J. G. Ballard, 1930-2009
April 19, 2009 12:11 PM Subscribe
Seemed a bit intrusive to clutter up the [more inside] with my own personal commentary - but suffice it to say that for me Ballard is one of the most significant and prescient English writers of 20th/21st centuries, as well as someone who has kept me both sane, and questioning my sanity, for a long time now.
posted by carter at 12:14 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by carter at 12:14 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by bunnytricks at 12:15 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by bunnytricks at 12:15 PM on April 19, 2009
Anybody else read Chronopolis? One of the best sci-fi short stories ever.
posted by Afroblanco at 12:16 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Afroblanco at 12:16 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
Ultimately the greatness of his legacy will be understood in terms of his contribution to 21st-century literature, not 20th-century literature. He was truly, thoroughly, always, ahead of his time.
posted by WPW at 12:17 PM on April 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by WPW at 12:17 PM on April 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
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posted by wundermint at 12:18 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by wundermint at 12:18 PM on April 19, 2009
.-. .. .--.
posted by found missing at 12:19 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by found missing at 12:19 PM on April 19, 2009
This for me feels a little like when I heard that Kubrick had died; while I'm skeptical of mourning someone I have never met, both men made such an impression on me that I could/can not help but feel deeply saddened.
posted by palimpsest at 12:20 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by palimpsest at 12:20 PM on April 19, 2009
Fascinating writing. The world is duller for his passing away.
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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:21 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:21 PM on April 19, 2009
Not a car crash, but still feels like one -- although not in the Ballardian sense.
posted by grounded at 12:21 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by grounded at 12:21 PM on April 19, 2009
Man, that obituary makes clear that he had an... unusual outlook on life.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:25 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:25 PM on April 19, 2009
. Not too many left of the nineteen sixties "new wave" generation of science fiction writers.
posted by octothorpe at 12:28 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by octothorpe at 12:28 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 12:28 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 12:28 PM on April 19, 2009
This is the way. Step inside.
posted by QIbHom at 12:29 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by QIbHom at 12:29 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
I used to be a huge fan of his books, although I haven't kept up. I remember reading a Ballard interview (possibly in the RE/Search book) some good advice: that life is long, and there's plenty of time to make mistakes and recover from them. It's been a useful way of looking at things.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:31 PM on April 19, 2009 [4 favorites]
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:31 PM on April 19, 2009 [4 favorites]
I loved what little of his work I've read. I was secretly thrilled that, after Crash (2004) became so popular, there was a spike in purchases of Crash (1996). All of those folks expecting Sandra Bullock and Matt Dillon and a "thought-provoking winner," but instead being exposed to lovingly-filmed surgical scars and James Spader getting his freak on with Elias Koteas. A roundabout way of getting his work out there, but valid and perhaps more powerful for coming upon a completely unsuspecting audience.
I'm trying to come up with an appropriate mourning ritual for him, but all I can imagine is driving out to the station, adding up the mile markers along the way, then sitting in my Ford, slowly masturbating while chanting out every individual part of a bus I can mechanically name, finally failing to climax and feeling very disaffected by it.
Looks like I've got some anthologies to buy.
posted by adipocere at 12:31 PM on April 19, 2009 [12 favorites]
I'm trying to come up with an appropriate mourning ritual for him, but all I can imagine is driving out to the station, adding up the mile markers along the way, then sitting in my Ford, slowly masturbating while chanting out every individual part of a bus I can mechanically name, finally failing to climax and feeling very disaffected by it.
Looks like I've got some anthologies to buy.
posted by adipocere at 12:31 PM on April 19, 2009 [12 favorites]
I would have loved another visit to Vermillion Sands.
posted by jenkinsEar at 12:37 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by jenkinsEar at 12:37 PM on April 19, 2009
I shall have to compile a playlist of moody Ballard themed songs and listen to it in his honour.
posted by Artw at 12:38 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Artw at 12:38 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:41 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:41 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Donnie VandenBos at 12:44 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Donnie VandenBos at 12:44 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by trip and a half at 12:50 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by trip and a half at 12:50 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Faint of Butt at 12:53 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:53 PM on April 19, 2009
Oh shit. I was just thinking I should re-read High Rise.
