J.G. Ballard discussion

I'll start this then.

Hi my name's Sérgio and I'm from northern Portugal.

I became interested in Ballard's work recently and already became fascinated by it.

I hope I get to discuss his work here with you guys/gals as I read more and more of his books. :)

Im Bridget. Thanks for the invite. I, too love Ballard. Ive been meaning to read more of his stuff, but so far Ive only read three. So far, my favorite is actually Super-Cannes . I admit I wont be on here very often with school and work and such, but Ill try to check in occasionally.

Welcome Bridget!

Thanks for accepting my invite. :)

Hello! I'm David.

Always happy to have more Ballard in my life.

I rapidly devoured both volumes of his short stories last year and have been hooked ever since ( the website Ballardian keeping my interest piqued.) I have only read 2 of his novels so I welcome the motivation to continue that this group should provide.

Hello,

I actually first read Ballard because so many of the Golden Age S-F writers had bad things to say about him, as though he was some sort of looming threat.

I read his stories here and there (Dangerous Visions 3, Playboy Collection of Science Fiction, so-on) until I bought the collection of short stories, and am still working my way through that volume. I've also read High- Rise, and have a copy of the Crystal World but haven't had the time to get around to it.

Ballard is like a fetish, I always feel a little strange for liking his work as much as I do.

Thank you for the invite, Sergio!

I have never read any Ballard novels, but I am working my way through the collection, The Complete Short Storiesand am constantly blown away by his depth of vision and the worlds he is able to imagine. I agree with Theodore Sturgeon who said that ninety percent of science fiction is crap. Ballard is in the other ten - in fact I'd put him in the top one percent!

Welcome guys ! :)

Mrdavidpeat wrote: "...I welcome the motivation to continue that this group should provide."
I
It's the same thing for me David. I'm definitely looking to read more Poe to discuss here.

Mharper wrote: "I actually first read Ballard because so many of the Golden Age S-F writers had bad things to say about him, as though he was some sort of looming threat."

lol That's true. Those guys must have felt that Ballard was a threat. He's such a unique writer unlike many of those writer that, even though they wrote some entertaining stuff, seemed to all come out of the same mould.

Chris wrote: "I have never read any Ballard novels, but I am working my way through the collection, The Complete Short Storiesand am constantly blown away by his depth of vision and the worlds he is able to imagine.."

I agree. I only read two books of his short stories but I can only think of one writer I enjoyed the short stories more, which is Poe.

I'm Chris and I'm ready to retire to Vermillion Sands. I first came to Ballard as a young man after reading an interview w/ Al Jourgenson of Ministry, where he was asked about Jesus Built My Hotrod and referred to Crash as an inspiration. I read it and found it utterly depraved, and having survived a terrible motorcycle accident, very resonant.
It was rock that returned me to Ballard in middle age, listening to Hawkwind's amazing tune High Rise, as it references the eponymous novella and The Man on the 99th Floor. I've plowed through the Complete Stories, High Rise, Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes in the past year or two. Looking forward to tackling the earlier novels--particularly Crystal World.

Hi, thank you for the invite to the group.
Ballard is my favourite author and due to him I judge writers by how good their short stories are - Ballard was a genius of the short story and to me he is proof that you can write elequent and fantastic prose using only a few pages. Ballard is also the reason why I got into science-fiction literature.

My favourite story of his is 'EndGame'. I've also read quite a few of his novels.

Welcome Chris and Angela. :)

@Chris: Another Ballard connection to rock is Atrocity Exhibition by Joy Division. I should listen to Hawkwind but in a way it's nice to know that there's still this crazy psychedelic band I have left to discover. eh


@Angela: That's a great way to get into science-fiction. It must be hard to find other authors that live up to that standard. :)

Ha, none of them live up to the Ballard standard! But then I'm I'm not that fussy, and my book-snobbery isn't as bad as it used to be.

Hello, im Carlos, from Argentina. I first read J.G. Ballard avoiding my asignments during the first years of my grad school (im a philosophy student), I was very atracted by the violence, erotism and disorder on his works... he somehow worked as an antidote to Plato and Logic.

Hello, I’m Ed from Wellington, Florida & thanks to Sergio for sponsoring this forum.

