Ballardian

Mark Dery is back online (thanks for the tip, Chris). The occasion? Unpacking My Library, a response to a request from Boing Boing’s David Pescovitz for a list of favorite books (as David says, “Two years later, he’s come through. And I’m grateful. ‘Unpacking My Library’ is a veritable wunderkammer of printed matter.”)

Yes, it’s good to see. Sample pearl:

“Of course, I have every intention of reading the books in question some day; I bought many of them out of the neurotic fear that the dissident and the deviant will be black-market commodities in the not-so-distant future, when a home-schooled creationist ascends to the presidency with the 10 Commandments in one hand and a Left Behind potboiler in the other, exhorting the faithful to start readying the lighter fluid and the faggots for the secular humanists and their godless, sodomite lit.” (Mark Dery, ‘Unpacking My Library’)

And doubleplusgreat because Mark’s also an admirer of Ballard, who comes in at no 4 on his list:

J.G. Ballard: Quotes by J.G. Ballard; edited by Mike Ryan, V. Vale. Slapdash in comparison with the indispensable RE/Search 8/9 (the Ballard issue) — “unknown” is a too-frequent citation, and the loving inclusion of every possible variation on a given quote, culled from decades of interviews, is calculated to appeal to the devout fan only — this is nonetheless a bottomless font of insights and inspiration from the incomparable Ballard, a visionary novelist whose black-comedic critique of the postmodern condition is more trenchant, and wittier by far, than anything French philosophy has to offer. Read Baudrillard and Virilio as science fiction, and Ballard as philosophy or, better yet, self-help guru for the irreparably disaffected. I begin every day with a quote, chosen at random, from this book of daily affirmations — or, more properly, daily negations — and go forth with a spring in my step, intellectually well-armed to do battle with my local megamall, multistory parking garage, and other Ballardian horrors come to life.”

Yes, sage advice indeed. Go forth, Ballardians, with a spring in your step! Arm yourself with a JGB quote and mow down any flatpack fuhrer who gets in your way at IKEA during your Christmas shopping safari!