Well this has been a fucktastic kinda year for my favorite writers.
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posted by The Whelk at 12:55 PM on April 19, 2009
Well this has been a fucktastic kinda year for my favorite writers.
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posted by The Whelk at 12:55 PM on April 19, 2009
The swimming pool is empty.
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posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:58 PM on April 19, 2009 [3 favorites]
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posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:58 PM on April 19, 2009 [3 favorites]
Dammit, rest in peace JG.
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:05 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Divine_Wino at 1:05 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by localroger at 1:05 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by localroger at 1:05 PM on April 19, 2009
Growing up in culturally isolated Missoula Montana, I was greatly influenced by RE/Search publications. These turned me on to people and things I'd never heard of, including JG Ballard.Though I had a very limited background in fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed his novel Crash, and felt that much more hip for digging it.
I met him at a book signing here in Seattle in the late 1980's. Unbelievably, I've either lost the photos I took of him, or took no photos at all! I remember speaking to him briefly about the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster...
posted by Tube at 1:11 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
I met him at a book signing here in Seattle in the late 1980's. Unbelievably, I've either lost the photos I took of him, or took no photos at all! I remember speaking to him briefly about the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster...
posted by Tube at 1:11 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
A name and a pair of dates cannot do justice to his importance as an author. His name, like so many of the best writers, inspired its own adjective, Ballardian, the only way to describe concisely his unique assimilation of the pathologies of the late twentieth century into his clinical reports from the ever-nearing future (The Drought, The Drowned World, High Rise, Concrete Island, Crash). His experiences growing up during the Second World War, including living through the fall of Shanghai and Japanese internment camps, inspired his bestselling autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun - a work that took contemporary critics and readers by surprise, as though an entirely new author of the same name had suddenly materialized fully formed in their midst. His decision to live out his life in suburban Shepperton baffled many, but he found it the best outpost from which to observe the remainder of the twentieth century and keep on the lookout for the millennium. Although the future where books took place grew nearer and nearer to the present over the course of his career, it felt as if we could never quite catch up with his perspective on it. His lastest book, Miracles of Life: A Pre-Posthumous Memoir, is waiting to find an American publisher, as though the timing hasn't been quite right.
And the worst part about typing up this inadequate obit summation is that I was never able, even in his final year, to summon the resolution to write to the man himself and tell him what his works mean to me on so many levels. Even now I've no confidence that I've been able to figure that out. I just can't let it go with a .
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:15 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
And the worst part about typing up this inadequate obit summation is that I was never able, even in his final year, to summon the resolution to write to the man himself and tell him what his works mean to me on so many levels. Even now I've no confidence that I've been able to figure that out. I just can't let it go with a .
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:15 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
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posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:27 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 1:27 PM on April 19, 2009
I am very saddened by his passing. Crash and Atrocity Exhibition are among my favorite books.
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posted by slimepuppy at 1:37 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by slimepuppy at 1:37 PM on April 19, 2009
Alas, another great mind extinguished.
Ballard's stories in Vermillion Sands and Chronopolis made an indelible impression on me in my youth, as did Empire of the Sun. I was stunned when Spielberg released his movie of Empire, a fim which has borne up extraordinarily well over time.
posted by rdone at 1:43 PM on April 19, 2009
What a fantastic mind. I only hope he has lit-up and continues to light-up enough imaginations so that this world can control the market-driven, focus-group-sculpted, commerce-induced, superfluous technology seduction, government-apportioned narcoleptic dullness. Not that it matters much in the end, as from the Ballardian view of things, the center truly cannot hold. Amoral nature and chaos will always manifest in the end and provide the necessary catastrophic counter-weight, if man does not.
From that Ballardian view, the man-made landscape is a window straight into the cultural collective unconscious. The landscape and the culture that rises up around it is the dream. His protagonists found self-actualization and freedom and a curious joy, by complete body, mind, spirit submersion into that collective psyche, becoming anthropomorphic amoral nature itself and exposing the dream's shortcomings and insanity.
