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Rushing to Paradise
Led by a charismatic and slightly unhinged woman, a group of environmentalists wrest control over a small South Pacific island in hopes of cultivating it into their own private Eden. But paradise is not quite what it seems in this “searing” (Kirkus Reviews) send-up of environmentalism, feminism, and extremism of all sorts.
271 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1994
About the author
J.G. Ballard
411 books3,847 followersJames Graham "J. G." Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Ballard came to be associated with the New Wave of science fiction early in his career with apocalyptic (or post-apocalyptic) novels such as The Drowned World (1962), The Burning World (1964), and The Crystal World (1966). In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ballard focused on an eclectic variety of short stories (or "condensed novels") such as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which drew closer comparison with the work of postmodernist writers such as William S. Burroughs. In 1973 the highly controversial novel Crash was published, a story about symphorophilia and car crash fetishism; the protagonist becomes sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car crashes. The story was later adapted into a film of the same name by Canadian director David Cronenberg.
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
April 22, 2012
In 1995 France decided it would be a good idea to renew nuclear testing, and set off several bombs in the South Pacific. ‘Rushing to Paradise’ is J.G Ballard’s reaction. But this being Ballard, this is no simple anti-nuclear tract, or even environmental tale. In fact this is one of the trickiest, most inventive and impossible to predict books I’ve read in a long awhile.
Neil, a British adolescent, hooks up with Dr Barbara – a struck off and clearly disturbed doctor, with a passionate interest in the environment. They make their way to an atoll in the Pacific, with the intention of stopping any French nuclear tests in the area and saving the albatross indigenous to the island. The celebrity they get for their actions makes them a beacon for other environmentalists and do-gooders, but it soon becomes awfully clear that all is not as it should be on the island and that Dr Barbara’s view of what constitutes an endangered species has moved on.
Ballard has created a genuinely engrossing novel, which – much like the best of his work – does not follow any predictable path. No other writer could have written this book, which is interesting as it both takes him far away from his comfort zone of West London and utilises his youngest central character outside the autobiographical ‘Empire of the Sun’. It’s possible that some might find Neil’s guilelessness a little trying, but I think the intensity of his self delusion is perfectly fitting with the almost cult like existence he finds himself in.
Nuclear tests have fallen onto the backburner news-wise in recent times, but we still have more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet (and a seemingly an ever growing number of countries determined to add to the arsenal), so this book may become frighteningly relevant again within the next couple of years. Even if it doesn’t (and I really hope it doesn’t), this is a really clever and twisted version tale, with takes parts from ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘The Lord of the Flies’ and ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ to make something truly original.
Neil, a British adolescent, hooks up with Dr Barbara – a struck off and clearly disturbed doctor, with a passionate interest in the environment. They make their way to an atoll in the Pacific, with the intention of stopping any French nuclear tests in the area and saving the albatross indigenous to the island. The celebrity they get for their actions makes them a beacon for other environmentalists and do-gooders, but it soon becomes awfully clear that all is not as it should be on the island and that Dr Barbara’s view of what constitutes an endangered species has moved on.
Ballard has created a genuinely engrossing novel, which – much like the best of his work – does not follow any predictable path. No other writer could have written this book, which is interesting as it both takes him far away from his comfort zone of West London and utilises his youngest central character outside the autobiographical ‘Empire of the Sun’. It’s possible that some might find Neil’s guilelessness a little trying, but I think the intensity of his self delusion is perfectly fitting with the almost cult like existence he finds himself in.
Nuclear tests have fallen onto the backburner news-wise in recent times, but we still have more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet (and a seemingly an ever growing number of countries determined to add to the arsenal), so this book may become frighteningly relevant again within the next couple of years. Even if it doesn’t (and I really hope it doesn’t), this is a really clever and twisted version tale, with takes parts from ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘The Lord of the Flies’ and ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau’ to make something truly original.
September 6, 2019
I read this about three years ago while staying in a cottage in North Yorkshire and remember quite enjoying it overall. An environmental campaign ends up dissolving into a sort of shipwrecked survival type novel, with a dark overtone to it all. It felt a little bit like a darker, slightly more sinister version of the program Lost at times and as a reader you never quite know what's around the corner as it is quite bizarre. The Neil character was interesting as he was a teenager stranded with all these odd adults, trying to make it through the ordeal and keep his head down and you feel for him as things progress. Doctor Barbara is the stand out character in the book and is quite a memorable and domineering female presence, as she decides to take the bull by the horns in her own unusual and troubling way...
