This is a bit late, but “cult” novelist and short story writer J.G. Ballard died last weekend at age 78.

He wrote a great deal of science fiction, but I don’t know if I would characterize him as a strictly sci-fi author. To quote him: “Everything is becoming science fiction.”

The Times of London–who in 2008 ranked the author 27th among the 50 greatest British writers since World War II–cites the Collins English Dictionary definition of the adjective “ballardian ” 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’s novel Crash was made into the 1996 film by David Cronenberg. His most popular novel, Empire of the Sun, describes his childhood in Shanghai and his family’s internment for two years by Japanese forces from 1943-45. My personal favorite of his is The Atrocity Exhibition, containing a short work entitled “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan,” which was distributed in pamphlet form at the 1980 Republican National Convention. Also according to the Times of London, Ballard’s stories inspired songs by Joy Division, Radiohead, and The Klaxons. Authors who praised his work include Graham Greene, Anthony Burgess, and Susan Sontag.

“Twenty years ago no one could have imagined the effects the Internet would have: entire relationships flourish, friendships prosper…there’s a vast new intimacy and accidental poetry, not to mention the weirdest porn. The entire human experience seems to unveil itself like the surface of a new planet.”
-J.G. Ballard (1930-2009)

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