Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Mediated Family Is A Happy Family - J. G. Ballard
A Mediated Family Is A Happy Family - J. G. Ballard
333
334
Jeff W. Marker
335
narrators relationships with his wife and children. Although this section of the story describes past events, it does so with the present
situation always in mind, thus making it seem like a film flashback.
These stylistic choices encourage us to compare the physiological perceptions of the narrator to the recording mechanism of the many
cameras in the text. This strategy is reinforced by the narrators own
explicit comparisons of human vision to mechanical vision: The
probing camera, with its infra-red and X-ray scanners, its computerized diagnostic aids, revealed far more than any unaided human eye
(197). While the narrator unwaveringly describes visual cultures impact upon human perception as positive, his own distorted, sometimes
deranged insights into his society and his family are a clear use of irony
on the part of the author. The use of the first person and present tense
to imitate cinematic storytelling is certainly not uncommon, but in the
context of this narrative, these formal choices become particularly
salient. Even as we read this text, we are urged to think about how
differently we perceive the world when we view it through visual
media.
The ways in which the characters in the story are influenced by
visual culture are numerous. The narrator describes the development of
family relationships by referring to the auteur traits of famous film
directors: [F]ortunately we had moved from the earnestness of Bergman and the more facile mannerisms of Fellini and Hitchcock to the
classical serenity and wit of Rene Clair and Max Ophuls, though the
children, with their love of the hand-held camera, still resembled so
many budding Godards (201 02). The narrators world has progressed to the point at which all facets of human life are understood
and described in filmic terms. Cinematic history and jargon have simply become part of the common vocabulary.
Ballard makes effective use of the narrators medical practice to
illustrate how film technology and aesthetics have come to redefine
some of the most unlikely aspects of human life. The narrator has built
a thriving general practice because he is adept at handling . . . complex keyboards and retrieval systemsa finger-tip sensitivity that was
the modern equivalent of the classical surgeons operative skills (197
98). He is concerned with the selection of . . . incoming callshow
tactfully to fade out a menopausal housewife and cut to a dysenteric
child, while remembering to cue in separately the anxious parents
(198). Bedside manner and all the etiquette inherent in a visit to the
336
Jeff W. Marker
337
the immense affection I feel for my wife, and for my son and daughter,
and of the affection that they, in their unique way, feel for me (195).
There is no question that in our own time the recording of family
events and milestones has become a sign of affection (or maybe merely
affectation). Perhaps more accurately, the failure to preserve important
moments on video has come to signify a lack of affection, as if to forget
to videotape a childs birthday party or first steps is a slight on the part
of the parent. As these thoughts circulate within the narrators mind,
though, he is lying on the floor, barely able to breathe, [his] mouth
filled with blood (195). Clearly, something is rather demented about
the affection being shown among these family members and/or the
narrators view of it.
However, the narrator never expresses (literally) a suspicion that the
proliferation of visual culture might be detrimental to himself, to his
family, or to society at large. Unlike the narrator in Luigi Pirandellos
classic novel about the effects of film culture on society, The Notebooks of
Serafino Gubbio, the narrator here describes the cameras in rather idolatrous terms. While Serafino Gubbio metaphorically compares the film
camera to a voracious tiger and to a spider that traps and devours its
prey, Ballards narrator frequently describes film as a liberating entity
that has perfected human life and relationships. He writes,
True closeness, I now knew, was television closenessthe intimacy
of the zoom lens, the throat microphone, the close-up itself. On the
television screen there were no body odours or strained breathing, no
pupil contractions and facial reflexes, no mutual sizing up of emotions and advantage, no distrust and insecurity. Affection and compassion demanded distance. Only at a distance could one find that
true closeness to another human being which, with grace, might
transform itself into love. (203 04)
The very terms used by the narrator, and myself, are problematic.
