JG Ballard : how to crash modernity

[@paulklee5790]

When the college I was working at was planning the official opening of the new art block I seriously suggested we get JGB to open it (we were in his neck of the woods after all), my pleas fell on deaf ears unfortunately, and so we got a royal prince instead… bit of a missed opportunity I think… RIP JGB… first stumbled across your work as a schoolboy in London… fifty years later your still our prophet…

[@richardhall5489]

Ballard seems to me to be a totally reliable narrator. As far as i can remember I have never felt that he "played" me as a reader through the use of clever writing tricks. The characters and plot always seem to follow the logic of the initial set up and the motivational energy assigned to them. I wonder if this is part of his appeal to modern artists. To me the novels feel like airplane journeys - they take off, cruise at altitude then descend and land. I have had the same feeling about 10 times in my life with really great musical performances where the performers were presumably in a flow state. I'll have to do some re reading to confirm/deny this.

[@charlessomerset9754]

My take on Ballard, even as a young science fiction reader, was that he was here to remind us of how quickly modern civilization could collapse, and that our existential paranoia was based on that fear. We are only one bomb away from having to build a fire. A few collapsed supermarkets from having to hunt. One destruction of a working government from subjugation or possibly having to kill. We need writers like Ballard to remind us of these things. It all could end so quickly, and devolve into barbarism. Scary stuff, yes, but the psychological burden of being a modern man.

[@DamienWalter]

Yup.

[@charlessomerset9754]

@ColbyHebert-wm2mw The last reply to my post was simply "Yup." So this came as a surprise. I sense that someone is a secret science fiction writer. Am I right? You have a good grasp of Ballard. Great quotes as well.

[@avengemybreath3084]

Even scarier is the sense that won’t happen, and we’ll be cursed to endless meaningless banality

[@jacob_massengale]

Although true, i think its only half of the story. Inherent to modernity is how quickly it is eraced yes, but by the same virtue of its superficiality, it is easily constructed again as long as the technology exists somewhere else in the world. More so, our learned helplessness makes the reconstruction almost inevitable. Quick distraction does not constitute a quick fix.

[@secretasiandan]

"from now on we eat the weevils"

[@thekeywitness]

Watching this again... I'm reminded that I lived in the same area of Shanghai that Ballard lived in but I never managed to find the house he lived in. Still, wandering those beautiful tree-shaded streets of the former French Concession was a wonderful dream come true. A lot of the old mansions are still there, divided up into apartments.

[@Dudewhatno]

That area is so beautiful. Feels so odd going there after being everywhere else, I almost felt delirious as it reminded me of home so much while knowing I was no where near there.

[@ximono]

Brilliant essay! Loved the part where Ballard interrupted you at 12:30 to tell the truth. And what you said shortly after: "The anxiety of our modern existence is that we expect it is a fiction, and that just beneath that fiction are all the ancient terrors we hoped modernity had saved us from." 🎯 Of course it's not true, modernity hasn't saved us from ancient terrors. Those terrors are part of modernity's story, and therefore an essential part of modernity itself. There's far more terror hiding beneath modernity than beneath "underdeveloped" societies.

[@haroldnaples]

A very good point at 12:35 indeed.

[@lakeofmarch1377]

I'd also bring in Haruki Murakami, whose 'Clockwork Bird' tells the story the other way around.. modernity -does- enable terrors, at least as far back as HP Lovecraft.

[@marshalmcdonald7476]

Well said. I'm writing down much of what you've said here to quote to others. Nice job ximono

[@marshalmcdonald7476]

Thanks for that quote.@@micro-organism-pv5gd

[@lakeofmarch1377]

@@micro-organism-pv5gdQuite simply, as technology advances, we fill the void of its possibilities with the most persistent and lively contents of our minds, so Napoleon thought Roman art would improve all things, Nintendo makes elaborate video games about monsters and fairies, and yes, France has been fatally tempted by whatever they keep in the Quai Branly these days. Greetings from Mexico, where the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..

[@Retrostar619]

I've revisited this essay a few times; I love how it was put together. Plus the "Confused, well Peter's going to explain" bit always makes me chuckle.

[@machinegunblues7]

After listening to this video multiple times I bought High-Rise, my first reading of Ballard, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't wait to read Crash next. Thanks for getting me interested in his work!

[@DamienWalter]

Good to hear. Thank you.