I think fans of Lost and other desert island dark adventure type programs/novels will enjoy this book and its fairly easy reading and pretty gripping for the most part- not your average island adventure and an interesting if not mind blowing novel.
December 1, 2023
Ballard ne yazsa okurum diyeceğim yazarlardan biri oldu artık, bu kitapla kesin kararımı verdim. Pasifik’te bir adada yaşamın korunması için yapılan eylemle açılıyor roman. Adaya gidip albatrosları koruma altına almaya çalışan bir doktor ve doktor ile denize hayran bir genç olan Neil ekseninde gelişiyor olaylar. Bir çevreci olan doktor Barbara nükleer denemeleri protesto ederken ona destek olan insanlar daha başka planlar peşinde olduğunu fark eder. Barbara adada kurduğu sığınağı bir tür tarikata çevirir. Barbara’nın akli dengesinin yerinde olmadığını çok ustaca anlatıyor. Karakterin talepkarlığı bir liderde asla sırıtmıyor ama deliliğe gidişi de bir o kadar hızlı oluyor. Neil ise güçlü karakterin etkisindeki genç erkek gibi görünüyor. Ödipal komplekslerini açıkça görüyoruz.
Ballard’ın nükleer felaketlere olan takıntısı yaşadığı dönemi düşününce çok normal geliyor. Kitap da yazıldığı dönem daha büyük bir önem taşıyor. Ama etkisini yitirmiş bir yapıt değil. Ballard’ın toplumun ilerlemesine yönelik şüpheciliği bugün daha da anlamlı diyebilirim. Toplumdan ayrılan küçük grupların histerik çöküşleri de bence üstüne düşünülmesi gereken bir fenomen.
Ballard’ın nükleer felaketlere olan takıntısı yaşadığı dönemi düşününce çok normal geliyor. Kitap da yazıldığı dönem daha büyük bir önem taşıyor. Ama etkisini yitirmiş bir yapıt değil. Ballard’ın toplumun ilerlemesine yönelik şüpheciliği bugün daha da anlamlı diyebilirim. Toplumdan ayrılan küçük grupların histerik çöküşleri de bence üstüne düşünülmesi gereken bir fenomen.
January 28, 2012
Initially, faced with another physician-of-questionable-reputation character and a character with a nuclear weapons fascination and the inevitability of an isolated microcosm of society setting for most of the book, I found myself wondering if I really needed to read any more Ballard? All of these were old hat; nuclear obsessions: Empire of the Sun, Dubious Doctor: Day of Creation, microcosm; Concrete Island, Day of Creation, Empire of the Sun...well I stuck with it and was very well rewarded. The slow pace picked up dramatically once the scene was set and continued to accelerate through the book, which turned out to be quite a 'friller, which is not the first thing that would enter my head if you asked me to describe Ballard's work. It is also a supremely well constructed novel where the history of the characters prior to the novel's opening appears on the face of it merely to be an excuse to set up a situation but in fact ramify through-out the novel's action. It's the type of combination of character, setting and incident combining to make the story seem inevitable that I normally associate with Ursula LeGuin at her best (and I can offer little higher praise).
Many have noted the fact that Ballard's career has followed a reverse trend from that of many main-stream novelists in the sense that most start heavily autobiographically in theme or content and get less so as time goes on where-as Ballard did the reverse. This book shows considerable biographical influence: a boy with a nuclear bomb fascination who is used and abused by a surrogate mother-figure whose psychological influence he apparently never escapes from, despite his physical escape from her horrors and depradations - and what a woman! Ballard has often portrayed women that are mentally stronger and more demanding than most men and Dr. Barbara Rafferty is perhaps the epitome. She is also slow revealed as being utterly unhinged - frighteningly crazy in fact - and the dangerously insane but convincingly real character is another Ballard theme. People with a will to power in a world isolated and small enough for them to obtain it. Rafferty's insane urge is not merely to control but to test everything; as things and people fail these tests so the survivors are pushed to ever more stringent tests. In Rafferty's world, only the fit deserve life and she judges who and what is fit. In the end everyone and everything is found to be weak; only she is strong enough to thrive - everything else is judged and found wanting.
