What I read in this class:
The Screwfly Solution
Bloodchild
Story of Your Life
What I wrote for these reading:
In my opinion, “The Screwfly Solution” is a radical feminist story that disguised as science fiction. Although the actual truth behind this story is because of the alien’s conspiracy of taking over the Earth. In addition to this, I feel like what Tiptree really want to talk about in this story is the sexual liberation problem. As what Tiptree has said in this story, Alan is a sensitive and kind man, and he finally joined the other men becoming one of the oppressors even though he tried his best not to hurt his wife and daughter. In “The Screwfly Solution”, I think Tiptree had been expressing the message indirectly that men are the core source of women’s oppression, and gender is the only criterion for this viral infection.
Talking about Jacobin magazine, I can find equivalent expression where West wrote, “For radical feminists, the two main classes in society are not the working class (who sell their labor power) and capitalists (who exploit them), but men (the oppressors) and women (the oppressed). They call this patriarchy theory.” Just like “The Screwfly Solution”, the entire society bent on femicide, and the society is only constituted with men.
In, my perspective, the story that Bulter wrote is very interesting with her unique viewpoint and thought-provoking. She conveyed the opinion effectively that “Family does not have to mean purely biological relationships either”.
“Bloodchild” which is a complex story of interdependent relationships, depicting the complicated relationship between human refugees and the insect-like aliens in an alien planet. I can see Butler’s conception of family is creative and reasonable. She skillfully plumbs the inherent emotions and the conflicts within the human psyche among human family. Aliens keep human refugees in a preserve to protect them, but also using them as hosts for breeding their young. Their relationship is based on benefits; however, when the egg was implanted to Hoa, T’Gatoi said “This is my life, my family”, letting me remind of the interview of Bulter where she said “I can’t help dwelling on the importance of family and reproduction.”
In the interview, Butler said she want to break away from traditional conventions, and she thought science fictions are supposed to explore the new idea and possibilities. In my point of view, she absolutely did it. Rather than most of the science stories often say that human or alien must be the aggressor in their character, Tlic and Terran’s family showed me a new definition of family, just like she said, “It is so much of what we are”. This new family relationship also verifies Bulter’s viewpoint that “Family does not have to mean purely biological relationships either. People who simply came into the household and stayed. Family bonds can even survive really terrible abuse.”
In the video interview, Butler said, “a lot of people think science fiction is star wars, and you have to be 14 to enjoy it, and if you’re any older than 14 you should be reading literature.”Butler does not like the definition of her story, and she wants to expand a wide-ranging audience. In my opinion, avoiding stereotyping is just a generality for her, the deep reason is that she doesn’t want to be classified as a science fiction author. Butler wants the audiences to be genuinely interested in her words and the story she provides, rather than refusing to read because of the “science fiction” label.
This is how Butler intends to appeal to a wider range of readership, she planted family relationship, feminism, different race in her story; for example, “Bloodchild”. Although this story is based on a Star Wars-type science fiction, we also can see much different emotional depth in it, as the relationship between human and alien, cannot be restricted to aggression and being invaded. She also puts her original family values in this story. Aliens keep human refugees in a preserve to protect them, but also using them as hosts for breeding their young. Their relationship is based on benefits; however, when the egg was implanted to Hoa, T’Gatoi said, “This is my life, my family”. We can see the relationship between aliens and human refugees is changing, this unique family composition also can attract a wider range audience, not just 14-year-old readers.
Butler’s science world is a world of possibilities, be not limited to race, gender, and aggression. These elements are embedded in the narrative, not forced upon them.
In the book “Science, Myth, and the Fictional Creation of Alien Worlds”, we can see that Wedland defined sci-fi which is divided into two different styles: experimental and conventional. He said that “experimental SF is a medium for presenting an opinion on something outside of itself in the present world”, and “Conventional SF moves in a circle and shows mainly itself”. According to Wendland’s defined, I think “Story of Your Life”, “Bloodchild” and “The Screwfly Solution” all belong to experiment.
The different between “Story of Your Life” and “Bloodchild” is the relationship. In the previous story, the heptapods did not hurt any people. Not only that, but they left after an information exchange with the human. Their relationship was based on information exchange. But in “Bloodchild”, although alien and human finally built a family relationship, their relationship started to become unusual. “Story of Your Life” wanted to say the problem different with “The Screwfly Solution”. ” The Screwfly Solution” is the talk around feminism, and “Story of Your Life”’s major themes are language and determinism, which is a discussion with free will.
Chiang also used a different narrative method with Butler and Tiptree. Chiang wrote two timelines and involved flashbacks used a first-person and 2nd person to talk. Butler used more narrative sentences to say the story, she liked to write about the characters’ thinking in the story.