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Post by PeterC on Nov 30, 2020 22:08:58 GMT
Can anyone recommend any JG Ballard stories that cross into horror?
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Post by mrhappy on Nov 30, 2020 22:21:11 GMT
Can anyone recommend any JG Ballard stories that cross into horror? The Dead Astronaut |
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Post by helrunar on Dec 1, 2020 2:58:18 GMT
It's funny, today I was looking at a book bearing a title that was some version of The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard. It was left on a table at work where staff deposit items they wish to dispose of. I will confess my eye was drawn to the book cover because there was a shirtless man on it--why, I have no idea.
The final story in the book had a title that went something like "Why I want to fuck Ronald Reagan." When I turned to peruse this yarn, I saw blocks of text that were incoherent ramblings interspersed with bold face headings that looked as if they'd been "cut up" in the technique made famous by W. Burroughs and Harold Norse in the 1950s.
I'd say it would be best to proceed with caution.
cheers, H.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 1, 2020 8:28:42 GMT
It's funny, today I was looking at a book bearing a title that was some version of The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard. It was left on a table at work where staff deposit items they wish to dispose of. I will confess my eye was drawn to the book cover because there was a shirtless man on it--why, I have no idea. The final story in the book had a title that went something like "Why I want to fuck Ronald Reagan." When I turned to peruse this yarn, I saw blocks of text that were incoherent ramblings interspersed with bold face headings that looked as if they'd been "cut up" in the technique made famous by W. Burroughs and Harold Norse in the 1950s. I'd say it would be best to proceed with caution. cheers, H. Grab it while you can. Ballard still is an intense, often masterful story-teller. Of course there are those later "experimental" stories which are supposed to be difficult, but the majority of this output is still very good, even if the topic is no longer valid. Or maybe finally has become valid.
I just had to re-read his The Watch Towers from 1962. It was a tale about surveillance which is there or maybe not. In the age of apps and cctv it is a creepy tale, not because of the plot, which has become a bit slow, but because of the emotions involved.
I don't know if The Watch Towers does qualify as horror, but it was included in the Evans anthologie Mind in Cage back then. And there are others. Some of the early apocalyptic tales are a bit like horror, but mostly because of the atmosphere.
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Post by PeterC on Dec 1, 2020 14:33:23 GMT
Thanks all, for your notes. Some other Ballard tales I'd class as horror are:
Manhole 69 - a sleep experiment goes badly wrong
Mr F is F - shades of 'Benjamin Button'
Now Wakes the Sea - a prehistoric ocean flows through suburbia
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