Am I the only one that misread the title and expected to see something about the reclusive Bellard ?
The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
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Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#12One of my favorite authors and highly recommend his short stories [1] and the "ambiguous apocalypse" trilogy - The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World. As one of collections intros said, Ballard is science fiction, but Inner Space, not Outer Space. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Short_Stories_of_...
I absolutely loved The Crystal World. It's a unique, weird fever dream of a novel. I still find myself thinking about it at random times, even while being unsure if the book really makes sense.
The Burning World is rarely talked about. How is it?
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#13One of my favorite authors and highly recommend his short stories [1] and the "ambiguous apocalypse" trilogy - The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World. As one of collections intros said, Ballard is science fiction, but Inner Space, not Outer Space. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Short_Stories_of_...
>"The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World" - same here, my favorites
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#14Note that the title is probably an allusion to Ray Bradbury’s collection “The Illustrated Man”.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#15Am I the only one that misread the title and expected to see something about the reclusive Bellard ?
No, you're not. Same here.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#16I thought I was broad-minded enough to read Crash - I wasn't. I did enjoy other Ballard books.
'The Atrocity Exhibition' is even weirder. I didn't get it at all. Enjoyed most of his other work though.
A lot of Ballard was pretty weird. I liked much of his work but "world-destroying" contemporaries like Wyndham were more approachable in general.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#17Loved High rise, Concrete island, Empire of the sun. Also make sure to read this: https://www.jgballard.ca/uncollected_work/what_i_believe.htm...
I really enjoyed some of his later books too. Cocaine Nights and Super Cannes are great. Like a lot of his books they seem simple until you dig into them. They fry my brain a bit but that’s surrealism for you. Will Self has some good writing about Ballard.
I was the editor who published Super Cannes in the US. It still makes my day to see it mentioned.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#18Always tempting to say the dehumanising influences of his childhood informed his writing but I think that's unfair to his own sensibility and idea of modern creative writing.
He had a very eventful life. Across very eventful times.
I think the short stories work better than most of the longform although "the wind from nowhere" and "empire of the sun are very good".
I also think it's useful to remember he wasn't writing in a vacuum, British SF was exploring all kinds of forms, Michael Moorcock wrote deconstructed novels where chapter readings before flow text carried a whole emotional plane not exposed in the plot (the condition of muzak) and Brian Aldiss expored SF literary criticism taking the genre seriously for almost the first time. He was a writer in a context of exploratory writing.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#19I loved High rise and Concrete Island. He was prescient about what modern and current day society looks like.
I will give his other works a read. I tried reading Crash multiple times but it was a bit too gory for me.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#20Love his work. Many of Ballards books seem to be like Heart of Darkness but from the point of view of Kurtz.
But going beyond "going native" as a response to modern life towards in a more integrated or conscious way. Going forwards to a weird future of new behaviour rather than backwards to savagery.