Comments on: ‘I really would not want to fuck George W. Bush!’: A Conversation with J.G. Ballard http://www.ballardian.com/i-really-would-not-want-to-fuck-george-w-bush Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:50:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Crashman http://www.ballardian.com/i-really-would-not-want-to-fuck-george-w-bush/comment-page-1#comment-1726 Crashman Fri, 23 May 2008 10:45:05 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/i-really-would-not-want-to-fuck-george-w-bush-a-conversation-with-jg-ballard#comment-1726 A brilliant presentation. Mr. Ballard's distaste for any sort of link with President GW Bush is laudable. I too mourn the death of the fantasy/sf/reality-bending short story as an art form, and really do wonder why it fell out of fashion. There were legions of us who haunted the bookseller's racks for the arrival of the latest issue of IF, F&SF, ANALOG, Isaac Asimov's magazine (while it lasted). The editors were frank with their readers about the precarious financial circumstances the magazines were usually in, and the most loyal of us bought subscriptions. I'll still buy any old anthology of them I can find. Great short stories often expanded to become novelettes, and the chronology of the editions is important. Any one of us who hasn't read Alfred Bester's *The Stars My Destination* or his "The Demolished Man" would understand instantly why the death of the short story/novelette form in the marketplace of publishing has deprived us of an entire wonderland of fruitful literary endeavour. JGB's *The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D* and the "Vermilion Sands" works - to encounter that story as an impressionable teen-ager was a truly memorable experience. Served up together on a pamphlet-sized platter with Poul Anderson, Jack Vance, Phil Dick, [insert countless others here like Theodore Sturgeon, Chad Oliver, etc.] and an Isaac Asimov science piece...every month? Bliss indeed for 75 cents, later reluctantly raised to $1.25. Perhaps they priced themselves out of a 1960's teenagers allowance. A brilliant presentation. Mr. Ballard’s distaste for any sort of link with President GW Bush is laudable.
I too mourn the death of the fantasy/sf/reality-bending short story as an art form, and really do wonder why it fell out of fashion. There were legions of us who haunted the bookseller’s racks for the arrival of the latest issue of IF, F&SF, ANALOG, Isaac Asimov’s magazine (while it lasted). The editors were frank with their readers about the precarious financial circumstances the magazines were usually in, and the most loyal of us bought subscriptions.

I’ll still buy any old anthology of them I can find. Great short stories often expanded to become novelettes, and the chronology of the editions is important. Any one of us who hasn’t read Alfred Bester’s *The Stars My Destination* or his “The Demolished Man” would understand instantly why the death of the short story/novelette form in the marketplace of publishing has deprived us of an entire wonderland of fruitful literary endeavour.

JGB’s *The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D* and the “Vermilion Sands” works – to encounter that story as an impressionable teen-ager was a truly memorable experience. Served up together on a pamphlet-sized platter with Poul Anderson, Jack Vance, Phil Dick, [insert countless others here like Theodore Sturgeon, Chad Oliver, etc.] and an Isaac Asimov science piece…every month? Bliss indeed for 75 cents, later reluctantly raised to $1.25. Perhaps they priced themselves out of a 1960’s teenagers allowance.

]]> By: Daisy http://www.ballardian.com/i-really-would-not-want-to-fuck-george-w-bush/comment-page-1#comment-1725 Daisy Sun, 18 May 2008 22:42:17 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/i-really-would-not-want-to-fuck-george-w-bush-a-conversation-with-jg-ballard#comment-1725 Trackback: <a href="http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2008/05/odds-and-sods-sunday-matinee-edition.html" rel="nofollow">Odds and Sods - Sunday Matinee edition</a> Trackback:

Odds and Sods – Sunday Matinee edition

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