A Fascist State? Another Look at Kingdom Come and Consumerism
By Mike Holliday • Jul 7th, 2010 •
Category: Bentall Centre, Lead Story, Salvador Dali, Shanghai, advertising, architecture, celebrity culture, consumerism, dystopia, fascism, features, media landscape, speed & violence, sport, surrealism
Ballard’s final novel, Kingdom Come, a dystopian account of consumerism as a type of ’soft fascism’, received lukewarm reviews and suggestions that the author was, perhaps, finally losing his touch. Others were eager to point to parallels between it and events around us: aggressive car commercials, racist behaviour by sports fanatics. In this article, Mike Holliday re-examines Kingdom Come and asks: can we really equate consumerism with fascism?
