Fiction Friday (43)

Well, my goal of reading more this year has failed miserably so far. I foolishly thought that by choosing a rather slim novel would propel me farther along, but hadn't counted on it being one of those books that I purposely wanted to go through slowly in order to cherish the language displayed in the text. Also when I set that goal for myself, I hadn't counted on the fact that I'd be going back to school for my Master's degree. That has taken up much of my reading time, which has also contributed to my desire to enjoy the reading I do for pleasure. All that said, I finished a book this week and wanted to share my thoughts. Enjoy. 

The Unlimited Dream Company by J.G. Ballard
(1979)

I first encountered this book a few years back while reading a book of Ballard quotes and frequently found myself highlighting passages taken from this novel. The surrealist imagery displayed in the passages pretty much assured that this would be my kind of book, and having read it, it certainly was.

As with other Ballard novels, it deals with complicated and borderline obscene portrayals of sex and death and the way the two seem intertwined within his mind. But unlike some of his more controlled use of language and structure, this book has a freedom that I hadn't encountered in his other work. As the title suggests, this book follows a dream logic, complete with the flights that dreams tend to take. 

 The book follows Blake after he crashes a small, stolen airplane into the Thames as it flows through Shepperton. What proceeds is part science-fiction, part marriage of heaven and hell, and a series of bizarre miracles and crimes that often leave the reader feeling perplexed, yet captivated. 

This is the book that I'd been waiting for in all my encounters with Ballard. The language is poetic. The scenery is transcendent. And the plot, surreal. This is an astonishing work of fiction that feels more in tune with the French avant garde writers than the post-modernists, but manages to carve its own path through the world of fiction.

Brave New World

The totalitarian systems of the future will be obsequious and subservient, plying us with drinks and soft slippers like a hostess on an airliner, adjusting our TV screen for us so that we won't ask exactly where the plane is going, or even whether there is a pilot on board.

J.G. Ballard (1998 interview)

I've been reading the above book lately, which by the way is an excellent medium to digest Ballard, whose ideas I've always thought to be more intriguing than his prose. But anyway, this quote really struck me because I fear we're already there, in this vision of his. This brand of self-delusion is so prevalent in all of Western societies. You see it everywhere. People don't want to think about things. They don't want to question the information fed to them by media sources. They don't want to consider the ramifications of not only their governments' actions, but also their own consumer habits. As long they can be secluded in the safe illusion of their homes and cars and things, who cares what the government does. 

In many ways, we are living in a totalitarian world...we just don't seem to care. It seems most are happy being the workers of the hive.

Sorry for the downer Saturday, but sometimes things need to be said.