The author JG Ballard passed away over the weekend at the age of 78, following a long illness. Ballard was, without a doubt, one of the most unusual and compelling authors of the last few decades, carving out an important part of the science fiction literary landscape of the second half of the 20th century; in an incredibly fertile period for the genre which produced many fine writers Ballard still stood out. Tales of global environmental catastrophes, such as The Drowned World, were far ahead of their time; penned in the very early 1960s, his descriptions of a drowned London and tropical creatures living among its submerged buildings and new lagoons in a swelteringly hot environment sound disturbingly close to the contemporary nightmare of man-made environmental collapse.
“He was one of the first to take up the whole idea of ecological catastrophe. He was fascinated by celebrity early on, the cult of the star and suicides of cars, motorways, edgelands of cities. All of these things he was one of the first to create almost a philosophy of. And I think as time has gone on, he’s become a major, major figure“, Iain Sinclair on Ballard.
(cover to the SF Masterworks edition from Gollancz SF to Ballard’s The Drowned World)
Dystopian themes of global catastrophe and the use and mis-use of technology (and our fascination and sometimes repulsion for our inventiveness) were very ‘Ballardian’, as was his fascination with exploring the human condition, the emotions, the obsessions, love, need, sex, violence, the psychology, whether it was the mechanical-body eroticism of Crash (a perfect choice of subject for David Cronenberg to make a film of) or the mental stresses and strains and the implied de-evolution of the science team exploring sunken London in the Drowned World. His first short stories appearing in the hugely important New Worlds journal, doubtless increasing his influence on later writers (and readers) and making him an important part of the British New Wave of Science Fiction.
“My dear friend of nearly fifty years, Jimmy Ballard, died this morning at 7am. A giant in literature, he’ll be greatly missed,” the great Michael Moorcock pays simple but effective tribute to his friend and fellow New Wave architect.
(Rosanna Arquette fetishising over automotive erotica in Cronenberg’s film adaptation of Ballard’s Crash)
His work could often be controversial, with the Atrocity Exhibition in particular attracting some vitriolic attacks and even an attempt to ban it before publication in the US through obscenity charges. Ballard’s work is not easy reading, but it remains thought-provoking, compelling and still incredibly contemporary; perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those of us who did delve into his writing he had, certainly for me, that almost shamanic trick that only the best writers have, of creating a story and ideas that would get right inside your mind, creating new neural pathways for different ideas to travel down. Via the BBC; for more on Ballard, the Ballardian website is a very good place to start.
Leave a Reply