The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
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Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#2I thought I was broad-minded enough to read Crash - I wasn't. I did enjoy other Ballard books.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#3I absolutely love JG Ballard. Crash is a classic, and High Rise is a fun one.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#4I 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.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#5One 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_...
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#6Loved High rise, Concrete island, Empire of the sun.
Also make sure to read this: https://www.jgballard.ca/uncollected_work/what_i_believe.htm...
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#7"The 60 Minute Zoom" is a good short story to start with.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#8A favourite of mine. Do please check the interviews with him on youtube. Some authors try to show you the far future, he tried to show us the next 15 minutes.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#9Loved 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.
Re: The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard
#10It seems like the best authors - JG Ballard in this instance - are somehow resistant to modern biographers. Even the least worst Phillip K Dick biography (Divine Invasions) is over 30 years old!