Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the story:


Bloodchild by Octavia Butler


This story is part of the group discussion of Octavia Butler's short story collection Bloodchild and Other Stories. (See the discussion hub topic for more info.)

The first story in this collection is Butler's "Bloodchild", winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novelette in 1985.

Humans live in a Preserve provided by the alien Tlic. Tlic have an awful lot of limbs, not to mention a tale with a stinger. That may make them ugly, but they seem quite civilized, and friends of the family. We eventually learn that Tlic use humans in their reproductive cycle; it's the price the humans pay for their Preserve (or "the rent," as Butler puts it): to let their bodies serve as blood hosts for the Grubb-like larva that become Tlic offspring. Eeeeww.

I thought the exposition order was interesting.

First, I was a little slow in figuring out that Gan was a male. I guess because Butler is female I defaulted to female for the PoV character.

More interestingly, we won't find out until well into the story that this is the Tlic's home planet, and the humans arrived voluntarily more or less as refugees. Up until then, this could've been an alien invasion aftermath just as easily. (Does this change our moral perception of the role humans play as servitors?)

There's an interesting family dynamic explored in the initial, tranquil scene. The Tlic named T’Gatoi seems to be a guest member of the human family, and in particular has a special relationship with one of the (teenage?) children, Gan. There's a bunch of T’Gatoi & Gan cuddling on the living room sofa. Brother Qui seems disgusted with the scene, and Mom seems only sullenly accepting. The sisters seem jealous of Gan's favored relation to T’Gatoi.

Then we get to witness the rather ugly side of a Tlic birth as a human, "pregnant" with Tlic grubs, reaches the birth stage, bloody and painful as the larva literally chew their way out of the human host.

(We already know Dad is dead. Apparently he was the breed stock for several litter of Tlic, so presumably this process reduces one's life cycle. And now we know what mom was upset about.)

Gan, having now witnessed the Tlic birth spectacle, knows what's in store for him, and rebels, contemplating murder, suicide, and running away like his older brother, Qui, once did. Gan has his, "Do it to Julia!" moment. But eventually Gan relents and accepts the alien pregnancy/infestation, mostly to spare his sister the fate, but also because T’Gatoi plays the, "won't you think of the children?" card.

In the afterword, Butler talks about an awkward romance between Gan and T’Gatoi. I guess I see it more as Gan acknowledging that T’Gatoi is the family's sugar daddy.

Rank 9 on Locus' 20th century novelettes!

G33z3r wrote: "(We already know Dad is dead. Apparently he was the breed stock for several litter of Tlic, so presumably this process reduces one's life cycle. And now we know what mom was upset about.)..."

Actually this extended his life. It said he lived twice as long as he should have and he first met Gan's mother when he was an older man.

I thought it was rather interesting that both the humans and the Tlic were both in bad shape when they first met and so much better off with this symbiotic relationship. I would have liked to know more about what life was like outside the preserve.

Rose wrote: "Actually this extended his life. It said he lived twice as long as he should have and he first met Gan's mother when he was an older man...."

I interpreted it as the egg consumption that prolonged life and slowed aging. I also thought the phrase, "lived more than twice as long as he should have," sounded like one of those things you say about someone with a terminal illness; I wasn't sure how long someone who hosts multiple broods "should" live. But it could be I'm reading more into that than was intended.

I also noticed Mom refused to consume her share of the egg. Gan observes that she denies herself the "harmless pleasure", apparently a pleasant soporific effect.

It could be that Mom just doesn't want the longevity, being tired of life. Or it could be she just is dedicated to her children, and wants them to have her share. Or she might just be feeling guilty that it's some sort of payment for the use of her son as a brood animal.

I agree with that. I think it's the egg that extends life not the breeding but the breeding doesn't shorten it...unless they don't get to him in time and the grubs eat him.

Mom knows what will happen to Gan (or at least one of her kids) and doesn't want to eat the egg to make herself feel better about it. Like she's self-punishing over something she has absolutely no control over. The only option she has is to refrain from the egg, until T'Gatio stings her which seems to do the same thing as the egg.

What I don't understand is that they have been living like this for generations. This all should seem normal by now but they seem to be acting like it's a relatively new development. Mom even grew up with T'Gatoi. You would think there would be a greater level of trust at this point.

Rose wrote: "I thought it was rather interesting that both the humans and the Tlic were both in bad shape when they first met and so much better off with this symbiotic relationship. ..."

It's not really a symmetric symbiotic relationship, though. The Tlic are dependent on humans for reproduction, but the human dependency on the Tlic is more socioeconomic. If all the Tlic died off, the humans would actually be better off.

This doesn't necessarily mean the relationship is unfair. It is the Tlic's planet, and humans are guests/refugees. In Butler's words, it's "paying the rent." Is it so different from any other exchange economy? You go to work to make money to pay the rent, doing pretty much whatever the boss demands for your 8-hour (or whatever) shift. Yet this form of payment is especially intrusive and intimate, something that feels more akin to prostitution than work for hire.

