The Illuminated Man: an unconventional portrait of JG Ballard

(theguardian.com)

49 points | by agronaut 5 hours ago

9 comments

  • ecliptik 4 hours ago
    One of my favorite authors and highly recommend his short stories [1] and the "ambiguous apocalypse" trilogy - The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World.

    As one of collections intros said, Ballard is science fiction, but Inner Space, not Outer Space.

    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Short_Stories_of_...

    • atombender 3 hours ago
      I absolutely loved The Crystal World. It's a unique, weird fever dream of a novel. I still find myself thinking about it at random times, even while being unsure if the book really makes sense.

      The Burning World is rarely talked about. How is it?

    • FpUser 3 hours ago
      >"The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World" - same here, my favorites
  • pnw 3 hours ago
    It seems like the best authors - JG Ballard in this instance - are somehow resistant to modern biographers. Even the least worst Phillip K Dick biography (Divine Invasions) is over 30 years old!
  • MaysonL 2 hours ago
    Note that the title is probably an allusion to Ray Bradbury’s collection “The Illustrated Man”.
  • antirez 4 hours ago
    Loved High rise, Concrete island, Empire of the sun. Also make sure to read this: https://www.jgballard.ca/uncollected_work/what_i_believe.htm...
    • Lio 3 hours ago
      I really enjoyed some of his later books too. Cocaine Nights and Super Cannes are great.

      Like a lot of his books they seem simple until you dig into them. They fry my brain a bit but that’s surrealism for you.

      Will Self has some good writing about Ballard.

      • Finnucane 20 minutes ago
        I was the editor who published Super Cannes in the US. It still makes my day to see it mentioned.
  • dbcooper 4 hours ago
    "The 60 Minute Zoom" is a good short story to start with.
  • languagehacker 5 hours ago
    I absolutely love JG Ballard. Crash is a classic, and High Rise is a fun one.
  • nickdothutton 4 hours ago
    A favourite of mine. Do please check the interviews with him on youtube. Some authors try to show you the far future, he tried to show us the next 15 minutes.
  • andrehacker 3 hours ago
    Am I the only one that misread the title and expected to see something about the reclusive Bellard ?
    • myth2018 1 hour ago
      No, you're not. Same here.
  • fallinditch 5 hours ago
    I thought I was broad-minded enough to read Crash - I wasn't. I did enjoy other Ballard books.
    • hermitcrab 4 hours ago
      'The Atrocity Exhibition' is even weirder. I didn't get it at all. Enjoyed most of his other work though.
      • ghaff 1 hour ago
        A lot of Ballard was pretty weird. I liked much of his work but "world-destroying" contemporaries like Wyndham were more approachable in general.