Off the Grid Left Out and Over

Carl Douglas (author)

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Title	Off the Grid Left Out and Over
Contributor	Carl Douglas (author)
DOI	https://doi.org/10.21983/P3.0053.1.25
Landing page	https://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-funambulist-papers-vol-1/
License	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright	Douglas, Carl
Publisher	punctum books
Published on	2013-10-23
Long abstract	In James Graham Ballard’s novella Concrete Island, architect Robert Maitland crashes his Jaguar over a motorway embankment onto a traffic island, a thin triangle of waste ground two hundred meters long.1 Here, in a parody of Robinson Crusoe, he finds himself ma-rooned: His jacket and trousers were stained with sweat, mud and en-gine grease. Few drivers, even if they did notice him, would be eager to give him a lift. Besides, it would be almost impossible to slow down here and stop. The pressure of the following traf-fic, free at last from the long tail-backs that always blocked the Westway interchange during the rush hour, forced them on relentlessly. The fast-flowing arms of the motorway continue to operate perfectly, ensuring the rapid movement of bodies and objects; but their opera-tion is inaccessible to Maitland. Immobilized by the infrastructure of mobility, he has not simply exited urban life, he has slipped off the grid while remaining firmly within its network of effects.
Page range	pp. 133–137
Print length	5 pages
Language	English (Original)

In James Graham Ballard’s novella Concrete Island, architect Robert Maitland crashes his Jaguar over a motorway embankment onto a traffic island, a thin triangle of waste ground two hundred meters long.1 Here, in a parody of Robinson Crusoe, he finds himself ma-rooned: His jacket and trousers were stained with sweat, mud and en-gine grease. Few drivers, even if they did notice him, would be eager to give him a lift. Besides, it would be almost impossible to slow down here and stop. The pressure of the following traf-fic, free at last from the long tail-backs that always blocked the Westway interchange during the rush hour, forced them on relentlessly. The fast-flowing arms of the motorway continue to operate perfectly, ensuring the rapid movement of bodies and objects; but their opera-tion is inaccessible to Maitland. Immobilized by the infrastructure of mobility, he has not simply exited urban life, he has slipped off the grid while remaining firmly within its network of effects.