What do the words closeness, intimacy, together, or presence mean in a world
in which no one ever shares the same physical space? Of course, here
and elsewhere Ballard is using the narrative voice in a highly ironic
way, as evidenced by the narrators bizarre mix of tenderness and compulsive brutality in the closing paragraph:
Everyone is breathing more strongly, and the attack will clearly
begin within a minute. I can see the bloody scissors in my sons
hand, and remember the pain as he stabbed me. I brace myself
338
Jeff W. Marker
against the settee, ready to kick his face. With my right arm I am
probably strong enough to take on whoever survives the last confrontation between my wife and daughter. Smiling at them affectionately, rage thickening the blood in my throat, I am only aware of
my feelings of unbounded love. (205)
The violence that marks this encounter and the narrators perceptions
of it beg some fundamental questions, the most obvious being why this
family meeting has led to uncontrollable barbarity. The narrative
clearly suggests it is a product of a totally mediated society, but what
exactly are the psychological mechanisms at work here?
Ballards sparse narrative style in this story allows ample room to
speculate on that issue. For all the characters, this meeting is an entry
into a new world, their first time being in the presence of a human
being rather than the image of a human being. Undoubtedly, this new
experience would place tremendous strain on the mind and would
warrant a severe reaction of some kind.
In the case of the children, the fact that their parents have remained
physically absent throughout their childhoods has created an overwhelming sense of rage toward them. On this point we can infer much
from the narrators description of his own childhood, which presumably gives us an overview of the way his own children were raised. He
writes, In my nursery I played hours of happy games with my parents,
who watched me from the comfort of their homes, feeding on to my
screen a host of videogames, animated cartoons, wild-life films and
family serials which together opened the world to me (197). The
entire system of parental affection has been changed from one of direct,
sensory exchange to one of symbolic, televisual exchange. The children
comprehend what these signs are supposed to mean but have never
experienced their actual referents. Then the children, once they have
reached an age at which they are capable of operating the video equipment, return their filial affection to the parents in the same manner.
Mental state, too, is signified by cinematic style. The narrator discusses
the importance of decorum (filmmaking as bedside manner again)
while conducting his daily appointments, and he mentions that his
patients also possess distinct filmic styles: The more neurotic patients
usually far exceeded [the other patients], presenting themselves with
the disjointed cutting, aggressive zooms and split-screen techniques
that went far beyond the worst excesses of experimental cinema (198).
All emotions, all mental processes, indeed all communication of the
339
human condition is aestheticized. The physical gesture has been replaced by filmmaking convention. Thus, these characters have never felt
the affection of their family membersor any other person for that
mattertransmitted to them directly. Instead, all forms of feeling have
been merely signified via onscreen images in which style takes priority
over content. The characters comprehend the lexicon of stylistic conventions that signify affection, closeness, and so forth, on an intellectual, symbolic level, but with the actual referents of those conventions
always absent. The insecurities created when the family meets physically would be overwhelmingobviously, they were beyond these
characters ability to cope.
Although the narrator constantly refers to mediation as the most
positive aspect of his society, he does hint, in a very deceptive passage,
at the dangerous psychological ramifications of mediation. While discussing the almost Victorian code of visual ethics [that] governed . . .
all social intercourse, he writes, These admirable conventions eliminated all the dangers of personal involvement, and this liberating affectlessness allowed those who wished to explore the fullest range of sexual
possibility and paved the way for the day when a truly guilt-free sexual
perversity and, even, psychopathology might be enjoyed by all (199,
italics mine). The narrators gushingly praiseworthy language disguises
two disturbing observations. First, despite referring to it as liberating, he admits to mediation inducing affectlessness, a lack of emotion and attachment. Also, the liberation he credits mediation with
providing is the opportunity to safely cultivate ones mental pathology,
not the liberation from any perversity or psychopathology. The
narrator claims elsewhere that, thanks to the total mediation of human
interaction, especially when he was a child, he was spared all the
psychological dangers of a physically intimate family life (197). The
absence of those psychological dangers, however, is one of the key
factors leading to the familial slaughter in which their meeting culminates. These characters have experienced the usual array of unconscious desires and rage toward mother, father, son, or daughter, yet
because they have never coexisted in the same space, they have never
developed the mechanisms by which those impulses are controlled.
