“As we undressed and exposed ourselves to each other the screens merged into a last oblivious close-up . . .”
With typical Ballardian prescience, this harrowing dystopian story reveals how contact with other people is restricted to screen-time only (sound familiar?) with humans isolated in their homes in solitary confinement (even the couple’s wedding night takes place apart). We are never told why this separation is necessary – seasoned storytellers know to shun explanatory neatness – but instead witness the aftermath of what occurs when a family (Ballard’s intensive care unit) decides to flout the draconian rules and meet in person. (Oh, how life imitates art.) Bookended by the present tense carnage is the story of how the couple met (via a screen of course), the ensuing domestic bliss and arrival of children (conceived via AID – which we presume to be a version of IVF). Amid the dark humour lie meditations on our desire for physical connection with others and what we become when this is removed.
First published in Myths of the Near Future, Jonathan Cape, 1982; collected in The Complete Stories, Vol 2, Fourth Estate, 2014 and English Short Stories from 1900 to the present, Everyman Classic, 1988
A Personal Anthology 