[@machinegunblues7]

From an audio perspective this has the best editing of all your videos that I've listened to so far. I've replayed it so many times!

[@DamienWalter]

Thank you. It's the most advanced editing project I've completed so far.

[@combatdoc]

Another elegantly delivered analysis. I need to read more Ballard.

[@DamienWalter]

Thanks doc.

[@briankelley987]

I saw this video a few months ago, along with finding the Mind Webs performance of the Garden of Time. A few weeks ago, the Met Gala was themed to that Ballard short story. On a whim, I just bought and quickly finished a used copy of High-Rise. Thank you for introducing me to Ballard!

[@differous01]

"Asylums with doors open wide Where people have paid to see inside For entertainment they watch his body twist Behind his eyes he says I still exist." [Atrocity Exhibition - Joy Division's tribute to Ballard]

[@whssy]

"Flat block Of two dimensions Neon totem pole to the sky Keeping scores of people stacked up so high Above the ground That all they can hear is the sound Of the wind in the antennae It's a human zoo A suicide machine" Hawkwind, "HIgh Rise"

[@stellaVista]

I really love you for this! As my name suggests, I´m quite smitten with JGB! Also of note is his incredible influence on the vast post-punk generation. Whole music genres basically carry his DNA and he never knew how or why as hew just wasn´t listening to music much.

[@IanMcCausland]

This video drops right in the middle of my re reading of his books. Brilliant! I wish more would realize his brilliance especially here in North America

[@DamienWalter]

the algo knows all

[@awordfromtheabsurd3488]

Honestly, as a massive fan of Ballard you've done a great job here with your analysis and with an engaging visual style as well.

[@GreatGreebo]

Wow…I did NOT really notice all the pools in his writing before. Now that you’ve pointed this out though I realize there are *SO MANY POOLS* in his works. Thank you.

[@a.tevetoglu3366]

You do indeed create unique content.

[@TheEudaemonicPlague]

I read a fair amount of Ballard in the 70s, and in the early 80s, my Heavy Metal magazines got partly eaten by termites, so I used images from the ruined magazines to make buttons. One of my favorite was a picture of J. G. Ballard. Still have it somewhere. I made it with the intention of wearing it to SF conventions, to see how many people would recognize his face. When I finish re-reading The Digging Leviathan, I ought to dig back into Ballard. I have plenty of his works on my tablet (but, having checked, I'm missing a number of them, so I need to dig them up)...reading is the main use I put it to. I keep thinking how much fun it would have been to show Isaac Asimov what tablets are like now...he might change his mind about not reading from devices. ** Now, I have pretty much everything he wrote. I hadn't realized The Kindness of Women was the sequel to Empire of the Sun.

[@HighWealder]

My favourite author of inner space and when I worked in the Sahara, I was literally living in his sand seas. That sound of The Lincolnshire Poacher numbers channel accidentally picked up by the shortwave radio drifting across the desert was the manifestation of his sound sculptures. On the motorways, I am always spotting the concrete islands.

[@paulwilson3057]

another brilliant essay. thank you so much for what you do. you really help highlight things I've meant to get to.... and time goes by and I forget. Thank you!

[@rivenmotors7981]

Beautiful video. Wonderous oral interpretative presentation with pacing provided by psychedelic visual progression amongst the interviews and voice of the author. Sorry about the overly active use of adjective, but I appreciate a rich tapestry in this form.

[@garyhosty9874]

Thanks for making this - very educational and sent me back to the books !

[@DamienWalter]

Thanks Gary

[@JPS-hd8qz]

I discovered the fascinating work of mr Ballard in 1980 when I was a 18 year old - and I was hooked from the first paragraph of The Burning World... The rest is history...

[@tamlandipper29]

So Snowpiercer is a lazy reimagining of Ballard's tower, which is an homage to Dante?

[@Fivebyfive6836]

Or Snowpiercer is a dystopian sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory…

[@joepa9431]

No

[@willtricks9432]

Early depictions of hell were of a frozen waste, maybe the last glaciers were a memory not too distant.

[@nifftbatuff676]

What about the social commentary?

[@spiraldaddy]

Brilliant piece on Ballard!

[@babettesfeast6347]

This video essay is brilliant. Your style reminds me of Adam Curtis

[@flirtwithdanger_les]

In the content, I was reminded of Mark Fisher.

[@AlienBigCat23]

Great. Enjoyed that, Damien. Care to do one on Burroughs?