Instead, physical barriers have restricted them from acting upon their
unconscious desires, which have not dissipated but intensified. Once
the physical barrier of mediation is removed, each family member is
free to act upon years of repressed rage and desire.
340
Jeff W. Marker
341
for the fathers affection. Margaret has mostly ignored the narrator,
except for a brief lunge at his testicles, signifying both her need to
defend her husband and the hostility she feels toward him. The son,
David, meanwhile, has vented almost all his hostility on the narrator,
presumably acting upon his Oedipal urge to possess his mother and
replace his father (205). The narrator responds predictably by trying to
maintain possession of his wife and defend himself against his same-sex
rival, his son. Of course, there is also the identification with the samesex parent that each child experiences, which further complicates the
situation. Karens nudity may have sparked the violence, but clearly the
repressed urges being transferred into physical violence are spontaneous
and uncontrollable for each member of the family. The precise array
of psychological urges at play is so complex and intertwined that
the narrators description of the violence as an explosion seems
appropriate.
This interpretation of the psychology driving the violence among
the characters may be reductive, but as with so much of the story,
Ballard is capitalizing on readers knowledge of basic psychoanalytic
theory. These characters seem to engender some of its most well-known
aspects. Once thrown into a room together in front of the cameras, they
each fill roles outlined by the Oedipal triangle.
It is also quite interesting that, upon seeing his daughter bruised
and in the flesh for the first time, the narrator compares Karen to
Manets Olympia. He has relied entirely upon cinematic references and
terminology to this point, but now that he is in the presence of human
beings, he uses a reference to the representational arts. In this way,
Ballard suggests at least a slight change in the narrators perception of
the world.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the story is the way mediation
has changed the very nature of interpersonal relationships. We define
ourselves through our perceptions, all of which shape and are shaped by
our own particular subjectivity. That subjectivity is formed greatly by
the people around us, especially our families. But the voyeuristic distance provided by televisual mediation fundamentally changes human
communication from interactions between person and person to exchanges between image and spectator. People no longer interact with
each other, but view each others voice- and visual-images. Analyzing
the story within the frame of film spectator theory reveals the full
implications of mediation in Ballards society, as well as our own. There
342
Jeff W. Marker
343
ordered and predictable and organized in all respects around the spectators visual position.
The conditions of spectatorship in Intensive Care Unit differ in
two respects from those of the average movie-going experience: the
characters are not sitting stationary in a darkened theater, and the
image before them is responsive and allows a degree of interaction.
Ballards characters engagement with the screen is heightened, though,
not only because this is their primary means of communication, but
also because it is their only link with the world beyond their domestic
space, particularly with their family. There is also the fact that each
character is essentially a filmmakerthey are all, as we have established, quite adept at manipulating the film medium; therefore, the
position of the subject of vision is somewhat second nature. Furthermore, in the case of children interacting with their parents televisually, the mirror metaphor takes on particular resonance because the
image of the parent before them is a kind of reflectionthat is, the
parent is an image of shared physiognomy and behavioral traits.
The privileged place of the all-perceiving subject is also reinforced
by each characters domination of his/her own living space. Essentially,
none of these characters has faced the intrusion of his/her private sphere
until the family meeting, at which point they are all, for the first time,
challenged in their status as the subject of vision. If the position of the
spectator gives the impression of being all-perceiving, god-like, and
the locus of the world, the metaphysical system these characters have
always known is effectively shattered when they step into the room
with each other and must communicate without mediation. Suddenly,
they have gazes aimed at them directly and are no longer the sole
subject in the room. The world is no longer ordered and predictable,
and they are no longer at its center. They have each been the object of
the gaze before, but always via the safety of the film medium. This is
not only the first time the object of their own gaze has been present,
but also the first time each has experienced competing gazes aimed at
the same object. This makes rivals out of all the family members, not
just the same sex parent and child. The voyeuristic distance required
for the subjects identification with an object has also been removed,
posing yet another, very real threat.
