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Low Flying Aircraft And Other Stories
Contents:
The Ultimate City
Low-Flying Aircraft
The Dead Astronaut
My Dream of Flying to Wake Island
The Life and Death of God
The Greatest Television Show on Earth
A Place and a Time to Die
The Comsat Angels
The Beach Murders
The Ultimate City
Low-Flying Aircraft
The Dead Astronaut
My Dream of Flying to Wake Island
The Life and Death of God
The Greatest Television Show on Earth
A Place and a Time to Die
The Comsat Angels
The Beach Murders
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
7 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
About the author
J.G. Ballard
469 books4,073 followersJames Graham "J. G." Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Ballard came to be associated with the New Wave of science fiction early in his career with apocalyptic (or post-apocalyptic) novels such as The Drowned World (1962), The Burning World (1964), and The Crystal World (1966). In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ballard focused on an eclectic variety of short stories (or "condensed novels") such as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which drew closer comparison with the work of postmodernist writers such as William S. Burroughs. In 1973 the highly controversial novel Crash was published, a story about symphorophilia and car crash fetishism; the protagonist becomes sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car crashes. The story was later adapted into a film of the same name by Canadian director David Cronenberg.
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
May 1, 2019
Seguramente, Ballard sea conocido por ‘El imperio del sol’, sobre todo por su estupenda adaptación cinematográfica, quizás demasiado edulcorada. Puede que también por ‘Crash’ y toda la polémica movida en torno a ella, y de su adaptación, que dejó un poso de autor depravado y morboso, que también lo es, aunque solo a veces. Pero no cabe duda que Ballard es un excelente escritor, capaz de retratar mundos apocalípticos como pocos, siempre rodeados de una cierta poesía. El paisaje es muy importante en su obra, casi realiza un retrato psicológico del entorno, ruinoso, tanto como sus protagonistas.
‘Aparato de vuelo rasante’ (Low-Flying Aircraft and Other Stories, 1976), recopila nueve cuentos donde los aviones suelen estar involucrados, así como los paisajes desolados.
La ciudad última. (*****) Halloway es un joven de Ciudad Jardín que decide visitar con su planeador una ciudad cercana que fue abandonada. Magnífico relato, el más largo de la antología, donde destacan las descripciones de la ciudad.
Aparato de vuelo rasante. (****)La trama se sitúa en la Costa Brava, una zona turística totalmente desolada y desesperanzada. La despoblación mundial es evidente, y la pareja protagonista espera un hijo. Otro estupendo relato.
El astronauta muerto. (*****) El protagonista se desplaza hasta Cabo Cañaveral para cumplir el deseo de su esposa, poder recoger los restos de un amigo astronauta que murió y todavía sigue en órbita. Excelente relato, mi favorito del libro, junto con el siguiente.
Volando en sueños a Wake Island. (*****) Relato aparentemente sencillo donde se narra del sueño del protagonista por poder volar hasta la isla del título. A recalcar la escenas sobre aviones abandonados en la playa.
Vida y muerte de Dios. (***) ¿Qué pasaría si se fuera demostrada fehacientemente la existencia de Dios? Buen relato, humor negro.
El espectáculo de televisión más grande de la Tierra. (***) En este relato se puede viajar en el tiempo, lo que las grandes productoras de televisión no dejar pasar, queriendo mostrar los momentos más importantes de la Historia. Aunque al ver la falta de emoción, deciden añadir épica de su parte. Buen relato, no exento de crítica hacia los medios.
Un lugar y un tiempo para morir. (**) Un pequeño grupo de soldados deciden aguantar la invasión de un gran ejército. Interesante, aunque flojo.
Los ángeles Comsat. (***) Donde se nos describe la investigación por parte de un periodista sobre una conspiración a nivel mundial. Buen relato.
Los crímenes de la playa. (*) No me gustan los experimentos literarios como este, basado en pequeñas escenas deslavazadas, como un puzzle, que ha de montar el lector.
‘Aparato de vuelo rasante’ (Low-Flying Aircraft and Other Stories, 1976), recopila nueve cuentos donde los aviones suelen estar involucrados, así como los paisajes desolados.
La ciudad última. (*****) Halloway es un joven de Ciudad Jardín que decide visitar con su planeador una ciudad cercana que fue abandonada. Magnífico relato, el más largo de la antología, donde destacan las descripciones de la ciudad.
Aparato de vuelo rasante. (****)La trama se sitúa en la Costa Brava, una zona turística totalmente desolada y desesperanzada. La despoblación mundial es evidente, y la pareja protagonista espera un hijo. Otro estupendo relato.
El astronauta muerto. (*****) El protagonista se desplaza hasta Cabo Cañaveral para cumplir el deseo de su esposa, poder recoger los restos de un amigo astronauta que murió y todavía sigue en órbita. Excelente relato, mi favorito del libro, junto con el siguiente.
