Strange Currencies 22/11/2025: JG Ballard on the big screen (Crash and High Rise)

About this episode

The episode explores the cinematic adaptations of J.G. Ballard's works, focusing on themes of technology, greed, and societal issues.

In this episode of Strange Currencies , we dive into the unsettling worlds of J.G. Ballard to explore how the cinematic adaptations of Crash (Cronenberg, 1996) and High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015) translate his vision of technology and greed peeling back the civilised veneer and dragging us toward our more primal selves. From a partial defence of men reading on trains to tangents through American Psycho , late-stage capitalism, and the proud tradition of intentionally “difficult” art, we roam widely before landing on something all too real: Melbourne University’s increasingly dystopian surveillance of students protesting its ties to arms manufacturers.

People in this episode

Hosts: Connor Millsom, Robert Webb

Topics covered

• cinematic adaptations
• J.G. Ballard
• technology and greed
• dystopian surveillance
• late-stage capitalism
• difficult art

Keywords

• J.G. Ballard
• Crash
• High-Rise
• David Cronenberg
• Ben Wheatley
• dystopia
• surveillance
• capitalism
• art

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Melbourne University, arms manufacturers

Books & works: Crash, High-Rise

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