J G Ballard is perhaps best known for his two novels that were made into films, the autobiographical "Empire of the Sun" and the controversial "Crash". Before either of these, however, he made his name in writing with an apocalyptic novel of the near future. Written many years before global warming was on people's lips, the novel portrayed a world stricken by violent solar storms and returning rapidly to Mesozoic conditions. In this fantastical, doom-laden scenario, the Van Allen belts have been damaged so badly that the sun's radiation is now overheating the planet, not only rendering life in the tropics impossible but causing the ice caps to melt. Despite this extra deposition of water, the geophysical disturbances cause so much sedimentation that in fact the area of water on the planet is reduced from two-thirds to about half, with the surplus falling in violent rainstorms at the equator. Mankind has fallen back in complete disarray to camps in Antarctica, Greenland, Canada and Russia, its numbers plummeting while fertility rates drop to ten per cent of the norm. Other mammalian and bird life is similarly affected, but reptiles, amphibians and the more primitive plant forms enjoy a huge resurgence, recolonising areas lost to them eons ago. Earth is in fact truly returning to conditions of ecology not seen since the Triassic period.
The book's main protagonist, Robert Kerans, is a forty-year old scientist attached to a military party working in one of the abandoned cities of northern Europe. The city itself (we later learn that it is in fact London) is now a series of lagoons, navigable by boat but densely overrun with tropical vegetation and haunted by bats, snakes and above all iguanas, symbols of reptilian resurgence. The party, under the efficient but sympathetic leadership of Colonel Riggs, is ostensibly there to chart harbours, take scientific notes on the changing flora and fauna, evacuate stragglers such as the beautiful but fatalistic Beatrice Dahl, and generally prepare for an eventual reoccupation when conditions return to normal. In reality, however, conditions are now so far gone that the very psyche of the human race is under siege.
Kerans finds that his colleague Bodkin is treating Riggs' adjutant, Lieutenant Hardman, for some condition that has left him increasingly withdrawn and strange. Bodkin is somewhat vague about what is happening to Hardman, leaving Kerans mystified until he too experiences a series of strange and disturbing dreams in which he is wading into a pool and sees several gigantic Triassic lizards roaring at a heavy blazing sun overhead. Bodkin subsequently tells him of his theory of Neuronics or Archaeopsychology, a theory of inherited memories that in this case have lain dormant for millions of years until triggered by the Triassic conditions that the humans now find themselves in. About half the party have had these dreams, which have the effect of creating a sense of isolation and distance from other people. Shortly after this, Lieutenant Hardman disappears. When Kerans briefly encounters him during a failed attempt to bring him back, the officer seems to have become half savage already, and Kerans correctly guesses that he is making his way south towards the equator.
Into the void created by the recession of normal civilisation steps the bizarre and intriguing figure of Strangman, a pale, cultured but ruthless pirate who heads a crew of negroes and mulattos who hold him in some awe, apparently believing him to be already dead. Strangman certainly seems to have strange powers, for upon his entry into the lagoons of London he brings with him literally hundreds of alligators following his ship. Strangman's main mission seems to be systematically plundering the abandoned cities of the north, looting fine art treasures and mechanical objects alike. By this time Riggs and his party have departed, with only Kerans, Bodkin and Beatrice having remained behind, unwilling to leave London. A strange, polite but ultimately savage battle of wills develops among these four characters, partly over rivalry for Beatrice and partly because Strangman believes that Bodkin knows where something of worth is hidden in the old planetarium. The simple truth is however that Bodkin, as the only man old enough to remember London before they all moved to Camp Byrd, has only memories buried in the institution. Nevertheless the old scientist is not lacking in courage and pays with his life for trying to eliminate Strangman and his crew. Kerans himself is almost manhandled to death in a set of strange rituals until rescued by an unexpected source. In a strange twist of fate, however, he finds himself completing Bodkin's work before finally the archaeopsychology relentlessly pushes him to head for the south in the footsteps of Lt Hardman.
The Drowned World works on several levels: as a thriller, as an exploration of the human psyche (and possible explanation for supposed reincarnation experiences?), and as a visionary glimpse of a delicate world that is at the end of the day so much at the mercy of factors beyond human control. Even global warming scenarios never envisaged the sort of conditions drawn so carefully here. The only very slight criticism I would make of Ballard is that his understanding of zoology is a little vague. For example, in one scene he obviously believes that a lizard and a salamander are one and the same thing (they are in fact very different), whilst his iguanas are all dangerously carnivorous (unless one allows for considerable mutation, this would be untrue as iguanas are all vegetarian). It is also unclear whether his reference to Triassic lizards was meant to be dinosaurs. Nevertheless he draws what one might call the reptilian psychology and condition nicely, showing the iguanas as stone-like in some places and savage to the human eye in others.
But above all The Drowned World is a haunting book, evoking the feelings of a steaming jungle laying side-by-side with a dying civilisation and a return to a much more primordial universe. Read it and pray that eco-disasters never get this bad.
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