[@georgespottiswood4660]

Well done! Enjoyable and informative.

[@raymondnewton2388]

Ballards tower influenced by Bunuel's film The exterminating Angel.

[@DamienWalter]

Interesting, thank you

[@stellaVista]

And then there is Themroc by Claude Feraldo from 1973. For some resaon this French piece of etreme cinema seems to be totally forgotten. It´s about Michel Piccolis as the inhabitant of a high-rise who starts speaking in grunts only and he blasts away the outer wall of his apartment and begins to live like a cave-man, soon building a tribe within his "cave" while neighbouring apartments follow suit. The< soon turn to archaic mating rituals and cannibalism and it all ends with authorities walling them in from the outside, with only a few air-holes for them to stick their arms through. I have seen this only once in the mid-80s, a few years before I read High-RIse and I always wondered if Ballard had seen the movie.

[@thespiritofhegel3487]

Reminds me of the old Hawkwind number Flat block Of two dimensions Neon totem pole to the sky Keeping scores of people stacked up so high Above the ground But all they can hear is the sound Of the wind in the antennae It's a human zoo A suicide machine Childhood Of concrete cube shaped A flypaper stuck with human life Caged up rage Swarming all the time Tear out the telephones Rip up the pages of directories And wreck all these High speed lifts and elevators Be a sabotage rebel without a cause High rise Living in a high rise High rise Living in a high rise High rise Living in a high rise High rise All stacked up in a high rise block Starfish Of human blood shape Tentacles of human gore Spread out on the pavement from the 99th floor Well somebody said that he jumped But we know he was pushed He was just like you might have been On the 99th floor of a suicide machine

[@throwhammer]

The online world, porn, Trump, Social Media, Covid, Brexit, social unrest… he foresaw it all. What would he had made of it all?

[@jukee67]

A crossroad of some sort, in which all of humanity is fast approaching with means to slow down or prevent from coming to be. The reset is coming, it's just a matter of what form it will reveal itself as in due time. Cosmic? Economic? Maybe Armageddon? Whatever it is, it will be devastating to many, most or all of "modern" humanity, at that moment or following the build up of many moment adding up to the grand event. A pole shift of some sort. One that has been occurring ever since the last or maybe an all of a sudden event. There is an old song by Haley and His Comets called Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Just a few of the many thoughts that bounce around in my head in these unprecedented times. I wish everyone the best. Personally, I no longer fit in this "new normal". Many of my friends have passed on. More than I care to count, but the number exceeds my age in years being 4+ decades. I am not one to follow the crowd, while going against the grain, causing myself to become an outcast of some sort, on the sidelines. I am waiting to watch this clown show/freakshow get into high gear, as it kicked of quite a few years ago. I cannot shake that eerie feeling that exists whenever I walk around the city I have called home my entire life, yet it is almost unrecognizable to me. Maybe I am crazy. I don't pay much attention to labels. One thing I have learned in this life is it is wrong to call or label anyone as crazy, it's dismissive. I will always listen to anyone that has something to say. When they are finished I may respond or begin a discussion or simply thank them for their opinion in words, being as polite as possible. I have walked away from a few in my days that may have sounded crazy in those moments, only to find out many years later, they were far from crazy, they were on to something or they could see where society was heading. A crash of some sort, maybe at crossroad, where many major crashes occur around the world each and everyday. I truly do wish everyone nothing but the best in these unprecedented times, especially those who believe I am a bit crazy and deserving of being an outcast in this current phase of my life. To each his/her own...

[@synapticmemoryseepage4447]

Incredibly intersesting writer and great introduction to him. Ballard's nihilism allows him to see an overcurrent world as it is (but there are many real worlds excluded from the viewpoint), and reminds me of Baudrillard's later ideas, and those that Paul Virilio criticized.

[@EndingSimple]

I remember what living in a high rise apartment building was like. The Projects. Newark, NJ, 1961. My man Ballard was exactly on the money. I remember my mother fulling me away from the center of the elevator floor so I wouldn't step on the urine.

