Tuesday 17 September 2013

J.G Ballard's Manhole 69

J.G Ballard's Manhole 69. A Brief surmising of his short story.


I shall begin by introducing this blog, perhaps it isn't the right setting to do so but keeping it within this brief piece on a short story should ensure it is kept to a minimum and without pomp and boastfulness, something of which I hold no purposeful claim to in the first place. Having not consciously read or scrutinized any blog before writing my maiden sentences, I hope this should dissolve any imitation or cliches, yet the mind has that habit of lazily returning to cliches. As had happened to many budding bloggers before my blog title stumped me, from where to I find inspiration? How can I summarize my feelings and intents by a single sentence. However the very act of a title misled me into thinking that the title referred to the title of this piece on Manhole 69 and not my blog as a whole. Don't worry I shall get around to talking about the short story eventually, I'll even include a shortcut to those unwilling to drudge through egotistical whinging before arriving at the meat of the article, so the part about Ballard really begins on the third paragraph. I believe I've thumped out enough words and quarter original ideas by this juncture to refer to my piece as an article, please don't be surprised if by the conclusion I'm thanking my parents and saying I'll come back even stronger next year, with that forced tear sprinkling from my eye. Regarding myself on this introduction to the blog I shall not give out specifics on my character, after all, on the interwebs one can take on any form and to put limits on my character would ruin your personal and wild imaginations. The words I use alone can help to form a fuller picture for that is all you have to go by and by starting from the beginning and creating anew, the possibilities are far greater for what a person can become. 

The very nature of blogs in this computerized and instant one week celebrity generation is the nature of selfishness, unjust, unearned pride and the illusion of power. The power and possibility of reaching the whole audience of those knowledge and entertainment hungry internet users is very much so the appeal of these blogs, that gamble and earnest plea to be heard by thousands, nay millions of people, all absorbing and learning from your work. This gamble is like winning the lottery twice using only one lottery ticket, yet there are some who achieved something close, for example... well I can't think of any right now because my entire brain capability is focused on the work of Ballard's short stories but I'm sure if I had some machine to search information quickly I would be able to think of at least fourteen examples. The formula needed to attain such worldwide heights is very particular, maybe not particular in your subject matter because the more specialized one becomes the less likely you are to attract the interests of all tastes but particular in a broad range of topics, humour and general likability. I will initially begin with discussing some of J.G Ballard's short stories and perhaps some of his novels as I've read a few so far and plan to open some more in the future. I plan to continue this blog also, or at least I say that to keep you hoping for more of this prattling banter to come in this talked about future of mine. Ballard is one of my three favourite authors right now and I understand he will not appeal to all, there are close to maybe two million other novels out there so finding a Ballard among them and actually deciding to read it can be a rare thing. I think it's time to move this most honoured article further towards the British author and completely zoom in on his work, themes and frightening, recessional and ugly future.

Ballard is famous for being a writer. OK, now my readers know at least close to what I know about the man. To know more all you need to do is read this stuff that he writes, such as Manhole 69, I'm starting with this story because I just read it yesterday, I'm going to read the next one in my collection later this evening and the following story tomorrow, my life should continue something like that for the next while, including all that eating and sleeping business. This story involves two scientists, Neill, the 'boss' who masterminded this experiment to eliminate the need for humans to sleep, and then the other scientist, Morley, a meeker and more friendly chap whom the reader can associate with and experience things through his eyes. The story is told in third person however and we are soon introduced to the three guinea pigs for this experiment, Ballard tries to give each one a unique personality but if Ballard has thought us anything, it's that experiments and the subjects involved will not meet a happy ending, so the need to familiarize ourselves with these guinea pigs is less advantageous. As the experiment begins there is an uncanny feeling for the reader, I have survived through one whole All Nighter and I can safely say it's not an experience I'd like to repeat two or three times in a row so I can only imagine the strains and the artificial mechanics working inside these subject's bodies and minds. This whole feeling that the reader gets and the vibe that Ballard describes makes us unsettled, even his setting is sterile and cavernous, leaving no sense of familiarity or naturalism. The subjects are kept in a high walled gymnasium with little furnishings, at the start described with having many windows and doors from which they can be monitored but as the subjects lose their sanity and are left alone to drown in their own thoughts the gym shrinks around them and the doors and windows vanish as their external space mirrors their internal mind and the walls implode into each other.  

There are some clever musings regarding death in this story, the main guinea pig, Lang, has a few talks with Morley over both death and life after death, this being the life of other humans and the evolutionary grind. Lang asks Morley what is the next progression up the "evolutionary slope" and Morley responds by dismissing that their experiment is truly helping mankind evolve and that humans still carry around remnants of our earlier species that emerged from the sea. This theme of devolution or instinctual regression is seem in other Ballard stories such as The Drowned World or The Crystal World. Lang also has the notion that sleep is just the bodies way of preparing us for death, that each time we sleep we go into a sort of death, we do not consciously know what is happening and get transported away to dream lands separate from our worldly body. However this separation from mind and body can have its benefits, the final reason that this experiment fails can be because the subjects were overloaded with themselves, 24/7 mental activity cannot be sustained in that mighty brain.      

    


No comments:

Post a Comment