All along the way of these stories there were beautiful descriptions of inner and outer visions and exhilarating, ridiculously entertaining rides of passion and intensity. The real world was made something better somehow. Something more cohesive thankfully imbued with way more meaning than any of the designers of the dream ever intended or understood even.
As one of the two writers I hoped to one day meet, this is sad news, but, he'd see this as the ultimate liberation into the dream of nature. The ultimate expression, so I congratulate him on his new manifestation. This is a joyous occasion in the Ballardian worldview. In the meanwhile, happily his imagination is out here in the world through his books and stories, for people to discover now, and forever, in the future. Not mentioned much, but he was a dedicated father, and a kind and truly compassionate man who lived through extraordinary times.
I can't imagine a life better spent.
Good-bye JG Ballard.
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posted by Skygazer at 1:43 PM on April 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
From that Ballardian view, the man-made landscape is a window straight into the cultural collective unconscious. The landscape and the culture that rises up around it is the dream. His protagonists found self-actualization and freedom and a curious joy, by complete body, mind, spirit submersion into that collective psyche, becoming anthropomorphic amoral nature itself and exposing the dream's shortcomings and insanity.
All along the way of these stories there were beautiful descriptions of inner and outer visions and exhilarating, ridiculously entertaining rides of passion and intensity. The real world was made something better somehow. Something more cohesive thankfully imbued with way more meaning than any of the designers of the dream ever intended or understood even.
As one of the two writers I hoped to one day meet, this is sad news, but, he'd see this as the ultimate liberation into the dream of nature. The ultimate expression, so I congratulate him on his new manifestation. This is a joyous occasion in the Ballardian worldview. In the meanwhile, happily his imagination is out here in the world through his books and stories, for people to discover now, and forever, in the future. Not mentioned much, but he was a dedicated father, and a kind and truly compassionate man who lived through extraordinary times.
I can't imagine a life better spent.
Good-bye JG Ballard.
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posted by Skygazer at 1:43 PM on April 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
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posted by Football Bat at 2:17 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Football Bat at 2:17 PM on April 19, 2009
I'm very sorry to hear this. As a young, culturally impoverished sf fan in the early '60s, I had my eyes opened to the literary possibilities of the field by Ballard more than anyone else, and much later was blown away by Empire of the Sun. Goodbye, JG, and thanks for all the frissons.
posted by languagehat at 2:19 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by languagehat at 2:19 PM on April 19, 2009
"Of course, Mr. Constantin." The supervisor's face was relaxed and almost genial. "I understand. When you know you are innocent, then you are guilty."
His hand opened the veranda door on to the whirling leaves.
posted by pyramid termite at 2:24 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
His hand opened the veranda door on to the whirling leaves.
posted by pyramid termite at 2:24 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
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posted by roll truck roll at 2:29 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by roll truck roll at 2:29 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by bad grammar at 2:40 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by bad grammar at 2:40 PM on April 19, 2009
His writing inspired me so much. Crash and Concrete Island are some of my faves.
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posted by tiger yang at 3:01 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by tiger yang at 3:01 PM on April 19, 2009
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In 2001, Claire Walsh, J.G. Ballard's long time companion, sent me an email about a image they had seen on my website. I had mentioned "High-rise" as an inspiration for creating the picture (it had also an accompanying short story) and they were curious about it. The idea that one of my favourite writers had been reading my stuff on the internet was really a thrilling moment.
Thank you Mr Ballard, and my condolences to Claire.
posted by elgilito at 3:10 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
In 2001, Claire Walsh, J.G. Ballard's long time companion, sent me an email about a image they had seen on my website. I had mentioned "High-rise" as an inspiration for creating the picture (it had also an accompanying short story) and they were curious about it. The idea that one of my favourite writers had been reading my stuff on the internet was really a thrilling moment.
Thank you Mr Ballard, and my condolences to Claire.
posted by elgilito at 3:10 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
God damn this fucking world to hell. This is why we can't have anything that is worth a damn. It's all time-stamped for oblivion.
