I love satire but have to admit that I’m slightly frightened by what could be seen as seeds in today’s world blossoming in Nichola Lamar Soutter’s The Water Thief. Satire as realism is not particularly funny. I’m Kathleen Holt in Cimarron somewhat worried about already being ruled by the world’s handful of billionaires and a shrinking number of larger and larger corporations. I miss my mom and pops where the storekeeper knows me and knew my kids.
Soutter gives readers plenty of humor whether it is in selling air, water or friendships, but I don’t find much humor as I begin to understand that greed may trump altruism when it comes to leadership – ownership? -- by the wealthy. Have you read Empire of Pain? Those Sacklers were quite generous and had their names on any number of venerable institutions, yet we’re still paying the price of their corporate manipulations in understanding pain and selling opiates.
Okay, so you can already tell I have a soap box, but look around and ask yourself why, if corporations are really people, we can’t trust us to pick our own leaders? Why should candidates for our local school board, city council, or even for the cemetery board declare a party? Why do records show large percentages of campaign contributions coming in from out of state? Who rules local anymore?
The first book in this 2024 Spring Read, The Time it Never Rained, left me thinking about the sense of nobility that some of us felt when Charlie Flagg stubbornly resisted accepting government help, but in the end, some of his neighbors survived in contrast to the many losses Charlie experienced. And certainly, Lucas Bessire’s work Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains articulates the battles between the regular guy and big business and he leaves us thinking that we’d better see the water situation as something to tackle together, doesn’t that imply the need for shared commitment to the common good? What about a corporation’s sense of empathy?
I had an argument with a friend one time over the packet of grocery coupons I received. He objected to corporations tracking his purchasing or eating habits and while initially I found the coupons convenient since they reflected my actual purchases, but lately I’ve been receiving coupons for men’s deodorant and baby formula. I’m single and my dog doesn’t use stick deodorant.
If corporations are my friends, why do I keep getting ads for things I discussed with a friend – in the car, no less! And if corporations know me so well, why don’t I see more social media posts from my real friends and family and not from casual acquaintances or people I knew or did business with 30 years ago?
Questions, questions, questions. I hope in your reading of The Water Thief the questions inspired a healthy measure of introspection and thought but not so much that you missed the humor in the satire – the idea, I mean, of paying by the foot to ascend in an elevator! Of paying for the air you breathe or the life sustaining drink of water at the end of a warm day. That does seem ridiculous -- doesn’t it?
I’m Kathleen Holt in Cimarron for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club and I want to take a moment to thank our sponsors, our friends, the late Lynne Hewes, Lon Frahm of Colby, Kansas and Lynn Boitano of Edmond, Oklahoma.
