The Water Knife

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All three at different times are victims of brutal malicious violence such that Bacigalupi keeps the reader in a constant state of agitation as to how they can possibly survive their respective predicaments. There is the central mystery of what Lucy’s friend died for and who killed him, but as the body count rises and different players and factions enter the fray, it is less a whodunnit mystery, and more a what is about to be done, who by and to whom thriller.

As George Marshall noted in Don’t Even Think About It: Why are Brains are Hardwired to Ignore Climate Change (2014), there is a distinction between our rational and emotional minds. Those fossil fuel corporations and their lobbyists and paid politicians, all with vested interests in downplaying the climate crisis and insisting that we can – indeed should – continue pretty much as usual, are past masters at appealing to emotions over rationality. For example in threatening people that their actions and policies have already kept in poverty, with the idea that pursuing net zero will make them “ poorer and colder” (Wood & Chapman, 2021) and “ destroy their way of life”. (Heath, 2023) As a fiction writer, you actually have an opportunity to go at the same ideas, but you can make them engaging… the reader gets to live viscerally in that world… in the skin of a climate refugee.” (Urry, 2015) The Water Knife is a 2015 science fiction novel by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is Bacigalupi's sixth novel, and is based on his short story, The Tamarisk Hunter, first published in the news magazine High Country News. It takes place in the near future, where drought brought on by climate change has devastated the Southwestern United States. [3] Central characters [ edit ] She is an award-winning journalist who is disillusioned by corporate greed that is turning Phoenix, Arizona into a wasteland. She delves into the convoluted world of water rivalry and understands the lawless networks that run the water supply. Her world intertwines with Angel and Maria as she pursues the same legal documents they wish to possess for their own agendas. Maria Villarosa The book is set in a dystopian world where climate change has led to a decline in the access to clean water. The story follows protagonist, Angel Velasquez, a “water knife”, whose job is to tamper with the water supply of other competitors. He is sent on a job by his boss, Catherine Case, the “Queen of the Colorado,” to destroy Arizona’s water supply so that her own water supply company can prosper.

Knife in the Water was the basis for a low budget 2001 American film Kaaterskill Falls, set in the Catskill Mountains.

Urry, A. (2015, July 9). Can Fiction make people care about climate/ Paolo Bacigalupi thinks so. Retrieved from grist.org: https://grist.org/living/can-fiction-make-people-care-about-climate-paolo-bacigalupi-thinks-so/ On one hand, the novel was effective in getting a diverse range of American readers to identify with climate migrants. Sarah was schooling away her Dallas drawl, scraping away Texas talk and Texas dirt scrubbing and scraping as hard as her pale white skin could take the burn.” (p. 39)The way fiction, as exemplified in The Water Knife, aims to instil empathy for less than a handful of key characters can mean the form neglects other emotions and wider foci. Ada Palmer and Jo Walton described it as The Protagonist Problem (Palmer & Walton, 2021) the way the narrative success or failure rests on the shoulders of a few key individuals. This is a feature also of the great men approach to the teaching of history, and indeed educational policy in the UK where the notion of hero school leaders who can be parachuted into any school ignores the massive contribution made by layers of staff and specific contexts within their successful schools. As Palmer and Walton note, The book is based on Bacigalupi's short story, The Tamarisk Hunters, and revolves around the effects of climate change in the near future. The water supply has been drastically reduced and control of the supply has been taken over by corrupt business magnates. Angel Velasquez is the main protagonist and is a spy/assassin, known as a “water knife" – his job is to sabotage the water supply of his employer’s competitors. He encounters many conflicts on his journey and meets the mysterious journalist Lucy Monroe and refugee Maria Villarosa along the way.