The Crystal World is an early work from J.G. Ballard, but contains much of what were to become his trademarks: surrealism, the apocalypse, and how environments affect our psychology. With three other books, The Drowned World, The Burning World, and his debut The Wind From Nowhere, it forms a quartet of ‘catastrophe novels’, showcasing natural destruction by the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. It is a heady and poetic cocktail of fantasy and symbolism.
Set in Cameroon, the novel follows Edward Sanders, a doctor specialising in the treatment of leprosy. He arrives in the river town of Port Matarre in order to search for his ex-wife Suzanne and her husband Max, but the surrounding jungle is being affected by a mysterious affliction that turns everything it touches, plant and animal, into crystal. Alongside an apostate priest and a mad architect, he delves into this rapidly changing new environment, not knowing how it will transform him in turn.
Plot and character in this book are secondary to concepts and images. The characters serve as manifestations of Edward’s psyche, representing his fears and desires. There is a recurrent motif of doubling; Edward and the architect Ventress can be seen as two halves of the same coin, with one reserved and the other acting without restraint. Furthermore, Louise, a French journalist who Edward meets in Port Matarre, is the spitting image of Suzanne, and the two can be seen as reflections of each other. In the crystallising jungle, the self and other become confused, and identities blur.
Ballard uses vivid language to get across the strangeness and beauty of his collapsing world. Much of the imagery is striking, particularly the descriptions of the animals caught up in transformation, their bodies metamorphosing into crystal. There is a scientific explanation given for the phenomenon, but not for all the ways it manifests, creating an aura of mystery and sending the novel into more fantasy territory than science fiction. Ballard often wrote about urban environments, so it’s interesting to read his take on a natural one.
There is a certain amount of datedness to the novel, most notably in its depictions of race, which is unfortunately of its time. However, the ecological themes and the exploration of how people relate to their environment are even more relevant now than when it was first published. The way Ballard uses time in the novel is also of interest, with the sections in the forest seeming disconnected from time as we know it, taking on the quality of myth.
J.G. Ballard was a pioneering thinker, with many of his ideas being borne out today. The Crystal World is a fascinating example of his early style and preoccupation with the relationship between psychology and physical space. Some readers may find the distance he places between us and the characters off-putting, but others will relish the thematic richness and absorbing descriptions of the crystal jungle. I thought it was a highly original and spellbinding journey through a slowly fading world.
Review by Charlie Alcock
Plot and character in this book are secondary to concepts and images. The characters serve as manifestations of Edward’s psyche, representing his fears and desires. There is a recurrent motif of doubling; Edward and the architect Ventress can be seen as two halves of the same coin, with one reserved and the other acting without restraint. Furthermore, Louise, a French journalist who Edward meets in Port Matarre, is the spitting image of Suzanne, and the two can be seen as reflections of each other. In the crystallising jungle, the self and other become confused, and identities blur.
Ballard uses vivid language to get across the strangeness and beauty of his collapsing world. Much of the imagery is striking, particularly the descriptions of the animals caught up in transformation, their bodies metamorphosing into crystal. There is a scientific explanation given for the phenomenon, but not for all the ways it manifests, creating an aura of mystery and sending the novel into more fantasy territory than science fiction. Ballard often wrote about urban environments, so it’s interesting to read his take on a natural one.
There is a certain amount of datedness to the novel, most notably in its depictions of race, which is unfortunately of its time. However, the ecological themes and the exploration of how people relate to their environment are even more relevant now than when it was first published. The way Ballard uses time in the novel is also of interest, with the sections in the forest seeming disconnected from time as we know it, taking on the quality of myth.
J.G. Ballard was a pioneering thinker, with many of his ideas being borne out today. The Crystal World is a fascinating example of his early style and preoccupation with the relationship between psychology and physical space. Some readers may find the distance he places between us and the characters off-putting, but others will relish the thematic richness and absorbing descriptions of the crystal jungle. I thought it was a highly original and spellbinding journey through a slowly fading world.
Review by Charlie Alcock
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