The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard

ecliptik 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

One 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_...

	▲	atombender an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		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?
	▲	FpUser 35 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		>"The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World" - same here, my favorites

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pnw an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It 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!

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antirez 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Loved High rise, Concrete island, Empire of the sun. Also make sure to read this: https://www.jgballard.ca/uncollected_work/what_i_believe.htm...

	▲	Lio an hour ago \| parent [-]
		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.

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dbcooper 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"The 60 Minute Zoom" is a good short story to start with.

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nickdothutton an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A 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.

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languagehacker 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I absolutely love JG Ballard. Crash is a classic, and High Rise is a fun one.

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fallinditch 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I thought I was broad-minded enough to read Crash - I wasn't. I did enjoy other Ballard books.

	▲	hermitcrab 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		'The Atrocity Exhibition' is even weirder. I didn't get it at all. Enjoyed most of his other work though.

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andrehacker an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Am I the only one that misread the title and expected to see something about the reclusive Bellard ?