“Electronic aids, particularly domestic computers, will help the inner migration, the opting out of reality. Reality is no longer going to be the stuff out there, but the stuff inside your head. It’s going to be commercial and nasty at the same time.” – J.G Ballard

And this:

“The American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It’s over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.” - J.G Ballard

A prophecy indeed. How worrysome that after Ballard wrote that particular piece of future noir, the list didn’t end with the last item on it. On the contrary, it has spiralled out of all and any control. The image of a frantic Henry Rollins, shouting: “America, is killing its youth!” comes instantly to mind.

Also, it brings to mind Ballards controversial novel, Crash. On the pervasive theme of people sexually addicted to mutilations via particpating in carcrashes. A postmodern-modern novel if there ever was one written. Or filmed (Cronenberg). If nothing will make you a careful driver, take is a sort of Clockwork Orange-themed therapy. You will never drive again without visualising a relentless, fiery-eyed Elias Koteas in the lane next to you.

Screen cap from David Cronenbergs, "Crash"

In all honesty, there are but a few works of art that modern people interested in understanding their own lives should at least have a perpetual glance at. And no – I’m not talking about any self-help books or DYI-checklists. That stuff is for chumps (chimps?). You will not be able to understand vital concepts via any charlatan shortcuts. There are no answers to be found in crystals or chanting. No answers to this question worth hearing in group therapy and no quick fixes for your impaired being of self in glossy magazines. In short: there are no simple answers to the question of: “You”?

Instead: Have a look at Paul Bowles book, The Sheltering Sky. I’ve written about this before. But it really is important. Why? Modern life and literature (and media) has for the last fifty odd years been preaching that the road, any road, of discovery – regardless of where it leads – is a good road. The journey is the goal. While that may be the partial truth, it is fundamentally useless advice if you have no idea how the traveller (you) really is.You need to know this before setting out on any journey.

See, the elements of this earth care nothing for your bravado, the rain cares little about your cynicism; the weather or the process of aging disregard your modern conviction that all answers can be googled, researched and put in logical boxes. Paul Bowles subtly reverses the idea that the journey is worth a damn if it is done in a spirit of escapism, as most modern journeys are. You may imagine yourself sophisticated, but faced with the force of the elements, nature or a situation where you are cut off from your regular lifelines – you’re likely to become just another fool, lost on a journey to nowhere.

A journey will not create life on its own. All life stems from the individual, nothing more, nothing less. This is why all escapism is just a matter of how fast you can run before the obvious facts will drag you by your heels, kicking and screaming, back to the place you started. You need to be something, someone – beforehand.

Be clear about yourself before you start out on the journey and it will not become a battle, but a journey of discovery in truth. Accept the outcome and consequence of yourself and you will be as immune to the elements as they are to you. In fact, you might enjoy them better this way.

All I’m saying: Do not leave the discovery of yourself to chance.