Assessment
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
Bloodchild written by Octavia Butler, Gan is only a child so he understands and goes with what he's suppose to do in his alien planet. As a reader, we don't know the morals exactly. Is there a human instinct to be sympathetic to other human like Gan was? Or is this him learning that it takes effort and hardships and death to survive on this alien planet. I was able to put myself in a perspective as a Terran and have an open mind but it still was a hard read for me personally, less about the graphics and more about understanding. It's understandable that the reaction Gan gave was so severe, but I guess it would be like a girl learning about puberty for the first time or learning about how human births work. It's not so beautiful as people make it to be
2. What connections did you make with this story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you are able to connect?
Gan is visibly grossed out by what he saw and doesn't want to partake in it anymore (understandably), but I think this does take a reference to real life as a kid. You don't want to go to school, or have kids, or hit puberty, you want to stay oblivious forever and just do what you have to do to survive. But to do this, you have to understand what's going on 100%. The story does take a completely literal alien concept but I think as people, we connect it to experiences we have just naturally. I feel like this reminds me of when we had to watch a human birth in health class, which made me never want to touch another human being ever again. But like me, Gan get's over it and does what he can do to support the family.
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium. What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
While I was reading this story, I was sort of thankful this was in a novel format and not a film format. But, I feel like it's easy to look over the alien aspects of this story through novelization. Although, description of disturbing imagery can be very effective in novel forms since our brain tends to make up the worst things imaginable. I think the medium to support this story the most would be a novel, but a second best would be a video game or a virtual experience. It would give the player a choice as well as showing through graphics what they are doing. It can also not give the player a choice and force them to look at what they're doing in order to save their family. Virtual reality would be effective as well to really immerse someone in this alien experience and environment.
What does the world look like in 15-20 years?
I would like to hope the earth isn't permanently damaged from global climate change, but if it is I would probably live somewhere that's not close by the water. The earth would be at it's all time low and our human selves are starting to see the damage it does to us. We have dry, flakey skin. We are starting to have vision loss from the darkness and dust around us. Jobs are also very scarce since there are way too many humans on the earth. The limit for children has come to the US and you're only allowed to have 2 since it would only be replacing the two parents. That law has yet to pass though.
In 50 years, there's mostly desert. It's only ever snowing everywhere except the areas near the equator, and there its only raining or hailing. People have come to terms with having to build their own houses or igloos to survive. People start having children just to have food for the winter since every ounce of food is given to people higher up. People are greedy, cold, and not use to being weak. Our children look down on us and only care about their generation surviving, if there's even a possibility for that.
Bloodchild written by Octavia Butler, Gan is only a child so he understands and goes with what he's suppose to do in his alien planet. As a reader, we don't know the morals exactly. Is there a human instinct to be sympathetic to other human like Gan was? Or is this him learning that it takes effort and hardships and death to survive on this alien planet. I was able to put myself in a perspective as a Terran and have an open mind but it still was a hard read for me personally, less about the graphics and more about understanding. It's understandable that the reaction Gan gave was so severe, but I guess it would be like a girl learning about puberty for the first time or learning about how human births work. It's not so beautiful as people make it to be
2. What connections did you make with this story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you are able to connect?
Gan is visibly grossed out by what he saw and doesn't want to partake in it anymore (understandably), but I think this does take a reference to real life as a kid. You don't want to go to school, or have kids, or hit puberty, you want to stay oblivious forever and just do what you have to do to survive. But to do this, you have to understand what's going on 100%. The story does take a completely literal alien concept but I think as people, we connect it to experiences we have just naturally. I feel like this reminds me of when we had to watch a human birth in health class, which made me never want to touch another human being ever again. But like me, Gan get's over it and does what he can do to support the family.
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium. What medium would you use? What changes would you make?
While I was reading this story, I was sort of thankful this was in a novel format and not a film format. But, I feel like it's easy to look over the alien aspects of this story through novelization. Although, description of disturbing imagery can be very effective in novel forms since our brain tends to make up the worst things imaginable. I think the medium to support this story the most would be a novel, but a second best would be a video game or a virtual experience. It would give the player a choice as well as showing through graphics what they are doing. It can also not give the player a choice and force them to look at what they're doing in order to save their family. Virtual reality would be effective as well to really immerse someone in this alien experience and environment.
What does the world look like in 15-20 years?
I would like to hope the earth isn't permanently damaged from global climate change, but if it is I would probably live somewhere that's not close by the water. The earth would be at it's all time low and our human selves are starting to see the damage it does to us. We have dry, flakey skin. We are starting to have vision loss from the darkness and dust around us. Jobs are also very scarce since there are way too many humans on the earth. The limit for children has come to the US and you're only allowed to have 2 since it would only be replacing the two parents. That law has yet to pass though.
In 50 years, there's mostly desert. It's only ever snowing everywhere except the areas near the equator, and there its only raining or hailing. People have come to terms with having to build their own houses or igloos to survive. People start having children just to have food for the winter since every ounce of food is given to people higher up. People are greedy, cold, and not use to being weak. Our children look down on us and only care about their generation surviving, if there's even a possibility for that.
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