September 30, 2016 - 17:21
Slipping through the Lens of Bloodchild
In Butler’s Bloodchild, slippage was utilized as a method in which unspoken species-specific values were revealed to the audience. Slippage allowed the readers to witness a side of both species that was not directly indicated, and furthermore showed how corrosive the shown interspecies relationship was. Slippage also revealed a disturbing truth about those who were caught between the vastly different beliefs held between differing species. In all, the different types of slippage in Bloodchild exposed an underlying message about the dangerous nature of forcing different cultures to merge in order to hasten progress.
In Bloodchild, the relationship between two vastly different species, the Terrans and Tlic was very delicate and strained. After years of conflict and tensions, these two species had finally reached a method of tentative co-existence. The Tlic allowed Terrans to live protected in preserves as long as the Terrans allowed themselves to be hosts for the Tlic’s eggs. However, despite their co-existence, tension and mistrust continued to exist between the two species. These tensions stemmed from a clash of different values, which inevitably influence the thoughts and beliefs of the individuals of both species.
The first type of slippage in Bloodchild revealed the unspoken values of both species; values that were kept silent in order to preserve the already fragile interspecies relationship between the Terrans and the Tlic. Specifically, the slips of the Gan’s mother and T’Gatoi, a Terran and Tlic respectively, revealed the buried beliefs of both species. Both of these examples of slippage displayed how a clash of contrasting species-specific cultural values result in distain and fake civility in these species’ interactions.
In the case of Gan’s mother, she slipped when she was drunk off of a sterile egg T’Gatoi gave her. She spoke of topics considered taboo, boldly stating in her intoxicated state about her negative thoughts towards T’Gatoi’s choice to use Gan as her host. During this slip, Gan’s mother represented how many Terrans were secretly unsettled and uncomfortable with their status of animal hosts for the Tlic’s eggs. The Terrans’ cultural values of independence and hatred of foreign bodily invasion made coping with their new status of animal hosts for the Tlic difficult to accept.
In contrast, T’Gatoi revealed the values of the Tlics when she told Gan that she needed to implant her egg into “someone that night” (Bulter), implying how there was little importance in who her host actually was. In her desperate strive to lay her eggs, T’Gatoi slipped in revealing about how she valued her children and her own species over Gan and the Terrans. T’Gatoi mirrored the culture of the Tlic and how they had little value of animal hosts besides their ability to produce strong larvae. This value caused the Tlic to have trouble with respecting the opinions and individuality of the Terrans.
The slips of both Gan’s mother and T’Gatoi revealed both their innermost beliefs and consequently the cultural beliefs of their species. However, it took an abnormal state of mind for either of them to confess these beliefs: with Gan’s mother being intoxicated and T’Gatoi rushing to lay her eggs. This state of mind was necessary in order to invoke these slip because both knew that this tenuous relationship between the Terrans and the Tlic was necessary to both species’ survival. Their slips never-the-less revealed a truth about how cultural differences between the Terrans and the Tlic spurred deep tensions.
The second type of slipping in Bloodchild represented the chaos that resulted from the contrasting natures between the two species. This type of slippage was seen through both Gan and Qui, siblings caught between the values of the Terrans and Tlic, of family and parasite creatures. As children born into a time where the relationship between their own race and the Tlic was barely stable, Gan and Qui were caught in a whirlwind of different values and beliefs. Their development of self and value was torn asunder as they experienced different sides of Tlic-Terran relationship. The slippage demonstrated by these two revealed the acidic results of relationship forced onto two culturally opposite species.
In the case of Gan, he was greatly influenced by both the values of the Terrans and the Tlic. In terms of Terran values Gan had two familial figures that clearly painted a picture of distaste and hatred of Tlic and their practice of hosting their eggs in the Terrans: his brother, Qui, and his mother. In contrast, Gan was also exposed to T’Gatoi his entire life, a Tlic who showed Gan the benefits of being a host for the Tlic. T’Gatoi taught Gan that being a host involved being spoiled and valued. These contrasting influences resulted in internal confliction about the Tlic-Terran relationship, especially when dealing with T’Gatoi.
This internal conflict emerged during times when Gan was torn between choosing the values taught by his family verses the values pressed onto him by T’Gatoi. An example of this was when T’Gatoi was implanting her eggs into Gan. This ritual was preceded by a fight, where T’Gatoi essentially pressured Gan into accepting his status as the host for her eggs. Rage and disgust must have been boiling within Gan, the coerced nature of his status of a host only solidifying the negative values of his family. However, despite being a forced participant in this implantation, Gan still felt great sorrow and regret when his movement caused T’Gatoi pain, even going as far as whispering “I’m sorry” (Butler) to T’Gatoi.
The invasive influence of T’Gatoi in Gan’s life, from planting positive feelings of attachment to herself through positive treatment to taking away his choice of being a host, affected Gan’s very identity. His unusual level of emotional attachment to T’Gatoi was akin to that of a victim of Stockholm syndrome. This unsettling confliction within Gan’s own values is one example of the abnormal and corrosive results of forcing the vastly different cultures of the Tlic and Terrans together.
Similarly, yet strikingly different, was Qui’s experience as a child caught in between the clashing tensions between the Terrans and Tlic. Qui, unlike Gan, was not a chosen host for the Tlic. Despite this, Qui still had influences of both Terrans and Tlic through T’Gatoi and this family. However, overpowering all of these influences was Qui’s one experience in witnessing the vicious and mentally scarring failed implantation, where the host Terran was eaten alive by the Tlic larvae and killed. This instance solidified Qui’s everlasting hatred and fear of the Tlic.
This fear implanted the idea that the Tlic were the largest threat in Qui’s life, and he made it a life-goal to avoid being a host at all costs. This ambition overpowered any familial urges to protect Gan, Qui’s younger brother, from the Tlic. Qui’s instance of slipping existed with his motives behind looking out for Gan. This protectiveness was driven not by a brotherly-love but a mindset of “as long as [Gan] was all right, [Qui] was safe from the Tlic” (Butler). This slippage revealed how the tensions between the Tlic and the Terrans resulted in another child whose values strayed from the healthy to the obsessive and abnormal.
Both Gan and Qui’s slippage demonstrated how disturbingly twisted values emerge when children develop in tense settings. With Gan’s abnormal attachment due to Stockholm Syndrome and with Qui’s abandonment of familial attachments in favor of self-protection, the results of growing up surrounded by contracting ideas is disturbingly clear. The unsettled tensions between the Tlic and Terrans birthed an environment stuck in a grey area. The cultural clash of values left little stableness in the Tlic-Terran world.
Altogether, these two types of slippage revealed a hidden warning about forcing change onto society. In Bloodchild, change was forced on both the societies of the Terrans and the Tlics in order to create a cooperative and peaceful relationship between the two species. However, this change came at the cost of sacrificing specific cultural values held dear to both of the species. In terms of the Terrans, they had to give up independence and a right to control what happens to their bodies. For the Tlic, they had to give up the idea of seeing animal hosts as only nutritious resources for their offspring and recognize the Terrans as peers. Therefore, despite being able to co-exist with each other, the two species continued to feel discomfort and distain for this new cooperation. In the rush to create change, no thought was put into creating a relationship that respected and explored the cultures of each species. This resulted in chaos, not only in the thoughts and interactions of the Tlic and Terrans, but also in the resulting mindset and values of the children raised in this setting. Ultimately, the slippage revealed in Butler’s Bloodchild demonstrated how rushing change through forced amalgamation of incompatible cultures will only result in tenuous and unstable relations.
Bibliography
Butler, Octavia E. "Bloodchild and Other Stories." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2016.