Volando en sueños a Wake Island. (*****) Relato aparentemente sencillo donde se narra del sueño del protagonista por poder volar hasta la isla del título. A recalcar la escenas sobre aviones abandonados en la playa.
Vida y muerte de Dios. (***) ¿Qué pasaría si se fuera demostrada fehacientemente la existencia de Dios? Buen relato, humor negro.
El espectáculo de televisión más grande de la Tierra. (***) En este relato se puede viajar en el tiempo, lo que las grandes productoras de televisión no dejar pasar, queriendo mostrar los momentos más importantes de la Historia. Aunque al ver la falta de emoción, deciden añadir épica de su parte. Buen relato, no exento de crítica hacia los medios.
Un lugar y un tiempo para morir. (**) Un pequeño grupo de soldados deciden aguantar la invasión de un gran ejército. Interesante, aunque flojo.
Los ángeles Comsat. (***) Donde se nos describe la investigación por parte de un periodista sobre una conspiración a nivel mundial. Buen relato.
Los crímenes de la playa. (*) No me gustan los experimentos literarios como este, basado en pequeñas escenas deslavazadas, como un puzzle, que ha de montar el lector.
May 13, 2015
I’m not sure when exactly these stories were written. My guess would be the 1960s, since this seems to be earlier Ballard, which was when he wrote some really great short stories. He seemed to move more into novel writing later.
The book begins with a novella titled “The Ultimate City.” One can see some of the themes that Ballard develops later in his novels, and throughout his work: the desolate, deserted urban landscapes, the lone masculine hero, the aftermath of advanced technology gone wrong. The story starts out in an amusing manner, with a depiction of “Garden City” one of the high-tech environmentally friendly little towns that have sprung up in the aftermath of an unclearly explained urban calamity. The hero crosses over the river in a glider into the deserted city, and encounters a few other eccentrics there. Soon they are on the road to rebuilding the city into a strange, distorted version of what it once was.
The strongest pieces though, are some of the stories that follow. In “Low Flying Aircraft” a couple are stuck in a mostly empty Costa Brava resort town. An infertility epidemic has reduced the human population, and people (and animals) are giving birth to strange mutants. A random pilot flies his little plane around the town, along with his companion, an attractive, blind girl. At the end one sees that the pilot has a purpose, and that the freak births are seen as a new step in evolution.
In “The Dead Astronaut” a couple goes to a mostly deserted Cape Canaveral to watch the descent of a dead astronaut’s spacecraft. The woman has some strange crush on this man, something that her husband tolerates, and she hopes to grab some debris from the wreckage as a memento.
“My Dream of Flying to Wake Island” is about another astronaut with a painful fate. The story starts by creating one expectation, which is gradually revealed to be something else. At first the astronaut’s obsession with building a plane and flying to Wake Island is presented as some sort of worthy extreme urge. He meets a young woman aviator who develops some interest in his dream. But then a more bizarre and troubling scenario is revealed.
Following these three gems come a few lighter stories that are more like intellectual jokes. In “The Life and Death of God”, God himself is discovered by scientists – He is a some sort of microwave like being that exists throughout all life. At first people are astonished and societies grind to a halt, but eventually institutions reassert themselves and God is declared dead. “The Greatest Television Show on Earth” is about TV producers who go back to the past and film historical events and wars, and begin tampering with the product to make the shows better. “The Comsat Angels” has a terrific premise: there is a group of a dozen young geniuses, scattered around the world, and born to single women who are being well taken care of and do not talk to the media. “The Beach Murders” is one of Ballard’s best experimental fictions: a story told in brief snippets, each labeled with a word that begins with a letter which runs from A to Z. One can try to piece together a story from these various fragments – it is a James Bond-like thing involving a murder, a princess, and a spy.
So three cheers for Ballard! These earlier stories show me what I liked about him in the first place: the fascinating ideas, the mood of solitary, high-tech decay, and the clear, precise prose.
The book begins with a novella titled “The Ultimate City.” One can see some of the themes that Ballard develops later in his novels, and throughout his work: the desolate, deserted urban landscapes, the lone masculine hero, the aftermath of advanced technology gone wrong. The story starts out in an amusing manner, with a depiction of “Garden City” one of the high-tech environmentally friendly little towns that have sprung up in the aftermath of an unclearly explained urban calamity. The hero crosses over the river in a glider into the deserted city, and encounters a few other eccentrics there. Soon they are on the road to rebuilding the city into a strange, distorted version of what it once was.
