How does any fire begin? With a spark.
In Summer of 2016, I attended a talk given by Maude Barlow
on water justice. The radical talk was based on her recent book “Boiling Point”,
a comprehensive exploration of Canada’s water crisis—a crisis that most
Canadians weren’t—and still aren’t—aware. Canada is steward to a fifth of the
world’s fresh water, after all. It is a water-rich country. Of the dozen
largest inland lakes in the world, Canada holds eight of them. So, why water crisis?
Well, Maude explains. And you should read “Boiling Point.” It will open your
eyes to the politics of water and how multinational corporations—like Nestlé—are
already grabbing and funneling water away from Canadians and into the global
profit machine.
Maude’s talk was in a church on Bloor Street. I sat close to
the front to best see her. But I soon noticed that many people had elected to
sit in the gallery above. I found myself focusing on a young mother and her
little girl. The girl had some paper and crayons and was busy with that as the
enthusiastic mother listened to Maude deliver dire facts about corporate water
high-jacking and government complicity.
I saw a story there.
What mother would take her pre-school child to a
socio-political talk on water? I would later reflect that memory of the mother
and her little girl through my characters Una and her little daughter Lynna,
the diarist in my novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” (due for
publication in June 2020 with InannaPublications).
The spark for my novel began with a short story I was
invited to write in 2015 about water and politics in Canada. I had long been thinking of potential ironies
in Canada’s water-rich heritage. The premise I wanted to explore was the irony
of people in a water-rich nation experiencing water scarcity: living under a
government-imposed daily water quota of 5 litres as water bottling and utility
companies took it all. I named the story “The
Way of Water.” It was about a young woman (Hilda) in near-future Toronto
who has run out of water credits for the public iTap; by this time houses no longer
have potable water and their water taps have been cemented shut; the only way
to get water is through the public iTaps—at great cost. She is two metres from
water—in a line of people waiting to use the tap—and dying of thirst.
“The
Way of Water” captures a vision that explores the nuances of
corporate and government corruption and deceit together with global resource
warfare. In this near-future, Canada is mined of all its water by thirsty
Chinese and US multinationals—leaving nothing for the Canadians. Rain has not
fallen on Canadian soil in years due to advances in geoengineering and weather
manipulation that prevent rain clouds from going anywhere north of the
Canada-US border. If you’re wondering if this is possible, it’s already
happening in China and surrounding countries.
The story first appeared in 2015 in Future Fiction, edited by Francesco
Verso, and in 2016 as a bilingual (English and Italian) book and essay
published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. The story
was reprinted in magazines and anthologies several times since, including
“Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change Anthology” (Exile Editions, Bruce Meyer, ed), in
2017, Future Fiction: New Dimensions in
International Science Fiction (Francesco Verso & Bill Campbell,
eds; Future Fiction / Rosarium Publishing,
Rome and Greenbelt, MD) in 2018; and in Little Blue Marble Magazine (Katrina Archer, ed)
in January, 2019. “The Way of Water” received generous praise from review sites
and the press worldwide.
After the success of this short story, I realized that I needed to tell
the larger story—how did the world—Canada—get to where Hilda was? Her
mysterious mother, the limnologist Lynna who was taken away by the RCMP in 2063,
clamored for more attention. I remembered that four-year old girl and her
mother in the gallery at Maude Barlow’s talk on water politics. And I thought
of my characters: young Lynna and her mother Una. How does a daughter of an
activist mother behave and think? How best to express her voice? I had earlier
written a short story that was a mix of correspondence (emails) and third
person narrative (“The Arc of Time” in Natural Selection), which I felt captured the voices of the
characters well. I realized that a diary by Lynna would be an ideal way for her
to express her unique worldview and cynicism—yet allow her vulnerable humanity
to reveal itself through this unique relationship with her diary. The remaining
characters and their narratives emerged easily from there: Una, her activist
mother; Daniel, her conspiracy theorist colleague (and her conscience); Orvil, the
water baron (and lover she betrayed); and Hilda, her “wayward” supposedly mind-challenged
daughter—who appears in the short story that takes place later.
I had a lot of material; I had already been researching water issues and
climate change in my activism as a science writer and reporter. I had recently
published “Water Is… The Meaning of Water”, essentially a biography of water, written
from the perspective of mother, environmentalist and scientist. I had practiced
as a limnologist for over twenty-five years and could mine my various personal
experiences in the field, lab and office with genuine realism. I chose Wetzel’s
Limnology (the classic text book I
used in my introductory limnology course) for quotes to each of Lynna’s
entries; this added an opportunity to provide additional metaphor and irony
through Lynna’s scientific voice. I placed the child Lynna (who was born in
2012) into actual events in Toronto, where I currently live. This pushed the
story further into the area of documentary and blurred the lines between fiction
and non-fiction to achieve a gritty and textured reality. Lynna also taught
limnology at the University of Toronto, where I currently teach.
Just as “Water Is…” served as a watershed for all my relevant
experiences as mother, environmentalist and scientist, “A Diary in the Age of
Water” would galvanize many of my personal experiences, doubts, challenges and
victories into compelling story. Although parts of the story wrote themselves,
the entire book was not easy to write. There were times when I had to walk away
from the book to gain some perspective—and optimism—before continuing. When I
found myself drowning in Lynna’s voice, I invoked Hilda to guide me to shore. I
found a balance that worked and compelled. Ultimately this opened to some of
the best internal conflict and tension I have experienced in my writing.
Like water itself, A Diary in the Age of Water expresses through many vessels and in many perspectives,
spanning hundreds of years—and four generations of women—with a context wider
than human life. Through its characters, ADiary in the Age of Water explores the big question of humanity’s deadlock
with planetary wellness and whether one is worth saving at the expense of the
other. One of the characters asks Lynna the hard question: “If you had the
chance to save the planet [stop the mass extinctions, deforestation and
pollution ravaging the planet], but it was at the expense of humanity, would
you do it?”
Water is, in fact, a character in the book—sometimes subtle and revealed
in subtext, other times horrific and roaring with a clamorous voice. Water
plays both metaphoric and literal roles in this allegorical tale of humanity’s
final journey from home. The story explores identity and our concept of what is
“normal”—as a nation and an individual—in a world that is rapidly and
incomprehensibly changing—and in which each of us plays a vital role simply by
doing or not doing.
“A Diary in the Age of Water” promises to leave you adjusting your frame
of reference to see the world, yourself—and water—in a different way. “A Diary in the Age of Water” is scheduled for release by Inanna Publications in May 2020.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” will be released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.
