WEEK 12: BLOODCHILD RESPONSE

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
It was quite hard to follow the story, it took a long time and I had to read quite far in to figure out what was going on. My initial reaction is confusion because I didn't know who was human and who was not. T'gatoi seemed to be some spider but maybe she's a centipede. After reading more, I realised that the humans are trapped in this society where some pact has been formed. I thought the beginning was confusing but the ending was terrifying. At first I thought the worms in the human was bad but then when I realise that they were actually offspring of T'gatoi's kind, it shocked me and made me feel very uncomfortable. The thought of a birth this way, the use of the human body this way. As a medium, as a vessel doesn't sit the right way with me at all. It made me feel scared and trapped because the characters had no escape from their destiny either. In the end I felt so sad, after Gan fought with his brother was when I really understood what might have been going on. And it left me speechless and sad because I realised what the story meant now when they kept saying Gan is the chosen one for T'gatoi. And then the fact that she always says he is too skinny made me even more uncomfortable.

2. What connections did you make with the story?
The way the society ran was very much almost like government run. Pacts and agreements on the surface, you help us bear our children and we spare you. But in reality they are trapped to the point where it is either suffer to live or suicide. There's nothing to look forward to at all, eat or be eaten because like Gan's brother, he was safe as long as Gan was chosen to host the offspring. Then now there really is no meaning to live anymore but they still live anyway and it feels horrible. The way they each have an overseer, a species from T'gatoi, it's almost like they are there to put them in place, they have no freedom. She very much controls the household and is the boss of the house. It might be a connection to slavery where the humans have no choice and there is a master trapping them with these deals and agreements they never asked for. It could be also in the beginning when they were 'dreaming' it almost seems like they were being drugged. At first I thought they were taking drugs to get high, and it is highly possible that it could be talking about how kidnappers or masters in slavery would drug the slaves. Make them weaker, under the drug and unable to escape or make good decisions. There is also nothing selfless about T'gatoi, she behaves like she is looking out for the family giving them eggs and stings but it is really only for her own benefit. Lying like this is similar to how someone would manipulate or their so called co-oporation. I kind of saw it as that they are treating humans like cattle almost, feeding to get strong to be cut and impregnated. The ending feels abit like child rape, because it was very silent very quiet and it is almost like she manipulated Gan to say yes on his own, his own decision to say yes and do it. And when they are performing the act of inserting the egg, it almost feels as though she wants to be loved by Gan, she wants Gan to allow her to do what she's doing to him.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
I actually liked the medium she uses alot, and when I say like, I really mean it made me feel uncomfortable. Personally centipedes and worms are in the alley of don't mix well with humans at all. And it gives me shivers that make me so uncomfortable. I would love to see this as a film but not a hollywood commercial type (not that there is anything wrong with that), hopefully a more artsy style to capture the graphic look and gore nature of her writing which is crucial to bring about the feeling of being uncomfortable. I would also not censor any horrific graphic points she writes about and let the audience feel as awaken as Gan feels when he see's the birthing for the first time.