#39 // water mystery + new worlds
...just water and data things
Dear Reader,
It's too hot to do anything, including reading, so I am mostly hooked up on TV, ice cold Pepsi, and the coldest rasmalai. Spring blooms have fallen and roses have sprung up everywhere, but they never look as good on camera. Too hot means instead of thinking about how many layers to wear, I think about how many days I can wear shorts before the hair stubble shows, and the answer is always two, max three, my friends. I feel stuck in my generation because the younger gen, including my younger sisters, don't give a rat's ass about these beauty standards that've rotted my mind. I whine, then repeat my actions, then whine some more. Really, at this point, it is on me to not give a damn but somehow, I never quite get to that stage when I am getting dressed to head out. I'd rather pick a dress if short hairs have popped up on my shaved legs, than wear shorts. This is a barrier that I want to climb over, but for now it is shorts and hairy legs at home for me. That's not why you are here—Here are some books that caught my eye, that I might not have picked up a year ago, but really enjoyed this year. These books make you think about the modern world. PS: They are about water and data and the wise younger generation.
Read
My reading on American books has been mostly centered around the East and New England area. I am biased that those are the stories I really enjoy. I have skipped books purely based on where they are set (do not try this at home), but I often wonder whether I might enjoy those books if I gave them a try. Alexandra Kleeman’s Something New Under the Sun, was a welcome change in which Patrick, a middle-aged writer moves from the East Coast to the west (Los Angeles, California) to be part of the team that adapts his novel to screen. He is hired as an errand boy by the mysterious, charming producers Brenda and Jay and his work involves driving around the star lead actor Cassidy (who got famous through viral videos and the series Kassi Keene : Kid Detective as a child artiste) and ‘acting like a father’ to be spoilt actress so that she doesn’t derail the production. His secret motive is to bring home tremendous success through this collaboration that’ll elevate him in the eyes of his distant wife and daughter. Funny enough, I listened to the audio book narrated by Marin Ireland on a long walk when I was feeling exceptionally low, and Patrick's remark that home is the only place where people know who you are, made me sigh and agree in a walking path full of strangers.
Patrick’s initial enthusiasm is quickly dampened by how shoddy the film production of a very-unfaithful-adaptation seems to be progressing (think autobiographical literary fiction book into a horror flick movie). He is also unsure about uprooting himself to the West Coast to chase his dreams while his wife and daughter move to a little known nature cult called Earthbridge with limited phone and connectivity. This society focuses on sustainable living, and holds morning sessions where the residents mourn nearly-extinct species and dying Mother Earth. Though the East Coast is safe in an environmental sense, California is over run by drought (“an inch of standing water, remnant of last week’s anemic rain”), wildfires and corruption.
There’s humour in the ordinary—Patrick is shocked at his wages now that he is an errand boy. Cassidy shows him multiple women who have her nose, thanks to plastic surgery and fandoms. When questioned about which ecological news they mourn each day, the leader of the mourning session at Earthbridge says she simply picks three. Sometimes, the book simply makes you stop on your tracks (pun intended because I was on my walk when listening to the book)—Cassidy talking about getting vintage water as payment and boasting that she might even have her swimming pool filled with it.
The tryst with Patrick’s emotions and his new-found impulsive dream deepens; he and Cassidy find themselves with the knowledge of a scam. Here’s the beauty of Kleeman’s work. It is our world, but also in a future where water is replaced by WAT-R, a synthetic privatized blue liquid that’s “Water done right”, “the same as water, just a little bit more so”, “cleaner”, “more perfect” than water. This monopoly leaves low-income households in debt while rich people have lavish parties and taste samples of new kinds of WAT-R. There’s also a hushed-up memory loss disease (Random Onset Acute Dementia - ROAD) that’s been affecting the residents, and the patients are taken away in a van. Patrick and Cassidy, inspired by the character she played as a child, become detectives to uncover the sinister secret that links their film, WAT-R Corp and ROAD. Kleeman pokes into uncomfortable questions. Is it the people’s “right” to drink gasoline when they are thirsty, as one character remarks? Patrick laments that we need a home because that’s the one place where everybody in the house knows ‘who we are’.
When I read a brilliantly written book as Something Under the Sun which is part dystopia, part an ecological story, part a dream-like story, part ode to capitalism and consumer culture, part film industry satire, part lens into nature communes that grieve about ecological damage, I wonder if I will be able to convey the genius of it in my own words. This isn’t a perfect novel. But it is an ever-changing narrative—Sometimes it is a drama with relationships at stake, sometimes it becomes dream-like as if narrated by ghosts and memories, sometimes it picks up speed with the mystery (but is never suspenseful enough), sometimes it diverts into descriptions of the natural world (coyotes; a dinner scene juxtaposed with information about quails) that are fascinating to read but sometimes feel forced.
Something New Under the Sun made me wonder what if our life, all that we do is actually pointless? What do we do after we stray so far from the natural that there’s no going back? What’s the cost and who pays it? What do we do when we have destroyed everything? Please read it.
I’ve been on a binge with books that explore themes of climate change and ecological damage. You might remember Eleutheria by Allegra Hyde in the previous newsletter that talked about nature cults in isolated islands and the Freegan movement where members would eat garbage to protest against wastage. Around this time, I was sent a copy of A House between Earth and the Moon by Rebecca Scherm by Vintage Anchor Books, which I went into just for the thrill of ‘something new, something that’s not my usual cup of tea’ about scientific experiments in space stations and billion-dollar corporations. I absolutely enjoyed this big book about a future world. I did not expect to, but it was rather enjoyable that I kept reading the book at a traffic signal on red because I just could not pause it until I crossed the road, and maybe sat somewhere and read in safety.
