Bridesicle

Will McIntosh’s Bridesicle is a science fiction story that is quite an enjoyable read; remarkably, it lacks the intense or depressing atmosphere that often pervades many works of the genre. However, for all its clever wit and humorous scenes, the story still addresses several important issues of today’s world, including the ways in which quality of life is affected by increased longevity of life, and how women are affected by abusive relationships.

When the reader first meets the main character of Bridesicle, Mira, she is just awakening from being cyronically frozen for sixty years. Mira is completely helpless—she cannot move her arms or legs, and can be sent back to sleep for decades with the flip of a switch. She is in a facility full of thousands of other frozen women who are desperately trying to win back their lives by enticing men as potential wives. One wrong word and the women could send the men off to the next candidate; thus, the women are forced to make promises to fulfill the men’s every wish so that the men will finance their restoration.

 For example, the first man to revive Mira is upset when she will not tell him all the intimate, sexual services that she would provide him were she revived, and he tells her: “Well…this costs quite a bit, and they charge by the minute. So I’ll say goodbye, and you can go back to being dead” (McIntosh 3). This man is willing to “kill” Mira even upon her first awakening because she will not comply with his wishes. Mira has no voice in this position; she can do nothing to prevent the man from flipping the switch. This situation is very similar to the relationships between abused women and their husbands or boyfriends. These women are forced to comply with their partner's wishes for fear of physical and mental harm, or even for fear of losing basic necessities such as food and shelter. Mira’s lack of limbs in this case represents some abused women’s helpless feelings and their inability to protest for fear of the consequences. The author thus enlightens the reader with empathy and understanding for those severely maltreated and physically harmed women who do not leave their abusive partners—these women feel so debilitated that it is virtually impossible for them to do so.

On a more literal note, as the average person's lifespan continues to increase drastically with each passing decade, McIntosh examines the quality of life for human beings who have extended their years on earth with the aid of technology. In the world of Bridesicle, people can survive even death through cryonic freezing. Humans can also live past their time through a process called hitching, in which a person about to die essentially hitches to the mind of another person--the two share this single brain until the host dies. The author questions these developments on many occasions. When a person is cryonically frozen, that person can lose his/her basic human rights, and is subject to the whim of those who still have their natural bodies. When an individual has a hitcher, that individual and the hitcher both lose all privacy; not even their thoughts are confidential. Mira herself had a hitcher (her mother), and found the experience so horrid that she actually killed herself to escape the hitcher. Furthermore, in the case of being cryonically frozen, Mira almost immediately questions the worth of the practice, asking “Whatever the reason, did she want to risk being taken out of circulation, or unplugged and buried? Would that be the worst thing?” (McIntosh 3). Mira’s situation is much like that of people who are paraplegics, in a coma, or other persons who face immense disabilities. The author seems to imply that, although the longevity of a person’s life is greatly extended, if the quality of life is greatly decreased, the technology or medicine should not always be used to keep these people alive. He perhaps even suggests that in today's world, far too many people live past their time because of scientific developments. 

To conclude my final blog post, although science fiction may seem all action, humor, drama or gloom, it almost always has a deeper message for the reader to take away from it. Whether it focuses on wars, human rights, sexuality, social hierarchies, or the progression of technology, each work encourages the reader to consider the relevant issues of the time. And, if the reader recognizes the author’s message for what it is, he/she will, with hope, leave the story questioning standards, enlightened on certain issues, or more aware of the fears shared by the individuals whom inhabit this small, lonely planet called Earth. 

Story of Your Life

One word that is repeated quite often within Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang is the word “you” (or “your”). The main character, Louise Banks, addresses her deceased daughter with this pronoun intermittently throughout the story while recounting her tale of working as a translator for the government and communicating with alien life-forms called “heptapods” that have landed on earth. Banks even begins the story using the word "you" while speaking to her deceased daughter, immediately indicating to the reader that her daughter’s life and death are important features of the story, although it is not immediately clear to the reader in what ways.

The moments when the main character addresses her daughter complicate the time frame of the story and thereby pique the reader’s interest. For example, in the opening paragraph Louise states “Your father is about to ask me the question…We came out onto the patio…then I told your dad I wanted to dance…now we’re slow dancing…Right now your dad and I have been married for two years…when we move you’ll still be too young to remember…” (117). The verbs in this sentence switch from present to future tense, making it seem as if Louise is watching a film or looking back on her life in some other form and is explaining to her unborn daughter the past events replaying in her mind. The reader can also clearly see because of these sections in the story that the author has more information to reveal concerning Louise’s daughter, and is thereby encouraged to continue reading.