Besides SF my reading interests include other types of literature, prose, and non-fiction. I suppose the reason for this is that I like to know how other people think, behave, and the reasons for their actions. SF (fiction/fantasy) is unique in that it offers the possibility for man to explore possibilities beyond his physical limits and view the universe from perspectives unavailable to his physical senses. Ballard’s fiction may be a genre unto itself but what attracts me to his writing is its ability to engage my consciousness and take me on a journey through the corridors of his mind.

Hi David from the UK here.

Long time Ballard reader. I consider him the finest SF writer this country ever produced. Favourite novel: Crash.

Hi, I'm Terri, and I first got into Ballard in the summer of 2008 when I watched the film adaptation of Crash, then from there my curiosity got the better of me so I got hold of the book, then read any book of his I could find from then on out.

What I love most about his work is his unique genre of clinical surrealism.

Hi, I'm Derek, and I got into Ballard while I was attending college. I saw Spielberg's adaptation of EMPIRE OF THE SUN, which I found compelling enough to cause me to seek out the novel. After that, I went to my local sf bookstore, which stocked quite a bit of Ballard, from THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION to THE VENUS HUNTERS. Along with a handful of others, he has been one of the formative architects of my imagination.

While we're all here.

Derek mentioned Ballard as "one of the formative architects of [his] imagination." I wonder, does anyone else feature in your own pantheon of formative architects?

For me, Philip K. Dick has an about equal place with Ballard.

Dick is the same for me, as is William Gibson.

I like Terri's take on Ballard's literary style i.e. "clinical surrealism." I've previously dreamed up a term "gothic surrealism" based on a comparative reading of The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista and Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Do others feel that there is an underlying theme or world view in Ballard's writing regardless of what you call it?

Hi, I'm Pippa, from Gloucestershire, UK. Empire of the Sun is one of all time favourite books, and I want to read a lot more. Yes, I love Philip K Dick, and Poe as well. :)

I'm really glad that so much people are joining up this group.

Welcome Carlos, David, Terri, Derek and Pippa!

@David: I'm a PKD fan as well. :)

Edward wrote: "thanks to Sergio for sponsoring this forum."

Thank you for your valuable participation in it. :)

Edward wrote: " Do others feel that there is an underlying theme or world view in Ballard's writing regardless of what you call it? "

I haven't read enough JG Ballard to have an informed opinion about it but so far what struck me most about his writing is how "visual" his work is. Right now I'm reading The Kindness of Women and even though I've only read a single chapter so far there was already a lot of really striking images.

Hi, I'm Leonardo from Rome, Italy. I read many his books ( but not short stories ), I'm interested to his work, for his skill in describe psycho-physical behavior of our society.

Thanks for the invite, it is sort of fortunate coincidence as now I'm spending several months in London and the whole experience makes me think of J. G. Ballard quite often - I keep saying to myself I need to make a small detour to Shepperton soon!
I came across his books thanks to D. Cronenberg and his brilliant adaptation of Crash, since then I devoured many of his books. Crash, High-rise and stories from Myths of the Near Future are my favorites, though. I am a sociologist so his work is inspirational for me, a lot - his original notion of modernity is so rare and so true, for me at least.

It's been over two years since I last read one of his books, and since I've just finished Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly, it's about time I read another Ballard book, one that's been on my kindle for a while, The Drowned World.

Welcome Leonardo and Lyn :)

Terri-Lea wrote: "It's been over two years since I last read one of his books, and since I've just finished Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly, it's about time I read another Ballard book, one that's been on my kindle..."

That's one of the books of his I want to read next. I'll have to find an old paperback version of it though, since I don't read e-books.

hi
i'm Anna from Firenze, Italy
i love his books and i also reviewed the film based on Crash
thank you for the invite:-)

Hello, I'm Paul from London. I've a huge Ballard fan, since reading The Drowned World back in the mid-70s. I've read pretty much all the novels and short stories over the years (yes, even The Wind From Nowhere - not very good admittedly).

Pretty co-incidental getting invited in now as I'm currently reading Extreme Metaphors a collection of Ballard interviews. Reading them now it's amazing how prophetic he is about our current media landscape and social media.

