The Unlimited Dream Company (original 1979; edition 1990)

A troubled young man crashes a stolen Cessna and is transformed into a pansexual deity, with the power to create jungle flora and fauna from his semen. The novel is somewhat atypical for JG Ballard in its frankly fantastic aspect -- there is no attempt to stay within the bounds of "realism." But the focus is still the usual Ballardian concern, the need for an ecstatic/sexual/violent awakening from the longours of suburbia. All of Ballard's writerly tics are on display as well -- the repetitive piling on of nouns (mostly lists of birds); an overreliance on quasi-surreal simile; and totally flat characters, aside from the protagonist, who is much like the protagonist of any other Ballard novel, cosmic powers notwithstanding.

A light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton and from the moment the pilot struggles ashore, the town begins to be transformed into the Garden of Eden with the pilot as its pagan god. But is it really happening or is it the fantasy of a dying man based on the last images he saw before the plane crash? Blake's compulsion to crush the breath from other people mirrors his own experiences when drowning and his obsession with mating with all the people and animals of the town represents his desperation to stay alive, so I incline towards it being his fantasy.

Blake's experiences in this novel echo those of the female protagonist of that eerie 1960s horror film "Carnival of Souls"; the crash into the river, the miraculous escape from drowning, the strange compulsions and visions that beset the survivor after the crash and the inability to relate to other people. ( )

The Unlimited Dream Co. by J. G. Ballard

A first person narrative from what seems like a dangerous psychotic as he describes crashing a stolen private plane into the Thames in the suburb region of Shepperton and his rescue/resurrection from the crash. Once revived he begins gradually to exhibit godlike powers -changing into animals, transformative transgressive sexual energy and the capacity for flight. His powers transform the inhabitants of the suburban community. As the title suggests every dream desire is made manifest as the narrator reshapes Shepperton in his own image. Could he be dreaming the whole thing before he dies, as in Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, or Lynch's recent films Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive? It never seems to be articulated.
Crash or The Atrocity Exhibition are always talked about as his most transgressive works but they seem like intellectual exercises in comparison to this work which in it's poetic excess was as wild for me to experience as something like Lautremont's Maldoror or Jodorowsky's film El Topo. Considering that the narrator's name is Blake, it soon becomes clear that Ballard is referencing William Blake, and that's probably an important key with regard to how to read this one. I'll have to bone up on my Blake in coming months.
A wild ride of impossible excess. Upon reflection, it occurs to me that this novel could be considered a perverse cousin of The Lathe of Heaven.

Up for the John W Campbell Memorial Award in 1980. ( )

http://benjohnskinner.blogspot.com/2006/01/books-unlimited-dream-company.html ( )