Blast from the Past

 Blast from the Past

Ben Elton has written a number of witty stories that prod and poke our funny little ways. But from time to time, he has also touched upon slightly more serious topics in his writing career. Blast from the Past is one such example.

The story itself is about two people, Polly Slade and Jack Kent, who are polar opposites of each other. The former is a 'Make love, not war' type of hippie from the 70s whilst the other is a conservative who believes in corporate culture and a more authoritarian lifestyle. He wants to maintain the existing rules of law whilst she wishes to change them. The novel basically follows their lives and the choices that they have made. At one point, early on in their impressionable years, these two fall in love and have a brief affair. It may sound suspiciously like a Barbara Cartland novel where both eventually ignore their differences and run off to a villa in Spain. But this is Ben Elton so the story is darker and bit more disturbing than that. Or as disturbing as it can be when competing with a Cartland novel. Coming back to my earlier point, let's just say that these two meet up again and see if they can still relate to each other. Or at least, rekindle what they had. Before you dismiss this book with a 'pfft' I should mention that there is a scary stalker in this scenario. Now you know the story will get a bit crazy.

I've summed up the story rather cryptically but I also don't want to give away too much. Firstly, it has to be said that this is not a typical love story but rather, a realistic take on the way we think back to early romances. Can we ever pick up where we left off? Is there such a thing made-for-each-other love, the kind where only one person understands you? Elton builds up on these ideas before hacking away at the faulty pillars that help construct these funny ideas.

Secondly, Elton's overall purpose is to comment on the two schools of thought that governed people's thinking in the 70s – those who followed the anti-establishment hippies and those who espoused adherence to set norms. These two groups have, to a large extent, influenced where we are today as most of us probably have a parent who fell into one of these two categories. And of course, they almost always talk about what they did in their youth to change the face of the world. That could mean how they chained themselves to a tree so that no one chopped it to bits or it could also refer to how they fought for their country and went to 'Nam. To help with his commentary, Elton has created Polly and Jack, two main characters that embody these two thoughts and he has also made them larger-than-life. The author points out how these two fought so hard for their cause that they let everything else fall apart around them. In some cases, they sacrificed many aspects of their lives (happiness in Jack's marriage, a career in Polly's case) for their beliefs. He describes their lives, how far they have come in their journey and then makes us wonder if they could meet on a common ground later on in life.

Finally, it is the narration style of the story that helps us explore this hippie-vs-conservative theme. The reader jumps back and forth when reading the novel, catching a glimpse of their younger years and early affair before being alerted to new developments in the current timeline. In this way, we discover how their decisions in the past has led them to become the slightly angry, cynical selves that are in the present time.