Synopses & Reviews
Cultural Writing. Reference. "One needs to continually make sense of a baffingly complex, constantly changing environment. Brief, succinct quotes can quickly produce clarity amid moral murkiness"--V.Vale. Deriving quotations from Hegel, Goethe, Gracian, Lichtenberg, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Lao-Tzu, Warhol and a multitude of other prophetic sources, J.G. BALLARD QUOTES exists as the perfect pocket-guide of enlightentment for those in need of a quick philisophical fix. Divided into easily accesible categories, this book aims to "expand and illuminate the reader's consciousness as rapidly as possible"--V.Vale.
Synopsis
Born in Shanghai November 15, 1930, James Graham Ballard
spent several formative years in a Japanese concentration camp before settling
in England in 1946. After RAF flight training and medical studies with the aim
of becoming a psychoanalyst, Ballard concentrated on inventing the genre of
Speculative Fiction, charting the myths and psychopathologies of the near
future. His autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun was made into a
feature film by Steven Spielberg; David Cronenberg filmed his techno-noir-sex
classic CRASH.
To date Ballard has written 17 prophetic/poetic novels; in
his newest, Millennium People (2003), random acts of terrorism
dynamically unsettle London, England. The Complete Short Stories of J.G.
Ballard, recently released, is almost 1200 pages and an instant classic.
J.G. Ballard has been featured in Search
& Destroy #10, the RE/Search #1-2-3 tabloids, RE/Search #8/9:
J.G. Ballard, and the RE/Search illustrated edition of The Atrocity
Exhibition. RE/Search is proud to have published J.G. BALLARD QUOTES;
and J.G. BALLARD CONVERSATIONS, featuring interviews conducted by MARK
PAULINE (Survival Research Laboratories) and GRAEME REVELL (SPK; composer).
Synopsis
Ballard's books have remained fresh decades after they were first published, and the thoughts collected in J.G. Ballard: Quotes have worn equally as well. Small enough to fit in a pocket, this book brings together J. G. Ballard's trenchant thoughts on music, film, celebrity, the rise of corporate media, the death of reality, and much more. Grouped by topics such as "Sex: Relationships, Sex x Technology equals the Future, Pornography" and "Surrealism, Imagination," these quotes are both concise and clear, and provide a strong beacon for readers who are used to a baffling daily assault of advertisements, phone calls, and e-mails. They are also an excellent resource to help readers better understand Ballard's novels, which stand among the most visionary, provocative literature of the 20th century. A Ballardian glossary, the essay "Guide to Virtual Death," and a bibliography round out this excellent resource.
About the Author
James Graham Ballard (15 November 1930 - 19 April 2009) was an English novelist and short story writer who was a prominent part of the science fiction New Wave movement. His best-known novels are the controversial Crash, an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, and the loosely autobiographical Empire of the Sun, about his childhood internment by the Japanese during World War II after the invasion and conquest of Shanghai, where Ballard was born in the International Settlement. Both books were adapted into films, by David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg respectively. So distinctive was his work that the adjective "Ballardian" entered the language, defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2006, from which he died in London in April 2009.