This talk will examine the logic of catastrophe in J.G. Ballard's 1960 story "The Voices of Time".
In Ballard's tale, catastrophe creates a temporal involution that throws linear time out of joint, generating unanticipated opportunities for cognitive discovery. These discoveries are charted through the various metaphorical transpositions that are the central resource of Ballard's writing.
Through these transpositions, catastrophe is raised from the level of aesthetic trauma into the realm of cognitive experience.

Ray Brassier is author of Nihil Unbound. Enlightenment and Extinction (2007). He is professor of philosophy at the American University in Beirut.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.