false 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 03:13:15 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 09:26:10 -0700 2009
If you allow yourself to be engrossed in this novel - it may terrify and sicken you, but it will haunt you for a little while. Sure, the story may not be entirely plausible--other reviewers have mentioned that someone may have gone to the 'authorities', but Ballard plays on the notion of "What if there were no authorities to go to?" Also, in a few societies (even in the last 100 years or so)--the authorities acted in the same manner as the tennant clans in the high-rise.

There's plenty of symbolism to be explored. The colours: Royal's white coat and his white Alsatian, plus the white birds. Freudian: Laing's hinted-at incestuous relationship with his older sister. Names: Royal (the high-rise's architect/creator), Wilder (geddit?) - the alpha-male of the lower floors. I couldn't figure out if Laing was a hommage or a piss-take of psychologist R.D. Laing.

I won't reveal the twist at the end--but it leaves the high-rise with a tiny bit of hope. If you buy the latest printing, there's a short story included, called "The Intensive Care Unit", written by Ballard in 1977. It almost reads like "High-Rise" in reverse. ]]>