J. G. Ballard, 1930-2009 April 19, 2009
Posted by Jason W Ellis in News, Science Fiction.Tags: ballard, crash, obituary
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Paul Kincaid sent a message to the SFRA and IAFA email lists this morning alerting everyone to J.G. Ballard’s death. The BBC have a short announcement (with an anti-SF slant) here. And, Ballard’s Wikipedia entry has already been updated–read it here.
I searched the New York Times, but they haven’t posted the new or an obituary yet. Though, I did turn up the no-byline review of Ballard’s Crash from 1973 here. It concludes:
Perhaps J.G. Ballard was traumatized at a drive-in theater. One would like to be sympathetic: the man has talent. But a partial list of his previous titles doesn’t reassure: “The Disaster Area,” “The Terminal Beach,” “The Atrocity Exhibition.” Though it is dangerous to infer creator from character, even when — as in “Crash” — they have the same name, I don’t think I’d care to meet J.G. Ballard. I certainly won’t read further in the Ballard oeuvre.
Unlike the unattributed reviewer, I would have cared to meet J.G. Ballard when he was alive–drive-in traumatization or not. Today, the world has lost one of the few persons capable of elucidating the terrors of the postmodern paradigm charging with all cylinders firing and a deadening roar of exhaust from the dark highways of the mid-Twentieth Century.
Hey Jason,
Thanks for the blog roll. I reciprocated–so you know. I see you’re one of Lisa’s former students. Did we meet? Were you part of the group I went to Manuel’s with back in ’04?
Too bad about J.G., eh?