Of Ballard's bleak attempts to show how the modern world continually builds its societies and how they subsequently collapse, this is perhaps the one I like most - at least so far as I've read. Do I need to read another Ballard? Perhaps I do.
Many have noted the fact that Ballard's career has followed a reverse trend from that of many main-stream novelists in the sense that most start heavily autobiographically in theme or content and get less so as time goes on where-as Ballard did the reverse. This book shows considerable biographical influence: a boy with a nuclear bomb fascination who is used and abused by a surrogate mother-figure whose psychological influence he apparently never escapes from, despite his physical escape from her horrors and depradations - and what a woman! Ballard has often portrayed women that are mentally stronger and more demanding than most men and Dr. Barbara Rafferty is perhaps the epitome. She is also slow revealed as being utterly unhinged - frighteningly crazy in fact - and the dangerously insane but convincingly real character is another Ballard theme. People with a will to power in a world isolated and small enough for them to obtain it. Rafferty's insane urge is not merely to control but to test everything; as things and people fail these tests so the survivors are pushed to ever more stringent tests. In Rafferty's world, only the fit deserve life and she judges who and what is fit. In the end everyone and everything is found to be weak; only she is strong enough to thrive - everything else is judged and found wanting.
Of Ballard's bleak attempts to show how the modern world continually builds its societies and how they subsequently collapse, this is perhaps the one I like most - at least so far as I've read. Do I need to read another Ballard? Perhaps I do.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2023
Ho sbagliato sicuramente a iniziare la lettura di Ballard da questo libro, anche se ho capito l'intento dello scrittore di mostrare gli aspetti più "incoerenti" dei movimenti ambientalisti e "femministi". Ne prendo atto e vado avanti con la lettura di altri suoi libri, mi dispiace solo di non saperlo apprezzare.
July 24, 2017
Of all the many commentaries on and interpretations of JG Ballard's novels and short stories, this, by the man himself, is the remark which stays with me:
‘One of the things I took from my wartime experiences was that reality was a stage set … the comfortable day-to-day life, school, the home where one lives and all the rest of it … could be dismantled overnight.’
Thus the sudden stripping away within his narratives of social norms and 'civilised' behaviour occasioned by a single change in the fabric of everyday experience: the shipwreck of a traffic accident, revolution and barbarity in a block of flats, the transformation of wealthy suburbs and resorts into war zones. The corollary, of course, is the expectation, precipitation, and revelling in these shifts by certain of Ballard's characters, psychopathic shaman-figures for whom they are both opportunity and self-realisation. The charismatic manipulation by such individuals of their willing followers among other *dramatis personae*, typically including Ballard's surrogate-narrator, is a recurrent structural theme. Thus the interior desires, will to power, survival-instinct, and sham of external 'personality' are exposed and worked out, in tales as disparate as "Crash", "High Rise", "Millennium People" and, of course, the semi-autobiographical "Empire of the Sun".
Ballard's scepticism about 'progressive' views of human development and society are also much to the fore in this novel, whose mad, driven figurehead, Dr Barbara Rafferty, is ostensibly motivated by ecological concerns which quickly mutate into a sequence of increasingly dark, murderous, and horribly logical, if barely coherent, steps into tyranny reminiscent of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Golding's "Lord of the Flies". In this descent into the inferno she is accompanied by a willing band of ethnically and professionally disparate supporters seeking the kind of thing that cult members always seek when they subordinate their individual obsessions and insecurities to a controlling mind. Ballard's narrator in this case is motivated more by an obsession with nuclear destruction than saving wildlife, and the novel's setting - an obscure island previously dedicated to atomic weapons testing - recalls both Ballard's own earlier "The Atrocity Exhibition" as well as the venue for Shakespeare's "Tempest", over which Dr Rafferty exercises the necromantic control of an evil Prospero.
I often wonder if the usually left-wing, usually socially-optimistic inhabitants of what one might call the Literary Establishment, which nowadays has accorded Ballard the full recognition he deserves as one of the greatest English writers of the late 20th/early 21st centuries, have fully appreciated the dark, individualist pessimism that underpins his entire *oeuvre*. I certainly don't believe he considered that the 'perfectibility' of society or human actions was either possible or desirable.The best of his characters are amoral, and the circumstances in which they act are not conducive to improvement - only arbitrary and disruptive change. The unblinking recognition of this, and the ability to render it in sharp, witty, memorable prose are what make him and his work so special. Few writers are willing, not just to stare into the abyss, but to live with it as an ever-present reality.
