| Author | Message | ||
     Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Died at 7.00 am. today. A devastating loss to the literary world. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Fuck. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
:-( He is one of my favourite authors. He taught me more about the strange workings of the world than any other author. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Oh Christ No!!!! I bloody love Ballard's work. Knew he wasn't well but this is still a shock! So 'Kingdom Come' was his last novel... fuck. I've read virtually all of his short stories and the novels up until 'High Rise' - been working my way through them. Awesome writer and one of my all-time favourites. I got into him through the sci-fi stories and his four elemental apocalypse novels. Very upsetting news, gutted. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
And I had started reading 'The Day of Creation' last night- into the night. :-( | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.24.204 |
Just ordered High Rise and The Crystal World - I've been meaning to do it for ages. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Fuck. Not another one... RIP. He was a true original. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
From the Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-author-dies-aged-78 | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
I have to read Ballard aloud. There is something about his cool detached prose style that I've always found weirdly hypnotic - like he knows more than I can possibly hope to fathom from his writing. Did Maitland ever get off that island I wonder?... I put him in the same rank as Golding, Beckett, Burroughs, Dostoevsky, Kafka - the whole heap of them! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.228.65 |
He will live forever. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.115.127 |
Along with the Kids from Fame. | ||
| John (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Gutted about this. It was coming, of course, but still... The Unlimited Dream Company was always the one for me. It takes on a particularly heart-rending dimension when you find out that the main female character shares a name with his wife, who died young and sparked off that remarkable run of late 60s - late 70s novels. All thoughts to his family. | ||
| Stephenw (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 145.229.156.40 |
Just about to start 'The Unlimited Dream Company'. The blurb sounds like a tale of a man transcending death - so a doubly poignant read then... If I had to pick a fav of those I've read it would be 'The Crystal World'. Works like a weirdly beautiful inversion of 'Heart Of Darkness'. Conrad, now there's another author he merits comparison to. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.77.198 |
Yes, Crystal World. Reminded me in many ways of Midnight Sun. Startling imagery. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.92.48.120 |
A shame. High Rise, Crash, and The Atrocity Exhibition all had a major impact on me when I read them in high school. Ballard was one of the greats. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Yes, Crystal World. Reminded me in many ways of Midnight Sun. Startling imagery. 'Midnight Sun' is still a few books away but I have to admit, from what I've read, is one I'm looking forward to. Meanwhile I'm nearly finished 'The Claw' and quite freaked out by Ramsey's unflinching ability to put that poor little girl (not to mention her parents) through such an intense onslaught of domestic paranoia!! Ballard chilled with his cold logic while Campbell terrifies with his relentless intensity. Almost like opposite sides of the same coin... }great stuff! | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.71.196.36 |
Ballard had been ill for some time, and talks of it at the end of his memoir, his unfavourable medical prognosis; without being explicit he conveyed that the news was not good. His branch of science fiction, a genre I don't think he was ever particularly happy sitting in, was according to his own view that of exploring the pychology of the future. Glancing through his COLLECTED SHORT STORIES, he seems to have emerged fully formed as a writer, without juvenalia clogging the bigger gears of his work. A very, very good writer. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
The 2 volumes of his complete short stories alone would still have enshrined him as one of the greats without writing a single novel! I truly believe that... Ballard world was a unique place to visit. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.170.1.181 |
I agree, Stephen. One of those writers who doesn't seem to have produced anything that isn't pure class. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Of the short stories 'Chronopolis' has always been a favourite with its future world in which time-keeping has been made a state crime. Instead of producing a whole novel Ballard takes this great idea to the ultimate conclusion with razor sharp economy and produces a well-nigh perfect allegory worthy of Kafka. Philip K. Dick is the only other writer, for me, who was such a consistently inspired ideas-man. Reading either of them is a lot more entertaining than trawling through any number of philosophy textbooks and at least as enlightening.  | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.170.1.181 |
