Body Knowledge, Reproductive Anxiety, and "Paying the Rent" in Octavia E. Butler's "Bloodchild"

Abstract

In this article, we read Octavia E. Butler's "Bloodchild" as a "paying the rent" story in which reproduction functions as the source of payment made by the Terrans to the Tlic. We use Jenkins's distinctions between "hierarchical body knowledge" and "intelligent body knowledge," which derive from Butler's conception of "body knowledge," to argue that the Tlic's reproduction anxiety results from a legacy of "hierarchical body knowledge" that persists in their approaches to and valuation of their Terran trade partners. The problem with hierarchical body knowledge, as Butler suggests in "Bloodchild," is that it fosters social stratification at the expense of survival and could lead both groups to one-up themselves to death. To avoid such a fate, the story suggests that both groups need to develop a symbiotic love for each other, a love rooted in one of the foundational tenets of intelligent body knowledge—that a body's survival value is more important than its social value.