The strongest pieces though, are some of the stories that follow. In “Low Flying Aircraft” a couple are stuck in a mostly empty Costa Brava resort town. An infertility epidemic has reduced the human population, and people (and animals) are giving birth to strange mutants. A random pilot flies his little plane around the town, along with his companion, an attractive, blind girl. At the end one sees that the pilot has a purpose, and that the freak births are seen as a new step in evolution.
In “The Dead Astronaut” a couple goes to a mostly deserted Cape Canaveral to watch the descent of a dead astronaut’s spacecraft. The woman has some strange crush on this man, something that her husband tolerates, and she hopes to grab some debris from the wreckage as a memento.
“My Dream of Flying to Wake Island” is about another astronaut with a painful fate. The story starts by creating one expectation, which is gradually revealed to be something else. At first the astronaut’s obsession with building a plane and flying to Wake Island is presented as some sort of worthy extreme urge. He meets a young woman aviator who develops some interest in his dream. But then a more bizarre and troubling scenario is revealed.
Following these three gems come a few lighter stories that are more like intellectual jokes. In “The Life and Death of God”, God himself is discovered by scientists – He is a some sort of microwave like being that exists throughout all life. At first people are astonished and societies grind to a halt, but eventually institutions reassert themselves and God is declared dead. “The Greatest Television Show on Earth” is about TV producers who go back to the past and film historical events and wars, and begin tampering with the product to make the shows better. “The Comsat Angels” has a terrific premise: there is a group of a dozen young geniuses, scattered around the world, and born to single women who are being well taken care of and do not talk to the media. “The Beach Murders” is one of Ballard’s best experimental fictions: a story told in brief snippets, each labeled with a word that begins with a letter which runs from A to Z. One can try to piece together a story from these various fragments – it is a James Bond-like thing involving a murder, a princess, and a spy.
So three cheers for Ballard! These earlier stories show me what I liked about him in the first place: the fascinating ideas, the mood of solitary, high-tech decay, and the clear, precise prose.
August 10, 2016
There's an independent portuguese film based on this book, directed by a swedish lady > Solveig Nordlund on 2003. never saw it. I wish I did. http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aparelho... (you can find the movie in youtube - 3 parts)
September 21, 2020
Ballard specialiseert zich in einde-van-de-wereld verhalen. Vaak met een mogelijk profetisch karakter. Toch slaat hij in dit book mijns inziens de bal mis (uiteraard gemakkelijke kritiek daar wat hij beschrijft ondertussen verleden tijd zou moeten zijn. Maar het is niet op die manier gebeurd.
In een verhaal gaat het over het standaard massaal blivjen gebruiken van softenon (softenon-baby's) en de gevolgen daarvan, waar hij wel een originele doch voor softenon slachtoffers mogelijk wansmakelijke wending aan geeft. De manier waarop groene ecologisten met een petroleumschaarste omgaan is een soort utopische wereld waar de hoofdpersoon genoeg van krijgt. Ondertussen weten we dat er nooit een petroleumschaarste zal zijn omdat petroleum sneller zal vervangen worden door groene energie. Terwijl de lieve en vriendelijke ecologisten ondertussen bekend zijn als eco-terroristen.
De complottheorie "De twaalf wonderkinderen" pas dan weer wel perfect in de huidige actualiteit.
Ballard blijft een groot schrijver, maar dit behoort niet meer tot zijn beste werk.
In een verhaal gaat het over het standaard massaal blivjen gebruiken van softenon (softenon-baby's) en de gevolgen daarvan, waar hij wel een originele doch voor softenon slachtoffers mogelijk wansmakelijke wending aan geeft. De manier waarop groene ecologisten met een petroleumschaarste omgaan is een soort utopische wereld waar de hoofdpersoon genoeg van krijgt. Ondertussen weten we dat er nooit een petroleumschaarste zal zijn omdat petroleum sneller zal vervangen worden door groene energie. Terwijl de lieve en vriendelijke ecologisten ondertussen bekend zijn als eco-terroristen.
De complottheorie "De twaalf wonderkinderen" pas dan weer wel perfect in de huidige actualiteit.
Ballard blijft een groot schrijver, maar dit behoort niet meer tot zijn beste werk.
January 14, 2021
Antologia di racconti di Ballard su un mondo futuro in decadenza, dove vetuste tecnologie ricominciano ad essere sviluppate come nuova base per una economia di sussistenza. Sembra un poco la "decrescita felice" desiderata da molti somari, ma Ballard sa bene che non c'è nulla di felice in questo stato di cose.
I racconti scorrono bene, ma a parte il primo, che dà il titolo al volume, sono tutti dimenticabili.
2 stelle.
I racconti scorrono bene, ma a parte il primo, che dà il titolo al volume, sono tutti dimenticabili.
2 stelle.
September 7, 2018
An pleasant little novella and short story collection mainly of mildly dystopic stories combined with a few sardonic ones. It has that curious quality of whilst not striking you as brilliant writing you can nevertheless find it quite hard to put down.
