The influence of psychedelics and toxicity in J.G. Ballard and Tom Wolfe’s representations of petroculture

Summary

This essay argues that literary representations of toxicity can awaken readers to the limits of consumer culture. It contrasts J.G. Ballard's story 'Dream Cargoes,' which imagines a species-wide change of pace amid future nano- and biotech waste, with Tom Wolfe's account of the Merry Pranksters during the 1960s and 1970s. While Wolfe captured fragmented points of view, Ballard suggests that time—linked to extinction, renewability, and futurity—has become a central human concern. The essay proposes that such fictions are essential resources for assessing toxicity and motivating alternatives to petroculture.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABSTRACT In my reading of Ballard’s short story ‘Dream Cargoes’, I find a post-growth imaginary that focuses on a profound species-wide change of pace in the context of future nano- and biotech waste. I compare this to Tom Wolfe’s heady account of the Merry Pranksters set during the Great Acceleration of the 1960s and 1970s. While Wolfe captured multiple fragmented points of view located in scattered time frames in his account of the Pranksters, Ballard is suggesting that time and its specific contemporary associations with extinction, renewability and futurity has become a central concern for humanity at large. I argue that literary representations of toxicity yield insight by awakening the reader to the ultimate limits of consumer culture. Thus, this essay offers an approach to fictions such as Ballard’s and Wolfe’s seeing them as essential resources for assessing toxicity in our lives as a source of insight as well as motivation to look for alternatives to petroculture.

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