J.G. Ballard discussion

This is a beautiful novel. A mix of Heart of Darkness with psychedelic imagery. Some of the imagery is simply beautiful and haunting.

What did you people think about this?

Here's a related image: this painting called Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin is used in the book to describe Port Matarre.



link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iso...

This is the first Ballard novel that I read and I agree that the imagry is “beautiful and haunting.” To me it was an extended lyrical description of landscape and told in a stream of consciousness manner such that the reader can experience the flow of the imagery. Some critics have panned the novel because there is insufficient development of the characters to empathize with any of them. However, based only on my reading of Crash and his short stories, I believe that Ballard is more interested in describing inanimate things and how they affect the subconscious rather than describing the character’s emotions and how the character relates to one another. His writing is more like taking a tour through a psychological art gallery rather than a story about people and their problems.

Regarding the comment on Ballard’s use of Böcklin’s L'isola dei morti to describe Port Matarre, he instead used this as a specific reference to the lighting of the sky i.e. “The light at Port Matarre is always like this, very heavy and penumbral-. “ Böcklin painted at least five versions between 1880 and 1886 http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'is... and it would be interesting to find out how Ballard came across this painting. The version that you reference is the one that Ballard describes. However, I would have not imagined it quite that way and would opt for another but that is the uniqueness of the written word in allowing each reader to paint their own picture and share that experience with others.

Hi there Edward

It isn't always a bad thing to have "blank" characters. I think that way, sometimes, I as a reader have a more direct experience of what happens in the book. Since we are only told what's happening instead of also what the main characters are feeling we have too fill in the blanks, and this can make for a very cool reading experience.

It's definitely the case of this book. I remember feeling the same with the final chapters of The Invincible by Stanisław Lem - beautiful stuff.

About the painting, I think the painting also must have influenced the descriptions of that town since Ballard describes it as being very contrasted, with very dark jungle and shadows around it and with buildings of shining white. We can definitely also see that in that painting.

The only Lem that I’ve read is Solaris and that was after after watching the 2002 film. The description of The Invincible sounds very enticing and I’ll have to read it sometime. You mention similarities to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and I’ve never that book either. I’ve never come across anything in my reading to what is found in Ballard’s writing and the only story that I recall coming close to the Ballard’s dreamlike decriptivness is the main story in Danilo Kis’s The Encyclopedia of the Dead http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25....

Böcklin’s L'isola dei morti immediately reminded me of the Island Cemetery of San Michele in Venice Italy even though Böcklin’s painting is reputed to have been based on the English cemetry in Florence. Of course you are correct that Ballard transformed other aspects of this painting into his work as Port Matarre is an imaginary inlet on the West African coast. Even the cover painting on the original edition of The Crystal World is the Eye of Silence by Max Ernst http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/max-e... and reflects Ballard’s interest in surrealism.

There is a whole branch of literary criticism called intertextuality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertex... that is devoted to the interelationship between texts and the influence of other texts on authors and I’d suspect that this applies to the influence of art on the written word. Had I another life and didn’t have to earn a living, I might devote myself to literary studies rather than science and engineering even though the combination of science and the humanities would be far superior.

Edward wrote: "...reflects Ballard’s interest in surrealism."

Definitely. Those Ernst paintings are really close to how the crystal forest must have been envisioned by Ballard. I almost made a banner for this group out of a Ernst painting due to that connection.

The banner I've chosen has another surrealist connection, actually. I think the painting behind Ballard is from Delvaux, a belgian surrealist painter.

Here's a gallery of his work: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/paul-...

Edward wrote: "Edward Knuckles | 6 comments The only Lem that I’ve read is Solaris and that was after after watching the 2002 film. The description of The Invincible sounds very enticing and I’ll have to read it sometime. You mention similarities to Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and I’ve never that book either. I’ve never come across anything in my reading to what is found in Ballard’s writing and the only story that I recall coming close to the Ballard’s dreamlike decriptivness is the main story in Danilo Kis’s The Encyclopedia of the Dead http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25.... "

If you liked Solaris you'll probably like The Invincible. It's similarly sort of hard sci-fi and tackles some of the same themes (the understanding of the world outside of us, which is enhanced using mysterious alien entities).

I think Ballard took some inspiration in the plot of Heart of Darkness, (man becomes obsessed with the Africa jungle to the point of his destruction). The movie Apocalypse Now is sort of an adaptation of that book and, even though Coppolla changed the time and place, it's very much in the same spirit.

The short-story A Question of Re-entry is a lot more similar to Heart of Darkness, though.

Thanks for these posts; interesting insights. For me part of the attraction of The Crystal World lies in the distance one can feel between oneself and the characters. In today's world of Dr Phil induced overexposure of personalities, a toxic sort of radioactivity, a certain amount of distance, or 'lontano' in musical terms, is a welcome change of atmosphere to me.

Martin wrote: "...the attraction of The Crystal World lies in the distance (or 'lontano' in musical terms) one can feel between oneself and the characters. "
Hello Martin; lontano in terms of music is new to me and I've never considered any writer from a musical perspective but it sounds quite intriguing if that is what you mean. Could you give an example?

Sérgio wrote: "Edward wrote: "Edward Knuckles | 6 comments The only Lem that I’ve read is Solaris and that was after after watching the 2002 film. The description of The Invincible sounds very enticing and I’ll h..."

Ballard wrote somewhere, i think it's in A Users Guide to the Millennium, that he didn't read any Joseph Conrad until people started accusing him of stealing from Heart of Darkness in books like The Drowned World and The Crystal World.

If you like The Crystal World then you should read a short story he wrote called The Illuminated Man. It seems to be the story in which he first floated the central idea of The Crystal World and tells a similar story set in the everglades of Florida. I started reading The Crystal World for the first time last night and Florida is mentioned as another place where the central phenomenon is taking place.
The Illuminated Man seems to be a precursor of and something of a parallel story with The Crystal World. It's worth checking out. You'll find it in The Complete Short Stories: Volume 2.

I didn't knew that. Thanks!

I definitely have to read that story someday.

Sam wrote: "If you like The Crystal World then you should read a short story he wrote called The Illuminated Man."

Being from Miami I was aware of the reference to the city that I grew up in and the neighboring Everglades when I read The Crystal World a few years back but I was unaware of the similar short story that you mention. I've have just read it and as far as I can tell it closely parallels the novel except in a more clipped and less prosaic form; as if it were an extended outline of the novel. Being familiar with Miami and the Everglades, I find that setting less suitable for the story than the location that it was moved to in Africa which is far more isolated and mysterious. Some of the locales mentioned in the Illuminated Man have no counterpart in reality and neither does The Crystal World. However, I suspect that Ballard may never have had any personal experience with either locale and based his vivid descriptions of the landscape on the briefest kinds of knowledge and the allure that distant lands can have in stoking the fires of the keen imagination.

I am re-reading The Crystal World and planning on re-reading many of his earlier novels. There is a hallucinogenic quality about the novel and it is very dreamy - some say because Ballard was inspired to write it after experimenting with LSD. The writing style is reminding me of Graham Greene a bit. Ballard does tend to have "stock" characters - the anti hero, the troubled heroine, the dark mysterious villain, which I think turns off a lot of readers who expect more detail. For me the detail is in the imagery and the environment. My edition - 1966 hardback - has Max Ernst's "The Eye of Silence" is on the cover which seems to have a jewelled woman reclining on it. Very appropriate I think.

Lucy wrote: "My edition - 1966 hardback - has Max Ernst's "The Eye of Silence" is on the cover which seems to have a jewelled woman reclining on it."

You're right; I never noticed before or made the connection. I've never read any Graham Greene novels but I'll keep your comparison in mind when I get around to reading "A Burnt out Case."

Edward wrote: "Lucy wrote: "My edition - 1966 hardback - has Max Ernst's "The Eye of Silence" is on the cover which seems to have a jewelled woman reclining on it."

You're right; I never noticed before or made t..."

I recommend The Heart of the Matter and Travels with My Aunt. I need to add A Burnt out Case to my "to read" list".

Edward, excuse the delay. It's been a busy time. You're raising a good question about the 'lontano' approach by writers. I must say I've not picked this term up somewhere in the literary world; I took it from Gyorgy Ligeti's piece for orchestra called 'Lontano' (which was used for Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' soundtrack). I personally like the idea of a piece that is performed (or written) 'with distance' and have used it in my own short stories. I do know a Ballard story about music though, in 'Vermilion Sands' of course. At all times Ballard protagonists keep a certain distance not only to the reader but to themselves as well. (Quite powerfully demonstrated in 'The Crystal World'.) However public many people are these days in the media, exposing their every intimate details, there are still people who like to keep their inner selves in the background. They are real too. For me it is not a flaw in Ballard's writing but something real and true.

Martin wrote: "the 'lontano' approach by writers..."
Martin; thank you for the elaboration on an aspect of the narrators point of view which I can better appreciate now that I'm aware of it. I did a little research on Ligeti in December and learned that his composition, among others, was also used by Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey which for me lent itself to a feeling of suspended tension or strangeness about the scene. I’d suppose that its use in prose could lead to similar responses in a reader; maybe not as immediate and powerful as that achieved in music but nonetheless could build up a sense of mysteriousness within the story.

I agree, Edward. The use of Ligeti's music in Kubrick's films does not have the 'easy' effect of the usual Hollywood film music, that powerfully steers the audience's emotions. Instead it leaves much more space for the viewer. In this 'space' one is allowed to discover emotions deep within that are much more genuine and are not controlled from the outside. Ballard achieves a similar effect: he doesn't dictate a universal mode for everybody by creating a full painting of his protagonist, but he leaves some space for the reader. This (what I call the "lontano" approach) makes senae since his favorite painters, the Surrealists, left much to the spectator's imagination too. Come to think of it: many Surrealist paintings (Yves Tanguy, or Max Ernst's "Europe After The Rain") are painted 'from a distance' (lontano). If only I can find a way to enter these paintings, I know I will discover entire new meanings as I approach the vague objects. Coming close is the true challenge.

Im sure I read this one years ago, I'd love to find a copy again.

An artist took some used books and used a process to make crystalised sculptures out of them. And guess what? The Crystal World was one of them :)

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