I notice that, uh, I think it's "the Dying Fall", his final Interzone story, is missing from thw collected stories book. Don't know why. Probably because it was't collected in an earlier book. Neat story too. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.48.106 |
I was well aware that he had prostate cancer so the announcement of his death was not at all unexpected. I loved his short stories and have that huge hardcover collection that came out a couple of years ago. Modern works like 'Millennium People' weren't up there with classics like 'High Rise' or 'Crash' but were still worth reading for his theories regarding the 'Middle Class Apocalypse' | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.170.1.181 |
I got a copy of MIRACLES OF LIFE for my birthday last year. The signed limited edition. Lovely. A treasure to keep hold of. I've also a signed MILLENIUM PEOPLE as well, though that's bookplated. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.48.106 |
I have nothing signed of his at all :-( | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition are utter classics, not just of genre fiction but of fiction full stop. Ballard was an amazing writer. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 192.26.212.72 |
Damn. Fall out of the loop and authors start dropping like flies. Or continue dropping like flies. Maybe I should dig out that Best of Ballard collection I picked up and give it a read through. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 145.229.156.40 |
Maybe... maybe... !!!! Start with his short story collections and you will be hooked. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 192.26.212.72 |
Oh, I've read and enjoyed some of his work before. The maybe was more of "if I can find it" than "if I feel like it". | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I've just read High Rise and thought it was superb. I've owned the book for years but for some reason only picke it up after learning of Ballard's death. An amzing novel from an amazing novelist. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I've just read High Rise and thought it was superb. I've owned the book for years but for some reason only picked it up after learning of Ballard's death. An amzing novel from an amazing novelist. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.71 |
Yes. Great first line as well. I think it's one of Martin Amis's favourite novels, Zed. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
I didn't know that, mate. Interesting... It's a wondeerful piece of work. Resonant even now. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
Too resonant even now. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.72 |
He was actually acutely prophetic in some ways. Mostly pessimistically, as in him being among the first to recognise the post-Apollo decline in the USA's space adventure. Zed, both Amises, Martin and Kingsley, have been big readers of SF. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
I read a great sci-fi short story by Kingsley Amis, 'Something Strange' (1960), that had that same haunting early-Ballardian quality about it. I'd be interested in knowing if he wrote any other genre material? I'm not overly familiar with the work of either Amis. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
You know, I don't class this as SF. To me, books like "High Rise" and "Crash" are unclassifiable - but if someone held a gun to me head, I'd call 'em horror. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Of those I've read 'High Rise' would be second only to 'The Crystal World' for me. I'd call the latter pure sci-fi/fantasy and the former very-near-future (as in it could happen tomorrow if not already) psychosocial sci-fi. Of course both should be read as literary allegories of the (mostly) negative effects of 'progress' and sweeping social change on the human condition. Have to get started with 'The Unlimited Dream Company' soon... | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.68 |
Genre classification's tricky with most of the 'new wave' writers from back then, but SF's probably good enough a term. Both Amises have lightly ambled into SF, mostly in the short form. Literary snobs sort of overlook that in their ouvre and pretend it hasn't happened. Martin Amis wrote the film Saturn 9 (was it?) which Stephen Gallagher novelised. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.74 |
Speaking of literary snobs and SF, did anyone see Tom Paulin's review of the new Trek movie on Newsnight Review yesterday? Ha. He'd barely heard of Star Trek... Hopefully it's on You Tube somewhere. It is a comedy classic. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Tom Paulin is a dildo. I find him hilarious for all the wrong reasons. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.184.75 |
To be fair, Tom Paulin was one of the best of the Northern Irish poets of the 1980s, and is still a major literary critic. His poem 'Desertmartin', about the mythology surrounding Ian Paisley, is brilliant. I think he enjoys playing up to the 'Facebook? What is Facebook? Is is a book that looks like a face? What are you talking about?' role on TV, but it makes him seem a lesser figure than he is. And 'Star Trek' has never been worth anything. Let's be honest. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