Anyway, it strikes me as the kind of thing Capt. Kirk would object to :)


Rose wrote: "What I don't understand is that they have been living like this for generations. This all should seem normal by now but they seem to be acting like it's a relatively new development. Mom even grew up with T'Gatoi. You would think there would be a greater level of trust at this point. "

True, but it seems a rather distasteful (although perhaps necessary) arrangement.

There was a Blomkamp movie a couple years ago, District 9, in which some aliens arrived on Earth as refugees, and got set up in a small ghetto in South Africa (which I think was where they arrived.) What would our reaction be to aliens who landed with nothing really special offer? Would we give them Nebraska & South Dakota? Or just hand them citizenship papers and let them find a job like everyone else? (We don't even seem to be particularly good at dealing with human refugees.)

So if the only thing valuable humans have to offer to the Tlic's use of their body every few years, maybe it's a valid trade-off.

Still, humans are clearly second-class "citizens". They don't have freedom of movement outside the Preserve (or "cage" as Qui calls it.) And they are allowed to keep guns. And participation in the breeding program seems mandatory for at least one child per generation per family.


It might be interesting to compare the circumstances of this story with last year's Nebula Award nominated novelette, A Guide to the Fruits of Hawaii, in which vampires keep humans around in special Preserves as a food source.

The Tlic aren't dependant on humans for procreation but we make the ideal hosts. It said something along the lines of losing a lot of grubs because the indigenous hosts they were using weren't liking it. They did a lot better with us.

On the human side, they may consider the preserve little more than a cage but we (or they) don't know how the rest are doing on the outside. I would have liked to learn a bit about this aspect, but it was a short story and you can only fit so much in.

I don't think District 9 was a good comparison. Humans treated the aliens like vermin whereas in Bloodchild the aliens treated us kind of like family. The humans had real homes with kitchens and bedrooms but the district 9 aliens lived in shacks surrounded by garbage. Aside from technology, the aliens provided no benefit to us and we forbid them from having children. The Tlic specifically impregnated men so that women could continue having human children,even though women made better hosts, although being intelligent beings they would know this was they way it had to be or their hosts would eventually die out.

Here are my thoughts:
A man bears children – this idea led to Bloodchild, set on a foreign planet where humans are herded in Preserves: Insect-like alien Tlic children in the form of parasitic worms are planted in the abdomen of human males. The delivery is a bloody and horrific event witnessed by Gan who is the main protagonist of this coming-of-age story. Now, he has come to terms if he allows to be impregnated by his beloved Tlic female “T’Gatoi” to secure his family’s status.

A grand setting with an impressive cultural interdependance, inversed gender roles; an interesting, fully realized character at the edge facing a crisis; a Game-of-Thrones worthy struggle for power.

Butler only gradually reveals the SF elements of foreign planet and dystopian setting. In the center, it is a human story: loss of childhood, rite of passage, coming of age which can be expected right from the first sentence: “My last night of childhood began with a visit home.” It takes a couple of pages before one realizes, that humans are reduced to their function as bearer of children, status symbols, and political pawns in the Tlic society.

If only the details weren’t such horrific!

Andreas wrote: "Here are my thoughts:
A man bears children – this idea led to Bloodchild, set on a foreign planet where humans are herded in Preserves: Insect-like alien Tlic children in the form of parasitic worm..."

What parts did you find horrific? I didn't think any of it was horrific myself. Are you talking about men going through childbirth (or grubbirth as the case may be)? Not much different than women currently getting a Cesarean section.

Rose wrote: "What parts did you find horrific? I didn't think any of it was horrific myself. Are you talking about men going through childbirth (or grubbirth as the case may be)? Not much different than women currently getting a Cesarean section."

I nearly missed the irony in your comparison :)
Initially, I thought the same but my gut feeling took over: First of all, there is no sweet baby involved pushing my cute-button but bloody maggots who will soon start to feed through their male host. My mother-in-law always told my that "you males should get babies through your nose", but that is certainly not the same. Then, it isn't a nurse or a doctor in white caring about the birth but an alien which reminds me a lot of Ridley Scott's 1979 "Alien". And third, it is the dystopian setting of oppressed humans.
In summary, it is a horrific perversion of human childbirth in many different forms.

Yeah, I have to say I found it pretty horrific ... I also felt like Butler was trying in part to provoke a re-visioning of "normal" human pregnancy as also horrific.

Need to think further on the morals of the two-species relationship, which I'm also resistent to labeling symbiosis -- I definitely feel like the human population here is oppressed but maybe also feel like maybe that sense comes from a privileged (naive?) idea of how life/society ought to/should normally work.

I thought this was a very interesting story. It is not one I loved, but I found myself drawn in by the story, the familiar family setting in one way and yet very alien in another. It was a very interesting idea, having a world where humans existing alongside natives in a subservient role. Did I find it horrific? A little, mainly because those chosen as hosts had no choice in the matter, and everyone else just accepted the situation. Also the fact that the events in this story are portrayed as being as good as it gets for humans on this world. We get the impression that life is much more horrific for most other people.

I would be interested to find out how humans got themselves in this situation. I take it the author didn't write any other related stories?