Book Review: The Wind from Nowhere by J.G. Ballard

Book Review

The Wind from Nowhere

by J.G. Ballard

     J.G. Ballard was one of the greatest writers of apocalyptic fiction in the 20^th century. The Wind from Nowhere is one of his earliest works in a series of novels about eco-calamities. While it is an example of Ballard’s minor works and not necessarily one of his best, it does stand out in a way for being one of the bleakest and most hopeless novels by a writer known for harshly bleak and hopeless fiction.

     The premise is simple: a strong and powerful wind begins to blow counter-clockwise around the planet Earth. Carrying dust and debris with it, the sky turns dark and people either die or flee to underground bunkers and tunnels to survive. As the wind speeds increase, eventually reaching 550 miles per hour, buildings collapse, food and water become scarce, and civilization regresses to a more primitive state in the collective human psyche.

     Three narrative threads tie the story together. Maitland is a jaded, middle-class scientist living in London whose purpose in life becomes mere survival as the wind continues to decimate the world. Lanyon is a u-boat commander for the American military; while stationed in Italy he realizes the futility of his chances for survival. Hardoon is a real-estate and construction mogul who builds a highly disciplined army and a concrete pyramid outside London with the intention of defying the destructive forces of the wind. Lanyon escapes from Italy in a submarine and heads towards London to pick up passengers on the way to Greenland where the disaster is less severe. At the London military bunker, Maitland is instructed to accompany Lanyon to the US naval docks nearby. Along the way, they have an unfortunate meeting with Hardoon when they end up approaching his pyramid.

The Wind from Nowhere is, in many ways, a typical disaster and action story. The characters are two-dimensional and their attempts at survival are mundane and maybe even cliché. How can you have a disaster story without at least a couple people struggling to survive against all comprehensible odds? Despite itself, this novel still manages to be unique. This is because of Ballard’s incredible talent for description. The visual and aural depiction of the wind blowing clouds of dirt and rocks through the air is amazing as are the descriptions of what it physically feels like to walk in a gale so strong that it causes bruises and abrasions. The collapsing architecture and hopeless landscapes of flattened cities create an atmosphere of depression. The masses of people huddled in subway tunnels, trying to survive as the passages begin flood and cave in drags the reader into a downward feeling of claustrophobia and despair. The subjectively felt pains of injury are hurt as the characters commit acts of brutal violence against one another. The sleek appearance of Hardoon and his massive team of black-clad stormtroopers nestled comfortably in his concrete pyramid evoke the chilling menace of fascism. Human bodies get hurled into the air before being shredded by the jagged edges of fallen apartment blocks, airplanes do cartwheels and sports cars roll across the desolate rubble of what was once considered civilization. It is as if Ballard used some of the most frightening imagery that Londoners might remember from World War II and took it a step further, saying this time it is nature coming to punish humanity rather than the self-inflicted wound that the war really was. The plot actually takes a backseat to the images of the horrific wind destroying everything that humanity has built and felt proud of; the story is more like a prop to hold up the situation and if you read the book this way it might be a more interesting experience. In the end, The Wind from Nowhere is a stark reminder that humanity is nothing when faced with the amoral forces of nature. While 19^th century writers critiqued the rise of dismal industrialization with long-winded descriptions of nature and pleasant country manors, Ballard critiques modernity by indulging in fantasies of implosion and the collapse of a technocratic society that lost its soul for the sake of comfort, commercialization, and convenience. In a way, Victorian sensibilities and postmodern apocalypse are confronting the same dilemma from different angles. But this book is not much of a commentary and if you want some kind of moral statement about the human condition, this would not be the best place to start.

     Despite all its flaws, this book may still be of interest, especially to die-hard fans of J.G. Ballard and apocalyptic fiction in general. It introduces important themes and elements that would get taken up again and refined in the classic works of this author. The descriptive powers of the writing make it worthwhile. Many people, including Ballard himself, have dismissed The Wind from Nowhere as being a mistake made by a naive but talented young writer. This opinion may be due for a re-evaluation. 

Ballard, J.G. The Wind from Nowhere. Penguin Books, New York: 1976