I'll get you for this, world. You and me are now enemies forever.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:11 PM on April 19, 2009
I'll get you for this, world. You and me are now enemies forever.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:11 PM on April 19, 2009
I had no idea he raised his three children on his own. Ahead of his time in so many ways.
posted by stinkycheese at 3:12 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by stinkycheese at 3:12 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Max McCarty at 3:18 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by Max McCarty at 3:18 PM on April 19, 2009
I always loved "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race." Just brilliant. He will be missed.
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posted by Francis7 at 3:21 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
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posted by Francis7 at 3:21 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
Never met him but he accepted my first story for publication. Suggested removing one 20% chunk in a single brutal edit, like hacking off a limb. Improved the story 200%.
posted by Hugobaron at 3:38 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Hugobaron at 3:38 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
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This feels too low-key. It doesn't seem like he should leave the world without taking a few acres of suburbia with him.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 3:42 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
This feels too low-key. It doesn't seem like he should leave the world without taking a few acres of suburbia with him.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 3:42 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
In the hippie, redneck, and yuppie filled land of East Montpelier, Vermont, I happened to wander into a bookstore one day and discover the RE-Search publications. These things blew my 14 year old mind. I was the first kid in my highschool to get into body piercing, with the direct influence of their Modern Primitives edition (I pierced both nipples with safety pins and gave myself a mohawk). One of the lasting influences from this discovery was a love for the writing of J.G. Ballard.
Rumor has it that Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan was presented at the 1980 Republican National Convention as if it were an actual study about the viability of Reagan as a candidate.
Hearing about Ballard's death, I need to do something, make something happen outside myself to mirror the tremendous place that Ballard has in me.
posted by idiopath at 3:47 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
Rumor has it that Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan was presented at the 1980 Republican National Convention as if it were an actual study about the viability of Reagan as a candidate.
Hearing about Ballard's death, I need to do something, make something happen outside myself to mirror the tremendous place that Ballard has in me.
posted by idiopath at 3:47 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
I used to have dreams about Ballard. That he and I were diving from our outrigger canoes and wrestling sharks or alligators among the half submerged ruins of a once great city in the Drowned World. I will never get any gayer that.
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posted by tkchrist at 3:58 PM on April 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
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posted by tkchrist at 3:58 PM on April 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
Well, this is as good a time as any to quote the last page of my PhD dissertation.
"coda
'Homo sapiens is a reformed hunter-killer of depraved appetites, which once helped him to survive. He was partly rehabilitated in an open prison called the first agricultural societies, and now finds himself on parole in the polite suburbs of the city state. The deviant impulses coded into his central nervous system have been switched off. He can no longer harm himself or anyone else. But nature sensibly endowed him with a taste for cruelty and an intense curiosity about pain and death. Without them, he's trapped in the afternoon shopping malls of a limitless mediocrity. We need to revive him, give him back the killing eye and the dreams of death. Together they helped him to dominate the planet.'
'So, psychopathy is freedom, psychopathy is fun?'
'A natty little slogan, Paul, but it does contain a certain fiery truth.'
- J. G. Ballard, Super Cannes (London: Flamingo, 2001), p. 263."
posted by crazylegs at 4:04 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
"coda
'Homo sapiens is a reformed hunter-killer of depraved appetites, which once helped him to survive. He was partly rehabilitated in an open prison called the first agricultural societies, and now finds himself on parole in the polite suburbs of the city state. The deviant impulses coded into his central nervous system have been switched off. He can no longer harm himself or anyone else. But nature sensibly endowed him with a taste for cruelty and an intense curiosity about pain and death. Without them, he's trapped in the afternoon shopping malls of a limitless mediocrity. We need to revive him, give him back the killing eye and the dreams of death. Together they helped him to dominate the planet.'
'So, psychopathy is freedom, psychopathy is fun?'
'A natty little slogan, Paul, but it does contain a certain fiery truth.'
- J. G. Ballard, Super Cannes (London: Flamingo, 2001), p. 263."
posted by crazylegs at 4:04 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
One of my favorite novelists and an exceptionally powerful and effective writer -- probably responsible for the fictions that I have felt most uncomfortable reading.
