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A review by nadineeeeeee
The Garden of Time by J.G. Ballard
4.75
soo many thoughts. rtc!
9.5.24 | saw a tumblr post that said : “the irony of this year's met gala theme being based on a short story about cloistered, decadently-dressed aristocracy desperately pillaging the natural resources at their disposal to hold the advancing tide of the restless underclass at bay is honestly baffling” and yeah. that sums everything up.
interesting and wildly hypocritical of them (though what else is new) that they glamorized the short story that criticizes them inside out and turned it into an event celebrating them, owning it with no shame. while of course 'the garden of time' serves many interpretations that one can take upon reading it, i just can't let the eerie similarities escape my mind. and there's no way none of them smart ass there have not taken it in this light and considered its paradoxical nature. it's beyond sickening.
I've heard few interpretations of this story. that it was about colonialism and the destruction of nature that comes alongside it (because the former can never exist without having the latter as a consequence). that it was about humankind using nature over and over and over again and exploiting it to dispel the looming threat of death and demolition until there was none and the world is barred because however we try, the decaying of the earth is inevitable. etc.
and yet i also found, in all of these, it's always framing the mob as this villain of the story (the colonizer, the nuclear bomb that will leave the planet inhabitable). they are always dehumanized, a group of raging savages, unreasonable and insistent in its goal to destroy an environment of peace, simply because they were set in contrast with pretty collected calm polished people who are only those things because they are privileged enough not to have any reason not to be. interesting, sounds familiar, have heard that before.
while, in all of their different forms and perspective, the story is impressively undeniably effective and influential all the same, it's a bit crazy how some people will still ignore the elephant in the room and try to look beyond the lake, squinting, while talking about this and the met gala just to not bring up the unfortunately accurate and uncanny and sinister connections between the two. in our good year of 2024????? come on! tbc (less)
9.5.24 | saw a tumblr post that said : “the irony of this year's met gala theme being based on a short story about cloistered, decadently-dressed aristocracy desperately pillaging the natural resources at their disposal to hold the advancing tide of the restless underclass at bay is honestly baffling” and yeah. that sums everything up.
interesting and wildly hypocritical of them (though what else is new) that they glamorized the short story that criticizes them inside out and turned it into an event celebrating them, owning it with no shame. while of course 'the garden of time' serves many interpretations that one can take upon reading it, i just can't let the eerie similarities escape my mind. and there's no way none of them smart ass there have not taken it in this light and considered its paradoxical nature. it's beyond sickening.
I've heard few interpretations of this story. that it was about colonialism and the destruction of nature that comes alongside it (because the former can never exist without having the latter as a consequence). that it was about humankind using nature over and over and over again and exploiting it to dispel the looming threat of death and demolition until there was none and the world is barred because however we try, the decaying of the earth is inevitable. etc.
and yet i also found, in all of these, it's always framing the mob as this villain of the story (the colonizer, the nuclear bomb that will leave the planet inhabitable). they are always dehumanized, a group of raging savages, unreasonable and insistent in its goal to destroy an environment of peace, simply because they were set in contrast with pretty collected calm polished people who are only those things because they are privileged enough not to have any reason not to be. interesting, sounds familiar, have heard that before.
while, in all of their different forms and perspective, the story is impressively undeniably effective and influential all the same, it's a bit crazy how some people will still ignore the elephant in the room and try to look beyond the lake, squinting, while talking about this and the met gala just to not bring up the unfortunately accurate and uncanny and sinister connections between the two. in our good year of 2024????? come on! tbc (less)