My theory about most of Ballard's "sci-fi" was that he just liked to throw his characters in (or immediately after) some world-shifting event (mostly in the sen

My theory about most of Ballard's "sci-fi" was that he just liked to throw his characters in (or immediately after) some world-shifting event (mostly in the sense of "catastrophe") and see what kind of neurosis or madness would emerge from the new environment. So the external environment was mostly a backdrop for the development of the characters' mental maladies. It's pretty rare to find a character in Ballard's stories who acts "rationally" and usually (at least in my experience) the few that do tend to look alien/mad because they are still using human logic and common sense in a world that has obviously moved in a totally different direction.