I think that “Bloodchild” is one of the oddest stories I have ever read. When I first read it, I had no idea of what to make of it. I found it very hard to relate to any of the characters because they are just so “out there”. I couldn’t even really picture them in my head. I was completely thrown off by this story. It wasn’t until I read the afterward that I got an idea about what the story was about, and how it might be relatable to me.
However, now that I have the author’s insight as to what she meant this story to be, I find it a very clever story. It did have that “coming of age” feel, when I went back and read it a second time. That’s why I think it is a clever story overall. It raises questions about major life points, but disguises them in a crazy science fiction story.
The life point that I thought that was the most interesting was the idea that Gan witnessed a truth about what T’Gatoi was going to do to him, but still made the choice to go ahead with it. I think that we all have to make decisions like this in life. This choice of Gan’s also raised the question if I would want to know what I was getting into when I am faced with a decision like this. At this point I would have to say that I would want to know what I was getting into before it actually happened. This way I would be at least a little bit prepared for it. That’s why I think I ended up liking this story overall. It gets one to think about how the situations the characters went through would affect us, and how we would react if we were in the same situations. And truth is, while we might not be impregnated by aliens, we still could be put into some of the same situations.
(Sarah Jaworowicz, Post 14)
I am glad that you found "Bloodchild" to be one of the oddest stories you have ever read! This is part of why I included it in our course. I am also glad that you were able to take what you describe as a very "out there" story and relate it back to real human situations and emotions. Well done.
ReplyDelete