J.g. Ballard Puns

I'm looking for books for Christmas. Looking for authors that have a similar vibe to John Wyndham, JG Ballard, or Philip K Dick.

Really enjoyed The Chrysalids, The Day of the Triffids, High Rise, The Drowned World, and The Penultimate Truth, Flow my Tears the Policeman said.

I finished this last week and I find myself thinking about it. I don't tend to read autobiographies but this was so enjoyable. I read his 100 Short Stories collection and then Empire of the Sun this year. It gave me so much more meaning to his work. I also enjoyed his own view of his parents generation and his memories as a student and how he was struggling to become a writer. As he wrote it as the end of his life, I felt that listening to it was like zooming in and out of a giant puzzle. It also gave me comfort that sometimes our life's purpose and our struggles might all make more sense when we reflect on it

Good morning, friends,

Time to dig deep into J. G. Ballard's High-Rise, discussing Thatcherism, Laing's self-actualization vs. mental illness, utopias of a sort, and whether Star Wars is good science fiction. There are some spoilers in this episode, so if you haven't finished the book yet, check out our spoiler-free discussion here.

You can find our recorded discussion at these links:

Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube

Podcast Notes

References

Extreme Metaphors by J. G. Ballard https://bookshop.org/books/extreme-metaphors/9780007454860?aid=14394&listref=bad-adaptation-alternate-picks

"Building Ballard; An interview with High-Rise director Ben Wheatley" by Jon Astbury https://www.uncubemagazine.com/blog/16566618

"J.G. Ballard and the Transvaluation of Utopia" by W. Warren Wagar https://www.jstor.org/stable/4240030

Podcast Credits

Intro/Outro music

“2019 0

I read Prima Belladonna by J G ballard, and couldnt get it especially the ending, could someome clarify it?

Hi friends high in the laps of luxury!

Have you always wondered what living in a 1970s high condominium was like but were too worried you didn't have a taste for fresh-cooked dog? Maybe you liked Squid Game but thought it was light on ideas? Then buckle in for a dark, absurd take on middle-to-high class city life, the British way, with J. G. Ballard's High-Rise, the first book in our new series Bad Adaptation, good books made into bad films. Our reviews are always spoiler free so don't worry if you haven't finished the novel yet. Don't forget to join our more in-depth discussion in our thread next Friday where we talk in more detail about the ideas of the book and the book as a whole including all of the spoilers.

You can listen to our discussion here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | YouTube

We talked about the following topics in this episode. Please feel free to talk about these questions or any other topics related to High Rise.

Podcast Notes

References

"The Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks" by Stefanos Chen https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/realestate/luxury-high-rise-432-park.html

Podcast Credits

Intro/Outro music

“2019 07 25 cello pizz 01” by Morusque http://ccmixter.org/files/Nurykabe/60084

Interlude music

“Bass Solo (For Charlie Haden)” by Fletchorama https://soundcloud.com/fletchorama/1052015-bass-solo-for-charlie-haden

All music used under Creativ

This book is apparently one of four books that Ballard wrote about an apocalypse style event--and I just spent two hours hunting down good, inexpensive copies of the other three of them on EBay. Ballard's style and story just blew me away. Are you guys fans of his work? What other books by him do you recommend?

I'm interested in getting into Ballard's writing. I've added a bunch of his books that sound good to my TBR pile, and I'm wondering which ones people who are more knowledgeable of his bibliography think would be a good place to start. The books by Ballard that I'm interested in reading are:

• The Atrocity Exhibition (although from what I can tell, this one is definitely not one to start with and best read after getting used to his other works)

• Crash

• High-Rise

• Kingdom Come

• Running Wild

• The Unlimited Dream Company

So, of these novels, where's a good place to start? Recommendations for other books by him are also much appreciated, with the caveat that I'm not particularly interested in reading Empire of the Sun and I'd rather read some of his weirder, later, more satirical works before reading his earlier sci-fi novels.

