http://www.ballardian.com/a-thousand-cerise-and-cyclamen-lights Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:59:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.ballardian.com/a-thousand-cerise-and-cyclamen-lights/comment-page-1#comment-305 Iain Tue, 08 May 2007 18:21:10 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-thousand-cerise-and-cyclamen-lights/#comment-305 I suspect there is a confusion here. The formal constraints of the dystopian genre clearly do not apply to Ballard's work, he's far too slippery for that. However the concept of (dys)topia as a topos, a (bad) place in space and time, could be said to apply to the way in which Ballard uses his settings. Spaces, such as the High Rise, or the Metrocentre, or the Eden-Olympia could be said to be somewhat malevolant in nature. The suburban nightmare spaces, Ballard's distorted versions of outer London, are certainly unsettling visions. Malevolant spaces = bad places = dystopian settings? Experimentations with utopia (eutopia) building and utopia building gone wrong also seem to be a recurrent themes - for instance the god-like Blake in The Unlimited Dream Company (dreams and utopia), the pleasure dome of the Metro-centre, or the Eden-Olympia. Whether Ballard disapproves or approves of such experimentation is uncertain. As such they consitute a theme but cannot be said to formally comply with utopian or anti-utopian generic constraints. The settings might be dystopian in nature but the way in which the narrative functions certainly is not. I suspect there is a confusion here. The formal constraints of the dystopian genre clearly do not apply to Ballard’s work, he’s far too slippery for that. However the concept of (dys)topia as a topos, a (bad) place in space and time, could be said to apply to the way in which Ballard uses his settings. Spaces, such as the High Rise, or the Metrocentre, or the Eden-Olympia could be said to be somewhat malevolant in nature. The suburban nightmare spaces, Ballard’s distorted versions of outer London, are certainly unsettling visions. Malevolant spaces = bad places = dystopian settings? Experimentations with utopia (eutopia) building and utopia building gone wrong also seem to be a recurrent themes – for instance the god-like Blake in The Unlimited Dream Company (dreams and utopia), the pleasure dome of the Metro-centre, or the Eden-Olympia. Whether Ballard disapproves or approves of such experimentation is uncertain. As such they consitute a theme but cannot be said to formally comply with utopian or anti-utopian generic constraints. The settings might be dystopian in nature but the way in which the narrative functions certainly is not.

]]> http://www.ballardian.com/a-thousand-cerise-and-cyclamen-lights/comment-page-1#comment-304 Vaughan Mon, 17 Jul 2006 06:47:09 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-thousand-cerise-and-cyclamen-lights/#comment-304 agree... which is why the dystopian label shouldn't be applied to ballard -- as you suggest, his work defies categorisation. agree… which is why the dystopian label shouldn’t be applied to ballard — as you suggest, his work defies categorisation.

]]> http://www.ballardian.com/a-thousand-cerise-and-cyclamen-lights/comment-page-1#comment-303 Pisces Iscariot Sun, 16 Jul 2006 07:09:19 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-thousand-cerise-and-cyclamen-lights/#comment-303 Why the big need to pidgeonhole? By defining you lose much of the magic. Why the big need to pidgeonhole? By defining you lose much of the magic.

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