‘One of the things I took from my wartime experiences was that reality was a stage set … the comfortable day-to-day life, school, the home where one lives and all the rest of it … could be dismantled overnight.’
Thus the sudden stripping away within his narratives of social norms and 'civilised' behaviour occasioned by a single change in the fabric of everyday experience: the shipwreck of a traffic accident, revolution and barbarity in a block of flats, the transformation of wealthy suburbs and resorts into war zones. The corollary, of course, is the expectation, precipitation, and revelling in these shifts by certain of Ballard's characters, psychopathic shaman-figures for whom they are both opportunity and self-realisation. The charismatic manipulation by such individuals of their willing followers among other *dramatis personae*, typically including Ballard's surrogate-narrator, is a recurrent structural theme. Thus the interior desires, will to power, survival-instinct, and sham of external 'personality' are exposed and worked out, in tales as disparate as "Crash", "High Rise", "Millennium People" and, of course, the semi-autobiographical "Empire of the Sun".
Ballard's scepticism about 'progressive' views of human development and society are also much to the fore in this novel, whose mad, driven figurehead, Dr Barbara Rafferty, is ostensibly motivated by ecological concerns which quickly mutate into a sequence of increasingly dark, murderous, and horribly logical, if barely coherent, steps into tyranny reminiscent of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Golding's "Lord of the Flies". In this descent into the inferno she is accompanied by a willing band of ethnically and professionally disparate supporters seeking the kind of thing that cult members always seek when they subordinate their individual obsessions and insecurities to a controlling mind. Ballard's narrator in this case is motivated more by an obsession with nuclear destruction than saving wildlife, and the novel's setting - an obscure island previously dedicated to atomic weapons testing - recalls both Ballard's own earlier "The Atrocity Exhibition" as well as the venue for Shakespeare's "Tempest", over which Dr Rafferty exercises the necromantic control of an evil Prospero.
I often wonder if the usually left-wing, usually socially-optimistic inhabitants of what one might call the Literary Establishment, which nowadays has accorded Ballard the full recognition he deserves as one of the greatest English writers of the late 20th/early 21st centuries, have fully appreciated the dark, individualist pessimism that underpins his entire *oeuvre*. I certainly don't believe he considered that the 'perfectibility' of society or human actions was either possible or desirable.The best of his characters are amoral, and the circumstances in which they act are not conducive to improvement - only arbitrary and disruptive change. The unblinking recognition of this, and the ability to render it in sharp, witty, memorable prose are what make him and his work so special. Few writers are willing, not just to stare into the abyss, but to live with it as an ever-present reality.
May 27, 2021
The strongest element of Rushing to Paradise is its intriguing main character, Neil Dempsey, a teenage boy who loves open water swimming. Environmental activist Dr. Barbara convinces him to protest nuclear testing with her on an albatross nesting colony in the South Pacific. Neil and Dr. Barbara are accompanied by a small group of activists from around the world. Their political focuses vary wildly – indigenous land sovereignty, memorializing victims of war, legalization of marijuana – but they are united by their agreement that nuclear testing on the island must stop. The sanctuary Dr. Barbara and the others form on the island is a powder keg of agreements and disagreements that ultimately drive the plot.
Rushing to Paradise is comprised of long, slow burn exposition that builds towards a short climax. I think the structure of the plot would be better suited to film than writing. Dr. Barbara’s sanctuary is . Only the final chapter provides the full explanation of Neil Dempsey’s infatuation with Dr. Barbara.
Rushing to Paradise is comprised of long, slow burn exposition that builds towards a short climax. I think the structure of the plot would be better suited to film than writing. Dr. Barbara’s sanctuary is . Only the final chapter provides the full explanation of Neil Dempsey’s infatuation with Dr. Barbara.
May 13, 2024
This is no ordinary eco-thriller. Ballard has a couple of his usual characters here. Neil is similar to Jim in Empire of the Sun (himself a stand-in for Ballard himself) and Dr Barbara is your usual obsessed Ballardian main character (although unusually female this time around).
Both characters have there own psychotic obsessions and of course the ecological sanctuary Dr Barbara is trying to create doesn't go well. There will be blood!