Lately, I want discover the new wave of sci fi. I ended up reading J G ballard. I picked his collection of short stories. Abd read this first one and it was Prima Belladonna.

i couldn't get the theme of the story. It was weird and like surrealism. Hava any of you guys read it before? The world of J G ballard seems weird or odd. Like it stand on its own with unique elements.

i couldn't get the theme of the story. It was weird and like surrealism. Hava any of you guys read it before? The world of J G ballard seems weird or odd. Like it stand on its own with unique elements.

Hava any of you guys read it before? Anyone could clarify it to me?

Crash by J. G. Ballard is a Science Fiction novel. The novel focuses on cars and crashes along with the people involved in them.

The idea is excellent, seemingly visionary. However, the execution is awful. The writing is simply terrible, the prose is nigh-irredeemable. Ballard fails to convey his ideas. The ideas are taken far too seriously and the book as a whole did not age well. Pornography plays a large element in the book, while I get what he was going for, it did not help my enjoyment. Overall, I absolutely do not recommend this book to anyone, certainly if you don’t like porn.

Score: 5/10

What did you think?

Just looking for some opinions in Ballard's work. Came across the name while watching Love Death and Robots on Netflix. I know their most well known book is Empire of the Sun and I'm preeeettty sure I'm not interested in reading Crash. I'm more interested in their dystopian and avant garde works. Anyway. What do people reckon? Is Ballard any good or overrated? Where should I start with reading his work?

I was a teenager when I first read High Rise and loved it. I had never before encountered a book which started out so surreal yet casual ( Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months) demonstrated the steady progression of rationalised insanity, group think and the end of puritanical thinking. I was blown away and searched out other books of this kind. I picked up Crash a few years ago and I was interested, the style was there but the subject matter did not engage me as much.

So now I have found the Complete Short Stories..they are in chronological order and so far I am just amazed. His obsession with time, the meaning and concept of it, and how he deconstructs it in these stories. Its like unfolding a puzzle of a rubex cube and gradually seeing the lines join up into a whole. The first 11 stories over 1956-1960.

Prima Belladonna [Vermilion Sands] (1956)

- Escapement (1956)

- The Concentration City (1957, variant of Build-Up)

- Venus Smiles [Vermilion Sands] (1957)

- Manhole 69 (1957)

- Track 12 (1958)

- The Waiting Grounds (1959)

- Now: Zero (1959)

- The Sound-Sweep (1960)

- Zone of Terror (1960)

- Chronopolis (1960)

Ideas like "the time police", deconstructing time, time closing in on itself a d the experience of a time loop.

I am taken back to Arthur C Clarke (Childhood End), Huxley (brave new world) and Orwell (1984) reading these stories for me is also like an echo of time travel in literature.

I'm interested to see how his style will develop and change over time as his novels are so vastly different and contrasting.

Anyone who has read this or any of the stories interested to hear your thoughts

I haven't read ‘Super-Cannes' yet, but having greatly enjoyed ‘High-Rise’ and many of his short stories, I'm always up for more material based on Ballard's work. From the goodreads description, ‘Super-cannes’ sounds like ‘High-Rise’ with a more microscopic view into the psychology of the residents(whereas ‘High-Rise’ read like a macroscopic view of the gradual decay of the people in the building). Cronenberg has proved himself to be a master of the ‘near-future’ aesthetic in his previous two features, <Antiviral> and <Possessor>, and I'm excited how he’ll bring Eden-Olympia to life. It’s also worthy of note his father, David Cronenberg, is the director of an adaptation for another noteworthy novel by Ballard, <Crash>, which I’ve heard much praise for(Haven’t read or watched ‘Crash’ yet, but looking forward to it!).

Splendid adaptation, keeps Ballard's tone throughout - which is so restrained, devoid of any drama. Ah, it's good. CGI, but not flashy - vey subdued and realist.

An unapologetic watch this soonest.

Published in Ballard's Terminal Beach collection, 1964.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3VMMIS