Bloodchild. This story was really quite... twisted. I don't mean to say this is necessarily a bad thing, as creating a deviant story can be captivating.
In typical science fiction fashion I was put in the middle of a reality that I did not understand and yet was expected to know. Immediately I was trying to put the pieces together but could not quite paint a mental picture of what was happening and who T'Gatoi was and what she/he/it looked like. I was unsure of where this story was headed. The line, "I lay against T'Gatoi's long, velvet underside, sipping from my egg now and then" made me weary and I thought, "Where is this going?". I am unsure if i continued reading because of my fancy for science fiction or because of my sheer curiosity of what kind of story will unfold. Eventually I finally put two and two together and realized the narrative behind this short story and it leaves a lot to the imagination. I am interested in learning more of this world and how the humans came across this planet and why they are part of a reserve. What happened with Earth? Where is the rest of the human race? Octavia stated herself that she is not a fan of writing short stories and that she is more of a novelist. As a result, the concepts that work as the architecture/framework for her short story Bloodchild could definitely be seen as content for a much longer or larger narrative. I have not read anything else she has written yet I assume the majority of her work has social criticism.
The major theme in this story would be pregnancy of course. In reading Bloodchild I concluded that she was attempting to visually represent the ordeal of child birth and the pains involved. Octavia has been quoted as calling herself a feminist and this shows. I find this particularly applicable because of the fact she removes men from their stereotypical place of power and brings them down a notch. On this alien world, everyone is dominated by its powerful inhabitants but most importantly, human males are the focus. They have become the "woman" in the sense they are weaker than the alien and they provide the womb for the alien race. Social archetypes and typical understanding of sexual roles in society have a completely different place in this story which makes the reader even more so displaced from the reality of it. Octavia grew up in a dominantly female household in a racially diverse and financially struggling neighborhood, so I cannot help but wonder if a great deal of her world was reflected in this story.
An interesting concept here is that for every birth, the male has to be literally ripped open. In our culture, a c-section is typically done only in the event there is complications. Is Octavia taking out some aggression on men through this? Perhaps she is just trying to paint a picture of how she feels about birth for the men who read her science fiction. She defends the position of using males by saying the alien race feels empathy for humans and want the women to continue procreation of the human race. Regardless of whether or not they feel sorry for humans, the obvious and most important reason for this is the fact they need humans to procreate themselves at a healthier rate.
Another major theme in Octavia's short story is growing up. According to sources (Wikipedia) she wrote the story simply to tell about male pregnancy and coming-of-age (and to conquer her fear of the botfly). What we see unfold in the story is something that Gan had never seen before and was terrified by. His exposure of this birth could be compared to the familiar situation of describing child birth to a girl. The idea of reaching adolescence and adulthood is stressful enough, but to explain to a boy that he will be responsible for giving birth is wild. To be eaten from the inside-out by a symbiotic being is not something I personally fancy, I can tell you that.
Stories of role reversal and breaking down the male's social place have always been interesting, whether it be a more straightforward and serious point of view like that in Bloodchild to a comedic take on it like the movie Junior.
I would like to write more on this once I gather my thoughts again...
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