[@claykline2830]

I've always associated Ballard with William Burroughs and Philip K Dick, more than the other British sci fi writers, I don't consider them normal sci-fi, i feel these three had some profound insight each with a different search to seek truth within the simulacra with each writer putting up a fight against these phantoms, like shiva. desire and time being cut , drugs and images entering the body , all obsessed, all analyzing the microscopic. they had a special idea of fiction. Nova express, Atrocity exhibition, valis, these are grasps at something inexhaustible. great video

[@MustafaAlmosawi]

Fantastic editing, and visuals. I’d never heard of JG Ballard before, thanks for introducing him. I’ll add him to my listen list. The movie looks like a good watch, although the ratings are quite poor…

[@DamienWalter]

It's more like an overlong pop video.

[@Madmax-rz5hz]

Thank you for this

[@punkpoetry]

I like how Pope is mentioned as having belonged to the same “British polemic and satiric tradition” as Ballard. You might as well start with Dryden or indeed Chaucer if you’re going to name drop writers at random

[@richardhall5489]

The location for the movie High Rise was a disused leisure centre where I used to swim. Abandoned swimming pools indeed. Real life is reassuringly weird.

[@JohnMccart777]

Never really liked High Rise, but Hello America and Super Cannes really took me on a journey.

[@MountainDewComacho494]

Thanks, but now I can’t get that song "Warm Leatherete" out of my head.

[@atomictraveller]

if it interests anyone to be aware, ballard (and burroughs) was my impetus for developing procedural poetry and song platforms. as per my natal chart and lack of fraternal affiliation, my own work is occluded over the decades while more visible procedural poetry platforms never seemed to get it right. all you have to do, is use pure randomisation to fit words in grammatical form. the english language always had a structure, not one other proceduralist deigned to actually use the rules of the english language when proposing aleatoric method. they all used some clever technical method. it all sucked. my 'twirly purposes' video exhibits such technique (and a "guest" procedural lyrical technique which is distinctly different). of course i'm also afaik the first person in the world to implement procedural lyrical song in both nonrealtime and realtime form, but ML swiftly surpassed any other procedure's efficacy :) there's of course more to it such as EVP but ballard was cued in on procedural media, unfortunately humanity at large missed it, because all that thought provoking information would develop critical thinking instead of buying it at the lodge oops i mean shops. you are being sat upon.

[@earlpipe9713]

"aleatoric" - Thanks to you for expanding my vocabulary.

[@jfffjl]

Tried a couple of Ballard's novels and never could get into them. (Empire of the Sun as a movie is great, however.) I enjoyed this presentation and find myself satisfied that I haven't missed much that is compatible with my recreational reading.

[@throwhammer]

It’s an acquired taste for sure. Some of his short stories are worth a look.

[@paulbigbee]

I wonder if the artist Simon Stålenhag (e.g. Tales from the Loop) was influenced directly, or indirectly, from Ballard. The "vibe" seems very similar. Also, what was that art at 10:16?

[@VladVexlerChat]

Loved this.

[@davidwright8432]

How would Ballard have dealt with Grenfell Tower - an actual 'Towering Inferno'?

[@Toddobvious]

Hunter’s arms in the thumbnail 🤩🤩🤩

[@KittSpiken]

How to crash modernity? Let it run

[@robertgerrity878]

Read Ballard in Fantastic 9/62. An accomplished focus compared to Le Guin's 1st story. Tho 2 of her major themes are in there. Just re-read both online. Miss holding those issues in my hand.

[@aaronjclarke1973]

Fascinating

[@thekeywitness]

Dangerous bends ahead-Speed Up!

[@DamienWalter]

Yes

[@J.Tom.S]

I think this is your best video essay yet, both in content and presentation. Well done! Do you think Ballard would/could have applied his same perspective to the pre-modern man/world? An abandoned pool is an ingenious symbol for our particular breed of nihilism (and maybe it’s the only breed of nihilism), but what about the ocean? Is Ballard’s nihilism just as present in a non-modern world?

[@DamienWalter]

Thank you. It's a new editing style. Great fund to make. I suspect nihilism is a specifically modern attitude. If you really, truly believe the materialist paradigm, with all fantasy stripped away, nihilism is the only honest response. But I don't, so...;)

[@shenanigans3710]

Yes! I think Ballard sees this brutal meaninglessness written into the universe. Just look at the uncaring brutality of nature of his early works. No one ever looks at a landscape in Ballard and thinks "How pretty". Lol. Modernity is just a skin we have applied to try and cope with our own ultimate futility - the blood and the animal desires that we constantly try to wish away. in this sense, the people in Crash who get off on death and sex are ant-heroes, because they see the world for what it really is. Well, that's always been my take 😉

[@thethinkingcatakaneonormie3527]

High-Rise is my favourite of the Ballard books and of the films it is my favourite as I'm working class I'm very much like the cleaner watching these professionals who hate everything in there lives but are doing the snakes and ladders of mortgage payments and the Lotas eaters who don't actually see me I'm a robot nonexistent to these people really high-rise has lots in common with the Time Machine in the class warfare could eventually lead to cannibalism with the Morlock working class eating the rich.

