Facets of the Apocalypse in J. G. Ballard's Early Novels

ABSTRACT. James Graham Ballard (1930-2009) was a British author who, along with Brian Aldiss, Michael Moorcock and John Brunner, initiated a revolutionary trend in speculative fiction known as New Wave. In this paper I chose to examine his first four novels, published in the early and mid-1960s, and to identify a number of themes and literary techniques they share.Keywords: J.G. Ballard; New Wave; British science fiction; surrealism; painting; catastrophicJ. G. Ballard's earliest novel, The Wind from Nowhere, was written in 1961 and published for the first time in January 1962 by Berkley Books.Briefly, a global catastrophe occurs because streams of wind start blowing all around planet Earth, accelerating with five miles per hour every day. As the wind reaches unprecedented speed, it tears down buildings, blows away cars, destroys planes and runs ships aground, effectively destroying human civilization as we know it.Far-fetched as this may sound, such a pattern of violent circular winds is dominant in the upper atmosphere of giant gas planets such as Jupiter and Saturn.However, what makes The Wind from Nowhere a memorable book is the way in which these extraordinary phenomena are perceived by ordinary characters, and the ways in which individuals and societies cope with the catastrophe.The opening chapter focuses on Donald Maitland, who, due to a heavy wind that carries dust and reduces visibility, cannot fly from Britain to Canada. Maitland is what later on came to be thought of as an emblematic Ballardian character. He is an educated Englishman, an introvert, he is at the bitter end of a marriage with a powerful, outspoken woman, he has a sharp sense of observation and a preference for solitary meditations in abandoned places.The next chapters switch to an American submarine commander, Lanyon, whose mission is to travel from northern Italy to southern France in order to retrieve a general's dead body, and to a British executive, Simon Marshall, who is in charge of a telecommunication center involved in the government's efforts to cope with the crisis.As the wind's speed increases to more than 180 miles per hour, buildings collapse, the topsoil gets blown away, industrial machinery is wrecked. People build corridors of sandbags (a Blitzkrieg reminiscence that was actually used to fight Thames floods in post-war years) and take shelter in subway tunnels.Meanwhile, an industrial magnate named Hardoon uses his wealth, machinery and personal army to build a pyramid designed to stand the cataclysmic wind. However, Hardoon proves to be cruel. He refuses safety to the very people who built the pyramid. His goons murder characters they were supposed to save, and Simon Marshall, in his dying moments, broadcasts a warning to the world.After a final confrontation, the pyramid is flooded and topples in a ravine, while Maitland, Lanyon and a few others escape. And the wind begins to subside, just as mysteriously as it had started.Part of the novel's appeal consists in the gradual development it is based on, a steady worsening of conditions which the narrator documents with realistic details and backs up with scientific data and global news. It begins with an average character in an average situation (riding in a taxi to catch a flight which was delayed by heavy wind and poor visibility), progresses through stages where individuals, communities and societies react quite convincingly to extreme situations, and ends in a complete disaster. Paradoxically, the readers feel relieved at the ending, rather than appalled.Another interesting aspect is that, unlike Golden-Age hard science fiction, The Wind from Nowhere features a balance between iron-willed, hyper-masculine characters like Commander Lanyon and New-Wave, introspective characters such as Donald Maitland. Moreover, the hard-SF axiom that with enough science and enough technology Man will triumph over nature is shaken from the cornerstones. …

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