ABSTRACT
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 put it in need of narration. This chapter is composed of a critical artist statement and excerpts from three key chapters of the climate fiction manuscript Why We Cry. The social, cultural and political imperative for engagements with the storied matter of non-human actors emerges in these excerpts. The story merges expressions of groundwater with the uncertainties of science, across a fictionalised cast of characters and settings. Frankie Pankhurst’s quest to save her town’s water supply from unscrupulous groundwater theft leads her to question water divining, science and activism. Speaking out against groundwater exploitation leads her to hydrogeologist Helen Mack. Frankie also rallies support from the Cawling community in her struggle to protect local aquifers. The excerpts reveal groundwater’s significance to communities, to ecosystems, and for Frankie, to her inheritance and identity. As an example of climate fiction, the manuscript contributes to literature’s capacity to expose the necessary urgency for action on climate change. Ultimately, “storied matter” has a say.
