Joe K’s Reviews > High-Rise > Status Update
Joe K
is on page 137 of 208
'It's a mistake to imagine that we're all moving towards a state of happy primitivism. The model here seems to be less the noble savage than our un-innocent post-Freudian selves, outraged by all that over-indulgent toilet training, dedicated breast feeding and parental affection...Our neighbors had happy childhoods to a man and still feel angry. Perhaps they resent never having had a chance to become perverse...'
— Apr 27, 2026 06:30PM
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Joe K
is on page 133 of 208
'The true light of the high-rise was the metallic flash of the Polaroid camera, that intermittent radiation which recorded a moment of hoped-for violence for some later voyeuristic pleasure. What depraved species of electric flora would spring to life from the garbage-strewn carpets of the corridors in response to this new source of light?"
— Apr 27, 2026 06:10PM
Joe K
is on page 49 of 208
This was written in 1975 and yet is perfectly capturing the dread and anxiety of living in a late-stage-capitalistic society. The high-rise is a microcosm of the world of 21st-century technology and isolation. Or in Ballard's words: 'In many ways, the high-rise was a model of all that technology had done to make possible the expression of a truly "free" psychopathology.' Hit the nail on the head there, sir.
— Apr 25, 2026 04:29AM
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Apr 27, 2026 06:34PM
I find Talbot's take on the situation very interesting. Not so much a regression of humanity as a progression into an evolved primitive state that is informed by the state of pacification the residents were in as a result of their technological creature comforts. It's almost as if part of this transformation is in reaction to the residents' realization of their own pacification, becoming that much more savage in order to effectively retaliate against the very system that pacified them in the first place.
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