The earth has taken a huge breath while thousands of people struggle for air. Climate change used to be the hot topic in society, but now every headline is about the Coronavirus pandemic. Recently, they seem to coexist. Maybe this was all predicted in the novel “The Drowned World,” written in 1962 by J.G Ballard.
Since everyone has been sheltered in place, there have been photos and videos flooding social media of smog free city skylines and clear waters. While this book is considered Science Fiction, some key themes are eerily similar to some predictions about global warming.
The book paints a picture similar to what the earth looked like before the pandemic, with little scientific intervention to boost our carbon footprint. While our planet isn’t underwater, many scientists have predicted that this is where we are headed if drastic action isn’t taken.
The novel is set in 2145 and follows a group of scientists that dive into the new world after the wake of an ecological disaster. Overall this book feels like another “1984,” by George Orwell. The novel seems like an impossible story when published, but a decade later the creepy predictions of Big Brother have become true.
“How often recently most of us have had the feeling of dejá vu.”
There are a lot of bold claims in the Science Fiction book like life-sized Iguanas and other bizarre animals. This is where some similarities of alternate worlds stop. The novel pans out as a dreamy alternate reality—that could kill you with a large beast.
“Robert, you really are out of touch with reality.”
This is how we all feel a month into serious quarantine, with no knowing of how long the pandemic will last. The feeling of uncertainty drips from the characters of scientists and biologists, much like those professions today. The people are all in fear for what’s to come.
“Colonel, you’ve done it again, laws or no laws. Have you been down in those streets; they’re obscene and hideous! It’s a nightmare world that’s dead and finished, Strangeman’s resurrected a corpse!”
I imagine empty city streets that match those of 2020. There are claims that author J.B Ballard was suspiciously accurate about claims in his many published works. He predicted presidencies, droughts, floods and more that actually happened years later. Let’s hope “A Drowned World” is exempt from his accuracy streak.
The words sometimes cross the line into Old English, but still provide an easy enough read. The imagery is admirable in building the realities of a new earth.
“Distantly in his ears he could hear the sun drumming over the sunken water. As he recovered from his first fears he realized that there was something soothing about it’s sounds, almost reassuring and encouraging like his own heartbeats.”
Ballard was ahead of his time with bold claims of pandemics, flooding and global warming, and maybe he has a point.
The Beat @APU 