I have the impression that he's vastly underappreciated both for his output and the reach his influence but maybe that's because I'm out of touch..
posted by camcgee at 4:13 PM on April 19, 2009
I have the impression that he's vastly underappreciated both for his output and the reach his influence but maybe that's because I'm out of touch..
posted by camcgee at 4:13 PM on April 19, 2009
I found out reading William Gibson's blog, which is very appropriate. From about age 10 to age 15 I barely read anything but science fiction and because of various quirks of my environment I ended up reading through SF literature roughly in chronological fashion. The first books I read were a J. W. Campbell short story collection, Science Fiction Hall of Fame, I, Robot, Foundation Trilogy (at least books 2 and 3, descriptions I've read of book 1 don't sound familiar at all) and early Clarke. I mostly stayed with that crowd until I came across a few New Wave books, around age 13, including Ballard's Low Flying Aircraft and Other Stories. I'd had my mind blown by science fiction when I first encountered and coming across Ballard and that crowd was having my mind blown all over again. It's been a decade since I last read any of his work. It's more than time to rectify that.
Francis7 mention "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race" above. It can be read here alongside the piece that inspired it, Alfred Jarry's "The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race."
posted by Kattullus at 4:17 PM on April 19, 2009
Francis7 mention "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race" above. It can be read here alongside the piece that inspired it, Alfred Jarry's "The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race."
posted by Kattullus at 4:17 PM on April 19, 2009
I was re-reading Super-Cannes last night. That was the first time in at least five years I had read anything by Ballard, so it was weird opening up MetaFilter and seeing this.
I googled around a bit trying to find original reviews of his more notorious works. This one from NYT is pretty hilarious.
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posted by Dumsnill at 4:31 PM on April 19, 2009
I googled around a bit trying to find original reviews of his more notorious works. This one from NYT is pretty hilarious.
. indeed
posted by Dumsnill at 4:31 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by cobaltnine at 4:47 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by cobaltnine at 4:47 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Smart Dalek at 4:54 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
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posted by Smart Dalek at 4:54 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
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I only read a few of Ballard's late novels, but the ones I got to were great -- SuperCannes especially. Such a great writer.
posted by bardic at 5:02 PM on April 19, 2009
I only read a few of Ballard's late novels, but the ones I got to were great -- SuperCannes especially. Such a great writer.
posted by bardic at 5:02 PM on April 19, 2009
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There is nothing, NOTHING I say, like the brain buzz available to one from successful immersion in one of Ballard's seventies triumphs.
posted by mwhybark at 5:24 PM on April 19, 2009
There is nothing, NOTHING I say, like the brain buzz available to one from successful immersion in one of Ballard's seventies triumphs.
posted by mwhybark at 5:24 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by lukemeister at 6:05 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by lukemeister at 6:05 PM on April 19, 2009
I saw this post and for a moment thought "didn't he die a few years ago?" But, of course, I was thinking of Jean Baudrillard, who more than shared a similar outlook on humanity with Ballard (although Baudrillard was not quite so pessimistic).
The world is truly worse of with both of them gone.
posted by Down10 at 6:08 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
The world is truly worse of with both of them gone.
posted by Down10 at 6:08 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
The first book of his I ever read was The Drowned World, back when I was in high school. I borrowed it from a friend, and I remember the cover artwork featured an iguana, and my friend had taped up the spine of the book with some shiny grey duct tape.
posted by KokuRyu at 6:22 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by KokuRyu at 6:22 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
You never forget your first Ballard. Mine was 'The Drowned Giant', anthologized as a runner-up in the very first Nebula Awards collection, in '66. Baby, my mind split open. Oh, I'd been reading SF for awhile, the usual Heinlein and Clarke, maybe some Aldiss, Sturgeon. But nothing prepared me for the pure strangeness of a story about a giant, washed up on shore to slowly decompose, told in a deadpan, affectless manner that zoomed the weirdness up to eleven. I didn't know much at the time, I was just a kid, but I knew this was the real deal, Truth of some kind, and I'd followed his work ever since. One of the 'Giants' in my pantheon of great writers.
