Week 12- Blood Child Response

Blood Child by Octavia Butler Response

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

I will admit that I love scifi authors who are okay with getting really strange and a bit provocatively gross (if it feels like it's for a point and not just to indulge in graphic writing), especially in a short story context where things can get a bit more experimental and strange without having to commit to an entire novel of disturbing content. So, I enjoyed the story even if it made me cringe at some points (the sex scene), and had a more positive reaction than I'm guessing some other readers might.

2. What connections did you make wth the story? 

The part of the story that I connected with the most was when Gan decides to let T'Gatoi puts eggs in him because he still cares about her and because he doesn't want T'Gatoi to do it to Hoa. It felt like a very human moment of jealousy and relationship conflict even though it was between a human and an alien. It reminded me of people who get angry at friends for dating their ex-boyfriends/girlfriends--even though they might know that person wasn't the best fit, they don't want to see someone else take them. 

3. What changes would you make to adapt it to another medium? What medium would you use?

I would probably adapt the story to an audio medium, like an episode of a podcast. That would keep the story more palatable for the average audience, and a good narrator for Gan could go a long way towards highlighting the emotional highs and lows of the story. 

If it was going to be a podcast story like this, I would turn the story into a few separate arcs as separate episodes and take some time to build up the world and the emotional aspects of the story a bit more.