SOURCE: Schuyler, William M. Jr. “Portrait of the Artist as a Jung Man: Love, Death and Art in J. G. Ballard's Vermilion Sands Part II of II.” The New York Review of Science Fiction, no. 58 (June 1993): 14-19.

In the following essay, Schuyler explores the Jungian symbolism of Vermilion Sands.

The Stories

The stage is set in “The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D.” The narrator, a Major Parker, is an injured aviator who is no longer able to fly. He comes to Vermilion Sands to recuperate and begins building kites. But the kites develop cockpits; they evolve into gliders. He and his creations are discovered by Nolan and Petit Manuel, an artist and a crippled dwarf. They begin to fly the gliders, and more; they carve the clouds with silver iodide (11-12).

Although cloud-sculpture is an ephemeral act, it is still suitable for celebrating Leonora Chanel, an enormously wealthy and...