A Beautfiul Picture of the Horrid Future

Despite the fact that I am not very fond of science fiction novels, I find Emmi Itäranta’s cli-fi novel “Memory of Water” very captivating. Although I had some trouble understanding the setting of this book initially but after reading a few pages and understanding the author’s writing style and Noria’s world, I want to keep reading it.

Ever since we began to discuss the issue of climate change in this seminar, I have been predicting numerous possibilities about the post-apocalyptic period in our future world and “Memory of Water” is just the perfect book that describes one of such possibilities through the narrative of 17-year old Noria. Along with recounting the shortage of fresh water in the future dystopian world, Itäranta also introduces the unique concept of tea ceremony and its significance. The way Noria contemplates every detail of tea ceremony and the philosophy behind it is amazing and makes this novel much more than a book about the natural catastrophes.

This book has a lot of such words and phrases which paint a clear picture of Noria’s world in my mind and make me stop reading for a while and think about how beautifully it is written. One of such phrases is the following.

“Silence is not empty or immaterial, and it is not needed to chain tame things. It often guards powers strong enough to shatter everything. (P.12-13)”

This phrase makes me ponder upon the actual purpose of silence and evokes a sense of reflection in me. Most people consider silence meaningless but in reality, every silence has a deep meaning to it like this quote itself and although I am not certain if I understood the meaning of this phrase entirely, but I admire the way it is written as it compels the readers to give it a thought. Moreover, it also foreshadows the story of this novel and builds the reader’s interest as we might be able to understand the complete meaning of this phrase by the end of the novel.

Another phrase that speaks to me is the following.

“But I knew that was what the best stories were like: you could believe in them, even if you knew they were just imagination (p. 65).”

This quote evokes in me a relatable meaning as it describes my feeling about this novel “Memory of Water” perfectly because although I know Noria’s story is not real, at least not for now, but it still feels believable and as described by the above phrase, this is what makes this novel worth reading and one of the best “stories” I have ever read.

Itaranta’s style of writing is surprisingly profound as she creates an intense atmosphere with the right amount of foreshadowing and concealing so that the readers neither become frustrated by the lack of information about the imaginative world nor lose interest by the revelation of each and every detail. Moreover, although this novel is based on the controversial topic of climate change and creates awareness about this social issue but it doesn’t feel heavy like other cli-fi books such as “Climate Changed” by Philippe Squarzoni. Her language is beautifully nonchalant but at the same time feels enthusiastic.

As mentioned above, one of the central themes of this story is also the significance of the unique tea ceremony which was a new concept to me and I learnt that tea ceremony is an East Asian cultural way of preparing and presenting tea by the tea masters who practice this ritual and pass their skills along their generation.  From Noria’s narrative, I learnt that tea ceremony is a very formal event and there is minimum use of words during this ceremony as it is believed that the real flavor of tea is enjoyed in silence. Moreover, tea masters also have their assistants which are often their own children who help them organize the ceremony and learn the skills of preparing tea so that they could become a tea master one day. Noria’s mother’s objection on her decision of becoming a tea master and her reasons for doing so also shows that it is not as common for daughters to become tea masters as it is for the sons but the thing that strikes me the most is that there still exists a discrimination of gender in Noria’s future world whereas I thought that this discrimination is going to end in near future. Moreover, tea ceremonies were of great importance to Asian people in the past era but in the present world, it is not practiced as often by people. Such a trend might mean that this ceremony will disappear altogether in the future but the fact that Itäranta shows that tea ceremony is practiced in the future world makes me wonder what makes her think that this ritual will not be forgotten by people like some of the other rituals.

In short, this novel is a thought-provoking book and creates awareness about climate change without being repetitive and tedious.