[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 180 KB, 1000x699, ballard.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10927888 No.10927888 [Reply] [Original]

Anyone like Ballard? I read Super-Cannes years ago and didn't like it that much, but for some reason it stayed with me and I think of it every now and then.

>> No.10928222

Super-Cannes is one of his weaker works. The Atrocity Exhibition (imo his best), The "World" series (Drowning, Burning, Crystal etc.), and Crash are all very good. He is thematically intriguing and also a very fine prose stylist in his best work.

>> No.10928242

>>10927888
>>10928222
Two sets of trips confirms. Ballard is excellent. Both Atrocity and Crash are very great. His prose is excellent too. From what I remember his short story collection is great as well. Highly recommend.

>> No.10928325
File: 239 KB, 672x640, 1509341972036.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10928325

>>10927888
Is he related to Alex Jones?

>> No.10928334

>>10928325
Alex Jones feels like a character Ballard might have invented. He's a very relevant author in our meme/media/demagoguery soaked time.

>> No.10929347

>>10927888
i can remember reading The Atrocity Exhibition between Moorcock and Burroughs, and thinking "Yeah, i get this." a few years later i re-read it and thought "... nnno, i don't."

>> No.10930809

>>10927888
Ballard is what Chucky P wishes he could be.

>> No.10930823

>>10927888
High-Rise was great

>> No.10930835
File: 27 KB, 570x570, streetlight-570x570.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10930835

who excited?

>> No.10930846

Ballard is great. Recommendations by other anons are all good but his short stories are also worth checking out as well.

>> No.10930858

What's up with Ballard's dialogue, /lit/? A lot of it feels fake to me- people psycho-analysing themselves using long words in a really unrealistic way. I assume it's deliberate- along with the 50s B-movie scientist names (Travers, Travis etc) it feels satirical, although I'm not sure what it's satirising. Anyone know or have any reading on the subject?

>> No.10930879

>>10930858
one of ballard's primary themes is the thin veneer of civilization and its (environmentally-induced) divestment as his characters and settings slip towards savagery. i've always taken the stilted quality of his dialogue as a reinforcement of the idea that there's something thoroughly artificial about the reality we inhabit, which is just waiting to be eroded.

>> No.10930881

>>10930858
MUH REALISM

>> No.10930973

>>10930879
Nice, seems logical.

>>10930881
no u

>> No.10930995

>Wars came early to Shanghai, overtaking each other like the tides that raced up the Yangtze and returned to this gaudy city all the coffins cast adrift from the funeral piers of the Chinese Bund
Hell of an opening sentence

>> No.10931022

lads, i've read the crystal & drowned worlds, high-rise, crash, atrocity exhibition, vermilion sands, and unlimited dream company. where to next? was thinking maybe terminal beach, user's guide to the millennium, or day of creation.