Millennium People (original 2003; udgave 2010)

Middle class rebelling against what it created. Molotov cocktails made with Perrier bottle and regimental ties, "Bonfire of the Volovos", the book picks up on the most endangered sector of society trying to free itself from the world it worked for and created...or could it just be something meaningless. ( )

This is the seventh book I've read this month for my J.G. Ballard binge and I've decided it's going to be my last because I'm building up a residue of a theme, from these novels, that links them, and that is amplified with each next novel; a theme that might be condensed as "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world."

As with every other Ballard novel I've read this month, Ballard's prose here is unique and flabbergasting (if that's a word). Nearly every sentence he writes is a condensed, nearly psychedelic rendering of a nihilistic and yet somehow excruciatingly beautiful worldview.

A bitter poetry that makes no apologies.

I feel like I've been flayed. ( )

Quickly bored with this one. Seems dry both as societal commentary and as a thriller. The middle-class rises up and causes terror? This seems to be almost like a dreary daydream that weedy teenagers fantasize about. How edgy!

Recommended for Palahniuk fans. ( )

A good example of the author's work. A lightly imagined other world peopled by thinnishly sketched characters. But the key thing is the underlying idea. Ballard was great at putting forward challenging ideas place in a world that was almost familiar. Here the revolt of the middle classes. The idea of revolutionary politics in an setting that is not just unlikely but inconceivable, except in the mind of a clever writer. ( )

La borghesia è pronta per la rivoluzione. La manutenzione delle case costa e le rette delle scuole private sono sempre più alte. Ma con chi prendersela? Con amministratori e ufficiali giudiziari, certo. Ma anche e soprattutto con chi alimenta il fragile sistema di valori di questa società. Le videoteche, le gallerie d'arte e le agenzie di viaggi diventano i simboli di una cultura anestetizzante che rassicura e inibisce il proletariato del nuovi millennio. L'azione violenta è una tentazione irresistibile per chi ha passato la vita a rispettare le regole. Come capita spesso con Ballard, c'è un cattivo demiurgo che estremizza il sentire diffuso e teorizza il puro gesto di violenza insensata come solo mezzo per scardinare il sistema, per evidenziare l'assenza di senso del mondo e in qualche modo affrancarsene. Non sempre i personaggi del romanzo risultano convincenti, ma lo sguardo di Ballard continua ad essere uno strumento prezioso per cercare di capire il mondo che ci circonda e gli influssi che riverbera sulla nostra psiche. ( )