One of the more curious stories is the "Beach Murders" story found right at the end. It has 26 paragraphs arranged alphabetically and its up to the reader to figure out the true order of a bawdy murder mystery. Its a format which adds an interesting interactivity whilst also being something that could be quite fun to do with others.
One of the more curious stories is the "Beach Murders" story found right at the end. It has 26 paragraphs arranged alphabetically and its up to the reader to figure out the true order of a bawdy murder mystery. Its a format which adds an interesting interactivity whilst also being something that could be quite fun to do with others.
April 24, 2023
this book has some of the most poignant, thought-provoking stories i’ve read. awe-inspiring descriptions of ruined cities so familiar yet so foreign, it’s so interesting to see how urban settings would be without humans. stillness ruling all. his critiques on the unsustainable nature of capitalism and obsession are incredible.
he also named the leading characters “Judith” in two succeeding stories. i was like “is this the same woman??” they were not. another story has a “Judy” so. perhaps even HIS creativity has limits.
he also named the leading characters “Judith” in two succeeding stories. i was like “is this the same woman??” they were not. another story has a “Judy” so. perhaps even HIS creativity has limits.
January 14, 2024
3.6*
Recull de relats de literatura especulativa (ciència ficció, distopia, surrealisme,...) sens dubte, distintius. La prosa superba de l'autor ens capbussa en móns estranys però versemblants per explorar l'absurditat de l'ésser humà.
Recull de relats de literatura especulativa (ciència ficció, distopia, surrealisme,...) sens dubte, distintius. La prosa superba de l'autor ens capbussa en móns estranys però versemblants per explorar l'absurditat de l'ésser humà.
July 16, 2020
Después de leer Zona de Catástrofe, libro que también es una colección de cuentos, quedó en mí una predisposición algo apática con sus cuentos.
Con todo, Aparato de Vuelo Rasante, es una colección coherente de relatos con una misma línea. A mi juicio, la decadencia de las gran urbe; no la humanidad. Todos los cuentos acontecen en un tiempo futuro, en el que somos testigos del ocaso de las grandes ciudades, poco a poco abandonadas.
Sin entrar a arruinar la lectura, el primer cuento presenta un protagonista casi antagónico para mi gusto, un tratamiento que me agrada. Entre la Inocencia, la Rebeldía y la Desesperanza.
El segundo cuento, APARATO DE VUELO RASANTE, plantea una interrogante profunda. Si los niños ya no nacen sanos ¿Con qué autoridad se asesinan sistemáticamente los recién nacidos? ¿Se puede evitar una sociedad llena de monstruos? Al parecer sí, pero la falta de población sería la nueva consecuencia.
EL ASTRONAUTA MUERTO tiene un final que parece inconcluso, pero no por eso menos sorprendente. VOLANDO EN SUEÑOS A WAKE ISLAND un cuento que parece sobre aviones; no estoy seguro. VIDA Y MUERTE DE DIOS, cuestiona la conveniencia de la existencia de Dios: No su existencia.
EL ESPECTÁCULO DE TELEVISIÓN MÁS GRANDE DE LA TIERRA, oportuno en este momento en que la televisión nos da un buen espectáculo de la pandemia, mientras cuestionamos la veracidad de la información. UN LUGAR Y UN TIEMPO PARA MORIR cuento de una invasión. LOS ÁNGELES COMSAT, deliciosa conspiración.
Por último, LOS CRÍMENES DE LA PLAYA, un ejercicio narrativo muy interesante; todavía estoy encajando las piezas.
En conclusión, Aparato de Vuelo Rasante, es una buena selección de lo que Ballard nos ofrece en sus relatos, aunque estoy tentado a decir que los cuentos cortos no necesariamente son su mejor faceta.
Con todo, Aparato de Vuelo Rasante, es una colección coherente de relatos con una misma línea. A mi juicio, la decadencia de las gran urbe; no la humanidad. Todos los cuentos acontecen en un tiempo futuro, en el que somos testigos del ocaso de las grandes ciudades, poco a poco abandonadas.
Sin entrar a arruinar la lectura, el primer cuento presenta un protagonista casi antagónico para mi gusto, un tratamiento que me agrada. Entre la Inocencia, la Rebeldía y la Desesperanza.
El segundo cuento, APARATO DE VUELO RASANTE, plantea una interrogante profunda. Si los niños ya no nacen sanos ¿Con qué autoridad se asesinan sistemáticamente los recién nacidos? ¿Se puede evitar una sociedad llena de monstruos? Al parecer sí, pero la falta de población sería la nueva consecuencia.
