damn

[realthog]

J.G. Ballard died this morning. It feels strangely like the passing of an age. Too many of the good people die before their time.

Comments

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

Very sad.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

It is indeed.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

He was extra-fine.

RIP, Mr. Ballard.

Love, C.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"extra-fine"

Indeed. I wish we had a few more writers around today who were prepared to take the same sorts of risks he did.

[hutch0.livejournal.com]

It does feel like the end of an era, doesn't it?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Very much so. As I've just said to al_zorra, I wish we had a few more writers around today who were prepared to take the same sorts of risks he did.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

It does feel like the passing of an age. The first Ballard story I read was in a copy of New Worlds that my father bought in the sixties, and that I read back in 1969 or 1970. The title lingers in my mind for some reason: 'You: Coma, Marilyn Monroe'.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I must have read that one too: I was reading New Worlds avidly in those years. And getting the nicest, most constructive and helpful rejection letters from Mike Moorcock et al. whenever I submitted!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

It was, I believe, one of the Vermilion Sands stories.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Oh, in that case I certainly read it, although I don't recall it particularly.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Very sad news.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Too right.

[neilhudson.livejournal.com]

Sad, but not unexpected. I've been reading Ballard almost as long as I've been reading sf. Coming so soon after Disch and Clarke, I feel as if my bookshelves are dying.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"I feel as if my bookshelves are dying"

I know what you mean: it's a genuine sorrow.

Thanks J.G.

[chuck-gregory.livejournal.com]

I first read Ballard's work way back when. It was the sixties, I suppose, and I was a teenager who was lucky enough to get just about every selection and bonus selection from the Science Fiction Book Club. J.G. Ballard was not uncommonly featured, as I recall.

Somewhat more recently I was fascinated by Super-Cannes. I reviewed it somewhere--Blue Ear perhaps?--and at some point posted a copy of that review here: http://knol.google.com/k/chuck-gregory/book-review-super-cannes-by-j-g-ballard

There have indeed been too many deaths among writers from that era. I'll miss them all, Ballard most certainly not least.

Re: Thanks J.G.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Your review's tantalized me! I must pick up a copy of Super-Cannes at some point.