Dedicated to the work & life of J.G. Ballard: November 15, 1930 - April 19, 2009
POSTED: 20 November 2011 Some Random Thoughts on theBaxter Biography of J.G. Ballard Ultimately, I think we must note John Baxter’s professional background as a less-successful competitor to Ballard in the 1960s world of science fiction. Unfortunately, this biography has more holes in it than the Albert Hall, none the larger than Baxter’s book-long fantasy that Ballard was both a psychopath and some kind of prescient adman who spent his entire career burnishing his reputation through constant re-writes. The other joke is, as an unauthorized bio, Baxter was not given access to the papers and people who could tell him the real story, so he is forced to utilize Ballard as a source, even though he claims that source is untrustworthy! This is an amateurish hodge-podge, with no footnotes and a very weak index. Too bad. |
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 JG Ballard WebLinks Ballardian Simon Sellars. The Man. JG Ballard: A Collector's Guide Mike Holliday. The Sleuth. Mike shows and tells with tips for anyone interested in collecting books, stories, and other material by and about JGB. The JG Ballard Concordance Mike Bonsall. The Scanner. An amazing site in which Mike's scanned every word used by JGB in all his short stories and novels. Yes, all two million of them! JGB Chat Group Join in the fun, or voyeuristically eavesdrop on a buncha JGB fans. RE/Search Publications V. Vale has lots of great Ballard books. jgballard.com Chris Mitchell. The Link. Dan O'Hara Dan teaches literature & philosophy at a university in Germany. JG Ballard: 20th Century Chronicler Jim Goddard runs this site as an offshoot to his Solaris bookstore, but it doesn't look like he's paid much attention to it recently. 99 Stella Vista BallardoTube Cronenberg’s Crash Who2 Profile flickr Myspace Scriptorium Wikipedia The Metro-Centre jgballard.ca was born on March 4, 2009 and is administered by Rick McGrath |
POSTED: 19 October 2011 J.G. Ballard Geocodedby Mike Bonsall Incredibly great! Mike Bonsall, who also runs the JG Ballard Concordance, has geocoded virtually all the place references in JGB's output on one huge google map. Yes, there's an amazing number of them! And, as a bonus, when you click on the location a text box automatically pops up with the placename quote. Damn cool! And David Pringle agrees: "Well done, Mike B. I don't suppose we'll find Vermilion Sands in there -- or Port Matarre, or the island of Saint-Esprit; but it does give us a good idea of the sheer geographical spread of JGB's references to real places." |
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| POSTED: 19 October 2011 The Progress of the Text: The Papers of J.G. Ballard at the British Library By Chris Beckett The article provides an overview of the archive of J. G. Ballard, acquired by the British Library in 2010. The successive drafts of Ballard’s novels, in manuscript and typescript, comprise the majority of the archive, with the exception of Ballard’s first novel (The Wind from Nowhere) and The Unlimited Dream Company. Ballard’s many short stories, including The Atrocity Exhibition, are not present in the archive, although the papers include an unpublished story, in draft, set in Vermilion Sands. The archive is a rich textual resource, spanning synopses to final texts, which reveals the decisions of composition and indicates the development of Ballard’s distinctive prose style. The article discusses the process of composition, illustrated by textual examples, with particular reference to passages from the autograph manuscript of Empire of the Sun. Click to go to a downloadable PDF file. |
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POSTED: 2 October 2011 David Pringle and Mike Hollidaydissect the errors in John Baxter's mostly imaginary JG Ballard bile-ography Everyone on the Yahoo JG Ballard chat group had for months been keenly anticipating the arrival of John Baxter’s biography of J.G. Ballard, The Inner Man: The Life of J. G. Ballard, scheduled to be officially published on 8 September 2011. Books have a way of arriving early, however, and initial reports from the field were not encouraging. When the Sunday Times published an article based on the book it set off the following animated discussion on August 21, 2011… |
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POSTED: 20 September 2011 David Pringle writes a prickly reviewof the 'purient gloss' that is the John Baxter biography of JGB David Pringle reads the very first two paragraphs of the Introduction to John Baxter's The Inner Man: The Life of J. G. Ballard and instantly uncovers the inner purpose of Baxter's book: to create controversy "in the transparent hope that it will shock the reader and seize attention." What's most shocking is Baxter's use of rumours, gossip and the usual innuendo to try to create a very staged picture of Ballard as pathological nut who led a secret life in far-flung Shepperton. Looks like just another money-grabber book, folks. |
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| POSTED: 19 January 2010 UPDATED: 9 April 2010 UPDATED: 3 September 2010 UPDATED: 9 May 2011 I  mages of the destruction ofthe JG Ballard Home in Shanghai. This started with two photographs of the reconstruction going on at the Ballard family home on Amherst Avenue in Shanghai, but recent update posts from Shanghai reveal the home has basically been destroyed, not redone. The latest update comes from Ben Lin, who visited the new restaurant and sent a number of new photos... |
