High Rise
Encyclopedia
High Rise is a 1975 novel by J. G. Ballard
J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction...

. It takes place in an ultra-modern, luxury high-rise building.

Plot summary

The building seems to give its well-established tenants all the conveniences and commodities that modern life has to offer: swimming pools, its own school, a supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

, high-speed elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

s. But at the same time, the building seems to be designed to isolate the occupants from the larger world outside, allowing for the possibility to create their own closed environment.

Life in the high-rise begins to degenerate quickly, as minor power failures and petty annoyances over neighbours escalate into an orgy of violence. The high-rise occupants divide themselves into the classic three groups of Western society: the lower, middle, and upper class, but here the terms are literal, as the lower class are those living on the lowest floors of the building, the middle class in the centre, and the upper class at the most luxurious apartments on the upper floors.

Soon, skirmishes are being fought throughout the building, as floors try to claim elevators and hold them for their own, groups gather to defend their rights to the swimming pools, and party-goers attack "enemy floors" to raid and vandalize them. It does not take long for the occupants of entire building to abandon all social restraints, and give in to their most primal urges. The tenants completely shut out the outside world, content with their new life in the high-rise; people abandon their work and family and stay indoors permanently, losing their sense of time. Even as hunger starts to set in, many of the characters in the novel still seem to be enjoying themselves, as the building allows them a chance to break free from the social restrictions of modern society and toy with their own dark urges and desires. And as bodies begin to pile up and the commodities of the high-rise break down, no one considers alerting the authorities.

The tenants of the high-rise abandon all notions of moral and social etiquette, as their environment gives way to a hunter/gatherer culture, where humans gather together in small clans, claim food sources from where they can (including the many dogs in the building, and eventually even the other tenants), and every stranger is met with extreme violence.

As he did in Concrete Island
Concrete Island
Concrete Island is a 1974 English fiction novel by J. G. Ballard.- Plot introduction :A twisted adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, the story's protagonist, Robert Maitland, a wealthy architect, finds himself stranded in a manmade 'island' between the Westway and M4 Motorway in West London, forced to...

and Crash, Ballard here offers a vision of how modern life in an urban landscape and the advances of technology could warp the human psyche in hitherto unexplored ways.

Legacy

The book has been cited as an influence upon the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

episode Paradise Towers
Paradise Towers
Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1987.-Plot:...

.

Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

 used the book as the basis for a song of the same name on their 1979 album PXR5
PXR5
PXR5 is the ninth studio album by Hawkwind, released in 1979. It reached #59 on the UK album charts.-Overview:The album was recorded and mixed at Rockfield Studios in January and February 1978. "Uncle Sam's On Mars", "Robot" and "High Rise" were originally recorded on the preceding UK tour but were...

. A different version appeared on the album's first CD issue.

Film adaptation

For over 30 years, British producer Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE is a British film producer, founder of the Recorded Picture Company. He was the producer of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he received a European Film Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World...

 has wanted to do a film version of the book. It was nearly made in the late 1970s, with Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...

 directing from a script by Paul Mayersberg
Paul Mayersberg
Paul Mayersberg born November, 30 1940, in Hertfordshire, England, UK. He is a writer and director and was the former film critic for Movie magazine in the early 1960s and author of 1968 film book Hollywood, The Haunted House.-Awards:...

. However, financing fell through and Roeg and Thomas did Bad Timing
Bad Timing
Bad Timing is a 1980 British film directed by Nicolas Roeg, produced by Jeremy Thomas.-Plot:In Vienna, a young American woman in her twenties is rushed to the emergency room after apparently overdosing. With her is Alex Linden, an American psychiatrist teaching in Vienna...

instead, and Thomas later went on to adapt Ballard's Crash for the screen with director David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...

. In recent times Thomas has revisited High-Rise, and the project has been in development with Canadian filmmaker Vincenzo Natali
Vincenzo Natali
Vincenzo Natali is an American-Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for writing and directing science fiction films such as Cube, Nothing and Splice.-Early life:...

attached to write and direct.
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