J g ballards highrise, published 40 years ago and soon to be seen on cinema screens in a film adaptation directed by ben wheatley, begins with one of the most arresting first sentences in. Why jg ballards highrise takes dystopian science fiction. Distrubing psychological look at what happens when we let. Why jg ballards highrise takes dystopian science fiction to a new. The 1975 novel high rise, where a social breakdown develops within a luxury highrise building, was the third in this thematic trilogy and differs from the other two in that a relatively. A new social type was being created by the apartment building, a cool, unemotional personality impervious to the psychological pressures of highrise life, with minimal needs for privacy, who thrived like an advanced species of machine in the neutral atmosphere. And although laing, the observer, is the novels only surviving male character. In highrise, ballard has created an isolated environment for the close study of how an ultramodern apartment block can transform its denizens into a new, aggressive society based on the premise that living in a motherly machine will allow your neurons to rewire into whatever psycho state youve been unconsciously repressing in the real world that place ballard believes is the ultimate fiction.
In many ways, jg ballard s highrise reminded me of his earlier dystopian novel, the drowned world. Ballard has often told interviewers that his characters. Conditions in the apartment block at the epicenter of this novel constantly degrade. Ballard at least in highrise immediately reveals that he is not an easytoread author. The setting is a brand new, brilliantly architected highrise residential building on the outskirts. Tom hiddleston in conversation bafta new york duration. The occupants of the highrise gradually devolve from civil professionals to violent marauders. Like the drowned world in which creatures adapt to a suddenly changed and very wet earth, there is continuous adaptation from the apartment dwellers to the pressures of living in what has increasingly become a hostile environment. I am relatively new to ballard and wanted my first read of his to be the drowned world, but i think i will begin with highrise now.
In highrise and concrete island especially, ballard examines. During the 1970s ballard published a number of books that were both quintessential new wave sf and at the same time, hardly sf at all, particularly three powerful novels crash, concrete island and high rise. As with ballards previous novels crash 1973 and concrete island 1974, highrise explores the ways in which modern social and technological landscapes. It possess all of the facilities needed to sustain human life. To ask other readers questions about highrise, please sign up. Free download or read online high rise pdf epub book. Ballard james graham ballard highrise is a 1975 novel by british writer j. Ballards story is a luxury highrise in 1970s london. In ballards novel, the eponymous highrise is presciently sited where one canada square, the iconically dull centrepiece of canary wharf.
Ballard coming in march 2016 from acclaimed director ben wheatley, a major motion picture adaptation of j. I will never want it to happen, but when i read this dystopia somehow, it didnt feel like one, it exhausted me. Highrise is a book that continually shocks the reader and enjoys it. This was the sort of resident who was content to do nothing but sit in his overpriced apartment, watch television with the sound.
Ballard s compelling and unnerving tale of what happens when life in a luxury apartment building descends into chaos, starring tom hiddleston, jeremy irons, sienna miller, luke evans and elisabeth moss. The first edition of the novel was published in 1975, and was written by j. The story describes the disintegration of a luxury highrise building as its affluent residents gradually. Reconstructing highrise by rick mcgrath a night patrol creeps along a dark hallway past a barricade of desks. High rise bbc 1975 trailer a trailer for a what if the bbc had adapted j. Roger luckhurst introduces highrise, j g ballards novel about the. The story describes the disintegration of a luxury highrise building as its affluent residents gradually descend into violent chaos. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of ballards works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers including iain sinclair, ali smith, neil. He imagines a world in which all authority and social conventions are stripped away, and the darkest sides of human nature are given free rein. In highrise, ballard has created an isolated environment for the close study of. What would j g ballard have made of the new highrise film. The unlimited dream company 1979 highrise is a 1975 novel by british writer j. And he laces it with an almost expressionless grandeur as protagonist robert laing in highrise, ben wheatleys adaptation of j.