Track 12

Last updated
Track 12
by J. G. Ballard
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Published in New Worlds
Media typemagazine
Publication dateApril 1958 (1958-04)

"Track 12" is a short story by British author J. G. Ballard, it first appeared in the April 1958 edition of New Worlds (volume 24, number 70). [1] It then appeared in Penguin Science Fiction (edited by Brian Aldiss) in 1961, [2] Passport to Eternity , The Venus Hunters , The Overloaded Man , and later in The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 1 .

Contents

As part of an intended anthology film the story was adapted by Harold Pinter. The adaptation was directed by Joseph Losey in 1967 and featured Dirk Bogarde and Julie Christie. [3]

An adaptation of the story was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2016. [4]

Plot

The story begins with Maxted, a run-down athlete, having been invited over to the home of Sheringham, a university professor of biochemistry. [5] Despite Sheringham having asked him over to discuss business, Maxted suspects that Sheringham may be about to confront him about his wife, Susan Sheringham, with whom Maxted has been having an affair.

Throughout the course of the evening, Sheringham continues to play obscure sound recordings to Maxted, making him guess what they are (at one point he plays the amplified recording of a pin dropping). Sheringham explains he thinks microsonics is a great hobby, but it may be developing into an obsession. Maxted becomes impatient with the man he finds repulsive, and awaits the confrontation. [6]

As Sheringham leaves the patio to play the eponymous last track, Maxted begins finishing off his whiskey but begins to feel a peculiar sensation in his abdomen - what feels like ice cold mercury weighing down his stomach. He becomes sluggish and disoriented as track 12 begins to play. Sheringham enters again, smiling. He explains to Maxted that he has been aware of his wife's affair, and has been recording their intimacy for some time with numerous microphones. He explains that Maxted has drunk chromium cyanate, and as Maxted slowly "drowns" internally, Sheringham reveals that the "curiously muffled spongy noise, like elastic waves lapping in a latex seas" appended with thunderous rhythms growing ever louder is an amplified recording of a kiss shared between Maxted and Sheringham's wife.

Related Research Articles

<i>Crash</i> (Ballard novel) 1973 novel by J. G. Ballard

Crash is a novel by English author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1973 with cover designed by Bill Botten. It follows a group of car-crash fetishists who become sexually aroused by staging and participating in car accidents, inspired by the famous crashes of celebrities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. G. Ballard</span> English writer (1930–2009)

James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass media. He first became associated with the New Wave of science fiction for post-apocalyptic novels such as The Drowned World (1962), but later courted controversy for the experimental short story collection The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which included the 1968 story "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", and the novel Crash (1973), a story about a renegade group of car crash fetishists.

<i>The Road Goes Ever On</i> 1967 song cycle and book

The Road Goes Ever On is a song cycle first published in 1967 as a book of sheet music and as an audio recording. The music was written by Donald Swann, and the words are taken from poems in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, especially The Lord of the Rings. The title of the song cycle is taken from "The Road Goes Ever On", the first song in the collection. The songs are designed to fit together when played in sequence. The ninth song "Lúthien Tinúviel" was added in an appendix rather than in the main sequence. Swann performed the cycle for Tolkien, who approved of the music except for the Quenya song "Namárië"; he suggested it should be in the style of a Gregorian chant, which he hummed; Swann used that melody for the song.

<i>High-Rise</i> (novel) 1975 novel by J. G. Ballard

High-Rise is a 1975 novel by British writer J. G. Ballard. The story describes the disintegration of a luxury high-rise building as its affluent residents gradually descend into violent chaos. As with Ballard's previous novels Crash (1973) and Concrete Island (1974), High-Rise inquires into the ways in which modern social and technological landscapes could alter the human psyche in provocative and hitherto unexplored ways. It was adapted into a film of the same name, in 2015, by director Ben Wheatley.

<i>The Atrocity Exhibition</i> 1970 collection of stories by J. G. Ballard

The Atrocity Exhibition is an experimental novel of linked stories or "condensed novels" by British writer J. G. Ballard.

<i>Cocaine Nights</i> 1996 novel by J. G. Ballard

Cocaine Nights is a 1996 novel by J. G. Ballard. Like Super-Cannes that followed it, it deals with the idea of dystopian resort communities which maintain their seemingly perfect balance via a number of dark secrets.