The segments when Louise uses the pronouns “you” or “your” to address her daughter often parallel the fantastical incidents regarding the heptapods that Louise divulges to the reader. For example, while speaking to her daughter, Louise communicates an event that will occur when her daughter is sixteen. “Don’t worry Mom…We’ll do it so that he won’t know. Roxie, you ask me about what the weather will be like tonight. Then I’ll say what I think of Mom’s date” (130). Her daughter spoke of Louise’s date using phrases that implied something different from what she was saying, as if Louise's daughter was speaking an entirely different language with her mother and friend. On a similar note, Louise then informs the reader of her encounters with the heptapods and of the moment when she realized that the written and spoken form of the heptapods’ language were basically two separate languages. The normality of the first anecdote makes the descriptions of the encounters with the alien life forms seem more real. Because Louise divulges experiences that the reader can relate to, her accounts of the heptapods are much more believable.  

Therefore, word “you” (or “your”) is a central motif in Story of Your Life. The moments when the main character uses this word are moments when she reveals something personal about her own life that give a deeper meaning to her interactions with the heptapods. Furthermore, the sections when this word is used also work to keep the reader interested in the plot as Louise reveals certain pieces of information about her life that clue in on a larger story not fully been revealed. 

Bloodchild

Upon my initial reading of Bloodchild by Octavia Butler I had several ideas of what the author was attempting to address with her story. I believed, and still do believe, that the plot explores the ethics and complexities of abusive relationships, and that as the story progresses the reader discovers the extreme lengths that human beings will go to in order to survive. However, after discussion in class, I also found that the plot examines several other issues as well.

Butler presents the odd relationship between Terrans and Tlics as if it were between a victim and an abuser, or a master and a slave. The Terrans at times feel loving towards the Tlics, and at other times they are resentful towards them and fear them. In many ways, their relationship resembles such situations when the victim suffers from Stockholm syndrome and becomes strongly attached to the abuser out of fear. In these instances, the abuser constantly manipulates the emotions of the victim in order to strengthen the victim’s dependency on the abuser. The Tlic T’Gatoi is shown to behave in a similar way with Gan, playing with his emotions so that he will not take his or her life and will remain in the relationship.

“’For my children’s lives?’ She would say something like that. She knew how to manipulate people…”(24).

Terrans continue to stay with the Tilcs, even though most of the Terrans know that they will have to endure horrible, unnatural experiences if they become hosts for the Tlic. The story touches on the greed and selfishness that human beings can display in order to preserve or better their own lives.  Many humans comply with being host animals in order to receive eggs that will greatly extend the length of their lives, and some even consider sacrificing family members in order to avoid being chosen to host the Tlic’s spawn.

“‘Shall I go to Xuan Hoa?’ ‘Yes!’ Hoa wanted it. Let her have it” (25).

After discussion in class, I learned that the story does not simply focus on the relationship between human beings and the Tlic. In fact, the story also considers the relationship between men, women and birth. Butler creates a world in which men “give birth” to Tlic. This birth is painful and bloody, much in the way that women endure horribly painful, and at times bloody, births. There is a very real chance that the hosts in Bloodchild will die birthing the larva of the Tilc, referencing the thousands of women that have died during childbirth in real life. In the story, it is often not even the choice of the men to host these creatures, yet they are forced to anyway, much like women in all societies have been forced by men for years to carry children without any choice in the mater. In fact, the process of implanting the larva in the men is a very sexual process, and could almost be equated to rape.

“The small amount of fluid that came into me with her egg relaxed me as completely as a sterile egg would have, so that I could remember the rifle in my hands and my feelings of fear and revulsion, anger and despair” (29).

The story Bloodchild appears to address many issues with its plot; however, I believe that ultimately it focuses on those sorts of relationships between beings that result in the suppression of rights, abuse, or some other form of degradation. Not only are the Tlics manipulative, but they also force some human beings to give birth to their larva, in a manner that rapes the host of his (or her) rights. Therefore, with Bloodchild, Octavia Butler draws attention to the ways that abuse and injustice can manifest in relationships, whether it be through bribing and manipulation or sheer physical advantage. The author displays that science fiction does not address only the questions concerning race and sexuality that might have emerged during the civil rights movements or the cultural revolution as we have read in many other stories in the class, but it can also even address the problems that have occurred and will continue to occur in domestic relationships and between people who have been held under the power of another person against their will.