Comments on: Borges y Ballard

By: A ‘Borges Finite Labyrinth’ Comics | korzacsol

A ‘Borges Finite Labyrinth’ Comics | korzacsol — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:36:38 +0000

[...] ..”These condensed novels [in The Atrocity Exhibition] are like ordinary novels with the unimportant pieces left out. But it’s more than that — when you get the important pieces together … not separated by great masses of ‘he said, she said’ and opening and shutting of doors, ‘following morning’ and all this stuff — the great tide of forward conventional narration — it achieves critical mass as it were, it begins to ignite and you get more things being generated. You’re getting crossovers and linkages between unexpected and previously totally unrelated things, events, elements of the narration, ideas that in themselves begin to generate new matter.”.. read more on Ballardian. [...]

By: Rick McGrath

Rick McGrath — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:24:50 +0000

JGB was really there… here’s a pix of him:
http://www.jgballard.ca/deep_ends/jgb_rio_convention.html
I dunno, Mike… he looks fairly portly to me…

By: Jim Salatas

Jim Salatas — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:34:34 +0000

I wonder if Ballard actually visited Buenos Aires?
BAs is the per capita capital of psychoanalysis. That could have been too much in depth knowledge for old J.G..

By: David Walters

David Walters — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:13:28 +0000

Amazing! Amazing! The two of them together !! Were their conversations recorded? Surely the works of Borges and Ballard say more about the human condition than those of Shakespeare et all.

By: Marcial Souto

Marcial Souto — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:05:45 +0000

According to Norman Thomas di Giovanni, who attended that party with Borges (he was his translator and secretary at the time), it took place in early May, 1971. Sophie Baker was John Wolfers’ wife. Here is a better version of the photo:
http://www.cccb.org/ca/album?idg=25226

Lucho: Gracias por las palabras sobre El Péndulo. Sí, traduje Kingdom Come, que acaba de aparecer en España con el absurdo título (decidido por los editores) de Bienvenidos a Metro-Centre.

By: Martin Jones

Martin Jones — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:02:50 +0000

Sights such as these are rapidly diminishing as we speed through the 21st century. In a hundred years time will folk be enthused by photos of Will Self and Martin Amis chatting? I very much doubt it…

By: Mike H

Mike H — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:17:40 +0000

Thanks for the info Marcial!

I think the meeting must have been in 1972 at the latest, because “Love & Napalm: Export USA” was published by Grove Press in ’72. In those two photos by Sophie baker, JGB sports side-burns just as he did in Rio in 1969, but in both photos he looks rather more portly than he did in Rio, I think.

By: Lucho G.

Lucho G. — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:55:00 +0000

Hola Marcial, la foto la publicaste en la Pendulo numero 2, que fantastica revista-libro! recien me entere el año pasado de la existencia de pendulo (con mis 20 años creo que estoy perdonado) la verdad que fue una publicacion increible, tanto por la seleccion de autores, notas, cuentos e ilustradores… voy a tratar de conseguir, en lo posible, todos los numeros.

Saludos

pd: estas a cargo de la traduccion de Kingdom come?

By: Marcial Souto

Marcial Souto — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:30:42 +0000

JGB and Borges met in London, probably in April 1975, at a party in John Wolfers Agency. In early May that year I visited JGB (we had met in in Rio in 1969), and also Wolfers, then Ballard’s agent. JW gave me a print of that picture. He was very proud of having had old god Borges cast his spell on his office. (“Look. This is the bottle opener you can see in the photo.”) The photographer is Sophie Baker — another picture she took in the same party landed on the jacket of Love and Napalm: Export USA, where you can see Jim wearing the same suit and the same white carnation on his lapel.

By: Rick McGrath

Rick McGrath — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:21:58 +0000

Well, oddly enough, he was there for the Second International Film Festival, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, March 23-31, 1969. What he did in his spare time I don’t know. Where’s Dave Pringle when you need him?

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:47:55 +0000

ah, could be rick. i don’t really know the background to that trip… do you?

By: Rick McGrath

Rick McGrath — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:30:30 +0000

Might it have been in 1969 when JG made his trek to Rio?

http://www.rickmcgrath.com/jgballard/jgb_deep_ends/jgb_rio_convention.html

By: Simon Sellars

Simon Sellars — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:11:52 +0000

I’m not sure of exact dates. But that photo, I believe, is probably late-60s judging by Ballard’s appearance and also by the Moorcock interview, which discusses MM and JGB meeting Burroughs and Borges during the New Worlds era. Can any old hands out there supply specifics?

By: Supervert

Supervert — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:05:03 +0000

That’s a fascinating tease, Simon. When did these two actually meet?