EL ASTRONAUTA MUERTO tiene un final que parece inconcluso, pero no por eso menos sorprendente. VOLANDO EN SUEÑOS A WAKE ISLAND un cuento que parece sobre aviones; no estoy seguro. VIDA Y MUERTE DE DIOS, cuestiona la conveniencia de la existencia de Dios: No su existencia.
EL ESPECTÁCULO DE TELEVISIÓN MÁS GRANDE DE LA TIERRA, oportuno en este momento en que la televisión nos da un buen espectáculo de la pandemia, mientras cuestionamos la veracidad de la información. UN LUGAR Y UN TIEMPO PARA MORIR cuento de una invasión. LOS ÁNGELES COMSAT, deliciosa conspiración.
Por último, LOS CRÍMENES DE LA PLAYA, un ejercicio narrativo muy interesante; todavía estoy encajando las piezas.
En conclusión, Aparato de Vuelo Rasante, es una buena selección de lo que Ballard nos ofrece en sus relatos, aunque estoy tentado a decir que los cuentos cortos no necesariamente son su mejor faceta.
October 2, 2023
A couple of these stories went way over my head. They seemed to be referring to cultural or political events I am completely unaware of. All of the stories are jam packed with vivid, surreal imagery often involving Ballard's obsession with manufactured clutter and technological advances, and the first four stories will be familiar to anyone who has read one of Ballard's dystopian novels. Dreamers living in abandoned or sparsely populated coastal cities envisioning some utopia just beyond the horizon. A plane will get them there, then they will be saved. Sometimes the plane needs to be rebuilt, sometimes unearthed, or sometimes all they need is the courage to fly it. The opening story is the best in the collection, a scathing indictment of the industrial age and rampant consumerism. Ballard also takes satirical stabs at television and religion, which are easy targets.
June 4, 2018
fairly varied selection of earlier Ballard. the rating is for the better stories.
"The Greatest Television Show on Earth" (1972) and "The Life and Death of God" (1976) are nice and somewhat representative sardonic Ballard shorts.
other than "The Beach Murders" (1966) and "My Dream of Flying to Wake Island" (1974), the rest of the shorts are ok, as is the novella "The Ultimate City" - also quite in line with his earlier long form.
"The Greatest Television Show on Earth" (1972) and "The Life and Death of God" (1976) are nice and somewhat representative sardonic Ballard shorts.
other than "The Beach Murders" (1966) and "My Dream of Flying to Wake Island" (1974), the rest of the shorts are ok, as is the novella "The Ultimate City" - also quite in line with his earlier long form.
September 28, 2021
A great science fiction book of short stories all based around a post apocalypse world. The cause of the apocalypse is unknown and different in each story but the relevance to progress in the 50 years since publication is uncanny. Each story is thought provoking and uses human emotions to great effect.
November 15, 2016
This is an interesting selection of stories and very Ballardian in style and content. There are some well developed stories with characters with depth and others which are more like concept pieces, both in their style and their content.
* The Ultimate City
This first story is a novella set in a post industrial world where the cities of the past were abandoned very suddenly. The reduced population lives in idyllic, pastoral villages with environmentally friendly technology and an almost puritanical lifestyle. The protagonist is an 18 year old man who flies a glider into the deserted city across the bay where he meets a number of outcasts living there. Each is cultivating the abandoned spaces in their own homage to things past. He entices a mute electronics genius and a violent ex-murderer to help him revive a part of the city with promises and lies. His experiment is a grotesque microcosm of our own industrial society which grows and destroys itself in a matter of months.
This story has all the hall marks of a JG Ballard from the gaudy language of destruction and abandonment, the nostalgic tone and the raft of cultural criticisms implicit in the very environment.
* Low-Flying Aircraft
This story has a similar tone to the first story and is set in a similar world. This time people still inhabit the abandoned towns and cities, which have become that way due to a dramatic drop in population. It is again very Ballardian in that it dwells on the darker emotions like jealousy and sexual deviance. It leads to a very dark revelation which questions our judgments of other people and especially people with disabilities.
* The Dead Astronaut
This is a post space-age story set in the desolate landscape of the abandoned Cape Kennedy Space Center. Whilst it is set amongst a group of gory relic hunters the story is really about a married couple and their inability to get over something that happened many years ago. It is about unasked questions and untold secrets. The narrative cleverly slips between revealing reminiscences and that which is happening in the present to tease the reader with clues right to the end. The final scene is as much a damning indictment of the worst aspects of modern man as it is of the couple's long held secrets.
* My Dream of Flying to Wake Island
Like most of the stories in this collection this one has flying at its core. It's about coping with trauma and obsessions. The main character is a pilot who dreams of flying to a deserted Pacific atoll in an old plane which he is excavating from under the sand dunes near his beach house. This desire to get to the island overshadows everything else, even his brief relationship with a female pilot. There are hints of a bigger picture involving war and destruction as the plane he's digging up is an old bomber and the island was once an air force base but is now abandoned.
