Insights into Bloodchild

The short story Bloodchild by Octavia Butler perfectly combines disgust and intrigue, as well as a big heap of detachment. My first thought after reading was it’s an interesting take on the parasitic alien trope; more domestic, more normalized, just as traumatizing. It’s obvious the race of the Tlic is based on insects, which of most organisms looks the most alien to humans as well as having members that are parasitic in nature, so the connection makes sense. As in certain insect species as well, it seems as though the Tlic are matriarchal - which adds to the interesting role reversal to the men who bear Tlic children.

The Terrans in this short story are implied to be minorities, as T'Gatoi mentions them leaving the planet due to subjugation. Terrans are thought to be given an equivalent exchange, as they have access to shelter as well as nonfertilized eggs, which make the Terrans live longer lives. Of course, objectively, being put on a preserve like they are and having to be protected by party officials of the Tlic race means that they’re seen as prey more than equals.

While the story is told succinctly and without extra detail, we still get intense emotional reactions from the characters. Gan, our main character, after watching the “birth” of Tlic, which includes burrowing eggs inside their hosts, which hatch and eventually the worms that emerge eat the flesh of their host, feels extremely betrayed that he had only been shown diagrams of this before. As he’s expected to carry T'Gatoi’s eggs, it’s understandable that he’s not sure how to feel about the process after seeing it first hand. His brother, Qui, is utterly disgusted by the concept, and most of his purpose in the story was to provoke a response out of his brother and possibly to get him to change his mind about receiving T'Gatoi’s eggs.

If I were to convert Bloodchild into a media adaptation, I would do a comic, an animated short film, or a combination of both. Animation would be alluring as to the way T'Gatoi moves - it's described as water several times and it would be interesting to see how one would translate that. A comic, on the other hand, would be able to explore more of the emotion as well as imagery. A combination of the two - comic graphics animated - would have the best of both worlds. I likely wouldn’t make it as graphic as described and instead go for a Jaws approach, where you don’t get a glimpse of the grossness until the end. Otherwise, I would keep it the same to the text, only adding more context to characters looks and more allusions to why they left earth.