Week 10: The Fiction of Ideas

This week's theme was the fiction of ideas, and I read a short story by J.G. Ballard "The Drowned Giant". The story features many of Ballard's eternal themes such as, physical deformities, and the interest society has with them; alienation, the juxtaposition of life and death, and a sense of bleakness that pervades the human condition. In the short story, the narrator, along with many other random onlookers, witness the appearance of a dead giant that washed up on shore. Everyone takes part in exploring the giant and observes how it decays, undergoes many mutilations, and is then distributed all throughout the city. I think Ballard was trying to make a statement in terms of body horror and inconsistency of identity. For example, there is no explanation for the giant's corpse, where he came from, who he is, etc. The story is less about solving the mystery of the giants appearance than it is about exploring the towns fascinations with distributing its body parts. In some ways, it's kind of sickening to think about the fact that the public was more concerned and entertained with selling the giants body parts rather than figuring out any bit of information. Everyone seemed to be okay with tearing the limbs off of the giant and it makes it clear that Ballard is commenting on the dehumanizing effects, on both the observer and observed. Eventually nothing is left of the giant other than his skeleton, and his identity was never known.