In all these respects, Ballards characters are completely unequipped
psychologically to comprehend and to manage the situation they have
entered as a family. The result of living in this mediated society, then, is
344
Jeff W. Marker
the loss of the distinction between the real and the symbolic. In a sense,
these characters must undergo a sort of reverse mirror phase: they have
only known the symbolic, two-dimensional image, and must therefore
form a completely new concept of the difference between their own
bodies and those of the rest of the family. When thrown into the room
together, that phase happens at a manic pace and at an unbearable
intensityat the same time the characters are grappling with a completely foreign visual and auditory relationship with the external world.
The ultimate question of this analysis is whether Ballard is exaggerating wildly or has he captured something significant about contemporary society? On one hand, it seems ludicrous that a patient
would have no physical contact with her doctor, or that a masseuse
need not be present to perform a massage. On the other hand, the
pervasion of visual culture and mediation into our lives is already
beyond doubt, especially within familial relations. A 2002 CNN
report sings the praises of telematics, automobile versions of the
communication and entertainment appliances found in the typical
American home. Thanks to a drop-down television screen and DVD
player installed in her familys minivan, For months now, Nicole
Gunther hasnt heard her 4-year-old daughter whine from the back
seat, Are we there yet? (High Tech Hits the Road). Television is an
assumed component of effective parenting for many families, and the
laudatory tone of the article is frighteningly similar to that of Ballards
narrator as he describes the ways mediation has enhanced human life. A
similar CNN report describes a prototype of a robot programmed to
read with children, remind them to complete household chores, and to
prepare meals for them, another means of decreasing contact between
parents and children. In December 2005, the first couple to be officially married in cyberspace celebrated their tenth anniversary (First
Online Wedding). Like more and more singles, Randy Terwillegar
and Rachel Twing met online. However, Randy also proposed online,
the couple sent e-mail invitations to 150 guests worldwide who attended online, a minister officiated from Maryland while both bride
and groom were in Alaska, and there was a virtual bouquet and garter
toss. The major difference between this wedding and the one Ballard
describes is that the honeymoon was not mediated. Suddenly, Ballards
story does not seem quite so exaggerated.
One might think communications companies would downplay the
power of technology to separate us from those dearest to us, but they
345
Notes
1. Ballard clarifies that Margarets insemination was of course by AID, but says no more about
the gestation period or birth process (197).
2. As with the birth process, Ballard omits a specific detail about the setting. While this poses
slight difficulty for analysis of the story, it does avoid what would be rather cumbersome
narrative exposition for Ballard.
346
Jeff W. Marker
Works Cited
Aumont, Jacques, et al. Aesthetics of Film. Trans. Richard Neupert.
Austin: U of Texas P, 1992.
Ballard, J. G. Intensive Care Unit. Myths of the Near Future. Ed. J.G.
Ballard. London: Jonathan Cape, 1982. 194 205.
Black, Joel. The Reality Effect: Film Culture and the Graphic Imperative.
New York: Routledge, 2002.
Bluestone, George. The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the
Film. Novels into Film. Rpt. in Film and Literature: An Introduction
and Reader. Eds. Timothy Corrigan and George Bluestone. Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1999. 197 213.
First Online Wedding Couple Celebrates 10 Years. News.adventist.org.
Adventist News Network, 6 Dec. 2005. Accessed on 4 Feb. 2006
hhttp://news.adventist.org/2005/12/first-olie-weig-couple-celebrates10-years.htmli.
High Tech Hits the Road. CNN.com. Cable News Network, 2002.
Accessed on 26 Feb. 2002 hhttp://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/
ptech/02/26/auto.electronics.ap/index.htmli.
Pirandello, Luigi. The Notebooks of Serafino Gubbio. Trans. C. K. Scott
Moncrieff. Cambs: Dedalus, 1990.
Jeff W. Marker earned a doctorate in Comparative Literature from the
University of Georgia and now teaches film and literature at Gainesville State
College. The present article is informed by his research in theories of cinema
spectatorship and the comparative nature of most of his work. He has also
presented research in animation studies and is currently working on a book
about representations of surveillance in post-9/11 cinema.
Copyright of Journal of Popular Culture is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or
emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.
However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.