Comments on: Ackroyd, Ballard, Amis, Moore: 'four points of blokish energy'

By: John Coulthart

John Coulthart — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:33:35 +0000

Ha! I should have said I still like Sinclair’s non-fiction, condescension or no. But I lost patience with his fiction around Slow Chocolate Autopsy.

I saw Sinclair give a reading from the Crash book after it appeared and spoke to him a bit afterwards but that conversation was more about architecture and things. There was a Q&A as well but I pretty much forget everything that was said. If he hadn’t signed some books I’d probably question my having been there at all.

The BFI brief seems to have been pretty loose from what I’ve seen of the other books in that series, the primary interest being in notable writer + notable film. The Richard Corliss book on Kubrick’s Lolita reviews the film (not very successfully) in the manner of Nabokov’s Pale Fire, a pretty eccentric exercise.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:48:36 +0000

Ooh, sorry John — I’m not touching that one.

I did really enjoy the Crash book, even though, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m astounded that it’s more a Ballard bio than a book on the film Crash. I still wonder how it sneaked past the publishers.

By: John Coulthart

John Coulthart — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:34:24 +0000

I doubt Sinclair would be able to temper his default tone of condescension enough to write a bio of anyone unless it was a sketch like those in Lights Out for the Territory. Even in the BFI Crash book he can’t resist digs at Ballard, comparing him to a genial duffer like Frank Muir. Given that Sinclair’s career has skidded from a promising start into incoherence and irrelevance, I often wonder what he has to be so condescending about.

By: R.

R. — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:15:33 +0000

Yeah, I was referring to the comment.

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 01:15:34 +0000

Funny, I thought R was referring to Nabokov’s comment as ‘overwritten’! Which it may very well be.

I still think Iain Sinclair has a good Ballard bio in him somewhere…

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 17:00:29 +0000

Like “Little Big”, another novel which suffers from being overly elaborate, I have never been able to get very deeply into “Radon Daughters” either, after several attempts. Too, too much visible scaffolding, for my taste. Love Pynchon, however.

By: R.

R. — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:41:25 +0000

Overwritten.