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

<p>In this episode of <em>Strange Currencies</em>, we dive into the unsettling worlds of J.G. Ballard to explore how the cinematic adaptations of <em>Crash</em> (Cronenberg, 1996) and <em>High-Rise</em> (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 <em>American Psycho</em>, 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.</p>