* The Life and Death of God
This is a concept story presented like a brief historical aside. The premise is that the existence of God is discovered and proved scientifically. It examines how the entire world might react to this and for a brief time humanity changes its ways but it seems that this enormous truth is too much for us to live with and before long we're reverting to our old ways. The writing style is very dry as it is like an historic account and there are no specific characters. Instead, the characters are the different groups within society rather than individual people. I personally think the way the world initially reacts to the news is unrealistic and overly optimistic but that global reaction is required to allow the finale to have its effect and for that reason it's appropriate for the concept that's being presented.
* The Greatest Television Show on Earth
The story has a similar tone to the previous one. It's written almost like an historical account of a short period in history when man learnt how to time travel and sold it out to the TV channels. Inherent in this story is an implied criticism of two aspects of the television culture. One is that of the viewers who waste their lives away watching telly requiring more and more extreme content to get any pleasure. The other is of the companies themselves who will go to any lengths possible to gain more viewers and cream off more profits. This is a short, short story and feels a bit like a filler but it's an interesting concept played out to a different conclusion than your standard time-travelling paradox.
* The Beach Murders
This is an experimental little who-done-it where 26 separate paragraphs are arranged alphabetically according to their headings rather than their chronology. An introduction says it's up to the reader to solve the mystery and then suggests that it's not possible. It's a fun read that requires flicking back to previous sections to try to piece the story together accurately. It's highly sexualised and there are quite a few murders to try and work out. I didn't manage to solve the whole puzzle but I feel like more time and multiple readings would be required to do that. An interesting exercise would be to cut out the paragraphs and try to place them chronologically.
So, worth a read but probably not worth tearing your hair out trying to solve it.
* The Ultimate City
This first story is a novella set in a post industrial world where the cities of the past were abandoned very suddenly. The reduced population lives in idyllic, pastoral villages with environmentally friendly technology and an almost puritanical lifestyle. The protagonist is an 18 year old man who flies a glider into the deserted city across the bay where he meets a number of outcasts living there. Each is cultivating the abandoned spaces in their own homage to things past. He entices a mute electronics genius and a violent ex-murderer to help him revive a part of the city with promises and lies. His experiment is a grotesque microcosm of our own industrial society which grows and destroys itself in a matter of months.
This story has all the hall marks of a JG Ballard from the gaudy language of destruction and abandonment, the nostalgic tone and the raft of cultural criticisms implicit in the very environment.
* Low-Flying Aircraft
This story has a similar tone to the first story and is set in a similar world. This time people still inhabit the abandoned towns and cities, which have become that way due to a dramatic drop in population. It is again very Ballardian in that it dwells on the darker emotions like jealousy and sexual deviance. It leads to a very dark revelation which questions our judgments of other people and especially people with disabilities.
* The Dead Astronaut
This is a post space-age story set in the desolate landscape of the abandoned Cape Kennedy Space Center. Whilst it is set amongst a group of gory relic hunters the story is really about a married couple and their inability to get over something that happened many years ago. It is about unasked questions and untold secrets. The narrative cleverly slips between revealing reminiscences and that which is happening in the present to tease the reader with clues right to the end. The final scene is as much a damning indictment of the worst aspects of modern man as it is of the couple's long held secrets.
* My Dream of Flying to Wake Island
Like most of the stories in this collection this one has flying at its core. It's about coping with trauma and obsessions. The main character is a pilot who dreams of flying to a deserted Pacific atoll in an old plane which he is excavating from under the sand dunes near his beach house. This desire to get to the island overshadows everything else, even his brief relationship with a female pilot. There are hints of a bigger picture involving war and destruction as the plane he's digging up is an old bomber and the island was once an air force base but is now abandoned.
* The Life and Death of God
This is a concept story presented like a brief historical aside. The premise is that the existence of God is discovered and proved scientifically. It examines how the entire world might react to this and for a brief time humanity changes its ways but it seems that this enormous truth is too much for us to live with and before long we're reverting to our old ways. The writing style is very dry as it is like an historic account and there are no specific characters. Instead, the characters are the different groups within society rather than individual people. I personally think the way the world initially reacts to the news is unrealistic and overly optimistic but that global reaction is required to allow the finale to have its effect and for that reason it's appropriate for the concept that's being presented.
* The Greatest Television Show on Earth
The story has a similar tone to the previous one. It's written almost like an historical account of a short period in history when man learnt how to time travel and sold it out to the TV channels. Inherent in this story is an implied criticism of two aspects of the television culture. One is that of the viewers who waste their lives away watching telly requiring more and more extreme content to get any pleasure. The other is of the companies themselves who will go to any lengths possible to gain more viewers and cream off more profits. This is a short, short story and feels a bit like a filler but it's an interesting concept played out to a different conclusion than your standard time-travelling paradox.
