Quotes from book
Cocaine Nights

Name: Cocaine Nights
Author: 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.

“Our governments are preparing for a future without work, and that includes the petty criminals. Leisure societies lie ahead of us… People will still work — or, rather, some people will work, but only for a decade of their lives.”

J. G. Ballard book Cocaine Nights

"Dr. Sanger"
Cocaine Nights (1996)
Context: Our governments are preparing for a future without work, and that includes the petty criminals. Leisure societies lie ahead of us... People will still work — or, rather, some people will work, but only for a decade of their lives. They will retire in their late thirties, with fifty years of idleness in front of them. … But how do you energize people, give them back some sense of community? A world lying on its back is vulnerable to any cunning predator. Politics are a pastime for a professional caste and fail to excite the rest of us. Religious belief demands a vast effort of imaginative and emotional commitment, difficult to muster if you're still groggy from last night's sleeping pill. Only one thing is left which can rouse people, threaten them directly and force them to act together. … Crime, and transgressive behavior — by which I mean all activities which aren't necessarily illegal, but provoke us and tap our need for strong emotion, quicken the nervous system and jump the synapses deadened by leisure and inaction.

“Selfish men make the best lovers. They're prepared to invest in the women's pleasures so that they can collect an even bigger dividend for themselves.”

J. G. Ballard book Cocaine Nights

"Paula Hamilton"
Cocaine Nights (1996)

“Everywhere you look — Britain, the States, western Europe — people are sealing themselves into crime-free enclaves.”

J. G. Ballard book Cocaine Nights

"Paula Hamilton"
Cocaine Nights (1996)
Context: Everywhere you look — Britain, the States, western Europe — people are sealing themselves into crime-free enclaves. That's a mistake — a certain level of crime is part of the necessary roughage of life. Total security is a disease of deprivation.

“People are locking their doors and switching off their nervous systems.”

J. G. Ballard book Cocaine Nights

"Bobby Crawford"
Cocaine Nights (1996)
Context: Town-scapes are changing. The open-plan city belongs in the past — no more ramblas, no more pedestrian precincts, no more left banks and Latin quarters. We're moving into the age of security grilles and defensible space. As for living, our surveillance cameras can do that for us. People are locking their doors and switching off their nervous systems.