This novel is set in a near future Earth (2030s) where wildfires and deaths are a norm. It follows mainly three people—Alex, Tess and Mary Agnes. Scientist Alex has been conducting research on a super alga that can counter climate change and save us from the effects of global warming. He has been working on it for two decades, jeopardizing his marriage and relationship with his children. He accepts a job at a space station Parallaxis, run by megacorp Sensus (think Google/Apple) run by Son sisters, to conduct more research to ‘save the world.’ Like Patrick in Something New Under the Sun, Alex nurtures a personal goal to hopefully win his family back with his success. Tess is hired for a confidential project Views, to observe and anticipate human responses (to sex, questions, external pressure) and her data sample is, you guessed it, the crew and family of Parallaxis. She develops an unhealthy obsession with one of her subjects. Mary Agnes, Alex’s daughter on Earth, adores her father but is facing problems at school that she is struggling with. Her mother is strict about devices and refuses to use devices sent by Alex’s employer but Mary Agnes plugs them in to talk to her father.
This idea about accessing human actions, memories, decisions seems to be a popular theme in recent books (Immortal King Rao, The Candy House). It is also a probable scary version of our world which isn’t far away. A House between Earth and the Moon makes you think, alarmingly, about our present world developing at such a fast pace—Is it selfish to care more about family or scientific career? Which one is more important in the debate of personal fulfillment vs academic research for global peace? On whom or what does the burden to save the world lie upon? What are the impacts on school kids when technology and bullies have progressed enough to create deep fake porn? How much data do we share and what is it used for? Are we also endangering others/family/friends and not just ourselves, in complying with this data sharing? Do we even know how much we share? As algorithms get better at predicting human reactions—for example the algo's prediction months before the suicide attempt of a character which could potentially save a life. What is the other side, the dark side of the algorithm that we fail to address?
Scherm successfully balances the looming dystopia and climate change with real, emotional stories of people, intentionally or unintentionally, getting tangled in these technological advancements. It is a lovely novel on vulnerability, privacy, power dynamics and the human urge to be recognized and respected. This is a literary-ish sci-fic novel that feels all too real. I needn’t repeat that this isn’t a perfect novel. What is a perfect novel anyway? But even in the portions where it heaved and sighed I was patient because I needed to know how does it all end? Is there hope, redemption, anything; Are our decisions our own?
Watch
More about kids saving the world—I’ve been late to Stranger Things set in the 1980s and I absolutely loved it. It reminded me that while most adventure stories have the same plot—friends defeating a big villain—the execution and the cast makes all the difference and this drama has got both! For those of you who haven’t watched it, a group of nerds in small town Hawkins save the world as monsters from another world come into ours through a portal. It helps that they’ve got a girl with superpowers in their gang. Not helpful are a lab of scientists performing secret experiments. It begins with the disappearance of a small kid Will Byers, and his friends and mom trying to track him down, and ends with the gang saving the world. Oh there is also a Russians vs Americans for political drama in later seasons. (PS: If Something New Under the Sun is about the ill effects of capitalism, S3 of Stranger Things praises American capitalism in some ways, and the Russian communists are big villains).
I adored the way the story progressed in S1; S2 was more slimy and kind of boring for me. By S3 I was partial to the camaraderie between hot, funny, popular boy (and babysitter) Steve Harrington and nerdy junior Dustin Henderson. S4 (more horror vibes) seems to be a little all over the place—the arc in Russia drags on forever; I miss the road-trip-gang, and sister Erica (she is a gem! Fab performance in S3) who get very little screen time. But I cannot wait to find out how it ends. These characters make permanent homes in your mind! They literally grow (makes me think of how the Harry Potter cast grew up on screen); there’s teen love, snappy dialogues, geeky stuff about radio and witty comebacks. (TW : Lots of bullying which was more triggering than the violence for me).
Stranger Things also left me in a big void because I simply didn’t know anything that was as entertaining to fill up my TV time. But there’s this slow burn Night Sky (thanks Vinay Aravind for the rec) about an old suburban couple who have a portal to another world in their shed. There’s also a mother-daughter duo in Argentina guarding a haunted-kind-of-place. I don’t know what exactly makes you hooked to it. At times I found it too slow with too many fillers and secrets that could’ve been non-secrets, but it is the kind of drama that tempts you in. I could almost believe that there are old couples who have portals in their sheds and they go and watch stars at night together. I could believe that when a man covered in blood is found on their property, the old couple aren’t terrified of him but thinking about the world beyond. It is the unreal that snuggles with the real—health issues, bad backs, nosy neighbours, prowlers, small town community, caring granddaughters—that make me wonder, maybe all this really exists somewhere? Stunning performances by Sissy Spacek and J.K. Simmons.
The most beautiful
The most beautiful book I read this year. It is magical realism (for fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende) set in in a fictional Kenyan town about the loneliest girl in the world brought up by ghosts in a crumbling manor, founded by a settler matriarch. It includes one of the most beautiful passages on lonesomeness. PS: In case you are wondering what the overused (and wrongly used) ‘lyrical’ in blurbs actually means, this is it!
Amazing Links
Mourning, accents in “a language that I can pronounce only in my head” by Ofelia Brooks (Cutleaf journal)
Excellent interviews with writers—this one with Alexandra Kleeman (The Creative Independent)
Comic : The Dip by Angie Kang (The Offing)
Living : How to use anticipation to enjoy life more by Holly Burns (NY Times)
These stuck bowls took Twitter by storm and the answer is trust the kids
Support me
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Thank you for reading. Keep hydrated.
Fingers crossed capitalism does not make us buy WAT-R. We've already sold our souls to data minig.
Until next time,
Resh x
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