Storying with Groundwater: Why We Cry
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Storying With Groundwater: Why We Cry A project submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deborah Wardle Bachelor of Social Science – University of New England, Armidale NSW Master of Arts: Women’s Studies – University of Melbourne Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing – University of Melbourne School of Media and Communication College of Design and Social Construct RMIT University, Australia November 2018 Declaration for Candidates Submitting a Project I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the project is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research pro- gram; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Deborah Wardle Date: 4 November 2018 ii Acknowledgments Firstly, I express deep appreciation to Dr Linda Daley and Associate Professor Cathy Greenfield, who supervised my PhD through RMIT, with patience and generosity. They steered me throughout the development of the work consistently and with great insight into the research process. They were firm and encouraging in perfect measure. I express appreciation to members of Dja Dja Wurung Clans Aboriginal Corporation for assistance with use of Aboriginal language, in particular the approval to fictionalise the name of the Koori organisation in the story. I thank Michelle McMahon from Jimbeyer Boondjhil Indigenous Unit at La Trobe University, Bendigo. Kath Coff gave me advice on how an Indigenous character might respectfully express stories from Country. Jeanine Leane, Associate Professor in Literature at Melbourne University, generously read the draft novel as a sensitivity reader. Conversations and written exchanges with several hydrogeologists supported my growing knowledge about the science of groundwater. These scientists included Heather Vic, licensed hydrogeologist with Washington State Department of Ecology, Seattle; Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus, Federation University; Phil Dyson of North Central Catchment Management Authority; Eloise Nation and Elisabetta Carrara from the Bureau of Meteorology for information on national groundwater mapping; and Dr. Jon Fawcett for special knowledge about groundwater dependent ecosystems. I thank them sincerely. To ensure accuracy of water law, Bruce Lindsay, water lawyer with Environmental Justice Australia, kindly read the draft novel. His clarity on land and water development laws and processes are appreciated. Professionally accredited editor, Helen Williams, provided copy-editing services to the dissertation, excluding the fictional work, according to the university-endorsed national ‘Guidelines for Editing Research Theses’. iii Peer Reviewed Publications throughout the Candidacy Wardle, Deborah, forthcoming, ‘Groundwater as Hyperobject’, Mosaic Journal, University of Manitoba, Canada. Wardle, Deborah, forthcoming, ‘Life and Death with Horses: Gillian Mears’ Foal’s Bread’, in Animal Studies Journal (University of Wollongong). Wardle, Deborah 2016, ‘Can Groundwater Speak? Fictional Voices of Non-Human Entities’, Fusion Journal, Charles Sturt University, NSW Australia. List of Figures Figure 1: Landscape cross-section, surface waters and groundwater zone. From Natural Resources Canada, No date, Viewed 1st February 2016 https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Groundwater) Figure 2: ‘The Water Below’. Painted by Maree Kelly, July 2017. Dimensions 101cm x 101cm. Medium: Oil, charcoal and oil pastel on canvas. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration for Candidates Submitting a Project ........................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ iii Peer Reviewed Publications throughout the Candidacy ............................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... iv Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ vii CREATIVE WRITING: WHY WE CRY One: DRAWDOWN ...................................................................................................................... 2 Two: DARCY’S LAW................................................................................................................. 23 Three: THE WATER TABLE ..................................................................................................... 34 Four: WATER FLOW ................................................................................................................. 42 Five: RECHARGE ....................................................................................................................... 64 Six: AQUITARDS ....................................................................................................................... 73 Seven: DIVINING ....................................................................................................................... 83 Eight: AQUIFERS ..................................................................................................................... 107 Nine: PERMEABILITY ............................................................................................................ 135 Ten: POROSITY ........................................................................................................................ 153 Eleven: GRAVITATIONAL...................................................................................................... 180 DISSERTATION: STORYING WITH GROUNDWATER CHAPTER 1: THE WATER CYCLE Groundwater in Climate Change Fiction ..................... 195 1.1 Research Question and Aims ........................................................................................... 204 1.2 Why Climate Fiction, Why Now? ................................................................................... 209 1.3 Aquitards: Limits and Boundaries to the Research ......................................................... 221 CHAPTER 2: THE WATER TABLE Methodological Foundations ....................................... 225 2.1 Epistemological and Ontological Underpinnings – Gaps in the Water Cycle................. 233 2.2 Fictional Influences ......................................................................................................... 240 CHAPTER 3: GROUNDWATER FLOW Decisions in the Writing Process .......................... 252 3.1 Science Knowledge – Darcy’s Law ................................................................................. 253 3.2 Narrative Structure........................................................................................................... 257 3.3 Point of View: Narrating Voice ....................................................................................... 261 3.4 Reader Feedback in the Writing Process ......................................................................... 273 CHAPTER 4: SPRINGS Emergences from the Writing Practice ............................................ 279 4.1 Ways of Knowing Groundwater in the Anthropocene – Flux ......................................... 280 4.1.1 Understanding Groundwater as a Posthuman Hyperobject .......................................... 286 v 4.2 Ways of Storying Groundwater: From Place and Nature Writing to Non-Representation in Posthuman Climate Fiction – Permeability ....................................................................... 290 4.3 Ways of Writing Affect in Climate Fiction – Porosity .................................................... 306 CHAPTER 5: GROUNDWATER DEPENDENT ECOSYSTEMS Concluding Remarks....... 314 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................................ 320 LEGISLATION ......................................................................................................................... 335 vi Abstract This PhD inquiry adopts a creative practice methodology to produce a novel-length manuscript ‘Why We Cry’ and an inter-connected dissertation, each of which interrogate the creative writer’s approach toward the problem of how largely unseen matter, in this case groundwater, might find expression in climate fiction. Groundwater’s potency and fragility in the Anthropocene, its scale and invisibility, its links to ecological and anthropogenic calamities, and that it cannot be directly experienced in the manner of flood, storm and tempest, puts it in need of narration. The contribution of this thesis towards knowledge production, through the enmeshment of artistic practice and material eco-critical analysis, illuminates the processes of ‘storying’ the facts of groundwater in narrative long-form fiction. Through a contemporary setting, a realist fictional style and a critical engagement with science, it is proposed that climate fiction writers might employ the novel form to enable the significance of groundwater to be seen and felt in an accessible