(Sub)Terranean Intimacies Indeterminacies of Flesh and Crystal in The Crystal World

Abstract

This article argues that J. G. Ballard’s 1966 novel, The Crystal World, with its crystalline apocalypse, unsettles binaries such as life/death and organic/inorganic. It traces similarities in Ballard’s work to Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, while making the case that both Ballard and Conrad can be situated in a lineage of subterranean extraction and imperial mastery. Building on Kathryn Yusoff’s work on geology, extraction, and the racialization of black and brown bodies, this study shows how both extractive processes in both Conrad and Ballard trouble the divisions between organic and inorganic. The crystalline apocalypse–and the accompanying overabundance of crystals–in Ballard’s novel disrupt subterranean networks of value extraction. Emphasizing how Ballard’s crystalline transformation petrifies bodies, this article suggests that crystallization in The Crystal World is an opportunity to rethink the categories of organic/inorganic and life/death. From this analytical perspective, The Crystal World offers opportunities to reimagine value networks under capitalism.