I love pretty much all his stuff, each change of direction was always of interest to me, although I guess the early "disaster" novels and the "condensed novel" The Atrocity Exhibition and Crash are also favourites.

Hi I'm David
It's strange to get this invite today as I just bought a collection of essays on Ballard in a second hand bookshop down the road. I've been reading him for years now and can't see myself stopping anytime soon. I think 'High-Rise' is probably my favourite of his novels as when I read it I was extremely interested in the gothic novel and I thought 'High-Rise' was a perfect example of a what that can be in the latter half of the 20th century.

Look forward to speaking to you all

David

Hi, my name is Lucy. Thanks for the invite to joint this group. I have been reading Ballard for about 25 years - the first book I read was The Crystal World. I have read most of his novels since then. It would be very hard to pick a favourite. Like many others in this group so far, I am intrigued with the link with art, architecture and music.

Hello, my name is Jack and I live right outside of the Philadelphia area.

I started reading Ballard a few years back and I have read his books: Crash, Hello, America, The Complete Short Stories, Kingdom Come and Vermilion Sands. My favorite is a tie between Vermilion Sands and Crash.

I still have a copy of Millennium People that I want to read as well as Concrete Island.

When I was in college I studied film and if I could I would love to make a small, independent film based on Vermilion Sands.

Is is me or is Ballard a very visual type of writer. When I read him it's like viewing a vivid movie in my mind. Anyone else??

Welcome Anna, Paul, David and Lucy :)

@ Paul 6 David: Seems like I have good timing with this sort of stuff.

Are you liking Extreme Metaphors so far Paul?

What book was that that you bought David? i really like reading essays about Art in general so i'm curious about that.

Hi i'm Chris. Massive Ballard fan and i'm currently working my way through all his work. I'm reading Millennium People at the moment and still got four of his on my bookshelf to read.

It's funny that his most 'popular' works are the ones I cared for the least: his debut novel Drowned World and Crash which I found to be too much at times.

Sergio, yes I am enjoying the interviews in Extreme Metaphors so far. Ballard was making very astute comments on how people's lives would be affected by technology and media saturation back in the 70s.He was already considering a highly connected world. He talks a lot about the fictional outer (or external) world which he considered already a fiction constructed by advertising, TV, etc and was interested in what he termed Inner Space.

As the same topics have repeated across multiple interviews the book is best read in relatively small chunks.

Hey guys, I'm Tom. Fan of Ballard thank to Chris (Message 32).

Favourite Work is Concrete Island, closely followed by Super Cannes! I will be reading more of his work in the future!

John wrote: "Ballard a very visual type of writer. When I read him it's like viewing a vivid movie in my mind. Anyone else??

That has been the case for me, especially in the three novels that I've read The Crystal World, Crash, and Concrete Island. I've tried to pin down exactly what makes his text so visual. Ballard's characters don't spend a lot of time communicating with one another e.g. "he said" and "she said." I've also noticed a tendency to describe the scenery or objects as directly as he can rather rely on analogies to familiar phenomena by using "like" or "as."

I got into Ballard by accident when I was about 12 - I was in my local library and saw 'Running Wild' on the bookshelf. Since then I've read quite a few of his novels and all his short stories, but not read everything yet. I bought his autobiography from the booksale in my local library a couple of months ago for 20p (bargain!) Not read it yet but I can't see how it can be bad.
I've not heard of 'Extreme Metaphors' - is it similar in style to Douglas Adams' The Salmon of Doubt?

Angela - It's not an unfinished novel, like The Salmon of Doubt. It's an edited collection of interviews by Mr Ballardian.com himself, Simon Sellars. I'm very excited to get around to it!

Nice to meet all you fellow Ballardians.

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of The World Without Us which posits the likely outcomes from humanity's sudden disappearance. As you might expect, it features some very Ballardian imagery, writ large. Not just hotels overcome by sand dunes, but empty canals, flooded cities, dead airports and rusting spaceports.

Welcome Chris and Tom :)

@Paul: Sounds interesting. One of the things that attracted me the most to discover Ballard's writing was how original and interesting his ideas are so I think I'll eventually read this book.

