What will happen to the world, that we know, in the future?
When I spotted the book in the library, I wondered, who wants to write a book about water and why. However I felt a constant need to read it because the intriguing back cover desciption appealed to me in an odd way. Figuratively I just wanted to gobble the book right away.
The author, Emmi Itäranta, being previously unknown to me has written the fascinating science fiction book ”Memory of Water” that was published in 2012. I never imagined that I would find myself reading a book of this genre but the reading experience turned out to be much more meaningful than I first tought. The story takes place in the future world and it clearly takes a stance on the global problems that we are facing now such as climate change and pollution. In my opinion Itäranta succeeded to create a breathtaking story where one’s moral and values defines who one truly is.
A century is being lived where fresh water has dried up from the world, polar ice caps have melted, oil wars have begun and people are doing their best to survive. The military supervises everything especially families water consumption which is limited. In addition both the heat and insects make life even more difficult than it already is. All the past world’s energy sources are replaced with solar panels. In the middle of this chaos lives Noria, a seventeen year-old finnish girl, who is very interested of the past world and its electric equipment. By following his father’s footsteps she is to become a teamaster, a watcher of water. The plot continues in the following way. One day Noria’s father takes her to a place that doesn’t exist, a hidden spring. The duty of a teamaster is to keep it as a secret. If the military found out about it, it would be destroyed just like all the other springs that have been found. As if the military is only privileged to enjoy the few luxuries that the world still has to offer.
Times get even rougher when a military officer Taro starts to compel Noria’s family to admid, having an extra water source. Furthermore, Noria’s mother migrates from the village and her father abruptly dies. Suddenly Noria has no one except Sanja, her best friend. Together they refurbish past world’s machines which they have found. For all that the girls don’t know to what purpose the machines are for. It appalled me, why they had not been told anything about the past world.
Noria tells about the hidden spring to Sanja whose family is desperately in need of fresh water. Inevitable the word about the spring started to expand not only to the villager’s ears but also to the military’s. Military officer Taro gives Noria two joyless choices because of her water crime. Death or life. She chooses the grimest one since Sanja had betrayed her by revealing the spring to Taro hoping for mercy to herself and Noria. In my point of view Sanja was just trying to save them both, even if they had to swallow their pride, but that wasn’t enough for Noria. Sanja’s desire to save herself and her family was beyond the desire to change the world. Sanja’s act isn’t wrong in my opinion because Noria on the other hand didn’t have anyone to protect anymore. They were just two girls whose life priorities were different. Noria wanted people to be equal and that the water could belong to everyone. Most of all she wanted the world to be different. At least that is how I see it.
Why does Noria have to die? If Noria had accepted Taro’s offer she had saved herself but wouldn’t have listened to her heart. She let her moral lead her decisions not fear or the promises she had made. She chose her own path which was in between being a teamaster and an obedient citizen.
I think Noria changed during the book. First she didn’t care so much about the others and she didn’t listen to her heart. She listened to her father, telling her to keep the spring as a secret. When she was all alone she understood how selfish she had been to only enjoy the spring herself when there were others dying in thirst.
To my delight the story is quite ambiguos and idealistic. A young girl sacrifices her life in order to make a difference in the world. Noria tried to change the world which we could have prevented in the first place. She was desperate to know why people before them didn’t care about the planet’s future. As in the book Sanja says to Noria, ” It’s not worth thinking about them, Noria. They didn’t think about us, either ”.
I think the story is trying to tell that we have to change something in our lifestyle now if we want to offer as good life circumstances to the next generation as possible. However, I feel that the book doesn’t only take a stance on global environmental problems but to equality and women rights. I want to believe that this story isn’t a prediction about our planet’s future. With this technolocy and knowledge that we now have I simply refuse to think that we couldn’t come up with any solution to prevent the environmental changes that was mentioned in the book.