In the beginning the damage done to each other is minimal (they crash parties, dogs continue to disrupt the lower floors, fight over hours at the swimming pool), but as the middle class joins in, the attacks border on murder. The class war truly uprises once the lower floors gain the courage to step on their toes in return (especially via Richard Wilder). While pampered dogs agitate the lower story residents, rowdy children agitate the upper class. Together the dogs formed a set of over-pampered pedigree pets whose owners were not noticeably concerned for their fellow tenants’ comfort and privacy, (pg 25).
Almost all of them were owned by residents on the top ten floors – just as, conversely, most of the fifty children lived in the lower ten. The presence of the fifty or so dogs in the high-rise had long been a source of irritation. Residents could get their chores and hobbies done without taking a step out of the building, but here’s the catch: there is tension between the classes from the start.
One single skyscraper has all the stores and places a family could possibly need, like a supermarket, swimming pool, brothel, and studio. The high-rises designed and maintained by Royal are a culture in and of themselves. It is a cool, detached novel that follows Richard Wilder (lower class), Robert Laing (middle class), and Anthony Royal (upper class) throughout the degradation of the infamous high-rise community. Ballard is a conglomeration between the dystopian and science fiction genres according to its publication in 1975, but by today’s standards it leans more towards dystopian.
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