate that this is a segment human race that has escaped the societal structures of Earth and has moves past the ideals of white supremacy and race. This story instead created a world where humans are not so concerned with race as they are with coexistence with the alien race they now share a part of the planet with. Still, I would also say no as this story's moral axis does not balance race as the crux of its turmoil, but rather the idea of male pregnancy and the reversing the discomfort of male expectations of women to instead be felt by the men on this planet. Overall it's a complex novel that contains elements of afro-futurist themes, but also expands on other topics which have a stronger presence in the story.