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Kingdom Come (2006)

by J.G. Ballard(Favorite Author)

3.36 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0871403196 (ISBN13: 9780871403193)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Liveright

review 1: ferocious read on consumer fascism tying it neatly to the channeling of violence through sports spectatorship, football hooliganism and mall culture. Set in the British motorway towns (exurbia) bubbling with racist rancor against Asian shopkeepers and other affronts to national pride, the action tracks the evolution of politics from a practice associated with Parliament, voting booths and democratic discussions to a set of emotional impulses linked to cash registers, easy credit, retail complexes and advertising dominance. In this typically dystopian take on consumer pleasure, shopping boredom is alleviated with regular cathartic doses of rage in the streets that unfold as fan-related exuberance after football matches. Since communication forms have become entirely a bra... morench of advertising language, even school teachers participate in the new consumer fascist order that channels shopping crowd behavior into patriotic window-breaking and car-torchings, conducted under the aegis of giant LED screens beaming the hosted cable channel sponsored by the region's super-mall. Shot through with acid reflections on the new forms of citizenship that render free speech and privacy obsolete, Ballard, in his last production strikes another blow at the Empire.
review 2: I always find it hard to describe Ballard: his imagery combining the modern world with the subconscious psyche is often shamanic, and is no less powerful here in its deconstruction of suburban malls. But its all imagery, this one, with only the barest of plot and a very strange pace. I enjoyed it, and would dip into parts of it again for some of the insights you can only get from Ballard - but I can't see myself reading the whole thing again. less

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