Finished Sa 8/20/11
THE MILLENNIUM PEOPLE is a wry take on Karl Marx's revolutionary theory. Marx felt that the end of the political status quo would occur when the workers on the bottom of the economic pyramid called it quits, and turned to violence, however Ballard sees the impetus for revolt coming from the more well-off middle class. Ballard envisions radical social change as a kind of, "Upholstered Apocalypse".
David Markham's ex-wife is killed by a terrorist bomb at Heathrow Airport, and this seems to be connected to a radical strike and middle-class uprising at Chelsea Marina, a posh housing estate in fashionable West London. An odd assortment of quirky characters propel the action. And, here is a brief description of some of the more memorable characters in this thoroughly enjoyable Black Comedy.
-Richard Gould, a whacked-out pediatrician who uses 'violent absurdism' to affect social change
-Kay Churchill, a political pundit and ex-film studies professor
-The Reverend Stephen Dexter, a motorcycle riding pastor who seems to have spiritually lost his way
-Joan Chang, a hip pseudo-revolutionary
-Sally Markam, who is David's wife and suffers from a delusion that she is still crippled from a childhood train accident in which she fully recovered
-Vera Blackburn, a demented explosive expert.
Ballard is a craftsmen when it comes to the turn of a phrase, and the story is both insightful and entertaining. It makes me want to reread his delightfully perverse novel, CRASH, which dealt with car-crash fetishism.
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