Both characters have there own psychotic obsessions and of course the ecological sanctuary Dr Barbara is trying to create doesn't go well. There will be blood!
April 12, 2020
More of an animated essay than a novel: flat characters, naff dialogue, stiff with exposition. He goes on recycling the same premise in Cocaine Nights, Super Cannes and Millennium People.
July 13, 2022
An easy to read novel that sends up environmentalists and feminists. I preferred the second half of the book. Dr. Barbara, in her fifties, is a very odd, deranged, unlikeable character and sixteen year old Neil is for some baffling reason, smitten with Dr. Barbara. The two are the main participants in the running of a sanctuary on Saint-Esprit, a remote French Polynesian island paradise.
I have read a number of Ballard books, this being one of my least favourite. Readers new to Ballard should begin with ‘Crash’ or ‘Empire of the Sun’ or ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ or ‘Cocaine Nights’, all of which I regard as very good, original, memorable reads.
This book was first published in 1994.
I have read a number of Ballard books, this being one of my least favourite. Readers new to Ballard should begin with ‘Crash’ or ‘Empire of the Sun’ or ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ or ‘Cocaine Nights’, all of which I regard as very good, original, memorable reads.
This book was first published in 1994.
August 27, 2020
Less a 'send up' of earnest isms - although there are plenty of humorous moments that entertain in this fashion. What seems more powerful to me is watching the charismatic Dr Barbara, with her strident principles and followers, create an alternate society- akin to a revolution. Then we watch the implosion of that new world via Ballard's eye for the death drive.
October 8, 2008
In order to review this novel I must quote my last one, Flaubert's Parrot, in which the writer attempts to make some rules for publishing:
"There shall be no more novels in which a group of people, isolated by circumstances, revert to the 'natural condition' of man, become essential, poor, bare, forked creatures. All that may be written is one short story, the final one of the genre, the cork in the bottle. I'll write it for you. A group of travellers are shipwrecked, or airwrecked, somewhere, no doubt on an island. One of them, a large, powerful, dislikeable man, has a gun. He forces all the others to live in a sandpit of their own digging. Every so often, he takes one of his prisoners out, shoots him or her, and eats the carcass. The food tastes good, and he grows fat. When he has shot and eaten his final prisoner, he begins to worry what he will do for food; but fortunately a seaplane arrives at this point and rescues him. He tells the world that he was the sole survivor of the original wreck, and that he has sustained himself by eating berries, leaves and roots. The world marvels at his fine physical condition, and a poster bearing his photograph is displayed in the windows of vegetarian food shops. He is never found out. You see how easy it is to write, how much fun it is? That's why I'd ban the genre."
Also, the characters were flat as flat. I couldn't garner any reason for them to continue with their ridiculousness except that they felt "compelled" to do so. I'm not sure that there wasn't some seriously scary anti-feminism bent running through this, although it's so exaggerated and silly that I can't really imagine it was serious.
I have enjoyed Ballard very much before, notably High-Rise and that one where it stops raining. This I didn't like. Dreamlike in a bad way. Insubstantial and unrelatable.
"There shall be no more novels in which a group of people, isolated by circumstances, revert to the 'natural condition' of man, become essential, poor, bare, forked creatures. All that may be written is one short story, the final one of the genre, the cork in the bottle. I'll write it for you. A group of travellers are shipwrecked, or airwrecked, somewhere, no doubt on an island. One of them, a large, powerful, dislikeable man, has a gun. He forces all the others to live in a sandpit of their own digging. Every so often, he takes one of his prisoners out, shoots him or her, and eats the carcass. The food tastes good, and he grows fat. When he has shot and eaten his final prisoner, he begins to worry what he will do for food; but fortunately a seaplane arrives at this point and rescues him. He tells the world that he was the sole survivor of the original wreck, and that he has sustained himself by eating berries, leaves and roots. The world marvels at his fine physical condition, and a poster bearing his photograph is displayed in the windows of vegetarian food shops. He is never found out. You see how easy it is to write, how much fun it is? That's why I'd ban the genre."
Also, the characters were flat as flat. I couldn't garner any reason for them to continue with their ridiculousness except that they felt "compelled" to do so. I'm not sure that there wasn't some seriously scary anti-feminism bent running through this, although it's so exaggerated and silly that I can't really imagine it was serious.
