Not my first Ballard novel, but first time reading The Drowned World (and my first review on LibraryThing). Other reviewers have mentioned the racism in the descriptions of Strangman's crew members, and the Martin Amis preface points out the "old chap" language (while ignoring the racism). The term "punkah-wallah" is spoken more than once in the book -- an artifact of colonial servitude.
For a novel set in the 22nd century, there is really no effort on the author's part to incorporate technology, science, history or culture that didn't exist in the 20th century. Characters travel in boats, seaplanes and helicopters. Weapons include a Colt 45, Thompson machine guns, machetes and dynamite. The protagonist carries a compass. He listens to Beethoven and admires paintings by Paul Delvaux and Salvador Dalí. The antagonist (Strangman) quotes John Donne and collects Renaissance and neo-classical artifacts.
The diving apparatus that is used to visit a sunken planetarium is archaic: physically attached to a manually pumped air line and a "telephone" line, even though scuba gear was invented before Ballard's novel was written.
But (as Amis and others have remarked), Ballard's focus is inner space rather than outer space. In his descriptions of flora and fauna (alligators, lizards, giant bats and giant mosquitos), Ballard reminds the reader that the species which survive and thrive in The Drowned World are prehistoric. As the protagonist begins to dream of our own species' show more collective "amniotic past", he detaches from reality and abandons any effort to rejoin the human community of survivors, to save any of his fellow men, or to ensure his own survival. Since the story is one of decay and devolution, there's no need for Ballard to dazzle the reader with spaceships or futuristic technology. show less
For a novel set in the 22nd century, there is really no effort on the author's part to incorporate technology, science, history or culture that didn't exist in the 20th century. Characters travel in boats, seaplanes and helicopters. Weapons include a Colt 45, Thompson machine guns, machetes and dynamite. The protagonist carries a compass. He listens to Beethoven and admires paintings by Paul Delvaux and Salvador Dalí. The antagonist (Strangman) quotes John Donne and collects Renaissance and neo-classical artifacts.
The diving apparatus that is used to visit a sunken planetarium is archaic: physically attached to a manually pumped air line and a "telephone" line, even though scuba gear was invented before Ballard's novel was written.
But (as Amis and others have remarked), Ballard's focus is inner space rather than outer space. In his descriptions of flora and fauna (alligators, lizards, giant bats and giant mosquitos), Ballard reminds the reader that the species which survive and thrive in The Drowned World are prehistoric. As the protagonist begins to dream of our own species' show more collective "amniotic past", he detaches from reality and abandons any effort to rejoin the human community of survivors, to save any of his fellow men, or to ensure his own survival. Since the story is one of decay and devolution, there's no need for Ballard to dazzle the reader with spaceships or futuristic technology. show less