The Drowned World
Solar radiation has melted the ice caps and drowned the cities, and the survivors find their minds regressing along with the landscape.
Solar flares have melted the ice caps and turned London into a steaming lagoon, and the biologists surveying it find the drowned world reaching backwards into their own minds. Ballard is less interested in survival than in what the characters want from the catastrophe, which is what separates this from every disaster novel written since. His second book, and the one where the recognisable Ballard arrives.
Recommended by 1 Person
Slavoj Žižek
Ballard depicts a postapocalyptic future in which global warming has rendered much of the planet uninhabitable. In a flooded London, several characters take advantage of societal collapse to fulfill unconscious urges. The idea that a mega catastrophe could create an opportunity to experience jouissance—surrender to bliss—profoundly influenced me.
Source · May 2026
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