Abstract Machines in J. G. Ballard’s "High-rise"

Abstract

This article sets out to explore how J. G. Ballard’s High-Rise (1975) can be read through Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of rhizome, abstract machines and schizophrenia. The social structure of the Seventies in England, High-Rise as a building and High Rise as a novel are connected to one another to portray a rhizome that manifests a dystopian answer to the inquiry of human nature. High-Rise can be studied as an abstract machine since it is a machine of fiction through which the readers question the meaning of humanity. High-Rise, the building, is also an abstract machine in itself since it operates as a means to reveal the constant process of becoming under late capitalism. Therefore, this article aims to reveal the Deleuze-Guattarian dynamics in High-Rise in relation to High-Rise, the building, by focusing on the social elements that expose the schizophrenic aspects of late capitalism.