Bloodchild is a Postcolonial Love Story (Fight Me in the Comments!)

Recently, I read the work of the Afro-Caribbean anti-colonial philosopher Frantz Fanon in my political theory class, and I was fascinated by how his analysis of colonialism could be applied to "Bloodchild" by Octavia Butler. For Fanon, colonialism is an order that is typified by violence. It is created by violence, first of all, when the colonizer destroys the institutions and self-government of the native to make them submit to colonial power. Overtime, this violence begins to seem normal to the colonizer, it becomes baked into their identity and way of life. They work, go to school, and play in territories seized from the native people, who are constantly being monitored and excluded from such territories by a police state. Their subsistence is often dependent on crops and products created by the natives in exploitative conditions. The violence of colonialism becomes normal to the colonizer, and it creates and reproduces their distinct identity. Because the identity and lifestyle of the colonizer is dependent on this ingrained violence, they can only be unseated through violence on the part of the native. Attempts by the native to appeal through logic of "rights" or other idealistic concepts will fail because seeing them as exploitable is baked into the colonial worldview. 

The pleasant Place de la Republique in Algiers, French Algeria (1899). Algerian Muslims were mostly cordoned off to work the lands of French Algerians and only allowed in the city as servants.

The dynamic in "Bloodchild" between the Tlic, an arthropod-like alien species, and humanity seems to exemplify such a colonial relationship. After humans arrived on the world of the Tlic, they attempted to exterminate them. However, humans were in turn conquered by the Tlic, who use their bodies as hosts for their larva. The process is a violent and exploitative one; the T'lic do not expose humans to the process of extracting their larvae from a host, which involves cutting them open. They also fail to discuss the risks thereof. Although the Tlic are supposed to remove the larvae from the human hosts, things can go wrong and they can completely consume and kill their host.  Qui, the human narrator's brother, describes, how he "saw the grubs eat their way out, then burrow in again, still eating" (Butler 12). Like in Fanon's vision of colonialism, the humans have seen their institutions and autonomy destroyed. The narrator, Gan, is lucky enough to live on a preserve where some humans can live freely as families in exchange for giving up one of their offspring to be a host. He describes how "Firearms were illegal in the Preserve. There had been incidents right after the Preserve was established—Terrans shooting Tlic, shooting N’Tlic [hosts]. This was before the joining of families began, before everyone had a personal stake in keeping the peace. No one had shot a Tlic in my lifetime or my mother’s, but the law still stood—for our protection, we were told" (Butler 7).  The Tlic have also normalized their violence towards humans. Gan is going to be taken as a host for the offspring of T'Gatoi, the warden of the human preserve. T'Gatoi takes care to imprint on Gan from his  birth. He notes, "I’m told I was first caged within T’Gatoi’s many limbs only three minutes after my birth. A few days later, I was given my first taste of egg [Tlic eggs have a narcotic effect when consumed by humans and can easily become addictive]" (Butler 4). T'Gatoi behaves in a friendly manner toward Gan and routinely visits their family, being a long-time friend of their mother. However, it is also revealed that she "parceled [humans] out to the desperate and sold [them] to the rich and powerful for political support" (Butler 2). Gan admits, "I had seen the desperate eagerness in the way some people looked at me" (Butler 2). The Tlic and the systems they have developed clearly enable them to view humans as a means to their own ends. Like Fanon describes, Tlic society literally depends on and reproduces itself through a system of violence towards humans.

In Fanon's view, such a social arrangement could only be rectified through the use of violence on the part of the humans. However, Butler defines "Bloodchild" as a "love story between two very different beings" in her own writing. Despite what my classmates might think, I do believe this is a position that can be defended. Although her conduct takes place in a system of violence. T'Gatoi does appear to genuinely care for the narrator. The narrator's mother tells him that he should treat T'Gatoi with honor because of her powerful position as the warden of the reserve. However, Gan knows that she is lying, and that T'Gatoi really visits as a friend of the family. She exhibits vulnerability by having Gan lay next to her and warm her up. T'Gatoi does force her will on the humans by giving them eggs and stinging them to relax them, but she does this out of apparent concern for them. The Tlic eggs have beneficial properties, and she encourages Gan's mother to take one for her health, saying, "You need it badly now" (Butler 3). Gan's mother seems bother by T'Gatoi's forcefulness and the fact that she will take her son, but they still have an intimate relationship that goes beyond power structures. Gan's mother is able to joke, “I should have stepped on you when you were small enough" (Butler 4). T'Gatoi only supplies humans outside of the Preserve because of political pressure on her, but she has also overseen "the joining of families, putting an end to the final remnants of the earlier system of breaking up Terran families to suit impatient Tlic (Butler 4). T'Gatoi takes a special interest in Gan and even goes as far as to reveal some information about the process of being a host to him. He notes, "T’Gatoi had shown me diagrams and drawings. She had made sure I knew the truth as soon as I was old enough to understand it" (Butler 7). Even Qui, who dislikes the Tlic, notes, "T'Gatoi likes you. She'll be careful" (Butler 13). I'll admit that T'Gatoi's relationship with Gan and his family is structured by power relations, but a general sense of care does shine through.

However, violence is what seemingly transforms Gan and T'Gatoi's relationship into one truly based on mutual care. Gan, upon seeing larvae being extracted from a host, has second thoughts and threatens T'Gatoi with an illegal firearm. T'Gatoi does seem to give in to the coercive system and threatens to use his sister, Hoa, as a host. Ultimately, though, Gan decides that the relationship between humans and the Tlic can be something celebrated instead of hidden away and decides to create a relationship with her based on mutual care. A key part of this process for him is threatening her with a gun. Gan notes, "It was clearly hard for her to let go of the rifle. A shudder went through her and she made a hissing sound of distress. It occurred to me that she was afraid" (Butler 17). Ultimately, T'Gatoi allows Gan to keep the rifle. She tells him that he won't be an "N'Tlic [host]" to her. Rather, she'll "take care" of him (Butler 19). Gan's use of violence makes his agency clear to T'Gatoi. She decides that she values this agency by allowing him to keep his means of violence. He is no longer a host to her, but something else. Although Fanon might not necessarily agree with such a dynamic, pressing for more radical change, it clearly does incorporate his idea of the potency of violence in transforming colonial relations.

Overall, "Bloodchild" shows us that love can be a revolutionary tool in dismantling colonial cultures based on violence. Can we mesh this with Fanon's theories even further? Well, Fanon was also an existentialist, believing that the roles imposed by colonialism on both the colonizer and native prevented them from expressing themselves as unique, authentic beings. Love is of course a process that is fundamentally built on appreciating another being's idiosyncrasies and individuality. Both Gan and T'Gatoi dismantle their roles as dominator and host and in doing so, recognize and appreciate each other for what they are. I really do believe that Fanon's philosophy can help us view "Bloodchild" as a love story that is in dialogue with how contradictory love can seem in a colonial environment. Tell me what you think down below!

Sources:

I used this copy of "Bloodchild" for ease of citation: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/574dd51d62cd942085f12091/t/5ae0e84e562fa74f9c6773a5/1524688975128/octavia-butler-bloodchild.pdf

Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Place_de_la_republique%2C_Algiers%2C_Algeria-LCCN2001697812.jpg

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon