Writing 45 , IP PROJECT

The podcast discusses science fiction and colonization, highlighting Octavia Butler's work. The hosts talk about how colonization is often overlooked in the genre and mention films like Jurassic Park and Signs as examples. They reveal that they will be traveling to Butler's created planets, Bloodchild and Amnesty, to explore colonization in science fiction. In Bloodchild, humans have colonized a land run by alien-like beings called Tiliks. Initially, there was tension and violence between the two species, but over time, they learned to live together mutually. They interview a Tiran, Leanne, who shares her experience as a colonized human. They also interview Tegatsoy, a Tilik who holds political power and oversees the Tiran preserve. Tegatsoy explains that they use the Tirans to carry their young and that without them, their species would be nothing. They discuss the gruesome process of extracting Tilik young from a pregnant Tiran. The episode concludes with a mention of traveling to an From UC Irvine, it's The Ant in Your Life. Hello everyone, I'm Yellen. On today's episode, Christian and I will be talking about science fiction with a special guest, Josh Leite, a scholar studying science fiction and colonization through Octavius Butler's work in the genre. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. We're just as excited to have you. Let's get started. Science fiction has continued to grow throughout the years. We've gone from films like The Twilight Zone to films like Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once actually won two Golden Globe Awards. Yeah, it was a great film. Well deserved. We tie science fiction to aliens and technology, but one major convention that people tend to overlook is colonization. That's a great point. I have noticed that the majority of the work we see in this genre has some sort of tie to colonization, even when we don't even see it right away. For example, Jurassic Park. Yes, those films are about dinosaurs, but also about colonization. Even in the movie Signs, the aliens take over and they colonize Mel Gibson's cornfield. Exactly my point. In a way, we are just relearning our history, but with aliens involved. I actually have a surprise for us today. Surprise? Didn't know we were celebrating my birthday early. Well, it looks like we are. Happy birthday. So what's the surprise? Since we are talking about sci-fi today, I have decided that we will be traveling into the science fiction realm. Like into the stories? I didn't think that was possible. Where are we going? Well, you know Octavius Butler, right? Of course. We don't live under a rock. She has created endless opportunities for science fiction. She created Bloodchild and Amnesty, but we see colonization as one or both different in the sense that in one, it's the humans that are the colonizers, and in the other, it's the aliens that are the colonizers. Okay, I see you are familiar with Butler. Well, we will be going to those two planets, Bloodchild and Amnesty, to go further into this colonization you just mentioned. Wait, are we colonizing the aliens? I did not plan to go against aliens. You actually want to make it to my birthday. Of course not. We got permission from the ruler, Octavius Butler, to go and talk to the settlers and get their point of view. I figured that since Butler shows two sides of colonization through Amnesty and Bloodchild, those would be her best work to visit in order to really discuss colonization in science fiction. Okay, we just need to make sure that we aren't about to cause havoc. Good choices on what planets we are going to, by the way. I am excited about exploring the colonization we see in Bloodchild because of the twist. You know the twist in Bloodchild is that instead of the aliens being the ones who colonize, which is a common storyline we see in sci-fi, it's actually the humans who colonize. I wonder how that must be, being the one with the power to take over someone's home. That's funny you mention that. It actually didn't work that way in Bloodchild. The humans in Bloodchild aren't the ones who have full control. I mean, yes, they are the ones who went and settled on the earliest planet, but not in the way you would think. It's not the same situation as it was when the Spanish colonized and were the ones in power. Here, the humans have to meet the aliens halfway. That's interesting. I just assumed since they were the ones who colonized, it meant that they were the ones with the power and control. I know that! Amnesty gets the aliens to actually colonize, but it gets much more complicated. In both planets, Amnesty and Bloodchild, the relationship between the colonized and the colonized area gets complicated. In a way, you can say it's a different type of colonization. Act 1 In Bloodchild, Terrans, or as we call them, humans, have colonized a land run by alien-like beings called Tiliks. Both species have had their ups and downs through their relationship, colonizing, and have learned how to live together mutually. We were able to travel to the planet Bloodchild and interview a Terran exclusively to document her first-hand experience and perspective. With that being said, Leanne, welcome to the Anteater Life. Pleasure to be here. So, Leanne, as you know, we will be talking about colonization today. From what you can recollect, what was the main reason your kind fled your home world? Well, on Earth, violence and slavery got worse and people began to kill one another. Those that were able to fled Earth for a better life were called Tiliks. I'm really sorry to hear that. So, when you guys arrived on the planet, I heard it was pretty hostile between both species. There was violence on both sides and the Tilik carried out acts similar to slavery on the Terran population. What was the relationship dynamic between the Tilik and Terrans when you guys first confronted each other? Well, the Tilik carried out acts similar to slavery on the Terran population. So, when you guys arrived on the planet, I heard it was pretty hostile between both species. What was the relationship dynamic between the Tilik and Terrans when you guys first confronted each other? And how has it changed over time? Yeah, I mean, there was great tension between the Tilik and the Terrans as we were both trying to survive without stepping on each other's toes, or should I say stepping on them, since they were just small little worms at the time. Obviously, at first, we had no idea what their intentions were, and we just stood our ground and defended one another against the Tilik. They would capture us and group us into pens like we were animals. But now that we have settled in, Tilik have began to respect us more and see us as people, besides the fact that we were a subjugated community forced to carry their babies. Arriving here, I met one of the Tiliks and became very good friends with her. Her name is Tegatsoy. Leanne and Tegatsoy have known each other for most of their lives. It all began when Leanne and her family moved into the preserve. They became acquaintances and grew up together where Leanne began to trust and build respect for Tegatsoy. She considered Tegatsoy more of a family member than just a Tilik. She treated me well and protected me. She even introduced me to my late beloved husband. Before our children, my husband didn't mind being the host for Tegatsoy. He volunteered to be the host for her babies multiple times. The Tilik gave us eggs that had traits similar to narcotics which would numb us to a drunken state and reduce our aging speed by half. My husband lived two times longer than a normal person because of the eggs. He loved them. But now that he's gone, I had to choose my son, Gan, to be the host for Tegatsoy's young. It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about how I had to give up my son to carry Tilik young, and I just wish our agreement with the Tilik never had come down to it. In the process of becoming more civilized, the Tilik enacted a law where every Tiran household must choose a representative to volunteer to become a host. Because of that law, Leanne has chosen her son, Gan. I don't even take the eggs anymore unless I'm forced to. I would rather age normally than extend my life's suffering by watching my kids be hosts and living in this prison of a reserve. Now we've only heard one side of the story. Coming up, we are going to explore what Leanne's acquaintance, Tegatsoy, has to say. Our next guest will be an alien who holds great power on the planet of Bloodchild. Tegatsoy, welcome to the podcast. Hello, human. From what I understand, you hold political power overseeing the preserve, where the Tirans are housed, correct? That's correct, yes. What is a preserve for people who don't know much about your civilization? Can you explain? Well, the preserve is where we house all the Tirans. As a political leader governing over the reserve, I oversee the protection of the Tirans in case anything happens. We keep the preserve completely separate from the rest of our city. This is because most of the Tilik haven't fully adapted to respecting Tirans as people instead of merely host animals. Well, wouldn't it have been easier just getting rid of the Tirans when they first colonized? Well, when the Tirans arrived, they were very desperate to escape the planet, so my people and I decided to use that to our advantage. As a dependent species, we began to use the Tirans to carry our young and to continue our species. We would protect other Tirans from viewing the breeding process because most Tirans believe that our young come out the same way human babies do, which is totally incorrect. Our children drink from the blood of the host, and if not removed in time, will ultimately kill the host and eat them alive. Now, though, we are a civilized society and we respect the Tiran people. Without them, our species would be nothing more than a mere memory. When Gan had to witness a pregnant Tilik, also called an Antilik, give blood birth, it was horrific. I had to cut the Antilik open and extract all the Tilik young from its body. It's a rather gruesome experience, and events like that are not common. That pregnant Tiran, or Antilik, I should rephrase to was Bram Lomas. That Tiran, Bram Lomas, only suffered because its Tilik counterpart was sick, and they couldn't extract the Tilik young in time. Almost all of our operations run smoothly, as we are able to sting the pregnant Tiran with our tails to numb them from feeling any pain and extract the young as if nothing happened. This is how they pay the rent to us. They are in debt to our population, and we protect them and give them a place to live. Carrying