The fact that Beaton herself is participating in the oil companies' depredations gives the driver's statement an ironical twist, as does his ignorance of the treatment that Beaton has already endured.īeaton is best known for her quirky historical comic series Hark! A Vagrant, which became two bestselling books, as well as the equally lighthearted King Baby and The Princess and the Pony. The driver makes a neat parallel between the way OPTI Canada, CNOOC Petroleum, Syncrude and other companies are treating the land of Alberta and the danger Beaton runs into as an unattached young woman attempting to work in an overwhelmingly male environment. That's a fair summation of the intertwined themes running through Ducks. Do you know how people treat a place where they don't live?" When he learns that Beaton will be an on-site dweller mixing with day workers, he says, "You be careful, young girl. Buried in the center of Kate Beaton's massive graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a terse, yet surprisingly apt, thesis statement.įittingly, considering that this is a book about exploitation, Beaton borrows it from the Somali cab driver who gives her a lift to a job site.
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