Quotes - Softcover

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.

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.