tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185595217241271425.post1497597359123186322..comments2023-03-25T02:07:16.709-07:00Comments on Living In Philistia: The Ballardian State of Nature.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04880996831778197602noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185595217241271425.post-66424903480780479902010-12-30T02:17:53.414-08:002010-12-30T02:17:53.414-08:00Wow! That’s a tremendous piece of work. I like you...Wow! That’s a tremendous piece of work. I like your focus on the role the state of nature plays in the book. Of course Hobbes thought that given the option of some contract based community we would clearly choose it over the precariousness of the state of nature. Ballard totally reverses this received view and casts the breakdown of all bonds (as you point out) as the zero point which it is necessary to attain in order to free ourselves from socio-technological enslavement. In the Lacanian sense Royal is cast as the ‘subject supposed to know’, his seeming position of power/knowledge as both the architect of the high-rise and the buildings penthouse resident makes him a target for the meritocratic Wilder who desires to attain his empty symbolic position rather than any contentful goal. By the time he reaches the roof all vestiges of modernity have fallen into obsolescence, all that remains is the semblance; the base conflict of two alpha males. Once Royal is killed Wilder thinks himself master. But he is merely a relic and is made a sacrificial offering to the new radical feminine order. The dangers of killing the primal father whose terrible law kept civilisation together.Xaven Tanerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15086887074359177235noreply@blogger.com