our young is the least they can do, if they want to come here and invade our land. Coming up, we're going to travel to another world, Amnesty, where we'll continue to talk about colonization in the science fiction genre. Act 2, It's the Anteater Life, I'm Yellen. Today we have someone who has been in contact with both aliens and humans, and has actually lived with both. Noah was held in captivity for a bit longer than a decade. She will share her story with us today about how she thinks the colonization of the aliens has impacted her social life. In Amnesty, Noah was kidnapped and then placed into a bubble. She was experimented on, and she explains how a lot of humans died because of the experiments that they were doing. Even though the communities, which are plant-like creatures, put humans through these bad situations, their relationship has gotten slightly better. The communities are the ones who are in dominance and in power of the humans. And Butler supports the idea that, per usual, humans are the ones colonizing the world from aliens. And here we have Noah. Thank you so much for being here. Hello. It's a pleasure. Thank you for interviewing me. Where should I start? Of course. Let's start with your childhood. So I guess I should start off when I was kidnapped. It was really hard for me at first being able to wrap my head around the fact that I went to interact with these aliens and they were experimenting on thousands of us. It was sad. A lot of people died in the process. I think that at some point I felt numb and did not know if I was able to get out of this bubble, which is where they had us living or in captivity. Since I was held captive, my parents probably lost hope that I was never coming back since I just disappeared one day and left no note behind for them to remain calm. I always thought of my parents and how important they were for me, and all of a sudden I was taken away into a whole different world and had to adapt with my, quote unquote, new family. At first, I was scared and had a feeling of uncertainty about the communities as anyone would, but this feeling lasted a long time. The communities did not want any relationship with us since they would experiment and put us in trials for them to study us in their own way. They have caused an economic depression and hurt many of us mentally. Now, our relationship has improved for the better, and we are all glad that we have found some sort of peace after all. Wow, thank you for sharing that. I know it must have been very hard recounting that time in your life, especially having to go through that at such a young age, I can't imagine. Please explain, has it been hard for the humans to adapt to the power the communities have over you guys? Well, I think the communities learned to be more lenient towards us. They stopped forcing us to work for them since they thought we were going to start rebelling against them. They started to work with us, but they still had power over us. It's like we still didn't have the freedom we deserved. They hired humans, and now they hired me to be a translator. I am basically in charge of hiring more humans in order for them to provide their own consent to volunteer for these experiments. Do you feel bad by these humans you would recruit? Well, I certainly tried to explain to them that they are definitely the better option than the U.S. government. They are not mean anymore, and that is what I told them. They are desperate for a job, so building this relationship with them is important for our survival. Thank you so much for doing this interview with This Ant Eater Life. Coming up, we have the communities joining us. Welcome back to This Ant Eater Life. We have the communities here with us. They are aliens that colonized the world Amnesty and experienced it on humans through trials. And we actually have one here today. The communities are going to tell us their story on how they went to Amnesty and colonized them. Thank you for having us in these bizarre circumstances. I would definitely agree that this is a little bizarre, I mean, being able to converse and be here with you. I hope you feel comfortable doing this interview and are as excited as I am. Yes, I quite am. Let's get started. So, what was your motive to explore this planet? Hello. We did not mean no harm or meant all the harm that we caused. We did not know that our trials would end up in such a way. When we first came to Amnesty, it was like a fresh start. But there were humans in this world, and we did not know. Yeah, we may have caused a bit of trouble with them by having them go through an economic depression. That is interesting. Why did you guys do all these experiments on them? We thought that it was a way for us to learn more about the humans, but we did not think it through at first. We are trying to compensate them by having them choose to work for us instead and not forcing them anymore. Slowly, we will make a better economy for them, but we are working on our relationship with them. That is a much better way to approach them and keep everyone safe as well as maintaining peace. Our program today was produced by Joshua, Kristen, and I. Special thanks to Leanne, Tegatsoy, Noah, and the communities. I am Yoan, and thank you for having us tonight. We will be back next week with more stories. This is The Santa Ana Life.