Review of Memories of the Space Age by J.G. Ballard

Themed anthologies are a common thing, but rarely do editors get to put together themed collections. A single author's oeuvre is rarely large enough to connect the dots for 200-300 pages of material. But such is an option with J.G. Ballard. Centered on mankind's obsession with vehicular movement and the cosmos, Memories of the Space Age (1988) offers the reader a range of stories touching upon humanity's physiological and psychological reaction existence in the stratosphere and beyond.

The collection kicks off with two interrelated stories. First is “The Cage of Sand”. Set in Cape Canaveral decades in the future, a once thriving community of shopping malls and homes now scarcely pulls itself together. Sands brought from Mars now pollute their backyards and dead astronauts orbit the Earth in abandoned space capsules. Not an optimistic view of NASA's chances in the void beyond, Ballard nevertheless captures a certain yearning in a manner that feels Bradbury-esque—not something you often say about Ballard. Focusing on one aspect of that setting, “The Dead Astronaut” tells of a grieving widow's desire to get the corpse of her astronaut husband out of orbit and back to Earth. By concluding the story the way he does, Ballard emphasizes the futility of mammals beyond the stratosphere while stirring a few conspiracy pots.

Of all the stories in Memories of the Space Age, “My Dream of Flying to Wake Island” may be the most sympathetic—something Ballard often has trouble achieving due to the harsh psychological lens through which he often views human existence. It tells of an obsessed man who discovers the wreck of a WWII bomber in the sands of a Japanese island. While befriending a woman who wants to break flying records with her Cessna, the man methodically unearths (unsands?) the plane, all the while dreaming of one day flying to Wake Island—a semi-paradise for pilots and planes due to the long runways and beaches. His obsessions eventually getting the best of him, and the man's story ends in tragic fashion.

Longest tale in the collection, “News from the Sun” takes an idea from “My Dream of Flying to Wake Island”, that of time fugues, and flies with it. It started with the astronauts and slowly spread. People are being taken over by a sickness, a fugue, in which they lose track of time and place. In the story, a doctor cares for the first astronaut to have been afflicted and his daughter. The doctor's efforts, however, are perpetually interrupted by an elderly man wearing only flying goggles who dive bombs him in a superlight airplane. “Memories of the Space Age”, the story which inspired the collection's title, also uses the time fugue concept. It tells of a NASA physician living in the ruins of Cape Kennedy with his wife in an abandoned hotel. Foraging for food, he is attacked by small airplanes that dive bomb him. Tough to tell friend from foe, he eventually becomes involved with a former astronaut, but one who may also have been the first murderer in space.

“Myths of the Near Future” plays with a similar theme, and in fact plays with most of Ballard's most common themes—a greatest hits in short. It tells of an architect whose wife leaves him for the rusted remains of Cape Kennedy. She writes, telling him of how the jungle is taking over the base. The architect slowly converts his obsession with pornography to the shape and play of aircraft, moving to Florida himself to be in closer contact.

Closing matters is “The Man Who Walked on the Moon”. The only story in the collection told in first-person, it is about a journalist traveling in Florida who meets a poor man on the street that people strangely give money to for being a former spaceman. Intrigued, the journalist asks the man his story, and interestingly learns he was never a spaceman. But that's not the end of the story.

Despite being published late in Ballard's oeuvre, Memories of the Space Age acts as an unintentional tour. Covering almost three decades of fiction chronologically, the first story was published in 1962 and the last 1985. It excellently showcases a number of common themes and methods to Ballard's madness. Ballard imbues the proceedings with his trademark psychology and psychosis. The sleek, sexy appeal of manmade vehicles and the thrill of speed that attracts—these are fundamental. Regarding technique, it shows Ballard's affinity for the surrealists, to render realism with a twist, which is slotted in and out of stories. No reader will walk away feeling comfortable, but like walking out of an art gallery, they will feel their mental buttons pushed in contemplative fashion. I have not read all of Ballard's short fiction collections, but this is equal to the best I've read.

The following are the eight stories selected for Memories of the Space Age:

The Cage of Sand

A Question of Re-Entry

The Dead Astronaut

My Dream of Flying to Wake Island

News from the Sun

Memories of the Space Age

Myths of the Near Future

The Man Who Walked on the Moon