As we explore the immensity of the world through photographing tiny 1:87 scale people, the short story ‘Scale’ by Will Self, is a useful and entertaining read. I haven’t managed to confirm this anywhere, but its seems unlikely that this story isn’t highly influenced by (an adaptation even) of J. G. Ballards novel Concrete Island. At the bottom of this post is a link to Will Self’s tribute to Ballard when he died recently.

‘Scale’ is likely to make you laugh, and as Walter Benjamin once wrote:

” We can remark in passing that there is no better starting point for thought than laughter. In particular, thought usually has a better chance when one is shaken by laughter than when one’s mind is shaken and upset.”

blog post by Self himself:

I’ve been working all morning on the stage adaptation of my 1993 short story ‘Scale’, which appeared first in the literary magazine Granta and latterly in my collection ‘Grey Area’. Ostensibly the tale of a man with a severe DIY opiate addiction, living next to a model village, ‘Scale’ is perhaps my most Borgesian of stories, in that I tried to incorporate within it 5,ooo-odd years of human history (massive time scale), and every known literary genre – oral ballad, free verse, academic thesis, thriller, stream-of-consciousness &c. Naturally, there are also myriad plays on all the available senses of the word ’scale’: kettle, music, lizard, bathroom &c. When I was writing it I gloried – as we monoglots all must – in the rich synonymy of the English language.

Will Self offers a tribute to his “mentor” J. G. Ballard
Also, an interview with Will Self about Ballard.