Bloodchild was a very interesting short story that addresses the idea of not only humans functioning within an alien civilization and being reduced to almost livestock like qualities. I think what makes the story interesting is that it isn’t necessarily a violent power struggle between the humans and the aliens but rather an almost diplomatic struggle and balance of power. I thought that playing with the premise of men in this society having to deal with possibly violent painful pregnancy is quite a unique concept and I feel could really even be taken further in order to really up the discomfort factor

I felt like I definitely made a connection with this story’s overarching themes of free will and whether or not we truly have it much like in the part of the story where the main character threatens to take their own life simply because it would be their own choice. We feel a much truer sense of free will within the character when he manages to get the alien to give up the gun and let him have it even though the creature is clearly not comfortable with it; however it brings it back in to question when we deal with the fertilization part where we find the alien would have chosen anyone and the main character is more or less forced to oblige them or face the guilt of shoving that responsibility onto their sister. It certainly offers some good topics for discussion and almost wish this was longer.

If I could adapt this story I would probably like to make it into a short film with greater emphasis on the power struggle of free will and probably cut out any parts that are gruesome and instead focus on the characters reactions and feelings towards the situations rather than being so overt. The main trouble would be dealing with the alien so to be perfectly honest I would have just left it out and rather had all of this discussion occur between the main characters not only providing the viewer with a more intimate feeling with the characters but also to let them imagine something worse than what may be described in the book. This would also not work with digital either as I would want to shoot this on either 8mm or Academy 35mm film.