I have enjoyed Ballard very much before, notably High-Rise and that one where it stops raining. This I didn't like. Dreamlike in a bad way. Insubstantial and unrelatable.
September 15, 2015
Rabbia. Ecco, in questa parola la sintesi di tutto ciò che ho provato, pagina dopo pagina, leggendo questo libro. Mi sono trovata a litigare con i protagonisti, insultandoli ferocemente. Li ho sinceramente detestati... Ma come si fa?, mi chiedevo, a tollerare una demente sociopatica affatto attraente, a livello di personalità, intendo, e a subire tutto lo schifo con cui ti sommerge? Ma come si fa, non a crederle, ma solo a pensare di poterla prendere sul serio? Ma dategli quattro calci nei denti a sta cerebrolesa!!!, gli gridavo leggendo il libro nella speranza che qualcuno prendesse il macete o il badile a lei tanto caro e le sconquassasse il cranio al fine di mettere ordine in quel cervello pieno di escrementi sterili!!! Tutte le morbosità, le ossessioni, le fragilità, i disformismi mentali trovano spazio in questa opera. Realistica e irritante. Perchè è il mondo che è così, pieno di vampiri schifosi che si nutrono della gioventù, dei suoi sogni, degli altri, della loro vita, persino della loro debolezza... Mi è salita così tanta rabbia, che mi torna a pulsare l'occhio se ci penso. In questo la grandezza di Ballard, la sua capacità di osservare la società e restituirtela con crudezza così come l'ha vista. Per i miei gusti, questa volta, le descrizioni hanno reso faticosa la lettura, persino le ho trovate, in alcuni casi, fini a loro stessi. Purtroppo, non avendo letto l'edizione di Feltrinelli, temo questo sia dovuto in parte anche alla traduzione: dava l'idea di essere approssimativa in alcuni punti. Leggetelo solo se l'umanità non vi disturba.
August 17, 2010
Well I didn't find in a "hllariously cold-blooded satire" as the book jacket suggested I would. Not particuularly humorous, and it never delves deep enough into its subjects to be an effective satire. While billed as a book blasting feminism and environmentalism, it seemed to have a lot more to say about cults (especially personality cults), group think, and perhaps about the coercive use of power than about its stated subjects. Perhaps it is beacuse the particular shades of environmentalism and feminism it is describing are so out of fashion now, if they ever were taken seriosuly at all.
Part 1 is pretty humdrum, but things pick up a bit as they turn darker in Part 2. By Part 3 things are really moving, but the suspense is hampered a bit by the fact that the main character's pilght doesn't really seem all that sympathetic. I couldn't help feeling ambigious about whatever fate befell him. Perhaps this ambiguity was intentional, but it detached me from the drama of the story.
If you want a story of how small group anarchy on a tropical island, and are bored with Lord of the Flies, read this book.
Part 1 is pretty humdrum, but things pick up a bit as they turn darker in Part 2. By Part 3 things are really moving, but the suspense is hampered a bit by the fact that the main character's pilght doesn't really seem all that sympathetic. I couldn't help feeling ambigious about whatever fate befell him. Perhaps this ambiguity was intentional, but it detached me from the drama of the story.
If you want a story of how small group anarchy on a tropical island, and are bored with Lord of the Flies, read this book.
December 3, 2021
Many of Ballard’s post-*Crash* books follow a familiar formula: seeker gets drawn into the world of a charismatic nutball with very specific and unusual ideas of what utopia should be like, after which chaos ensues. This is the weakest of his novels in that vein I’ve read so far. New in this mix is Ballard’s rather mean-spirited take on “Mommy-ism” (aka Environmentalism and Feminism) not too different from a Fox News crank. Yes, the leftish Ballard was far from Sean Hannity, yes, this is satire. But Ballard’s strengths have always been in psychology, not in politics per se, and this falls mostly flat. Sometimes you want to say, “Hey, Jim — who started the most wars?” For Ballard completists only.
June 6, 2013
Very typical Ballard, with the same strengths and weaknesses. I find the books well-written and intellectually intriguing. He creates complex flawed characters and explores varied dystopic worlds. But I feel like I can never quite connect to the stories, they are dry and emotionless and I need the emotional connection to feel really compelled. In this book, we move through the darker side of ecological activism through to isolation and extreme feminism, up to psychosis. It's hard to connect or relate to any of the characters. I do appreciate though, his lack of need for a happy ending.