[@parsley8554]

😂 i poosh trolleys rownd a car park with no trolleys in it this video is fantastic it made me think of a with film the devils oly reed ❤❤❤

[@vandolmatzis8146]

Thank you,Am a fan

[@alexanderfloyd5099]

Fantastic!

[@aingealstone8457]

So, I recently picked up Crash and I am struggling with it. Off the cuff I find it quite repulsive. I haven't been able to conquer my own biases against the graphic and disturbing sex that is rampant throughout the story to get to Ballard's message. These triggers of mine, I recognize, are likely unresolved psychological trauma from very early exposure when I was young and not mature enough to process. I may have to avoid Ballard's writing and focus on what others write about him in my effort to understand his message.

[@DamienWalter]

I think this is a major weakness of Ballard, don't feel you have to keep at it.

[@aingealstone8457]

LOL, but I will. It's compulsive. I NEED to understand. I am terminally curious. I'm a librarian by profession - that might explain the compulsion. Thank you for all your videos.

[@aingealstone8457]

@ColbyHebert-wm2mw I was talking about the novel Crash. I have not read Day of Creation. Perhaps, you replied to my post in error?

[@michaelnoonan352]

try his short stories; he was a master of the genre

[@ChimeraActual]

SF, all that, and the point is how we relate to it.

[@tedtorqueoholic3628]

If this video was real, it would be amazing

[@Vesnicie]

Funky soundtrack.

[@agaragar21]

dAMN your killing it with these Ai images !!!!

[@rbdriftin]

The AI images really leave a bad taste

[@alderinjan]

They actually impacted me. I'm unsettled when I recognized them so their inclusion kinda makes sense idk

[@malfeitor1349]

Seems appropriate to me.

[@ghosted1662]

Ok, I admit it, I never noticed all the pools in his writing.

[@DamienWalter]

To my knowledge, this essay is the only complete survey of the Ballardian swimming pool.

[@stellaVista]

@@DamienWalter I´m glad someone finally did it! Are you familiar with the movie The Swimmer (1968) in which Burt Lancaster decides to swim through all the swimmingpools of his neighbours? He decides that his neighbours pools form a river he could swim to back his house. As he returns to his own house he finds the house empty and overgrown. It´s super-Ballardian!

[@DamienWalter]

​@@stellaVistaI love that movie. We need a reboot with J G Ballard living in one of the houses.

[@willtricks9432]

Top, I like his words. Thanks

[@Douglasm101]

...Peter never did explain...

[@DamienWalter]

I don't believe he had it in him to explain JG.

[@edwardrichardson8254]

He was a Late Romantic Decadent, the sci-fi label is absolutely absurd. Could anything be more Freudian than a fixation of pools, a regressive longing for the long lost womb? His stories are prose poems of absolute regression, but the Arcadia he luxuriates in is a dead city, a forest of fallen columns overrun by lizards and poison poppies, but he trivializes it with that same brand of Rousseauism reborn in the postwar generation of the Sixties. His regressive Xanadu of the wrecked high-rise laughably ends in some kind of Robert Bly fantasy of ME TARZAN, YOU JANE postcard from the edge. None of this anything new either. In William Blake's “London,” institutions, symbolized by church and palace, oppress individuals. Their impersonal walls are deaf to the chimney sweep’s cry and soldier’s sigh same as Ballard's traffic jam prisoners. For Blake as with Ballard, buildings are society’s face, abstract, mechanical, lifeless. “London” has a radical new way of seeing grand works of urban architecture as blank, sinister monoliths. Blake prefigures Baudelaire and Kafka in his vision of the dead night-world of the modern city, today Ballard's arid grid of glass and concrete. His novels are the prison dreams of a self-incarcerated, sadomasochistic imaginist.

[@DamienWalter]

Whatever you prompted the AI it worked.

[@richardcorbally232]

I like this video, but that film high rise was not good. Style over substance.