The Drowned World: Style 1 key example

For example, at the end of Chapter 5, an important but subtle shift takes place as Bodkin tells Kerans about what it is like to return to London now that it is underwater:

[']The big dome is still there, about twenty feet below water. It looks like an enormous shell, fucus growing all over it, straight out of The Water Babies. Curiously, looking down at the dome seemed to bring my childhood much nearer. To tell the truth, I’d more or less forgotten it—at my age all you have are the memories of memories. After we left here our existence became completely nomadic, and in a sense this city is the only home I’ve ever known—’ He broke off abruptly, his face suddenly tired.

Cite this Quote

‘Go on,’ Kerans said evenly.

Bodkin is the psychologist in Riggs's unit, but here he begins to speak to Kerans about his childhood as though to a therapist. He compares the dome of the planetarium to something out of The Water Babies, a 19th-century morality tale in which a chimney sweep named Tom drowns and comes back to life as a "water baby" in a fairy world under the sea. Through a series of adventures, Tom eventually develops back into human form as a fully-educated "man of science." The story was intended partly as a critique of scientists who refused to accept Charles Darwin's well-supported theory of evolution. Bodkin seems disturbed in part by the idea that "the only home he has ever known" has turned into a fairy world, leaving Bodkin behind in his human form. Is his only option to follow Tom's trajectory in reverse, transforming into a less sophisticated, underwater creature? As Bodkin unpacks his feelings and tries to keep an open scientific mind, Kerans easily picks up the role of the therapist. He keeps his tone "even" as he encourages his client to keep speaking about the things that are distressing him.

The therapeutic role reversal leaves the reader with the uncertain sense that a seismic shift has taken place within both Kerans's mind and Bodkin's. This is a strange ending for a scene that began with Kerans telling Bodkin that he was ambivalent about leaving the drowned city. As the next chapter opens, it becomes clear that somewhere in this conversation, Kerans made up his mind to stay. It lays the groundwork for him and Bodkin to sink the research station, turning fully against Riggs's mission to save human civilization from drowning.

The conversation at the end of Chapter 5 is one of many examples throughout the novel of psychological suspense drawn out not just through plot, but also through literary references and cerebral language. For instance, Kerans almost drowns in Chapter 9. The horror of the chapter hinges not on the possibility of death, but rather on the unresolved note of how the near-drowning came about. The experience was so surreal to Kerans that he is not sure whether Strangman might have tried to kill him, or whether he might have tried to kill himself. Strangman references Hamlet's famous suicidal soliloquy to stir up uncertainty. Ballard's highly literary style encourages readers to consider the characters' shifting relationship not only to life, but also to the human condition as expressed in art like Hamlet and The Water Babies.