* The Beach Murders
This is an experimental little who-done-it where 26 separate paragraphs are arranged alphabetically according to their headings rather than their chronology. An introduction says it's up to the reader to solve the mystery and then suggests that it's not possible. It's a fun read that requires flicking back to previous sections to try to piece the story together accurately. It's highly sexualised and there are quite a few murders to try and work out. I didn't manage to solve the whole puzzle but I feel like more time and multiple readings would be required to do that. An interesting exercise would be to cut out the paragraphs and try to place them chronologically.
So, worth a read but probably not worth tearing your hair out trying to solve it.
July 23, 2021
A collection of short stories set in a near apocalyptic or post apocalyptic time period, with a dated, 60s vibe. The stories are an uneven mix, some outstanding, others confused and muddled. Entertaining though, and sometimes chillingly prescient.
October 12, 2022
Spanning the late 1960s to mid-1970s, this finds Ballard as a substantially more mature author than the one who wrote his pre-Atrocity Exhibition collections, and in fine form at that. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
January 5, 2021
Zenith: The Dead Astronaut/The ultima
Nadir: A Place and a Time to Die
But it's all good reading, especially if you like the Author or the Genre already
Nadir: A Place and a Time to Die
But it's all good reading, especially if you like the Author or the Genre already
March 15, 2023
Ressenya en català:
https://www.elkraken.com/Ressenyes_Ca...
Reseña en castellano:
https://www.elkraken.com/Esp/A-esp/R-...
https://www.elkraken.com/Ressenyes_Ca...
Reseña en castellano:
https://www.elkraken.com/Esp/A-esp/R-...
August 12, 2023
La ciència ficció és el que agafo quan vull llegir una cosa que m'agradi, aposta segura gairebé sempre, i J.G.Ballard, que tant em va flipar amb l'Imperi del sol, tenia tots els números per ser la lectura d'estiu que estava buscant. Una mica post-apocalíptica, però sense deixar molta marca
July 10, 2022
I like the stories in the latter half of this book much better than I do the three with which the volume begins. I have found I prefer Ballard's tales of obsession and mental breakdown, with their hallucinatory, surrealistic details, vivid imagery and ornate language, over his more realistic works: I'll take The 4-Dimensional Nightmare and Vermilion Sands over The Day of Creation, for instance. In this collection, "The Ultimate City" and the two stories that follow it seemed to me generally realistic in their representations, and did not go to the imaginative lengths to which I have seen other of Ballard's stories go.
One part of "The Ultimate City" I found problematic was the description of a plane flight. Not much happens during the flight, and the passage appears to have been included merely for the pleasure of reading the description of the airplane's various maneuvers. Ironically, though, here Ballard uses some specific aviation terms (as a young man, Ballard was in the RAF, so has personal knowledge of what he is describing), and I found that the specialized terminology got in the way of my ability to visualize that to which the terms were referring.
I did enjoy most of the other stories, including "The Beach Murders," a fragmented narrative that is presented as an interactive exercise for the reader, and "The Greatest Television Show on Earth," a fun story about time travel that is at the same time a satire of the television industry.
Acquired Nov 23, 2002
The Book Addict, London, Ontario
One part of "The Ultimate City" I found problematic was the description of a plane flight. Not much happens during the flight, and the passage appears to have been included merely for the pleasure of reading the description of the airplane's various maneuvers. Ironically, though, here Ballard uses some specific aviation terms (as a young man, Ballard was in the RAF, so has personal knowledge of what he is describing), and I found that the specialized terminology got in the way of my ability to visualize that to which the terms were referring.
I did enjoy most of the other stories, including "The Beach Murders," a fragmented narrative that is presented as an interactive exercise for the reader, and "The Greatest Television Show on Earth," a fun story about time travel that is at the same time a satire of the television industry.
Acquired Nov 23, 2002
The Book Addict, London, Ontario
May 24, 2011
These are trademark Ballardian tales which summon up the works of painters like Giorgio De Chirico and Paul Delvaux, and musicians like Terry Riley and Jon Hassell instead of works of literature.
