The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard (1962)
1st edition cover art by Richard Powers
The instability of the sun and violent solar flares have finally depleted the earth’s atmosphere, raising temperatures and melting ice caps. Sound familiar? Major cities have been flooded and now exist as a patchwork of lagoons, lakes, and swamps, most buildings 6-7 stories underwater. Humanity has now been driven to the southern regions of the globe, slowly abandoning the deteriorating infrastructure of the past. A small military outpost exists within one of these archipelagos, studying the effects of the biological changes happening to the environment and animals, as well as searching for anyone left behind. Over time the lagoons have evolved into something closely resembling the Triassic period, with flora and fauna to match. Excessive heat, overgrown plants, jungle bats, giant mosquitoes and an exploding iguana population reign here.
Amazing art below by Luis Melo
Dr. Robert Kerans is battling recurring dreams at his post in the lagoon, having visions of rejoining a primordial past that his current environment caters to. Isolation here is becoming preferred, even if it means being left behind when his post ends, or running out of rations once everyone else is gone. He’s come to the realization of the futility of the human race to scramble for habitable ground when the earth is doomed anyway. When describing Kerans’ thoughts or his mental ‘descent through archaeopsychic time’, Ballard masterfully gets in the head of his creation. Kerans calmly gives in to his emotions as if in a trance, he wants to dissolve here, his dreams become trippy literary contemplation.
“His unconscious was rapidly becoming a well-stocked pantheon of tutelary phobias and obsessions, homing on to his overburdened psyche like lost telepaths. Sooner or later the archetypes themselves would become restive and start fighting each other, anima against persona, ego against id…”
Alternate cover by Richard Powers
“Sometimes he wondered what zone of transit he himself was entering, sure that his own withdrawal was symptomatic not of a dormant schizophrenia, but a careful preparation for a radically new environment, with its own internal landscape and logic, where old categories of thought would merely be an encumbrance.”
With a great plot twist, The Drowned World suddenly veers into a mashup of The island of Dr. Moreau, Lord of the Flies and Waterworld all in one. A white hydroplane enters the lagoon, bringing with it the arrival of thousands of 25-foot alligators and a former casino paddle boat storing valuable antiquities. Yes, you heard me correctly. A mad captain leads a crew of scavengers of the drowned world to dive for and retrieve relics left behind in the city submerged beneath them. A fight for sanity between everyone quickly gets out of hand.
The vivid lagoon world that Ballard describes is intoxicating, making it easy to visualize such an oppressive, swampy setting. This book has left an indelible impression on my psyche and imagination since I first read it years ago and after a second reading it has surpassed my previous reverence with ease.
Art by Indojo