Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild": An Alternate View of Paternity in a Post-Apocalyptic World

    Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild is an eerie story of mutual survival, dependence, and extraterrestrial connection. The story follows Gan, a young boy, and his family who live on an unnamed alien planet. They are considered “terrans”, and live on a reserve that protects them from the native alien species called “tlics”. The family is bound to a tlic of their own, T’Gatoi, an alien that has political influence and played a part in the creation of the reserve. T’Gatoi has known Lien, the mother, since they were both young. Readers quickly learn that humans are needed for one thing: as hosts for the aliens' larvae. Gan is implied to have been chosen as T’Gatoi’s host, a task he is not entirely opposed to until he witnesses a live birth. A man, Lomas, must be sliced open by T’Gatoi to remove the larvae before they eat him alive. Despite the horrors of this situation, his devotion and love for T’Gatoi overpower his fear, and in the end, he is impregnated with her eggs. 

    Despite the obvious effect of the story, what struck me more was Butler’s afterword, which clarified the inspiration behind her premise. Beyond being a difficult coming-of-age story as well as one of love between two starkly different beings, “On a third level, ‘Bloodchild’ is my pregnant man story. I’ve always wanted to explore what it might be like for a man to be put in the most unlikely of positions.” (Butler 30). 

    This reflection reminded me of Mark Derry’s interview with Tricia Rose from his book Flame Wars: The Discourse of CyberCulture. Rose describes a fear of childbearing, describing “I, too, have a total phobia about childbearing, associated with containment, confinement, and giving in to male desire – all of which, I think, is a product of understanding that you will be structured that way whether you experience pregnancy this way or not.” (Derry 218). Motherhood is binding. In this alternate reality, fatherhood is binding. 

    Butler’s story presents a strange commodification of pregnancy, almost like a sci-fi-based Handmaid’s Tale. Humans are reduced to their reproductive potential, though men play an interesting role as hosts for an alien race that relies on their bodies as incubators. Butler presents a twisted circle of life: Women are still essential to keep the human race going, but men bear the bulk of the expectation to help the alien larvae survive. Without humans, the aliens cannot reproduce, and without the aliens, the humans are lost refugees fleeing their destroyed planet. It’s a strange agreement that assures their mutual survival.

                                                   Illustration by Jonathan Djob Nkondo