Fire and water must live together a novella, with an afterword addressing its critical framework by Robert Todd Gabbard B. Design, University of Florida, 2000 M. Architecture, University of Florida, 2004 A THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS Department of English College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2018 Approved by: Major Professor Dr. Katherine Karlin, Ph.D., M.F.A. Copyright © Robert Todd Gabbard 2018 Abstract By the year 2037, climate change has destabilized the world’s ecology, politics, and culture. Hawaii has seceded from the United States, instituting the Cultural Reaffirmation, which champions a sustainable, traditional way of life. Eenie is an astronomer on the Big Island of Hawaii. In order to keep the observatory on Mauna Kea operational, she must appease the newly independent island nation by reenacting a mythical sled race between Poliahu, the Hawaiian snow goddess of Maunakea, and Pele, the fierce goddess of lava, personified by a rival geoscientist from Maunaloa’s volcanic laboratory. Once an Olympic contender in the women’s luge, Eenie has won this race twice before. This year, though, the greenhouse effect has caught up with her; there is no snow on Maunakea. Without it, she cannot prevail, and if she doesn’t, the priests of Hawaii’s Cultural Reaffirmation will pull the telescopes down from their most sacred mountain. Eenie struggles against nature’s increasing wrath, gods, monsters, pigs, and political rivals, though her biggest struggle is within herself. Fire and water must live together takes place in an ecodystopic future, though its story pulls from Hawaiian myth. The story’s projection into the future is based on current events, including the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, climate change science, and technology. An accompanying essay frames the novella through three critical lenses: ecocriticism, eco-politics, and post-colonial hybridity. The essay includes a focused look at the setting of Hawaii as it stands today in terms of environment, politics, and people. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... v Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 - kudzu queen ................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 - the warthog................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 3 - fine, white kapa .......................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 4 - messengers (na ‘oumuamua) ..................................................................................... 18 Chapter 5 - power trip ................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 6 - holua time .................................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 7 - old man trees (na lāʻau kanaka kahiko) ..................................................................... 43 Chapter 8 - Volcano (lua Pele) ..................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 9 - the hard rain (pa’akiki ua) .......................................................................................... 56 Chapter 10 - devil’s throat (ka‘ā’ī kiapolō) .................................................................................. 60 Chapter 11 - Saachi ....................................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 12 - in the kipuka ............................................................................................................. 73 Chapter 13 - fallen arch................................................................................................................. 84 Chapter 14 - the consort ................................................................................................................ 94 Critical framework: the point of fiction ...................................................................................... 100 Ecocriticism. ....................................................................................................................... 102 Eco-cultural politics. ........................................................................................................... 103 Hybridity. ............................................................................................................................ 104 Hawaii today. ...................................................................................................................... 105 References for Critical Framework ............................................................................................. 110 Appendix A - Reading List ......................................................................................................... 112 Literary Influences .............................................................................................................. 112 Criticism .............................................................................................................................. 112 Writing and Background References .................................................................................. 113 iv Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge the incredible opportunity afforded by Kansas State University’s Creative Writing program as well as the support of the excellent faculty of the Department of English, without whom this project would not have been possible. Of particular importance was the guidance of Dr. Katherine Karlin, whose knowledgeable advice helped temper this text into (arguably) passable writing; Dr. Elizabeth Dodd whose lyrical perspectives on humanity’s relationship with the world forwarded the power of writing to foment change, and; Dr. Carol Franko, whose teaching of science and fantastical fiction outlined a path for this work. v Dedication This manuscript is dedicated to my family, teachers, and supporters; to indigenous populations around the world struggling for survival and self-determination; and to future generations that must find a way to live with an increasingly hostile planet. I hope everyone finds a niche that sustains them. vi Chapter 1 - kudzu queen The sign over the door used to say The Poi Poi before the lehulehu ripped it down and threw it into the lava vents of Puʻu ʻŌʻō, along with all the other haole tourist garbage in Volcano: garish toy hula dancers on suction cups, limp plastic grass skirts, fake leis, crab and turtle effigies made of googly eyes hot glued to coconuts and shells, puffer fish urethaned in permanent surprise, neon airbrushed wall art of surfboards and sailing knots and sea turtles, florid wraps and skirts and shorts, all of it China toxic, China cheap. Hawaii wasn’t going to be part of the economy of the white devils anymore; the Reaffirmation got that right, at least. With the sign gone, Eenie had no idea what the name of the bar was now, or even if it had a name. Nobody in there would tell her – not the owner, originally from a small island near Okinawa, nor the waitress, his half-Kepani daughter. Certainly not the three white-haired ‘elemakule sitting together at a table close to the bar, the normal early afternoon traffic. The old men muttered to each other in the half-English pidgin everyone had used back before the public schools had all been replaced with kamehameha. The kids spoke full Hawaiian, but even with years of tutelage, Eenie hadn’t been able to pick it up. The waitress would serve her, however. She dropped off another mango, collecting the empty Eenie’d slid to the edge of the table, while avoiding looking at Eenie directly. Eenie reached over the table’s thick resin top, yellowed with age, spread over artifacts from a different time: postcards of Technicolored muscled men and lily-white hula dancers with coconut bikinis, tourist maps from like 1965, menus from places long since gone, their names absurd, their prices in Merican money. There was even a bicentennial quarter in there. The big kahunas of the Reaffirmation had tried their best to erase Merican influence, but they’d never get it all. 1 All of the kanaka – authentic Hawaiians – and Polynesians, and a fair number of Japanese, like the bar’s owner, wouldn’t acknowledge Eenie in her training clothes, or regular street clothes, much less talk to her. Eenie was incognito, the closest thing to being anonymous she could experience on the Big Island. At this moment, being invisible felt just fine. She needed this, needed to check out. She opened a link to Paul, hoping he’d be able to talk. She sipped her juice while she waited to connect. The flavor reminded her of pawpaw, which she and her brother and sister used to pick wild in the woods around their house in Kentucky. Paul looked good on the vid. He must’ve been in the sun a lot recently, his face burnished, his hair bleached to a ruddy auburn. The humidity of the South China coast had steamed a permanent wave into his normally straight hair. He looked good. The piers of the bridge Paul had engineered were in the background, marching across to the