Mrdavidpeat wrote: "Angela - It's not an unfinished novel, like The Salmon of Doubt. It's an edited collection of interviews by Mr Ballardian.com himself, Simon Sellars. I'm very excited to get around to it!"

Ah, excellent, thank you. I'll keep an eye out for it.

I can heartily recommend it if you are interested in what Ballard has to say about the motivation behind his work. He talks very eloquently about it.

Sergio, perhaps some of this stuff can be moved into separate topics? Do you have the ability to do that?

No I can't do that.

It's true that this thread has gone a little bit off-topic but i can't move messages from one topic to another.

What anyone can do though is start a new thread about some subject we've been talking here (like Extreme Metaphors for instance) and copy the related comments to that thread. If you want to do this go ahead.

I'd also advise anyone who wants to start talking about some specific Ballard related subject that they should try to see if any of the topics here are fit for the subject. If it isn't the case they should start a new thread.
Some off-topic chit chat is perfectly natural but too much of it can make this group kind of messy.

Hey.
I'm James and live in southeastern Pennslyvania; the name 'J.G. Ballard' first came to my attention when reading about a Mr. William Seward Burroughs. But I wasn't aware of him though untill I came across an essay regarding Ballard by Christopher Hitchens. Beyond that mundane biographical b.s. though, I'm just huge fan of him (espically Crash and his short stories.) I hope to stay active in this group and do anything I can to grow it.
-James

Thank you for creating this group on Goodreads! This is Martin from Amsterdam. I've been reading J.G. Ballard ever since his The Day of Creation knocked me off my feet in 1987 when it came out. I've read 90% of his work and I've re-read some of his work such as The Day of Creation, The Crystal World, Vermilion Sands and The Atrocity Exhibition. Ballard has definitely influenced my way of thinking, my window on the world and my own writing (www.mhvesseur.com). I believe Ballard is one of the very few writers of the 20th century that have changed literature. My favourite Ballardian moment still occurs while reading Terminal Beach because it remains mysterious and, above all, surreal.

Welcome James and Martin :)

Hi,

Thanks for the invite.

I'm a huge Ballard fan, I have read plenty but not everything, and I also follow Simon Sellars' Ballardian project. I co-produced a photo-documentary with my friend Max a year after Ballard died. We took a trip to Shepperton just outside London where Ballard lived and wrote for most of his life. The photography is all our own, and the words are cuttings from Ballard's own literature. http://www.sfhaa.org/thesecretlifeofs...

I look forward to participating in the group!

By the way, Simon Sellars from Ballardian has just produced a new book about Ballard (which I hope to get for Christmas). Here it is: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...

Hi,

Thanks to Sergio for the invitation and for creating this group.

I've been a lover of Ballard's work since my teens. He's one writer who seems to capture what it is like to live in the 20th and 21st Centuries with a dreamlike intensity. Favourite Ballard texts include Crash, The Atrocity Exhibition and 'The Terminal Beach'. I've also published an essay on Crash in Iain Grant and Jane Arthurs collection Crash Cultures.

Good to hear about the Simon Sellars/Dan o'Hara book. I look forward to reading it.

:)

Welcome Mat and David :)

@Mat: That's a great site. Thanks for sharing. I love pictures of urban/suburban details.

@David: Thank you for joining the group. By the way, I didn't create the group (that was a great idea of Drew), I'm just trying to revive it.

Hello,

My name is Jason and I live in Minnesota, where it's very cold.

I'm new to Mr. Ballard's works despite knowing of him for many years (at least since David Cronenberg's film of Crash). I'm not exactly sure why it took me this long to read him. I'm also a fan of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson.

In the past few months I've read High Rise, Concrete Island, and Millennium People, and am looking forward to more (loved the first two, not so fond of the last one).

This is also the first Goodreads group I've joined! Thank you for the invitation.

My name is Benjamin, I live in Tel Aviv, which I think is the most Ballardian city in the world. I'm a huge admirer of the Shepperton prophet and an aspiring novelist myself. Though I don't think my writing has much in common with James Graham, he's been an enormous inspiration. My favorites are Crash (of course) and The Kindness of Women (very underrated, I think).