December 16, 2014
Bello.
Agghiacciante, un ritmo ipnotico per una storia terribile.
Personaggi ben più che credibili
Agghiacciante, un ritmo ipnotico per una storia terribile.
Personaggi ben più che credibili
December 8, 2017
I love Ballard’s portrayal of women, they’re always passionate, strong and deranged (sometimes slightly, sometimes you even stop reading in disgust). Dr Barbara of Rushing to Paradise is downright crazy but she has some good points, not on environmental problems but feminism. So does Ballard, although people find him sexist and antifeminist I, as a feminist agree with him on quite a few things. Actually his is an observation rather than an idea and Rushing to Paradise is a good representation of it. What holds women from getting what they want is not knowing what they want, old world must be demolished but what must come after that? Not knowing that throws all the work and planning and sacrifice away for nothing. This was incorporated beautifully in the novel, Ballard’s straightforward prose, even if it is laced with organ and tissue names more than necessary, makes it a fine read. Just sometimes, when he writes about romantic feelings but still tries to maintain his humorous and disgusted tone it can be a bit too much but I’ve come to accept that.
March 25, 2024
Ballard was really drifting in the years between Empire of the Sun and Cocaine Nights, and this is nowhere near his best - 'we're the Cast of High-Rise, get us out of here' on a tropical island. Fans only, but better than eg The Day of Creation largely because of a particularly good villain.
January 20, 2018
Ballard has fun smashing the patriarchy via the bloodied albatross carcass of our environmental hypocrisies, all captured through the cracked lens of the male gaze. Or does he? A Murder Balla(r)d for the end of the twentieth century, and the uncertain dawn of the twenty first.
February 13, 2018
Rushing to Paradise is a dreadfully silly bit of claptrap by English novelist J.G. Ballard. The plot involves a group of environmentalists who take over a small Pacific Island destined for nuclear weapons testing and turn it into a sanctuary for endangered species (the albatross in particular). Except, rather than a green utopia the island and its inhabitants devolve into a Lord of the Flies like free for all.
GoodReads describes the book as a “searing send-up of environmentalism, feminism, and extremism of all sorts”. But it’s really not, unless you think the intellectual pinnacle of clever irony involves environmentalists killing endangered species and feminists killing men. Because it's the opposite of what you'd expect ... or something.
I suppose if a liberal wrote a similar send-up of conservatives they’d have members of the party of family values offering their female aide $5 million to have their surrogate child, or punching each of their ex-wives in the face, or raw-dogging a porn star after their wife recently gave birth, or being banned from a Gadsden, Alabama shopping mall for sexually harassing underage teen girls … or ... uh ... never mind. Turns out that isn’t the plot of a cynical dystopian novel, I’m just recounting last night’s news.
Anyway, I’m inclined to describe Rushing to Paradise as a preposterous bit of dreck, though I fear that some preposterous bits of dreck might find that characterization somewhat derogatory.
I'm also compelled to point out that Ballard has this weird literary quirk of endlessly repeating the names of his characters. I think nearly a quarter of the text of this book consists of the characters endlessly repeating each other's names.
GoodReads describes the book as a “searing send-up of environmentalism, feminism, and extremism of all sorts”. But it’s really not, unless you think the intellectual pinnacle of clever irony involves environmentalists killing endangered species and feminists killing men. Because it's the opposite of what you'd expect ... or something.
I suppose if a liberal wrote a similar send-up of conservatives they’d have members of the party of family values offering their female aide $5 million to have their surrogate child, or punching each of their ex-wives in the face, or raw-dogging a porn star after their wife recently gave birth, or being banned from a Gadsden, Alabama shopping mall for sexually harassing underage teen girls … or ... uh ... never mind. Turns out that isn’t the plot of a cynical dystopian novel, I’m just recounting last night’s news.
Anyway, I’m inclined to describe Rushing to Paradise as a preposterous bit of dreck, though I fear that some preposterous bits of dreck might find that characterization somewhat derogatory.
I'm also compelled to point out that Ballard has this weird literary quirk of endlessly repeating the names of his characters. I think nearly a quarter of the text of this book consists of the characters endlessly repeating each other's names.
