You Are Here Columbus

The blog of the social collective of Arawak City, Ohio.

06 May 2009

a literary tracing of our collective social nightmare



Steve Shaviro's tribute to recently deceased JG Ballard:

“The suburbs dream of violence” (opening line of Kingdom Come), of a vast convulsion which the imagine as a purgative or transformational Event. Ballard’s great subject, in his final four novels, is the hollowness of this dream, the emptiness and inevitable disappointment of any fidelity to the Event, every bit as much as of any loyalty to the ruling order....

The only (very slender) hope that his novels offer is a hope in the value in itself of a disillusioned and demystified clarity of regard...


via The Pinocchio Theory

1 comment:

  1. Brent06 May, 2009 23:44

    I'm not familiar with this guy. He loved suburbs and violence, right? Is that right?

    ReplyDelete

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About

This blog serves as a transparent point of discourse for You Are Here--a Columbus collective that grew out of the Comparative Studies Undergraduate Group at the Ohio State University. It consists of people from all academic and social backgrounds with an emphasis on social theory. Most succinctly put, it is creative scholarship in affect--whether it be from academia, popular culture, art, language, or personal observation. The ideas expressed in this blog are by no means reached by consensus and do not necessarily reflect those of other members. The comments doubly so. Feel free to critique, question, or agree with any views expressed. You don't have to reside in or be familiar with the city of Columbus. As far as we're concerned, you are here.