Comments on: Random Ballard: Will Self/JGB Mash Up

By: Inkstain | J.G. Ballard

Inkstain | J.G. Ballard — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:36:29 +0000

[...] provocative and unsettling work. They include fellow transgressive authors like Martin Amis and Will Self, as well as disparate directors David Cronenberg (who adapted Ballard’s 1973 novel Crash) and [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:13:57 +0000

I think the whole his idea is to see if you ‘the reader’ has enough clarity to see your rediculas self lurking in the theshold of comedy

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 07:04:18 +0000

of atwood, i’ve only read ‘handmaid’s tale’…can’t remember if i cracked a smile. probably not. it’s grim up north, innit?

By: fjtorres

fjtorres — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:26:43 +0000

How about Hello America?
I laughed all the way through it!
The man IS a satirist above all.

By: timc

timc — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:38:32 +0000

“Oryx and Crake” did make me laugh, but not in a good way. The particular line that lodged like a stubborn turd in the u-bend of my memory is:
“Fear has homogenized his bowels.”

I also think Ballard is a very funny writer, but it’s a rather underplayed, unforced sort of humour. Unlike Self’s.

By: Sylvie

Sylvie — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:13:56 +0000

I think there is humour in his books and laughed this morning at this line from “The kindness of women”:
Jim and Miriam are having sex and he’s thinking about dissecting her when…
“Jim…” Miriam paused, a forefinger on my nose. “What are you thinking about?”
“It’s probably illegal.”
“Well, stop…”

I am totally committed to Ballard and Margaret Atwood, “Oryx and Cryx” highly recommended, quite Ballardian.