Climate Fiction Origins: J.G. Ballard's Visionary Worlds

EcoJustice Radio

In this episode, We explore the fascinating world of J.G. Ballard's provocative works, what might later be known as Climate Fiction, written mostly last century. From his early novel "The Drowned World" to the controversial "Crash," we delve into how Ballard's dystopian visions have shaped the genre. We feature insights from a PBS show Hot Mess, a short BBC film Ballard appeared in 1973 exploring his experimental novel of linked short stories called “The Atrocity Exhibition,” and a 2006 South Bank Show interview. We discuss the psychological and societal impacts of Climate Fiction, and how it might inspire change in an era of environmental urgency. First we begin with a 2019 clip from Hot Mess from PBS, featuring Lindsay Ellis, of It’s Lit, and Amy Brady, the editor-in-chief of The Chicago Review of Books. Hot Mess | The Rise of Climate Fiction feat. Lindsay Ellis & Amy Brady | Episode 35 | PBS https://www.pbs.org/video/the-rise-of-climate-fiction-feat-lindsay-ellis-amy-brady-2s2sxh/ The Atrocity Exhibition is J.G. Ballard’s instruction manual on how to disrupt mass media and recontextualize technology in a dystopian landscape overrun with industrial waste and technological white noise. The excerpt is from a 1973 BBC film directed by Harely Cokliss and features Ballard talking about car crash fetishism and the response to the bleak modern landscapes dominated by industrial monotony and the irrational violence of the technology-infused world which would coalesce into his controversial novel Crash, published in 1973. https://youtu.be/QRxpZ142lkI?si=gh5FjzV9BrUvs-r0 The next clip is a 2006 interview of JG Ballard by Melvyn Bragg on the South Bank Show, which also features prominent British authors Will Self, Iain Sinclair, and Martin Amis. https://youtu.be/le0tW1y609w?si=2DeFYxI-wqGe-Cu8 For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio Resources/Articles: https://wilderutopia.com/performance/literary/j-g-ballard-atrocity-exhibition-modernist-motorcar-dystopia/ James Graham Ballard who lived between 1930 and 2009 was an English novelist and short-story writer known for psychologically provocative works that explore relations between human psychology, technology, sex and mass media. Ballard’s original climate fiction work from 1962 was the post-apocalyptic New Wave science fiction novel The Drowned World. He followed with the controversial 1970 short-story collection The Atrocity Exhibition, which includes the 1968 story "Why I Want to F- Ronald Reagan", and later the 1973 novel Crash (1973), a story about car-crash fetishists. In 1984, Ballard won broad critical recognition for the war novel Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical story of the experiences of a British boy during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai;[4] three years later, the American film director Steven Spielberg adapted the novel into a film of the same name. From the distinct nature of the literary fiction of J. G. Ballard arose the adjective Ballardian, defined as: "resembling or suggestive of dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes, and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.