N.a. Octavia Butler at home. A lifelong bibliophile, she considered libraries sacred spaces. The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. Grigsby Bates, Karen. “Octavia Butler: Writing Herself Into The Story.” National Public Radio, 10 July 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/07/10/535879364/octavia-butler-writing-herself-into-the-story.
While Butler may not see her work in “Bloodchild” as being being related to slavery, but as a way to redefine gender roles, critics of her work say otherwise. Butler references in the Afterword of “Bloodchild” that the short story is just her “pregnant man story,” (Butler 30). In multiple interviews with the author, Butler references the use of gender roles and slavery within the story.
Interview #1
KENAN: But also, for instance, in "Bloodchild." [Note: In this story human beings on another planet have entered in a pact with an indigenous species who implant eggs in the humans for incubation. When the eggs hatch, the humans are cut open. Not everyone survives.] I mean, the idea that sacrifice has to be ...
BUTLER: Not sacrifice. No, no ...
KENAN: You wouldn't call it sacrifice? Cutting people open?
BUTLER: No, no. . . "Bloodchild" is very interesting in that men tend to see a horrible case of slavery, and women tend to see that, oh well, they had caesarians, big deal. [Laughter]
(Kenan 498).
Interview #2
Stephen W. Potts: The first work of yours I read was the story "Bloodchild" in its original printing in Asimov's. I remember being particularly impressed that you had taken the invading bug-eyed monster of classic science fiction and turned it into a seductively nurturing, maternal figure.
Octavia E. Butler: It is basically a love story. There are many different kinds of love in it: family love, physical love . . . The alien needs the boy for procreation, and she makes it easier on him by showing him affection and earning his in return. After all, she is going to have her children with him.
SWP: In fact, she will impregnate him.
OEB: Right. But so many critics have read this as a story about slavery, probably just because I am black.
SWP: I was going to ask you later about the extent to which your work addresses slavery.
OEB: The only places I am writing about slavery is where I actually say so.
SWP: As in Kindred.
OEB: And in Mind of My Mind and Wild Seed. What I was trying to do in"Bloodchild" was something different with the invasion story. So
often you read novels about humans colonizing other planets and you
see the story taking one of two courses. Either the aliens resist and we have to conquer them violently, or they submit and become good servants. In the latter case, I am thinking of a specific novel, but I don't want to mention it by name. I don't like either of those alternatives, and I wanted to create a new one. I mean, science fiction is supposed to be about exploring new ideas & possibilities. In the case of "Bloodchild," I was creating an alien that was different from us, though still recognizable—a centipede-like creature. But you're not supposed to regard it as evil
(Potts "We Keep Playing").
Interview #3
Here below is a video interview with Octavia Butler where she discusses the use of race and gender within her writing. It is not specifically “Bloodchild,” but in her work of science fiction narratives as a whole.
Bloodchild 