Investigating a slow burn toxic disaster through the lens of memoir
Kerri Arsenault’90 spent her childhood in Mexico, Maine, in the shadow of Rumford Mill. 造纸厂提供高薪工作, but Arsenault later discovered the price: a damaged environment and serious health problems caused by the mill’s toxic processes, lending the region nicknames like “Cancer Valley.” The mill operated for years with impunity and the community’s tacit support.
The book attracted a “top 10 books of 2020” designation from the 芝加哥论坛报》 and the National Book Critics Circle Award chose it as a finalist for the John Leonard Prize. Closer to home, 贝洛伊特’s Professor of English Chris Fink is teaching 工业城 this spring in his environmental writing course.
问:祝贺《真人国际菠菜》出版 工业城. 这本书的反响如何? Describe your emotions since its publication.
In my hometown, it’s been nothing but positives. I was at a virtual event at the University of Maine-Farmington recently, and my old high school principal was there. He said, “Kerri,”—he started crying— “We’re so proud of you.“那真的很感人. 所以骄傲是一方面. I’ve heard from so many people across the country with stories about living near industry and the diseases that they or their families have gotten, 所以我变成了这个神奇的人类8号球. But I can take it; I just listen. As far as my own emotions, this is not my suffering. This is bearing witness and trying to understand.
Q: Have you heard from elected officials or Rumford Mill representatives?
The reception has been good, but there’s a silent faction, which I don’t know how to interpret. 寂静来自磨坊, 缅因州州长, 珍妮特·米尔斯, and our two senators [Angus King and Susan Collins]. I haven’t heard from them, but I know they got books. The silence is problematic because those are the people who can actually do something.
Q. What’s one thing you hope happens in Maine and elsewhere because of this book? 你看到它发生了吗?
我希望人们能读到它. Part of my job as a writer is to reveal this, not prescribe anything. But I hope that people in small towns vote for their leaders —whether it’s state, 联邦, or local leaders—go to their water board meetings, 去参加他们无聊的镇民大会. And if you can’t find anybody to vote for, run yourself. Policy-level is the way this can really change. 另一种方式是市场需求. If all the publishers and universities in the United States demanded chlorine-free paper, 然后工厂就能生产了. [Arsenault’s book is printed on chlorine-free paper.]
Q: 工业城 is both a memoir and a work of investigative journalism. Do you think of the book as one genre or the other, 如果是这样的话, 你是打算写一个还是另一个?
I probably set out to write an investigation. The thing with toxic disasters is that they don’t really have a centralized location or a starting point. In the book, you follow me through the investigation, so you get to pick. I think different people read it for different things. 这也是文化批评, attempting to answer why America’s working class, 或者有毒灾难, 被排除在谈话之外.
Q: How can your story be applied to communities facing environmental racism?
I look at environmental injustice along socioeconomic lines. Republicans have deliberately split the working class along racial divides. What’s relevant in my book is the historic treatment of Acadians [descendants of French settlers deported from Canada’s Maritime provinces in the 18th century. Many, like the author’s family, now live in Maine]. There are applicable lessons in the strategies that the imperialists used to harm us.
Q: You left Maine in 1985 to attend 贝洛伊特. 那个转变是怎样的?
我发现人们非常热情, but I write in the book about my friends making fun of my accent and how it made me feel dumb and unsophisticated, and about trying to assimilate via my clothing. I was always an observer, and I would just watch, adapt, and adopt. 我是第一代大学生. 贝洛伊特 had programs for us, but I had no idea what I was doing. What I really did at 贝洛伊特 was learn how to dig beneath the surface of things. 这就是我记得的.
问:贝洛伊特的哪些记忆比较突出?
I lived at the Womyn’s Center [still standing as the 女权主义的集体] for my last couple of years, and that was wonderful. I made such incredible connections with women there, and it was like having a constant writers’ group. 我也是 圆桌 那真是太疯狂了.
I’ve become really close friends with people that I was sort of friends with at 贝洛伊特, 但没联系上, 在这中间的几年里. Heather Wichman Marx’92 and I started talking on Facebook when I was working on the first part of my book, 她说, “Send me pieces; I’ll read them for you.” She was instrumental in helping me build the first part of 工业城. 我们从1990年就没说过话了!
