JG BALLARD DEAD AT 78
.
MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT BRITISH SCI-FI AUTHOR
YOUTUBE: JG BALLARD
"Future Now Interview with J.G.Ballard"
The man himself, speaking of trains, planes and automobiles, crashing: Sensationalism & the numbed mind.
THE ICONOCLAST'S ICONOCLAST SUCCUMBS TO CANCER
The Challenge Of His Dark Vision Will Never Die, MUA-HA-HA!!!
Sad news: British writer James Graham Ballard has died of cancer. He was 78.
He is best known as the author of the novels "Empire Of The Sun," (made into a film by Spielberg), based on his childhood experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war; and "Crash," (filmed by Cronenberg), about cars, speed, sex, drugs and violence melding into a cultural phenomenon with which we are now familiar, like many of Ballard's "unlikely" visions of the future of human psychology and sociology.
We grew up on his 1960's science fiction. If you've never read his novels "The Drowned World," "The Burning World" or "The Crystal World," or his short story collections, "The Day of Forever," "The Terminal Beach," and "Vermilion Sands," you're in for a revelation: They're every bit as relevant to the American end-of-empire today as they were to the slowly sinking imperial Brits back then. Picture the last ugly American swilling the very last G&T as the last pool of water on Earth dries up before his eyes. Or a rainforest turning to crystal. Or "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race".
Ballard was a truly original thinker who seemed to believe that it was necessary to upset people in order to make them think. He claimed that he did not believe in technology or progress as humanity is not perfectible, and many new developments simply make individual men and women smaller and less powerful, irrelevant and excluded from their own society. He was banned in the U.S. for such pieces as "Why I Want To F*ck Ronald Reagan," and he later called Bush's WMD's "near mythical."
Ballard's ideas, attitudes & images were imprinted on our minds in childhood, and along with those of Phillip K. Dick and Franz Kafka, they have helped to make it impossible for us to function as normal human beings, for which we thank them sincerely. This morning, another immortal misfit has ascended into the Great Maw of Nothingness. May Nothing have mercy upon his eternal soul.
JBBALLARD.COM
"The Author's Own Website."
YOUTUBE: THE NORMAL
"The Normal - Warm Leatherette (Crash music video)"
Normal is as normal does.
YOUTUBE: JOHN FOXX
"John Foxx - Burning Car (Vicoland Tribute)"
Familiar scenes.
YOUTUBE: JOY DIVISION
"Joy Division - Atrocity Exhibition"
From the Ballard story.
YOUTUBE: GARY NUMAN
"Gary Numan - Down in the Park (live 1979)"
You must remember this.
YOUTUBE: THE BUGGLES
"The Buggles Vermilion Sands"
Pop Ballard.
YOUTUBE: MANIC STREET PREACHERS WITH JG BALLARD SPEAKING
"Manic Street Preachers - Mausoleum"
"I wanted to rub the human face in its' own vomit and then cause it to look in the mirror." --J.G. Ballard. We're all just bad puppies. With mirrors.
YOUTUBE: SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES
"Siouxsie & The Banshees - Cities In Dust [Music Video]"
Let Siouxie have the last word.
.
.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!
MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT BRITISH SCI-FI AUTHOR
YOUTUBE: JG BALLARD
"Future Now Interview with J.G.Ballard"
The man himself, speaking of trains, planes and automobiles, crashing: Sensationalism & the numbed mind.
THE ICONOCLAST'S ICONOCLAST SUCCUMBS TO CANCER
The Challenge Of His Dark Vision Will Never Die, MUA-HA-HA!!!
Sad news: British writer James Graham Ballard has died of cancer. He was 78.
He is best known as the author of the novels "Empire Of The Sun," (made into a film by Spielberg), based on his childhood experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war; and "Crash," (filmed by Cronenberg), about cars, speed, sex, drugs and violence melding into a cultural phenomenon with which we are now familiar, like many of Ballard's "unlikely" visions of the future of human psychology and sociology.
We grew up on his 1960's science fiction. If you've never read his novels "The Drowned World," "The Burning World" or "The Crystal World," or his short story collections, "The Day of Forever," "The Terminal Beach," and "Vermilion Sands," you're in for a revelation: They're every bit as relevant to the American end-of-empire today as they were to the slowly sinking imperial Brits back then. Picture the last ugly American swilling the very last G&T as the last pool of water on Earth dries up before his eyes. Or a rainforest turning to crystal. Or "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race".
Ballard was a truly original thinker who seemed to believe that it was necessary to upset people in order to make them think. He claimed that he did not believe in technology or progress as humanity is not perfectible, and many new developments simply make individual men and women smaller and less powerful, irrelevant and excluded from their own society. He was banned in the U.S. for such pieces as "Why I Want To F*ck Ronald Reagan," and he later called Bush's WMD's "near mythical."
Ballard's ideas, attitudes & images were imprinted on our minds in childhood, and along with those of Phillip K. Dick and Franz Kafka, they have helped to make it impossible for us to function as normal human beings, for which we thank them sincerely. This morning, another immortal misfit has ascended into the Great Maw of Nothingness. May Nothing have mercy upon his eternal soul.
JBBALLARD.COM
"The Author's Own Website."
YOUTUBE: THE NORMAL
"The Normal - Warm Leatherette (Crash music video)"
Normal is as normal does.
YOUTUBE: JOHN FOXX
"John Foxx - Burning Car (Vicoland Tribute)"
Familiar scenes.
YOUTUBE: JOY DIVISION
"Joy Division - Atrocity Exhibition"
From the Ballard story.
YOUTUBE: GARY NUMAN
"Gary Numan - Down in the Park (live 1979)"
You must remember this.
YOUTUBE: THE BUGGLES
"The Buggles Vermilion Sands"
Pop Ballard.
YOUTUBE: MANIC STREET PREACHERS WITH JG BALLARD SPEAKING
"Manic Street Preachers - Mausoleum"
"I wanted to rub the human face in its' own vomit and then cause it to look in the mirror." --J.G. Ballard. We're all just bad puppies. With mirrors.
YOUTUBE: SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES
"Siouxsie & The Banshees - Cities In Dust [Music Video]"
Let Siouxie have the last word.
.
.
Labels: author, British, challenging, contradictory, controversial, intelligent speculative fiction, J.G. BALLARD, modern, reactionary, revolutionary, Science Fiction, SF, thinking person's Sci-Fi, writer
TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM YOUR BLOGGERS:
Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!
posted by Cosa Nostradamus @ 4/19/2009 12:02:00 AM
0 comments
View blog reactions
