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El hombre imposible
A collection of nine short stories including:
The Drowned Giant
The Reptile Enclosure
The Delta At Sunset
Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer
The Screen Game
The Day Of Forever
Time Of Passage
The Gioconda Of The Twilight Noon
The Impossible Man
The Drowned Giant
The Reptile Enclosure
The Delta At Sunset
Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer
The Screen Game
The Day Of Forever
Time Of Passage
The Gioconda Of The Twilight Noon
The Impossible Man
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
6 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
About the author
J.G. Ballard
469 books4,078 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 13, 2019
کنراد پسری هفده ساله است که بعد از مردن والدینش، با عمو و زن عموی خود زندگی میکند. روزی او در جادهای ساحلی تصادف میکند. پزشکان مجبور میشوند یک پای او را قطع کنند. اما پایی برای پیوند زدن به او وجود دارد.
بخشهایی از متن کتاب:
حسابی استراحت کن پسرجون شاید قبل راه رفتن مجبور بشی بدویی.
- عمو جون متوجه این دوگانگی میشید؟ این پیرمردا و پیرزنا از یه طرف از من میخوان صاحب پای تازهای بشم و از طرف دیگه خودشون حاضر نیستن برن بیمارستان.
- اما کنراد، تو جوونی از نظر اونا هنوز بچهای. تو میخوای چیزی رو که حقته به خودت برگردونی. حق راه رفتن، دویدن، شنا کردن. زندگی که از حد طبیعی طولانی تر نمیشه!
...هرچی سن بالاتر میره کمکم میفهمی که همهی چیزهای باارزش حد و مرزی دارن، مخصوصا زمان. از چیزای عادی زندگی بگیر تا مسائل خیلی مهم مثل ازدواج، بچه، حتی خود زندگی. اطراف هر موضوعی مرز مشخصی کشیده شده که باعث میشه اون موضوع هویت خاص خودش رو پیدا کنه.
بخشهایی از متن کتاب:
حسابی استراحت کن پسرجون شاید قبل راه رفتن مجبور بشی بدویی.
- عمو جون متوجه این دوگانگی میشید؟ این پیرمردا و پیرزنا از یه طرف از من میخوان صاحب پای تازهای بشم و از طرف دیگه خودشون حاضر نیستن برن بیمارستان.
- اما کنراد، تو جوونی از نظر اونا هنوز بچهای. تو میخوای چیزی رو که حقته به خودت برگردونی. حق راه رفتن، دویدن، شنا کردن. زندگی که از حد طبیعی طولانی تر نمیشه!
...هرچی سن بالاتر میره کمکم میفهمی که همهی چیزهای باارزش حد و مرزی دارن، مخصوصا زمان. از چیزای عادی زندگی بگیر تا مسائل خیلی مهم مثل ازدواج، بچه، حتی خود زندگی. اطراف هر موضوعی مرز مشخصی کشیده شده که باعث میشه اون موضوع هویت خاص خودش رو پیدا کنه.
March 16, 2010
3.5 stars. My feeling after reading this collection of short stories was that they could have been something very special but just seemed to be missing something that left the overall story less than completely satisfying. That said, there are some very interesting issues explored. I really liked "The Drowned Giant" and "The Reptile Enclosure" and thought the title story was decent but, again, lacked something to push it over the top.
September 8, 2024
Como la mayoría de los libros de cuentos, este es bastante desparejo. Tiene dos que son memorables: “El gigante ahogado” y “Tiempo de pasaje”. Otros con los típicos paisajes ballardianos que resultan un tanto oníricos y apocalípticos (“Pájaro de tormentas, soñador de tormentas”, “El día eterno” y “La Gioconda del mediodía crepuscular”) y algunos más, olvidables.
Ah, en el último cuento, “El hombre imposible” creo que está el germen de Crash.
Ah, en el último cuento, “El hombre imposible” creo que está el germen de Crash.
August 13, 2022
Al final de la lectura a mi ejemplar de Minotauro se le habían caído las tapas, el lomo y tres hojas por lado jaja, muy acorde con Ballard, donde abunda el desgaste, la decadencia y el paso del tiempo. Sus relatos están llenos de gente enferma, ancianos, alucinaciones, polución y calor. "El gigante ahogado", "Pájaro de tormentas, soñador de tormentas" y "El delta en el crepúsculo" los mejores, sin ser ninguno una maravilla.
Creo me gusta más su estilo decadente en novelas que en relatos, como en "El mundo sumergido" por ejemplo.
Creo me gusta más su estilo decadente en novelas que en relatos, como en "El mundo sumergido" por ejemplo.
October 20, 2009
This has a lot less jagged industrial imagery than other books I've read by J.G. Ballard. In fact, a lot of the stories revolve around seascapes, and are softer yet a little more unsettling. These short stories read like Ray Bradbury without the optimistic endings or Shirley Jackson with more confirmed mind control and fewer ladies running around in high heels fretting.
