50 years ago, a controversial science fiction author anticipated everything from Instagram to Netflix binging. Meanwhile his own publisher was destroying his books.
One would think that I'd be right there with you in your reluctance to recommend books like Crash (which I've read twice) & The Atrocity Exhibition (which I've read multiple times, most, but not first, in the RE/Search annotated edition that you cite). Among my friends, I'm fairly infamous for having a low tolerance for gratuitous sex and violence. I loathed Californication, due to gratuitous sex & nudity, and gave up on it after a few episodes. I abandoned Amazon's The Boys after episode 7 due to gratuitous violence. I bailed on Game of Thrones after season 3 due to both. Yet, I would recommend Crash & The Atrocity Exhibition to almost any discerning reader. Maybe not to my mother, may she rest in peace, although she was a fan of the Algonquin Round Table & of H. L. Mencken. But to most readers.
Otherwise, great essay! Your list is invaluable, and I've bookmarked the column in my permanent Literature folder.
I will say I'm glad I read Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition—if only as examples of extreme cases of what fiction can achieve. And in recent years I've become far more aware of the fragility of freedom of expression, even in modern democracies. So I'm more sensitive to the need to support writing that operates outside my own worldview. Those considerations make me more inclined to endorse these unsettling Ballard books. That said, I do recommend newcomers to Ballard to begin with the interviews. They will then be better prepared for his more transgressive writings.
I agree that they wouldn't be the books I'd suggest to a Ballard newbie, unless they were William S. Burroughs fans or such like. I'd start either with Vermillion Sands, basically where I started when those stories were published in SF magazines, or The Crystal World.
I was Ballard's editor in the 1970s over a period that included Crash, High Rise and Concrete Island. Not a comfortable experience, and the disconnect between the nightmares I was working on and and the mild-mannered amiable fellow I had sessions with in his suburban semi-detached house was jarring. I used to lock the MS of Crash in my desk when I wasn't working on it in case impressionable people were traumatised by accident.
Thanks for sharing this story. I can only imagine what it was like to work as editor with Ballard. From the perspective of a publishing house, these works must seem like deliberate provocations
I'm surprised people regarded his work in this way, because — as he himself said — what he was doing was the equivalent of saying if you drive too fast round a winding cliff road you might have a nasty accident, and he was trying to warn people against that sort of thing by pointing out how/why it might happen. That's obviously not the same as simply writing horrible things just for the sake of it. It doesn't seem like too difficult a thing for people to understand, but obviously a lot of members of the public at the time couldn't understand the distinction.
Ballard had an amazing imagination. Thanks for listing his prophecies. I read High-Rise recently and was stunned by both his writing and the parallels to our current society.
One would think that I'd be right there with you in your reluctance to recommend books like Crash (which I've read twice) & The Atrocity Exhibition (which I've read multiple times, most, but not first, in the RE/Search annotated edition that you cite). Among my friends, I'm fairly infamous for having a low tolerance for gratuitous sex and violence. I loathed Californication, due to gratuitous sex & nudity, and gave up on it after a few episodes. I abandoned Amazon's The Boys after episode 7 due to gratuitous violence. I bailed on Game of Thrones after season 3 due to both. Yet, I would recommend Crash & The Atrocity Exhibition to almost any discerning reader. Maybe not to my mother, may she rest in peace, although she was a fan of the Algonquin Round Table & of H. L. Mencken. But to most readers.
Otherwise, great essay! Your list is invaluable, and I've bookmarked the column in my permanent Literature folder.
I will say I'm glad I read Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition—if only as examples of extreme cases of what fiction can achieve. And in recent years I've become far more aware of the fragility of freedom of expression, even in modern democracies. So I'm more sensitive to the need to support writing that operates outside my own worldview. Those considerations make me more inclined to endorse these unsettling Ballard books. That said, I do recommend newcomers to Ballard to begin with the interviews. They will then be better prepared for his more transgressive writings.
I agree that they wouldn't be the books I'd suggest to a Ballard newbie, unless they were William S. Burroughs fans or such like. I'd start either with Vermillion Sands, basically where I started when those stories were published in SF magazines, or The Crystal World.
I was Ballard's editor in the 1970s over a period that included Crash, High Rise and Concrete Island. Not a comfortable experience, and the disconnect between the nightmares I was working on and and the mild-mannered amiable fellow I had sessions with in his suburban semi-detached house was jarring. I used to lock the MS of Crash in my desk when I wasn't working on it in case impressionable people were traumatised by accident.
Thanks for sharing this story. I can only imagine what it was like to work as editor with Ballard. From the perspective of a publishing house, these works must seem like deliberate provocations
Amazing story! Thanks for sharing!
I'm surprised people regarded his work in this way, because — as he himself said — what he was doing was the equivalent of saying if you drive too fast round a winding cliff road you might have a nasty accident, and he was trying to warn people against that sort of thing by pointing out how/why it might happen. That's obviously not the same as simply writing horrible things just for the sake of it. It doesn't seem like too difficult a thing for people to understand, but obviously a lot of members of the public at the time couldn't understand the distinction.
Maybe Ballard was just fluent in French... check out this clip from French Sci-Fi writer Réné Barjavel: https://goudaille.com/2020/06/28/le-futur-imagine-par-barjavel-en-1947/
I've read a lot of sci fi including Ballard and I still did a double take when I realised that this was 1947.
Stopping to comment in 2024.
Fascinating that Ballard not only anticipated the ultimate outcomes of the technical revolution, but the implications on the individual and society.
Ballard had an amazing imagination. Thanks for listing his prophecies. I read High-Rise recently and was stunned by both his writing and the parallels to our current society.