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posted by Bron at 6:57 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Bron at 6:57 PM on April 19, 2009
I vividly remember my first Ballard -- it was Crash, last year.
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posted by neckro23 at 7:48 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by neckro23 at 7:48 PM on April 19, 2009
Mine was the collection The Terminal Beach, sometime back in the 70s, with this cover.
posted by carter at 8:00 PM on April 19, 2009
posted by carter at 8:00 PM on April 19, 2009
Speculative Illustrations
BALLARD:
But technology in terms of video-tape machines and so on may make it possible to have a continuous alternative to direct experience, and I mean any alternative. You can have this played back in a slow motion, or do you want it in infra-red, or do you want it this or that. Take your pick, like a juke-box. Technology may make it possible to have a continuous feedback to ourselves of information. But at the moment I think we are starved of information. I think that the biggest need of the painter or writer today is information. I'd love to have a tickertape machine in my study constantly churning out material: abstracts from scientific journals, the latest Hollywood gossip, the passenger list of a 707 that crashed in the Andes, the colour mixes of a new automobile varnish. In fact, Eduardo and I in our different ways are already gathering this kind of information, but we are using the clumsiest possible took to do it: our own hands and eyes. The technology of the information-retrieval system that we employ is incredibly primitive. We fumble around in bookshops, we buy magazines or subscribe to them. But I regard myself as starved of information. I am getting a throughput of information in my imaginative life of one-hundredth of what I could use. I think there's an information starvation at present and technology will create the possibility of knowing everything about everything. When Apollo 99 blasts off to Alpha Centauri we will know everything about the crew all of the time. It's always struck me that Eduardo's studio is lavishly equipped with photographic and recording equipment of various kinds. He spends a large part of his time on information collection and sorting, and an equal amount of time ensuring that he has a ready access to all the material he has around him. It's a far fry from the nearest thing I can visualize which is books on shelves in a library where one has a kind of notional access to the material but no real access because it's not all scanning in front of your mind. And it struck me that the information system Eduardo has designed for himself comes very close to the sort of information-retrieval systems that a scientist has. For instance, Dr. Christopher Evans at the National Physical Laboratories uses very similar devices and has a similar internal scanning system to make sure that he keeps up to date with whatever touches his imagination. I know no writer, other than Len Deighton, who maintains this sort of system. Most do not even grasp the fact that they need information to keep their imagination up to par. Deighton used to have, perhaps still does have a computer, a Telex and an electric typewriter plugged into the system.
PAOLOZZI:
Just think that only two people in Bucharest are going to read this.
(This makes me very sad.)
posted by finnb at 8:44 PM on April 19, 2009 [4 favorites]
BALLARD:
But technology in terms of video-tape machines and so on may make it possible to have a continuous alternative to direct experience, and I mean any alternative. You can have this played back in a slow motion, or do you want it in infra-red, or do you want it this or that. Take your pick, like a juke-box. Technology may make it possible to have a continuous feedback to ourselves of information. But at the moment I think we are starved of information. I think that the biggest need of the painter or writer today is information. I'd love to have a tickertape machine in my study constantly churning out material: abstracts from scientific journals, the latest Hollywood gossip, the passenger list of a 707 that crashed in the Andes, the colour mixes of a new automobile varnish. In fact, Eduardo and I in our different ways are already gathering this kind of information, but we are using the clumsiest possible took to do it: our own hands and eyes. The technology of the information-retrieval system that we employ is incredibly primitive. We fumble around in bookshops, we buy magazines or subscribe to them. But I regard myself as starved of information. I am getting a throughput of information in my imaginative life of one-hundredth of what I could use. I think there's an information starvation at present and technology will create the possibility of knowing everything about everything. When Apollo 99 blasts off to Alpha Centauri we will know everything about the crew all of the time. It's always struck me that Eduardo's studio is lavishly equipped with photographic and recording equipment of various kinds. He spends a large part of his time on information collection and sorting, and an equal amount of time ensuring that he has a ready access to all the material he has around him. It's a far fry from the nearest thing I can visualize which is books on shelves in a library where one has a kind of notional access to the material but no real access because it's not all scanning in front of your mind. And it struck me that the information system Eduardo has designed for himself comes very close to the sort of information-retrieval systems that a scientist has. For instance, Dr. Christopher Evans at the National Physical Laboratories uses very similar devices and has a similar internal scanning system to make sure that he keeps up to date with whatever touches his imagination. I know no writer, other than Len Deighton, who maintains this sort of system. Most do not even grasp the fact that they need information to keep their imagination up to par. Deighton used to have, perhaps still does have a computer, a Telex and an electric typewriter plugged into the system.
PAOLOZZI:
Just think that only two people in Bucharest are going to read this.
(This makes me very sad.)
posted by finnb at 8:44 PM on April 19, 2009 [4 favorites]
"Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog ..."
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posted by feckless at 8:48 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by feckless at 8:48 PM on April 19, 2009
According to this review, the story Ballard most wished to be remembered by was "The Voices of Time". Its images have haunted me since I first read it, and it has been anthologized again and again and again. Let me quote from the reviewer about what you will find there: "In the Ballardian world everything tends to entropy except the minds which revel in it."
posted by drdanger at 8:51 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by drdanger at 8:51 PM on April 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
Afroblanco, i agree - Chronopolis is my favorite story of all time.
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posted by lapolla at 9:07 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by lapolla at 9:07 PM on April 19, 2009
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I recommend The Drowned World. Not noted as often but given the current global warming, ice caps melting phenomena it seems prophetic.
posted by Rashomon at 9:55 PM on April 19, 2009
I recommend The Drowned World. Not noted as often but given the current global warming, ice caps melting phenomena it seems prophetic.
posted by Rashomon at 9:55 PM on April 19, 2009
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Neil Gaiman's favorite J.G.Ballard's novel is the Concrete Island. From his tweet.
posted by lahersedor at 10:56 PM on April 19, 2009
Neil Gaiman's favorite J.G.Ballard's novel is the Concrete Island. From his tweet.
posted by lahersedor at 10:56 PM on April 19, 2009
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posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 12:37 AM on April 20, 2009
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 12:37 AM on April 20, 2009
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posted by sleep_walker at 12:40 AM on April 20, 2009
posted by sleep_walker at 12:40 AM on April 20, 2009
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posted by SageLeVoid at 12:57 AM on April 20, 2009
posted by SageLeVoid at 12:57 AM on April 20, 2009
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This post on SF Signal has a lot of links to various obits and tributes from writers including Michael Moorcock and Iain Sinclair
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:50 AM on April 20, 2009 [1 favorite]
This post on SF Signal has a lot of links to various obits and tributes from writers including Michael Moorcock and Iain Sinclair
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:50 AM on April 20, 2009 [1 favorite]
Captain Webster studied the documents laid out on Dr. Lancaster's demonstration table. These were: (1) a spectroheliogram of the sun; (2) tarmac and take-off checks for the B29 Superfortress Enola Gay; (3) electroencephalogram of Albert Einstein; (4) transverse section through a Pre-Cambrian Trilobite; (5) photograph taken at noon, 7th August, 1945, of the sand-sea, Quattara Depression; (6) Max Ernst's Garden Airplane Traps. He turned to Dr. Lancaster. 'You say these constitute an assassination weapon?'At the top of this thread palimpsest said "while I'm skeptical of mourning someone I have never met, both men made such an impression on me that I could/can not help but feel deeply saddened." and that is a sentiment that resonates with me. Ballard's work has had a profound effect on not just the way I view literature but the way I view the world.
posted by ninebelow at 4:57 AM on April 20, 2009 [1 favorite]
Tributes on Michael Moorcock's site, including contributions from Moorcock himself highlighting inaccuracies in the Telegraph obituary posted early in this thread.
posted by palimpsest at 5:45 AM on April 20, 2009
posted by palimpsest at 5:45 AM on April 20, 2009
Presumably the author of that unsigned obit is Andrew McKie, who was (until he was made redundant recently) both the Telegraph’s obituaries editor and SF critic.