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March 5, 2010This would have made a great beach read, as all but one story take place at or have something to do with beaches or deserts. After hating Crash, it was nice to read some things by Ballard I could actually enjoy.
The Drowned Giant- a giant washes up on a beach and is slowly forgotten by the people that find him. Had me thinking about the one paragraph in a story I wrote that everybody liked.
The Reptile Enclosure- First seems like a 60’s-70’s norm scifi story about overpopulation but is much weirder. Don’t really know what it was about but liked it.
The Delta at Sunset- Oddly, sort of a combination of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, two Hemmingway stories I’ve read recently.
Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer- A man fends off giant birds on a beach. Despite a predictable and unfulfilling ending, I liked this one.
The Screen Game- Enigmatic film producer shoots avant-garde film Aphrodite ‘70 (a play on Europa ‘51?) in a setting reminiscent of the dreamlike world of Last Year at Marienbad. Despite some nifty imagery, the plot could’ve been taken out of an episode of The Night Gallery.
The Day of Forever- The planet has stopped (or is more slowly) revolving, and a few people drift from towns in search of sleep and dreams. I liked this one, and it was especially interesting to read after the Chile earthquake, which I have read was so powerful it has shortened the length of our days.
Time of Passage- Despite an obvious and precocious conceit (time moves backwards, changing the relationship between cause and effect a la Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow), this story was the most enduring and human of the lot.
The Giconda of the Twilight Noon- Great pretentious scifi title! A man is haunted by visions when he is temporarily blind.
The Impossible Man - the most patently sci-fi story, dealing with the popular 60’s-70’s scifi topic of overpopulation and mankind living longer and longer. It was okay but didn’t really go anywhere, its conclusions vacant spurious. Certain elements suggest what was to be Crash‘s focus.
All in all I feel Ballard is not a great storyteller, but what he does is create images with words, weird, sometimes unforgettable and unique dreamscapes that he just sort of makes us wallow and walk around in, and this is both an accomplishment and a fault, depending on how interesting the dreamscape/landscape image may be, and how long the ultimately pointless story carries on for. I liked how similar images kept reappearing through the stories, most notably the beach, birds, sand, a mysterious woman, the zodiac, the color carmine, ruins, and probably many others I am forgetting right now. I noticed this first in “The Delta on Sunset” when a character mentioned “the reptile enclosure,” the title of the previous story, although that term is not used in it. I’m not going to waste my time now to prove this but I seem to remember Ballard using the exact phrase or metaphor in various stories, for example something like “the birds shaped like crosses drifted across the air,” which either means he is either lazy or on autopilot or else building up a lexicon of images in order to navigate the dreamscapes, which seem to be part of one dream world, that are being unfurled. I imagine it is a bit of both.
Now to return this to Margaret before it falls to pieces.
The Drowned Giant- a giant washes up on a beach and is slowly forgotten by the people that find him. Had me thinking about the one paragraph in a story I wrote that everybody liked.
The Reptile Enclosure- First seems like a 60’s-70’s norm scifi story about overpopulation but is much weirder. Don’t really know what it was about but liked it.
The Delta at Sunset- Oddly, sort of a combination of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, two Hemmingway stories I’ve read recently.
Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer- A man fends off giant birds on a beach. Despite a predictable and unfulfilling ending, I liked this one.
The Screen Game- Enigmatic film producer shoots avant-garde film Aphrodite ‘70 (a play on Europa ‘51?) in a setting reminiscent of the dreamlike world of Last Year at Marienbad. Despite some nifty imagery, the plot could’ve been taken out of an episode of The Night Gallery.
The Day of Forever- The planet has stopped (or is more slowly) revolving, and a few people drift from towns in search of sleep and dreams. I liked this one, and it was especially interesting to read after the Chile earthquake, which I have read was so powerful it has shortened the length of our days.
Time of Passage- Despite an obvious and precocious conceit (time moves backwards, changing the relationship between cause and effect a la Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow), this story was the most enduring and human of the lot.
The Giconda of the Twilight Noon- Great pretentious scifi title! A man is haunted by visions when he is temporarily blind.
The Impossible Man - the most patently sci-fi story, dealing with the popular 60’s-70’s scifi topic of overpopulation and mankind living longer and longer. It was okay but didn’t really go anywhere, its conclusions vacant spurious. Certain elements suggest what was to be Crash‘s focus.
All in all I feel Ballard is not a great storyteller, but what he does is create images with words, weird, sometimes unforgettable and unique dreamscapes that he just sort of makes us wallow and walk around in, and this is both an accomplishment and a fault, depending on how interesting the dreamscape/landscape image may be, and how long the ultimately pointless story carries on for. I liked how similar images kept reappearing through the stories, most notably the beach, birds, sand, a mysterious woman, the zodiac, the color carmine, ruins, and probably many others I am forgetting right now. I noticed this first in “The Delta on Sunset” when a character mentioned “the reptile enclosure,” the title of the previous story, although that term is not used in it. I’m not going to waste my time now to prove this but I seem to remember Ballard using the exact phrase or metaphor in various stories, for example something like “the birds shaped like crosses drifted across the air,” which either means he is either lazy or on autopilot or else building up a lexicon of images in order to navigate the dreamscapes, which seem to be part of one dream world, that are being unfurled. I imagine it is a bit of both.
