Terrible, dreadful news. British author and New Wave alumnus J.G. Ballard won't be with us much longer. Here's a link that provides details:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/t...

Man, my heart is heavy tonight. He's one of the great ones, a guy who never wrote down to his audience, consistently challenging them with ground-breaking prose and unique, defiantly "ballard-ian" themes.

Absolutely! A novella called The Voices of Time by Ballard was what really got me interested in SF, and then came The Drowned World and a string of others to provoke and challenge me as a reader and a person, and hold a funfair mirror up to the decline of the British Empire.

- Tim

Not one of my favorite writers but he will be missed. Few in the field have done more to afflict the comfortable than Ballard has.

I've never actually read his science fiction -- only Empire of the Sun.

Yeah, it's going to be tough losing ol' J.G.

"Few in the field have done more to afflict the comfortable than Ballard has."

Shrike, I LOVE that quote and if anyone ever says that about my career, I will consider the years of hours spent in my little office well-spent. Jesus, that was the perfect remark to make re: Ballard's canon, admire it or hate it (and he provokes strong views on both sides of that argument). You could still get people's backs up in this forum by debating the relative merits of the "New Wave"--John Campbell and the traditional SF people hated it, the hipsters and tripsters and folks who also read William Burroughs couldn't get enough.

Jokester: I never cared for EMPIRE--actually, I prefer his short stories to his novels, with the possible exceptions of HIGHRISE and CONCRETE ISLAND. And what can you say about a man who once composed a piece (before the man became president) called "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan". Yoicks!

Thanks for this, folks...

Message edited by its author, Jan 22, 2008, 11:05am.

And what can you say about a man who once composed a piece (before the man became president) called "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan".

Cliff, I think you should hunt down 'Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration' by Michael Blumlein, if you've not already read it.

I always suspected that Blumlein was Ballard's illegitimate son (from an ill-fated union with Angela Carter). I think I have BRAINS OF RATS somewhere in my spider-filled basement but haven't read it in years and years.

And how about "The Assassination of John Kennedy As A Downhill Ski Race"? Man, oh man, some author's minds are so far out there I'm left breathless. And those guys tend to be the ones I return to, time and time again...

#5 Thanks for the compliment. When you think of H.G. Wells' description of the cold, observing intelligences on Mars I find it easy to imagine JGB as our equivalent; the fellow who wrote about the experience of mass disjuncture as if he really meant it, as opposed to experience being a beast any competant man could tame. That ability to invoke being swamped by events could be very useful to just about any working writer these days, and it dawns on me now that Peter Watts certainly has that quality in Blindsight.

I think Peter Watts would be pleased at the Ballard comparison, as would anyone who takes pride in producing cerebral, carefully crafted work.

That "cold, observing intelligence" is present is everything Ballard has written; he is unflinching and has never followed patterns or trends or adhered to formula, stubbornly persisting in presenting his own, unique take on real or imagined worlds.

If the field of SF had more like him, it would be in far better shape. His loss will be profound, his voice irreplaceable...

I would argue that Ballard is one of the best English novelists since the war: he is one of the few that tackles what technology means to us, what it is doing to us, etc. Even though he started as an sf writer, I don't view him as one (possibly because it he hasn't been viewed as a genre writer in the UK for decades) - as far as novels are concerned, he had left the field as long ago as Crash.

The story about The Atrocity Exhibition is that the initial US edition was pulped in 1969 when the then governor of California, Ronald Reagan, toured the plant that was printing it. I'd like to think it was true but it has the taste of an urban myth.

Re "The Assassination of John F Kennedy as a Downhill Motor Race" is a homage to Alfred Jarry's "The Crucification of Jesus Christ as a Downhill Cycle Race".

Re Empire of the Sun - although it's not why favourite novel by him I do think it will be the one he is remembered for. It did shine a light on the iconography he had previously used - it turned out all those futuristic stories of abandoned cities and empty swimming pools were created by the images of Shanghai in the war. It will be interesting to see how his autobiography ties up with this novel, and The Kindness of Women.

Jargoneer:

You won't get much an of an argument from me on any of your points--and I'd be willing to give EMPIRE another try somewhere down the road.

Your statement re: Ballard and technology is absolutely bang on.

If EMPIRE isn't your favorite novel of his, what is? And do you agree/disagree re: my comment on his short stories vs. his novels? I'm curious.

I did not know about the Jarry reference so my thanks for that--I've had a soft spot for Alfie ever since reading Shattuck's BANQUET YEARS.

Always a pleasure to hear your thoughts, mon...

I went through a period of reading Ballard's novels. The 1990s, I think it was - The Kindness of Women, Rushing to Paradise, Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes. I was disappointed by the last, and stopped reading him. Recently, I've been picking up his early short story collections, and reading them. Eventually, I'll work my way through his oeuvre and back to Super-Cannes. Perhaps I'll like it better second time around.

I rather liked SUPERCANNES--did your copy have the bright foil cover? My bookseller friend pointed out that even if I hated the book, it would still be perfect for taking along to a desert island because you could use it to flash signals to low-flying planes.

I think besides the short stories I'd have to point to the novella RUNNING WILD as a big favorite. It's like an updated LORD OF THE FLIES. Tight, concise, brilliant. And I also have fond memories of UNLIMITED DREAM COMPANY, it was a 'warmer" Ballard offering (if there's such a thing).

And there's a story in his WAR FEVER collection told in the form of an appendix at the end of a book that I have no idea how he carried off...but he did.

Message edited by its author, Jan 23, 2008, 9:22am.

I think that the problem with SuperCannes was that it too similar to Cocaine Nights. Similar setting, similar plot, similar theme. Many reviewers mentioned it at the time.

And, see, I haven't read COCAINE NIGHTS (although I love the title) and that may explain the disparity of opinion here. I shall add it to THE LIST I take with me whenever I go in to the Big City (Saskatoon, pop. 275,000) and pillage the library there.

I have to limit Amazon orders 'cause I find them pretty pricey when it comes to shipping. AbeBooks same thing...

"I think that the problem with SuperCannes was that it too similar to Cocaine Nights. Similar setting, similar plot, similar theme. Many reviewers mentioned it at the time."

I wondered about him doing that until I read Vermillion Sands, and realized repetition is a deliberate and important aspect of his aesthetic strategy.

"... realized repetition is a deliberate and important aspect of his aesthetic strategy."

I'll have to remember that if I ever get published. Sounds like a great justification for recycling stories. :-)

A couple of J.G. Ballard interviews I dug up:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/...

http://www.salon.com/sept97/wsb970902.ht...

http://spikemagazine.com/1100jgballard.p...

Christ, this man is smart...

Here's a rather poignant review of J.G. Ballard's autobiography:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biog...

New article on J.G. Ballard, a great piece from the GUARDIAN:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story...