The stories, plots, and character development was often functional for Ballard. The real interesting stuff is how he positions individuals within postmodern culture and the logical outcomes of that.
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Yesterday if Ben Wheatley is directing.
Ooooh! I need to get those.
This is…marvelous!
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Already regretting assigning coverage of the Fyre musical festival to H. P. Lovecraft:
Eerie, eldritch sounds echoed from the basalt stone, bringing no rest to the huddled sleepers. Around them, bas reliefs of ancient and graffitied aspect leered from unwholesome angles, perspectives arcane with limpid materialism, greed and flaccid desires. A hungry waif orbited the lugubrious shingle searching for a working power outlet, soulless desire made flesh ‘need to tweet’ she whispered in a sibilant tongue long lost to mortal man.
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Let me know when he finds the empty swimming pool with the bleached paint peeling off the sides.
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Actually, I’m holding out for William Vollmann’s report back.
Already regretting assigning coverage of the Fyre musical festival to Mr Robert E. Howard:
He bestrode the smoldering wreckage, wandering through the detritus of a nightmare scene, his eyes flashing with potent rage. He lightly swings an iPhone 7S in one hand, a fell and sinister splinter of star-metal forged steel and glass that would take any lesser being two hands even to lift. His massive thews cording and straining yet his breathing was even, his mighty heart calmly thrumming, his thumb swift and sure as he charges upon the cowering husk of his enemy and hurls the abomination at his foe’s feet. “You call THAT a ham sandwich!” he thunders and posts to Instagram, victorious, exultant.
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Can you imagine earning money for that??
Can we get reporting by J.G. Ballard and soundtrack by J.G. Thirlwell?
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All the JGs in one nice little package? Yes, please!
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I know who can help finance it…
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Nobody told me there’d be days like these. Strange Days, indeed!
You may not have posted him to the island, but William Golding predicted the whole thing;
His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the ignominy of coach class.
Can you imagine what Hunter S. Thompson would’ve done with such an assignment?
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I think Lem is the writer who - despite being recognised as a true intellectual by critics - suffers most from being labelled as a science fiction writer. This, and being from a “communist” country, damaged his reception.
Pity.
I would love to have him comment on today’s politics.
There was this Justin Timberlake movie called In Time, which in retrospect was very Ballardian.
All the details were deliberately stripped off everything, leaving just the ideas.
Already regretting assigning the POTUS to coverage of the Fyre music festival:
UN LIES sells tents to OUR CHILDREN for $120,000. Media blames AMERICAN businessman. Bad! FAKE NEWS.
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ooooooo touché!
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