Now to return this to Margaret before it falls to pieces.
April 4, 2014
http://www.radiotehran.ir/boxesview.p...
مرد ناممکن؛ با صدای بهروز رضوی.
مرد ناممکن؛ با صدای بهروز رضوی.
January 9, 2019
Antología de cuentos entre la realidad y la ficción de J.G. Ballard.
Imágenes casi oníricas de un futuro crepuscular, singularidades psicológicas bajo entornos difíciles, la tecnología alterando las conductas humanas,
Los cuentos
El delta en el crepúsculo
El día eterno
El gigante ahogado
El hombre imposible
La Gioconda del mediodía crepuscular
La jaula de los reptiles
Pájaro de tormentas, soñador de tormentas
Tiempo de pasaje
Comento dos que me gustaron en particular
LA GIOCONDA DEL MEDIODÍA CREPUSCULAR el protagonista temporalmente ciego tiene ensoñaciones de una realidad que físicamente no puede ver, sirve a Ballard para expresar los poderes ocultos y potenciales de la mente humana que frente a la adversidad parece crecer y desarrollar nuevos órganos con los que saciar su sed.
EL HOMBRE IMPOSIBLE es otro de los relatos muy bien logrado en un tiempo en que la medicina es capaz de alargar la vida casi indefinidamente mediante la cirugía, la sociedad, mayoritariamente vieja y cansada, decide empezar a morir.
Una muy buena lectura liviana y profunda a la vez
Imágenes casi oníricas de un futuro crepuscular, singularidades psicológicas bajo entornos difíciles, la tecnología alterando las conductas humanas,
Los cuentos
El delta en el crepúsculo
El día eterno
El gigante ahogado
El hombre imposible
La Gioconda del mediodía crepuscular
La jaula de los reptiles
Pájaro de tormentas, soñador de tormentas
Tiempo de pasaje
Comento dos que me gustaron en particular
LA GIOCONDA DEL MEDIODÍA CREPUSCULAR el protagonista temporalmente ciego tiene ensoñaciones de una realidad que físicamente no puede ver, sirve a Ballard para expresar los poderes ocultos y potenciales de la mente humana que frente a la adversidad parece crecer y desarrollar nuevos órganos con los que saciar su sed.
EL HOMBRE IMPOSIBLE es otro de los relatos muy bien logrado en un tiempo en que la medicina es capaz de alargar la vida casi indefinidamente mediante la cirugía, la sociedad, mayoritariamente vieja y cansada, decide empezar a morir.
Una muy buena lectura liviana y profunda a la vez
September 16, 2021
Me llevó por sus diversos parajes surrealistas al principio, también me saturó de arena y dunas por donde quiera, ciudades ancestrales a medias entre un sueño y la realidad, solamente un cuento nunca me gustó, los demás son muy buenos. Uno de ellos me trasladó a los desolados paisajes de De Chirico. Mi cuento favorito fue: tiempo de pasaje. Ballard se ha ganado que lea alguna de sus novelas.
July 18, 2019
- El gigante ahogado ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
- El delta en el crepúsculo ★ ★ ★
- Pájaro de tormentas, soñador de tormentas ★ ★
- El día eterno ★ ★
- Tiempo de pasaje ★ ★ ★ ★
- La Gioconda del mediodía crepuscular ★★★★
- El hombre imposible [Traducción] 1972 de Marcial Souto ★ ★ ★ ★
- El delta en el crepúsculo ★ ★ ★
- Pájaro de tormentas, soñador de tormentas ★ ★
- El día eterno ★ ★
- Tiempo de pasaje ★ ★ ★ ★
- La Gioconda del mediodía crepuscular ★★★★
- El hombre imposible [Traducción] 1972 de Marcial Souto ★ ★ ★ ★
August 21, 2019
Los relatos de este libro no son como otros que comúnmente se leen en ciencia ficción. El autor tiene un gran poder para describir imágenes
October 14, 2024
Solo leí The Gioconda Of The Twilight Noon, buena jaja.
March 1, 2008
This is an uneven selection of short stories. Some have a sci-fi bent. "The Day of Forever" is the best story in the collection. I find myself thinking about it from time to time, which is one of the ways I know something I've read has affected me.
June 20, 2009
Ballard is a better-than-average science fiction writer. I have come to find his Vermilion Sands stories tedious, but have enjoyed most of the other stuff.
November 28, 2014
So sad - I remembered this as being such a good book. The writing is certainly excellent, but the stories ... not so much. I was really disappointed.
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April 30, 2019I have the german edition: Der unmoegliche Mensch
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews