clifford_thornton Posted April 19, 2009 Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 (edited) JG Ballard dead at 78 He will be missed... Edited April 19, 2009 by clifford_thornton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted April 19, 2009 Report Share Posted April 19, 2009 Woah.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted April 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 Yeah, I had no idea he was that old I guess, and had forgotten about Empire of the Sun. Mostly read later dystopian stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 Some of his best writing was done in his last decade, which is when I got into reading most of his stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 One of my favourite authors. I especially liked his short fiction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 One of my favorites. I've coincidentally been on a Ballard kick lately - I re-read "Crash" and just finished "High Rise." I have the annotated edition of "The Atrocity Exhibition" that is on my summer reading list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert J Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 I have the annotated edition of "The Atrocity Exhibition" that is on my summer reading list. Which has a short story with one of the best titles ever: "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan". Classic Ballard. RIP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 I have the annotated edition of "The Atrocity Exhibition" that is on my summer reading list. Which has a short story with one of the best titles ever: "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan". Classic Ballard. RIP There is an appreciation over in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/1...or-dies-aged-78 Curiously, he was apparently a Thatcherite (despite wanting to Fuck Reagan), which will cause no end of hand-wringing among those who expect their literary heros to reflect their own politics: TL: So, are you an anti-capitalist? JB: No. Not really. I mean, I was a great supporter of Margaret Thatcher. I thought economic freedom was the one thing this country desperately needed. I think her economic policies were right almost to the end. I think her social policies got out of hand, and she paid the price. I rather supported Tony Blair in his early days. I thought he was a con from the word go. I think I wrote to that effect in the Statesman. I think we wanted to be conned. We wanted this nice young man with his people-carrier and his suburban wife and kids. We wanted him. Out on the M25, that's where I live, I could see that people wanted the new suburbia. And Blair promised a sort of blandness. He just played mood music, but we like mood music. From an interview with Toby Litt: http://www.tobylitt.com/ballardinterview.html See also http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/...death-toby-litt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 One of my favourite authors. I especially liked his short fiction. Same here. I'd say he's one of my favorite SF writers, but let's face it, they just put his stuff in that section because they didn't know where else to put it. A true original, in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 ...I'd say he's one of my favorite SF writers, but let's face it, they just put his stuff in that section because they didn't know where else to put it. I said that almost word-for-word recently in a conversation about Ballard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swinger Posted April 21, 2009 Report Share Posted April 21, 2009 (edited) Major loss :/ He has always been my favorite scifi authors besides Philip K. Dick,Brian Aldiss, Christopher Priest. In my opinion Ballard never wrote a bad book/short story. Some of them were just better than the others. Edited April 21, 2009 by Swinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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