As well as the David Pringle Guardian obit mentioned in that thread there is also Christopher Priest's obituary in the FT.
posted by ninebelow at 5:59 AM on April 20, 2009
As well as the David Pringle Guardian obit mentioned in that thread there is also Christopher Priest's obituary in the FT.
posted by ninebelow at 5:59 AM on April 20, 2009
UbuWeb hosts Shanghai Jim, the 1991 BBC documentary on Ballard. It's very worth watching.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:47 AM on April 20, 2009
posted by octobersurprise at 6:47 AM on April 20, 2009
I was reading High Rise on my last flight (this was Christmas). I looked over and found the woman sitting next to me was reading Lord of the Flies. I became quietly preoccupied -- and concerned -- w/r/t the broader social meaning of this, in a way I can only imagine Ballard might have himself.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:28 AM on April 20, 2009
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:28 AM on April 20, 2009
Oh, no. My first introduction to him was watching the film version of Empire of the Sun, sometime in junior high. He was my 'gateway' author into the genre of dystopian fiction, and still my favorite.
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posted by medeine at 8:36 AM on April 20, 2009
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posted by medeine at 8:36 AM on April 20, 2009
Megami: am I the only person on MeFi that doesn't love Crash
Nah, it drops you right into the middle of some serious pathologies without much, foreplay (so to speak). I found Concrete Island and High Rise from this cycle of his work, to be less alienating. I'd read those first, in that order, then Crash and then enjoy a smoke with The Atrocity Exhibition.
Although if you want to experience an immersive psycho-Ballardian manic episode, you could read The Atrocity Exhibition in tandem with Crash while listening to early SPK or NON records or, even better, looped field recordings of highway traffic from thruways and interstates in your area.
In which case, you should probably stick to riding public transportation for a while.
posted by Skygazer at 9:55 AM on April 20, 2009
Nah, it drops you right into the middle of some serious pathologies without much, foreplay (so to speak). I found Concrete Island and High Rise from this cycle of his work, to be less alienating. I'd read those first, in that order, then Crash and then enjoy a smoke with The Atrocity Exhibition.
Although if you want to experience an immersive psycho-Ballardian manic episode, you could read The Atrocity Exhibition in tandem with Crash while listening to early SPK or NON records or, even better, looped field recordings of highway traffic from thruways and interstates in your area.
In which case, you should probably stick to riding public transportation for a while.
posted by Skygazer at 9:55 AM on April 20, 2009
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posted by you're only jung once at 12:24 PM on April 20, 2009
posted by you're only jung once at 12:24 PM on April 20, 2009
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I've always theorized that Christian Bale, by playing the young Ballard in the Empire movie, became his second embodiment, and has thus been on a quest to similarly explore Ballardian themes.
posted by FuManchu at 4:09 PM on April 20, 2009
I've always theorized that Christian Bale, by playing the young Ballard in the Empire movie, became his second embodiment, and has thus been on a quest to similarly explore Ballardian themes.
posted by FuManchu at 4:09 PM on April 20, 2009
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posted by exlotuseater at 8:43 PM on April 20, 2009
posted by exlotuseater at 8:43 PM on April 20, 2009
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posted by Smedleyman at 10:22 PM on April 20, 2009
posted by Smedleyman at 10:22 PM on April 20, 2009
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posted by Slithy_Tove at 12:19 AM on April 21, 2009
posted by Slithy_Tove at 12:19 AM on April 21, 2009
The Dying Fall by JG Ballard
The modern world collides with the Renaissance in JG Ballard's last short story
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:38 PM on April 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
The modern world collides with the Renaissance in JG Ballard's last short story
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:38 PM on April 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
The Autobiography of J.G.B. is a short story reprinted in this week's New Yorker.
posted by Kattullus at 12:34 PM on May 5, 2009
posted by Kattullus at 12:34 PM on May 5, 2009
What J. G. Ballard Novel Is Christian Bale Adaptating To Film?
posted by homunculus at 4:14 PM on May 8, 2009
posted by homunculus at 4:14 PM on May 8, 2009
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Damn.
posted by WPW at 12:13 PM on April 19, 2009