Stories That Matter cover art

Stories That Matter

Stories That Matter

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

 Today’s Story that Matters is “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler. This short story originally appeared in Asimov’s Sci Fi Mag in 1984 but its main message is probably even more relevant today than it was then.In the version I read, Butler provided an afterward, telling us two things she was going for. The first is that this is her “pregnant man story.” I’m not going to say anything about that except to say that yes, it’s horrifying, especially for us dudes out there, and it’s also interesting from a gender perspective. But her second point is the “crucial survival information” I’m after in this series. The story is about “paying the rent.” She means this more biologically than economically, in the sense that every living thing has to earn its right to survive, something folks in extremely wealthy societies have a tendency to forget.The story is about a society of humans who somehow end up on another planet, where they are not the dominant species. The Tlic, giant centipede like creatures, intelligent and technologically advanced, rule the place, but somehow humans have survived. The story starts on a domestic scene, familiar until the 10 foot tall talking bug shows up. One question comes up quickly: why do these powerful creatures tolerate, even put energy into taking care of these late coming humans? The answer is, as in all nature, the humans are useful to the Tlic, and over the generations, the two species have settled into an uneasy symbiosis, where the humans provide a service in exchange for relatively comfortable lives. No problem, right? Until you learn what the service is, and I’ll let you discover that yourselves.We learn that the relationship was not always so polite, and that generations before, humans were simply herded up like livestock and forced to do as the Tlic pleased. The humans were weak, but that’s not the same as powerless. It turns out that an intelligent animal can find all kinds of ways to gum up the system, and so it made sense for both parties to come to a consensus rather than one using brute force on the other. I’ll close this summary by saying that the compromise feels uncomfortably like marriage, especially marriage before the various waves of modern feminism. You’ve got a physically larger and materially and instructionally powerful individual taking on a smaller, weaker partner. He gets a companion, a sexual outlet, and offspring; she gets protection, a house, and if she’s “married well,” status and luxury. Hopefully she also likes the guy. In any event, this is totally transactional, sweetened up by a veneer of romance.So why is this idea of paying the rent so important today? For most of human history, nobody had be reminded that they had to work for a living. Starvation, exposure to the element, and violent death were always at the doorstep. But in the wealthiest human society in history, we tend to take everything we’ve got for granted. Our ancestors paid the rent for us, so we forget that this is a recurring payment. Instead of being grateful for the house we live in, we complain bitterly about our two-car garage when the neighbor has a three-car garage. Everything feels unfair. Aren’t we owed more? Why isn’t the government, or some other higher power, solving our problems for us? We assume that we’ll always have the basics of food, shelter, and clothing, so we aim for status. We assume we’ll always live in a democracy—at least we used to assume that. Not long ago, we assumed no American president would ever refuse to concede his electoral loss, that no sitting president would ever encourage a violent mob to attack the seat of power in order to disrupt the certifying of votes. What happened in Germany, the USSR, Italy…that could never happen here. The worst thing in the world is that my life doesn’t compare favorably to the lives I see on Instagram. Where’s my yacht, my jet, my second, third, and fourth homes? At the very least, where’s my brand-new deluxe edition Ford F-250 with dual back wheels?Only wealthy humans have fooled themselves into believing they are exempt from the rules that govern the rest of nature. When we fool ourselves into believing we are owed something, that everything we have is a kind of inevitable birthright, that we were put on this planet to have our desires granted, we’re in for a lifetime of disappointment. Some call this assumption entitlement, and it’s a recipe for unhappiness at the least. It’s also a good way to lose everything you’ve taken for granted, including our lives.In this story that takes place on a fictional planet far away, Butler is reminding us of that most earthly fact: nobody owes us anything, and the price of life is struggle. The humblest flowering weed puts a ton of energy into the bright colors of its flower and into its nectar, because baby, nobody’s going to spread your pollen unless they get some sweet nectar in return. Nature is brutally ...
No reviews yet