Assessment: Bloodchild 

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

Due to the deceptively normal start to the story, I went in expecting a story that was relatively mundane. I picked up on a few strange descriptors here and there, about the concept of "sipping" eggs and our main character lying against T'Gatoi's "long, velvet underside" but they were easy to brush off at first, because I assumed the way of eating eggs as some sort of a cultural difference and T'Gatoi's underside just to be a unique description by the author. However, when the story finally showed it's grotesque nature and got to the "splitting" of Lomas to harvest the worms of the Tlic, I had a very visceral reaction to the gory details of T'Gatoi harvesting Lomas, with disgusted facial reactions and a shudder. Although I stopped believing the story to be something normal once Octavia Butler set-up a world that had a politcal relationship between an alien race, Tlic, and the humans, the Terrans, I did not expect the reason why the rich Tlic desired the Terrans to be so horrific and parasitic. 

2.) What connections did you make with this story you just read? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect? 

Reflecting back on the text now, it seems to me that the author was trying to make a connection between colonial slavery and the slave trade in America. The author describes the Tlic, particularly those that are rich, to desire the Terrans as an exotic prize and that T'Gatoi oversees the act of selling off Terrans to rich Tlic families. It is not so different from when slaves were auctioned off to greedy white families in colonial America and the wealth of a white man could be determined by the size of his plantation and the number of his slaves. Octavia Butler seems to want to portray this slave and white family relationship in the most horrific light as possible, but showing it in a very physical way, the effect of slavery had in America. It seemed like Octavia wanted to show in the most vulgar way possible, the effect of white people dehumanizing slaves and seeing them as only tools. She even includes the concept of how slaves would try to commit suicide or go to extreme measures to escape the horrors of this reality, such as shown also in a book called Beloved, by Toni Morrison, about a mother who kills her own child so that they will not face traumas of slavery.

It also reminds of human circuses back in the day, where white people would also capture African or non-white people and put them on display as something exotic for entertainment. The Tlic seems to view the Terrans in a similar light, as they are put on a "Preserve" and hailed as an exotic prize to keep. 

3.) What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make? 

I feel that this story could make a pretty interesting video game or a grisly comic book, but something very visual. The descriptions the author were already pretty graphic, but I think it's one thing to read and make an image in your own head and actually see something for yourself. 

I would suggest a video game, because games are very inclusive and allows players to immerse themselves into a world and feel as if they're actually operating within it, when they play as a character within the game. I would make Gan the main playable character and make the game a first-person player game, where the player sees through the view of the character. I think this would be a good aspect to include for a story like this, where it might be hard to relate yourself to the characters of this story. However, when put in a video game format, players are usually already going in expecting to be part of whatever story the game has set up for them, therefore making it easier to connect yourself to other interactive characters in the game. 

I also think using cinematic cutscenes in games would work great for the scene where you finally see how the Tlic use Terrans in order to breed. It is such a gory and violent scene, that seeing the visual of T'Gatoi, who Gan previously thought of as a positive figure, tearing into a human to gleefully pull out wriggling worms out of a body, really drives in the horrific nature of this story. I always enjoy seeing cut-scenes in a game, because it offers a break from the game and also allows you to take a step back and just see the world you're playing in.