Novel Responses

         Whats interesting is this initial concept of having left earth to escape enslavement from their own species. A clear symbolism for slavery, Blood Child discusses forced, expected, and socially normal families and marriages of humans to aliens. The discussion is if you are a slave but your master is a loving benevolent one, is it any better? Through the piece the family is easy and comfortable around t'choi but it is clear through their constant re-stating that it is only because they were raised with her there and were told that this is the norm. It is a system of being born into something and never knowing or experiencing the other side. They are still in a preserve and treated and traded like rare animals. They may  be loved but their purpose- the only reason they are protected in their little cage, is to breed for the aliens. They have little to no free will and if one of the aliens wished them to do something they would have no choice but to do...

Octavia Butler's 'Kindred' and Science Fiction    In a sense you can say science fiction struggles with representation (specifically accurate representation) but I feel that we see diversity having more to do with the writers than the genre as a whole. Which isn't to say science fiction as a whole does or has not changed over time, but its not so simple as the same old writers simple changing their minds. Its a common thought that writing feels more real when it comes from first hand personal experiences or emotions.  In the case of Kindred, this was not a white person making the conscious choice to research and write about a woman of color. This was a woman of color writing about a clearly, very emotional journey of her own. The discussion of race covers drawn out socially acceptable abuse toward a specific group and how it cultivates a culture of silent victims. The main character sees herself become subdued and compliant as she is forced to spend more time on a th...