<i>Concrete Island</i> 1974 novel by J. G. Ballard

Concrete Island is a novel by British writer J. G. Ballard, first published in 1974.

<i>The Wind from Nowhere</i> 1961 novel by J. G. Ballard

The Wind from Nowhere is a science fiction novel by English author J. G. Ballard. Published in 1961, it was his debut novel. He had previously published only short stories.

<i>Myths of the Near Future</i>

Myths of the Near Future is a collection of science fiction short stories by British writer J. G. Ballard, first published in 1982.

<i>Millennium People</i> 2003 novel by J. G. Ballard

Millennium People is a novel by British writer J. G. Ballard, published in 2003. The novel is the story of a rebellion in the middle classes in an enclave of Greater London.

<i>The Unlimited Dream Company</i> 1979 novel by J. G. Ballard

The Unlimited Dream Company is a novel by British writer J. G. Ballard, first published in 1979. It was nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1980. It won the British Science Fiction Association Award in the same year.

"The Voices of Time" is a dystopian science fiction short story by British author J. G. Ballard. It was first published in the October 1960 edition of New Worlds, and later in the 1962 collection The Voices of Time and Other Stories. It is an early example of the Inner Space type of story which drove the New Wave movement in the 1960s. Its primary theme is one which was common in the New Wave, that of entropy and the breakdown of all things.

"The Concentration City" is a dystopian short story by British author J. G. Ballard, first published, under the title "Build-Up", in New Worlds volume 19 number 55 in January 1957. It was reprinted in the collections Billennium and Chronopolis and later, under its revised title, in The Disaster Area and was also included in The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 1 and The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard.

"Venus Smiles" is a short story by British author J. G. Ballard. Originally titled "Mobile", it appeared in the June 1957 edition of Science Fantasy. It was then rewritten and appeared in the Vermilion Sands (1971) collection under its new name and later The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard (2006).

"Zone of Terror" is a short story by British author J. G. Ballard, first appearing in the March 1960 edition of New Worlds. It later appeared in the 1962 collection The Voices of Time and Other Stories, in The Disaster Area (1967) and The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 1 (2006).

"Deep End" is a short story written in 1961 by British author J. G. Ballard. It first appeared in the May 1961 edition of New Worlds and then in the 1962 collection The Voices of Time and Other Stories followed by The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 1 in 2006. The tale is typical of Ballard's dystopian science fiction.

"Mr F. is Mr F." is a short story by British author J. G. Ballard. It first appeared in the August 1961 edition of Science Fantasy. It was later reprinted in The Disaster Area (1967), and then in the larger The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume 1 anthology (2006).

"The Sound-Sweep" is a short story by British writer J. G. Ballard. It was first published in Science Fantasy, Volume 13, Number 39, February 1960 and was reprinted in the collection The Four-Dimensional Nightmare.

<i>Chronopolis and Other Stories</i>

Chronopolis and Other Stories is a 1971 collection of science fiction stories by British writer J. G. Ballard. Originally published in the United States by Putnam, it was reprinted in paperback in 1972 by Berkley Books, under the title Chronopolis, subtitled "The Science Fiction of J. G. Ballard."

<i>High-Rise</i> (film) 2015 film by Ben Wheatley

High-Rise is a 2015 British dystopian thriller film directed by Ben Wheatley from a screenplay by Amy Jump, based on the 1975 novel of the same name by British writer J. G. Ballard. The film stars Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and Elisabeth Moss. It was produced by Jeremy Thomas through his production company Recorded Picture Company.

References

  1. "JG Ballard Book Cover Scans: 1956-59". The Terminal Collection. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
  2. "JG Ballard Book Cover Scans 1960-1961".
  3. "Ballard's Cinema: Notes for a Retrospective – Track 12 (Joseph Losey 1967)". 12 June 2017.
  4. "BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, Between Ballard's Ears".
  5. "Hear J.G. Ballard Stories Adapted as Surreal Soundscapes That Put You Inside the Heads of His Characters | Open Culture".
  6. "Hear J.G. Ballard Stories Adapted as Surreal Soundscapes That Put You Inside the Heads of His Characters | Open Culture".