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Roger Luckhurst's appraisal of the novel and it's themes
Rick McGrath takes on the same material with a bit more insight
Property
One of my many guilty pleasures is Urban explorer videos. I normally wouldn’t inflict this on the rest of you, but there is something about these guys dodging the security in Balfron Tower that seems quite Ballardian, somehow…
…particularly when you put it next to this real estate porn…
...but it seems there's a fly in the ointment...
…maybe you’d like a look at Gav’s old manor, outside Paris…
Movies
Godard’s Alphaville is a movie that gets mentioned a lot in connection with High-Rise, although the connection is a bit tenuous. Here’s one of the more chilling moments.
The case is much easier to make for Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel, which has the advantage of being really funny as well!
The basic idea of High-Rise seems to have been inspiration for the Doctor Who Series, Paradise Towers, which looks to be equally inspired by another high-rise fantasy: Brazil, also a of a high-rise.
Maybe we should leave it to John Gray and Will Self to sum up
Somehow, the idea just won’t die…
Here it is as a ship…
Here it is as a City…
…and here it is a a combination of both of those things, built by the Borg.
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J.G.Ballard - High Rise (1975)