The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
"The Drowned World" is a post-apocalyptic novel by J.G. Ballard, set in a future where solar storms have ravaged the Earth's atmosphere, leading to extreme temperature rises and the submergence of major cities, including London. The narrative follows Dr. Robert Kerans, a biologist stationed in a floating testing facility, as he navigates the psychological and physical transformations brought on by this drastic environmental change. Alongside Kerans are his assistant Dr. Alan Bodkin, the party leader Colonel Riggs, and Beatrice Dahl, a woman who has chosen to remain in the submerged remains of the city.
As the story unfolds, the characters experience deep, primal dreams linked to an "archeopsychic past," prompting them to feel a magnetic pull toward the lush but hazardous tropical jungles that have overtaken the land. The novel explores themes of survival, identity, and the human psyche's evolution in response to catastrophic changes. Tensions escalate when a group of looters led by the ruthless Strangman threatens the remaining party, leading to violence and personal transformation. Ultimately, Kerans embarks on a journey into the wild, symbolizing a struggle for both physical survival and existential meaning amidst a decaying world. The novel serves as a meditation on humanity's relationship with nature and the inner self in the face of overwhelming change.
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Subject Terms
The Drowned World
First published: 1962
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—catastrophe
Time of work: Seventy-five to one hundred years in the future
Locale: London, England
The Plot
The Drowned World is the second of J. G. Ballard’s four “natural catastrophe” novels, following The Wind from Nowhere (1962) and preceding Burning World (1964; revised as The Drought, 1965) and The Crystal World (1966). The Drowned World projects the results of major changes to both the physical world and the human psyche, in keeping with Ballard’s consistent focus on “inner space.”
Dr. Robert Kerans, a biologist, is monitoring a testing station floating over the largely submerged city of London. Solar storms have stripped the atmosphere, and Earth’s temperatures have been rising gradually for the past seventy years. World population and reproduction rates have declined radically, and humanity survives primarily within the Arctic and Antarctic circles. With Kerans in London are Dr. Alan Bodkin, his assistant; the party leader, Colonel Riggs; and Riggs’s men. Beatrice Dahl, a beautiful eccentric, has refused to evacuate and lives nearby in a partly submerged apartment tower. The action centers on the gradual changes in Kerans, Bodkin, Dahl, and others as they dream of the great archaic Sun and develop a desire to move south into the new and virtually impenetrable tropical jungle of mud, mosquitoes, and sixty-foot-high ferns. Bodkin explains the dreams and desires as a subconscious recapitulation, at the cellular level, of an “archeopsychic past.”
Hardman, a helicopter pilot, is the first to succumb to the powerful dreams; escaping from the party, he forges south into the jungle. The party abandons the station, but Kerans, Bodkin, and Dahl remain. A party of black looters with two thousand alligator-watchdogs, led by Strangman, a vicious white pirate king, takes over the site, captures Kerans, and subjects him to humiliation amounting to torture. Strangman’s men erect dikes in order to drain Leicester Square to loot the area. Bodkin is killed by Strangman’s men after his futile attempt to dynamite the dikes.
Kerans escapes and tries to rescue Dahl from Strangman. He fails and is rescued in turn by Riggs and his men, who have returned on patrol. Kerans then dynamites the dikes and moves off to the south, toward the burning Sun. He encounters Hardman, a blackened husk of a man, and tries to help him, but Hardman flees to the south. At the novel’s end, Kerans continues to struggle south, apparently moving toward death but also toward a strange reconciliation with his inner nature.