J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/19/09 06:55 PM
Report is just in that J. G. Ballard died today (April 19) at age 78 of prostate cancer.
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/19/09 07:55 PM
Oh God, no. 
A great man.
A great man.
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/19/09 08:33 PM
That is tragic news. Hope Garry finds out before he reads about it here. He's going to be in for such a shock.
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/19/09 10:31 PM
Just read it at a dutch newsweb.
Been reading Empire Of The Sun lately.
Hope there will be more books of him in the near future that are going to be translated in dutch.
But that's the way it goes: chances are bigger now he's no longer among the living.
Been reading Empire Of The Sun lately.
Hope there will be more books of him in the near future that are going to be translated in dutch.
But that's the way it goes: chances are bigger now he's no longer among the living.
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/19/09 10:40 PM
Here's a link to a local news report.
JF credits him as a major influence, especially during his early Metamatic years.
JF credits him as a major influence, especially during his early Metamatic years.
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/19/09 11:04 PM
Another great gone.
John will be sad, as his work has been such a major influence throughout his career. He talked about his love of Ballard at Leeds last year.
John will be sad, as his work has been such a major influence throughout his career. He talked about his love of Ballard at Leeds last year.
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/20/09 06:50 AM
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/20/09 07:16 AM
Very sad news. A great modern thinker and writer.
Some great stuff on the offical Ballardian youtube channel Ballardotube btw even tho the BBC interviews are 'no longer available'. Perhaps they will be again soon.
Some great stuff on the offical Ballardian youtube channel Ballardotube btw even tho the BBC interviews are 'no longer available'. Perhaps they will be again soon.
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/20/09 09:05 AM
I found out late yesterday evening as friends rang me to tell me the news. It wasn’t that much of a shock - Ballard had announced that he had pancreatic cancer at the end of his last book Miracle of Life – a book that was essentially Ballard ‘putting everything in order’ before passing.
It’s hard to really say what Ballard meant to me as an author right now, but Simon Sellars, a visitor to this very forum says it all on his Ballardian.com site;
Ballard articulates clearly to me the implications of living in an age of total consumerism, of blanket surveillance, of enslavement designed as mass entertainment. But he also speaks to me of resistance through irony, immersion, ambivalence, imagination -- of remixing, recycling, remaking, remodelling.
Our guide to the theatre that is the 21st Century has left its stage. Thankfully, the survival manuals he left us with are intact.
Goodbye JG – you’ll be sorely missed.
Garry
It’s hard to really say what Ballard meant to me as an author right now, but Simon Sellars, a visitor to this very forum says it all on his Ballardian.com site;
Ballard articulates clearly to me the implications of living in an age of total consumerism, of blanket surveillance, of enslavement designed as mass entertainment. But he also speaks to me of resistance through irony, immersion, ambivalence, imagination -- of remixing, recycling, remaking, remodelling.
Our guide to the theatre that is the 21st Century has left its stage. Thankfully, the survival manuals he left us with are intact.
Goodbye JG – you’ll be sorely missed.
Garry
Re: J. G. Ballard Dead - 04/23/09 02:55 AM
To quote from Multiverse.org
He'll be sadly missed. He is probably more responsible for informing my world view than any other author. Thanks Jim.
Quote:
Just to let everyone know, the Night Waves programme where Mike and Will Self talk about their memories of Ballard and his prose can be heard on the BBC\'s Listen Again Service here. The programme starts with an interview with Ballard conducted in Jan 2008, Mike's section begins at approx. 15:00 mins. Very poignant.