And 'Star Trek' has never been worth anything. Let's be honest. That has to be one of the funniest things I've ever heard... | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.168.131.22 |
One to beam up . . . | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Fair? On an internet forum? Nah.  I loved Star Trek when I was a boy. It's worth that at least - making a miserable kid happy for an hour a week. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.67.196.75 |
Genre snobism really gets my spacegoat. Every time Margret Atwood is up for an award or some prize she starts banging on about how, actually, she doesn't write SF (despite demonstrably having done so). Jeanette Winterson is the same, despite having written something set in the future and featuring robots. It's a pity, because both are very talented writers but it's most ungracious to borrow from genre or write within it and then dismiss it because you think you are above that and it will make you seem silly amongst the 'establishment' if you're seen fraternising with such things. Yes SF features some truly atrocious writing, but the same is true of all genre and 'literary fiction.' The great genre works are the equal of anything that 'serious fiction' produces. I saw Atwood at the London Book Fair once and it took a great deal of restraint not to shout out at her: "It's called Science-Fiction you yo-yo knickered award whore!" | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Hear hear!! The only two books I own of her's are 'The Handmaid's Tale' & 'Oryx And Crake' both of which are modern masterpieces of pure Science Fiction. Maybe it's the fans she's afraid of lol. And 'Star Trek' rocks... you don't have to be a Trekkie to know that. I was once in the same room as James Doohan and have never come closer to meeting a living legend in my natural. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.67.196.75 |
I quite like original Trek, some of it has nicely surreal elements and a few episodes are written by science-fiction greats. I just felt that, after Next Generation, it all became a bit smug and about showing the aliens how they could become more like us. How nice. Much prefer Doctor Who. But then, they are very very different shows. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
"yo-yo knickered award whore" - what a sensational insult!  I only liked the original Trek - the others don't really interest me. Speaking of quality TV, I've just ordered the DVD box set of "One Foot in the Grave" with my birthday money. Now that's brilliant television. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.67.196.75 |
I don't believe it! Thank you, I'll be here all week, try the crips. | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.67.196.75 |
Or the crips even. Not to be confused with a Californian gangster sect. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.168.131.22 |
I think Jonathan's been Tangoed. I liked the original and Next Gen TREK, but didn't carry on with the following series. Both those shows had some classic SF moments. And Leonard Nimoy, shorter than you'd think, once said "hi" to me. I said "hi" back. Thought I was quite restrained in not going "SPOCK! It's bloody SPOCK!" | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.176.34 |
Sorry guys, but not thinking much of 'Star Trek' isn't snobbery, literary or otherwise. 'Star Trek' is vastly overrated, hollow network fodder, no more memorable than dozens of non-genre network fodder shows that have sunk into oblivion. Should Tom Paulin display appropriate reverence for 'The Dukes of Hazard' or 'Dynasty' or 'Different Strokes' or 'Happy Days'? Because something is SF does not mean that it is special. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
"Should Tom Paulin display appropriate reverence for 'The Dukes of Hazard' or 'Dynasty' or 'Different Strokes' or 'Happy Days'?" In a word, yes! Whatchoo talking' 'bout, Willis? | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.72 |
Because something is sf does not mean it's special. When it's good sf then it's special. The episodes of Next Gen focusing on Patrick Stewart's character dealing with the aftermath of his assimilation into the Borg collective are among the finest of tv sf. Make it so. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
The original 'Star Trek' is GREAT not only as science fiction but as pure entertainment that reaches across all boundaries. The casting was key to its success and lasting appeal. The chemistry between Shatner, Nimoy & Kelley as the principal three was pure magic. The balance between tongue-in-cheek humour and serious philosophical and social issues (that brought about real change) was pitch perfect. Add to that brilliant scripts week-after-week by genuine sci-fi luminaries and a rigid attention to continuity and internal logic that never failed to respect the viewers intelligence and you have an instant TV Classic! The fact 'The Next Generation' even came close to emulating this success is nothing short of miraculous if you ask me - and it did far more than that. They did string it out after that though with 'Deep Space Nine', 'Voyager' & 'Enterprise' becoming ever more po-faced. Still all the movies were nothing short of excellent. Why are we even debating this??? And I'm talking as more of a 'Doctor Who' fan to boot! |