August 15, 2014
My second JG Ballard book, and sorry to say another dud, though this time round I managed to force myself to finish this rather short (thankfully) novel. Again, I was drawn to the exotic setting, interesting premise (society on a deserted tropical island with conservation thrown in!) and critical acclaim of the author. While the plot had a good twist, it felt like it could have been kept a short story instead of being drawn out into a full length novel, as the interesting events that happen are too few and far between. Most times the reader is left to wander the island aimlessly along with it's listless inhabitants.
I am undecided if I should give this author another try, afraid to be drawn into another seemingly promising set up, only to be disappointed in the execution once again.. The ones with environmental themes do entice me, like The Drowned World, which I may eventually pick up. Had a go at a few of Ballard's sci-fi short stories too but they didn't do it for me either. Oh well.
I am undecided if I should give this author another try, afraid to be drawn into another seemingly promising set up, only to be disappointed in the execution once again.. The ones with environmental themes do entice me, like The Drowned World, which I may eventually pick up. Had a go at a few of Ballard's sci-fi short stories too but they didn't do it for me either. Oh well.
February 10, 2013
Teenager Neil gets enchanted with animal rights campaigner Dr. Barbara. He follows her to the island St. Esprit, where the French plan to start nuclear testing, threatening a large colony of albatross nesting there. Dr. Barbara's plans are successful and very soon she turns the island into a sanctuary for all endangered wild life. Others join her and the community grows.
Neil tells the story. Eventually you start wondering, who the endangered species is on that island. On the back flap the book is compared to "Lord of the Flies". The story starts quite cheerful and sunny and then turns very sinister and - to me - disturbing. My reading became slower and slower, dreading each next chapter and what it might bring. I felt huge relief after finishing it and having managed to get out alive.....
Neil tells the story. Eventually you start wondering, who the endangered species is on that island. On the back flap the book is compared to "Lord of the Flies". The story starts quite cheerful and sunny and then turns very sinister and - to me - disturbing. My reading became slower and slower, dreading each next chapter and what it might bring. I felt huge relief after finishing it and having managed to get out alive.....
July 11, 2007
J. G. Ballard is his own beast. At least, I think so right now. I've only read The Day of Creation and Rushing to Paradise. The tone is unlike any other author I've read, yet. It's detached and cold but dreamlike at the same time. His take on a small group of people living on a remote island is comedic, depraved, and disturbing. It forms part of a tradition: Heart of Darkness, Lord of the Flies, and following Ballard's entry, The Beach. Does society devolve into power and violence when sealed in a container? What happens to gender roles? What happens to sex?
Note: This book is part of my "only from your library" series. That is, it's out of print in the U.S., and you can't find it at any book store, excepting perhaps online.
Note: This book is part of my "only from your library" series. That is, it's out of print in the U.S., and you can't find it at any book store, excepting perhaps online.
July 10, 2008
This book has it all: pedophilia, stockholm syndrome, utopian societies run amok, infanticide, homicide, sexual perversion, pyschopathologies, general barbarism, etc., etc. That's all you really need to know. If you enjoyed Lord of the Flies, but wished it was about a matriarchal society, this book is for you! I was engrossed in reading this and overall pleased, but the coup de grace left me a little unhappy or displeased. Overall I give this book seven thumbs up.
January 1, 2010
This is pure Ballard in style, but I'm starting to think that Ballard was a bit of a one-trick pony, and anyway the characters here are so irritating that it's hard to extract much pleasure from the read, which unfortunately meant that what I thought would be a brief but enjoyable sojourn was really more of an arduous, painful trek. Not recommended.
December 7, 2015
My first attempt at reading Ballard, and I had to abandon this after about 85 pages. I didn't find a character I could relate to, and the narration is detailed but dry at the same time. I think it was supposed to be funny, but I didn't get it. It just didn't click.
January 13, 2019
Very minor effort from an ordinarily exceptional writer. A fanatic leads a group who shut down a French nuclear test site on a Pacific atoll. And the book plods along for a couple hundred pages going right where you would expect.
May 31, 2019
Disturbing (as his books always are); very apposite too in the face of conflicting views on climate change and what we have to do about our world. We all know it won't be simple and this portrayed the dilemma which isn't going away.
March 26, 2008
I was disturbed by the Dr. Barbara character and I don't understand the purpose of her and all of the women on the island becoming man haters -- or killers. Sorry if that's a spoiler.
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