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COLLECTIONS:
The Terminal Collection
Hello, and welcome to my JG Ballard collection and archive. I think I have all of JGB's print output from 1951 to the present. This link will take you to the Terminal Collection index page, where you can see all JG's output in one file -- The Terminal Timeline -- or go to specific years.The Complete Run of David Pringle's News from The Sun and JGB News
David Pringle has generously allowed all 25 issues of his JGB newsletters to be reprinted. They stretch from 1981 to 1996, and report on a fascinating period of JGB's career. Complete with copious bibliographies of JGB's non-fictional outputs, updates on new publications, lists of reviews, letters from fans and JGB himself, the publication of Hello, America, Low-Flying Aircraft, Empire of the Sun, The Kindness of Women, Rushing to Paradise, plus much, much more. Text transcribed by Mike Holliday and David Pringle. BACKGROUND:
Non-Fiction by JG Ballard
From 1963 to 1971 JGB wrote a number of "editorials" explaining his position on "Inner Space". Here they are, as well as a number of old journalistic pieces on Martin Amis, Vermillion Sands, WS Burroughs, Mein Kampf, and writing fiction in a technological culture.Articles & Essays About JG Ballard
Scholarly and interesting articles from such critical luminaries as Scott Bukatman, Paul Crosthwaite, Mike Holliday, Sarah Blandy, Matt Smith, Jerome Tarshis, John Boston, David Pringle, Benjamin Noys, Peter Brigg, Richard Walls and Luc Sante. To name a few.The Uncollected JG Ballard
This set of files contains all the stories that have not been collected, plus Ballard's ‘miscellaneous media’ -- collages, prose-poems, experimental pieces.
AUDIO/VIDEO:
JG Ballard Short Stories Dramatized on The Vanishing Point
In 1988, Canada's national radio corporation broadcast a series of 30-minute radio dramas, based on the short stories of JG Ballard, for its long-running program, "The Vanishing Point". The series was produced by Bill Lane in the CBC's Toronto studios. Lauded at the time, these forgotten gems explore the dramatic aspects of JGB's early short stories within an auditory medium, and you can listen in or download them.The Shanghai To Shepperton International Conference on JG Ballard
This conference was held at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom, on Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th May 2007. I was there with my camera & recorder, and managed to catch a number of very interesting presentations. You can listen in to such Ballardian luminaries as Roger Luckhurst, Jeannette Baxter, Phil Tew, David Pringle... or download these 17 MP3 files.The Ballardian Videos of Jesús Olmo
It is always an exciting and happy time to introduce and help disseminate the work of a young artist entranced with and influenced by the ideas of JG Ballard. Click over and you, too, will discover Jesús Olmo has created a stunning visual cache of Ballardian short stories, each one mesmerizing in form and thought-provoking in content.INTERVIEWS:
JG Ballard Interviews
This bibliography contains the text to over 150 JGB interviews from George MacBeth's 1967 BBC talk about JGB's "condensed" technique to a James Campbell piece in The Guardian in 2008.BIBLIOGRAPHIES:
Various Ballard Bibliographies
• The Critical Exhibition by Umberto Rossi. Umberto manages The James Graham Ballard Secondary Literature Online Bibliography. Over 150 essays and articles from over 140 writers and critics are currently listed.• The Terminal Timeline
• The complete bibliography of all of JGB's short stories
• JGB's early secondary sources
• Dave Pringle's fascinating study of what JGB read as a youth.
ROAD ADVENTURES:
JG Ballard's Shanghai Days
Lots of photos, videos and my "travelogue" of finding and visiting JGB's childhood home in Shanghai in September 2007. Also many photos of JGB's Shanghai neighbourhood and childhood haunts, the Lunghua Camp, and a whole section of interviews with other Lunghua internees.JG Ballard: Autopsy Of The New Millennium Exhibition in Barcelona's CCCB Museum
Hola, and buenos dias from Barcelona. It's 24 July 2008 and I’m currently standing in the Carrer de Montalegre, a narrow street deep in the university section of Barcelona. I’m standing in the overbright sunlight, looking at an imposing 18th century building which is currently the home of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), and even more currently the home of the very first museum exhibition dedicated to the life and work of JG Ballard.The JG Ballard Memorial at the Tate Modern
My full report on this heartwarming event has been posted as Letter From London at Simon Sellar's Ballardian site, but this is an excuse to post more of the photos I took during the mingling part after the formal ceremonies were complete. Yes, quite a few name brands showed up.MISCELLANEOUS:
Deep Ends
Here you'll find little oddities, stories, reviews, maxims, notes, etc, from or about The Man that have popped up along the way, but were too odd to list on their own, such as:• an interview with Ambit Art Director Michael Foreman
• scans of the original Manuscript of Stewart McKenzie's 1969 ICA Multimedia Adaptation of JG Ballard's The Assassination Weapon
• my recounting of doorstepping JGB at home
• Will Self's BBC homage to JGB
• JGB's first story, the student award-winning The Violent Noon
• the real art exhibition brochure referenced by Kline in The Atrocity Exhibition
• and dozens of other short hits