Here's the summary of the opening novella, "The Ultimate City":
This lengthy story is set in the early/mid- 21st century. Halloway is a young aviator and a resident of Garden City, a self-supporting and advanced agrarian town of the "post-technological age". Halloway finds everything in Garden City far too amiable, "bovine" and uncritical: so he decides to visit a neighbouring ghost metropole which was evacuated in late 20th century when the world's reserves of fossil fuels had finally been exhausted. Surrounded by all kinds of defunct machinery, abandoned cars, televisions, typewriters and buildings, Halloway meets the only remaining residents of the city: Olds (an extremely capable electrician who is mute and only able to communicate by using pocket calculators), Buckmaster (a former prominent industrialist and visionary who is occupied with his dream of byilding monuments of dead machinery), Miranda (Buckmaster's flower-obsessed daughter) and Mr. Stillman (a former petty criminal). Always fascinated by the 20th century's limitless appetite for steel, power, concrete and raw materials, Halloway decides to reanimate the city; and with the help of Olds, he succeeds in doing that. The city's population increases to several hundred, but all the ills that had beset the city in its prime reappear too: pollution, traffic congestion, inadequate municipal services, crime, inflation and deficit public financing. At first underestimating these as the quintessential facts of a city, Halloway gradually becomes unable to cope with the city's problems. All citizens except Halloway leave, and the the city shuts itself down again, making "The Ultimate City" a story of an abandoned dream waiting to be reoccuppied just to be abandoned again.
Here's the summary of the opening novella, "The Ultimate City":
This lengthy story is set in the early/mid- 21st century. Halloway is a young aviator and a resident of Garden City, a self-supporting and advanced agrarian town of the "post-technological age". Halloway finds everything in Garden City far too amiable, "bovine" and uncritical: so he decides to visit a neighbouring ghost metropole which was evacuated in late 20th century when the world's reserves of fossil fuels had finally been exhausted. Surrounded by all kinds of defunct machinery, abandoned cars, televisions, typewriters and buildings, Halloway meets the only remaining residents of the city: Olds (an extremely capable electrician who is mute and only able to communicate by using pocket calculators), Buckmaster (a former prominent industrialist and visionary who is occupied with his dream of byilding monuments of dead machinery), Miranda (Buckmaster's flower-obsessed daughter) and Mr. Stillman (a former petty criminal). Always fascinated by the 20th century's limitless appetite for steel, power, concrete and raw materials, Halloway decides to reanimate the city; and with the help of Olds, he succeeds in doing that. The city's population increases to several hundred, but all the ills that had beset the city in its prime reappear too: pollution, traffic congestion, inadequate municipal services, crime, inflation and deficit public financing. At first underestimating these as the quintessential facts of a city, Halloway gradually becomes unable to cope with the city's problems. All citizens except Halloway leave, and the the city shuts itself down again, making "The Ultimate City" a story of an abandoned dream waiting to be reoccuppied just to be abandoned again.
December 18, 2007
Sometimes it pays to take a chance on a $4 book in a used bookstore. I saw this quaint little paperback with totally 1970's sci-fi cover art in Housing Works two weeks ago and picked it up on a whim. I was not disappointed. The book leads off with a novella, The Ultimate City, about a man exploring an ancient abandoned city in an age when society has retreated to simple self-sustaining garden villages. In our age, where anyone with half a brain is (quite rightfully) fretful about the destructiveness of our modern way of life, it is a fun release to read this celebration and rediscovery of urban vice.
The rest of the stories have a similar flavor - human population declines after a worldwide epidemic of deformed births, a long-dead astronaut returns to earth into the arms of a couple that has been waiting for years to put him to rest, an unsettling pattern is discovered in the emergence and sudden disappearance of child prodigies. True to the pop sci-fi/horror genre, all these stories (except for the novella, which is more of a study in impulses) lead up to a hook, or punch line that is satisfying and immaginitive, if a little predictable after the first few.
The rest of the stories have a similar flavor - human population declines after a worldwide epidemic of deformed births, a long-dead astronaut returns to earth into the arms of a couple that has been waiting for years to put him to rest, an unsettling pattern is discovered in the emergence and sudden disappearance of child prodigies. True to the pop sci-fi/horror genre, all these stories (except for the novella, which is more of a study in impulses) lead up to a hook, or punch line that is satisfying and immaginitive, if a little predictable after the first few.
January 12, 2008
A repurchase, ordered from Powells - after selling it 7 or so years ago to sate late night drives to Portland for...for perusing the cathartic aisles of this pleasure palace. Always nice to have some store credit.
Includes:
The Life and Death of God: For my money, the best prose description of God; and how proving Him won't make a difference in the long run, thus the "death".
The Greatest Television Show on Earth: TV producers bank on a new reality program involving time travel; then realize that history wasn't nearly as bloody as believed: so they travel in more troops to fight Napolean, etc.
Mr. B. is Mr. B.
Includes:
The Life and Death of God: For my money, the best prose description of God; and how proving Him won't make a difference in the long run, thus the "death".
The Greatest Television Show on Earth: TV producers bank on a new reality program involving time travel; then realize that history wasn't nearly as bloody as believed: so they travel in more troops to fight Napolean, etc.
Mr. B. is Mr. B.
August 7, 2016
Excellent stories by Ballard, an amazing writer like no other .
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