Bloodchild Assessment

1.     What is your reaction to the text you just read?

Revulsion. It’s like the author has taken all of the fear of birth and made it ten times worse, making it more foreign and terrifying. Human birth is terrifying and painful enough, but having an alien use you to carry their eggs as a host, and then cutting you up to get them out is something straight out of nightmares. It’s interesting how the author made this unnatural birth centered on males instead of females. It draws parallels with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in this way, having a male take charge of the creation of life and making it something horrifying.

2.     What connections did you make with the story that you read? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.

I found elements similar to Frankenstein, like I said before, in that it deals with the fears of birth and parenting. It plays on our fear of painful births, as well as giving life to something unnatural. It also reminds me of the controversy over abortion, and how some people believe a woman does not have the right to determine what happens to her own body. The protagonist has similar issues, as he has very little choice in the matter of this alien inserting her eggs into him. His only way out is either suicide or forcing his sister to take the burden instead.

3.     What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

If I were to adapt this story into another medium, I would make it into either a one-shot comic, or a short film, like an episode of black mirror. For the short film, I would make the story take place over a full day, rather than just one night. Have the characters indulging in the egg earlier in the day, and then having the birth take place early in the evening going into the night. Then have the alien lay eggs right before dawn, with the protagonist passing out just as the new day begins. I might also have a few of the flashbacks and information from the protagonist’s past occur right after he eats the egg, as part of dream-like sequence. For a comic I would keep the story mostly the same, again with the flashbacks moved to right after the egg. I would try to make the scene where he eats the egg more blurry and dreamlike, like how drug sequences are portrayed in other movies. I might exaggerate and extend the scene where he has to kill the animal a bit as well.