The End is Nigh: Ballard on Myspace
Author: Simon Sellars • Apr 6th, 2007 •Category: Ballardosphere, gated communities, theme parks
J.G. Ballard has often said he doesn’t use the internet. So what’s he doing with his own myspace page?
It’s another fake celebrity myspace entity, although I see that in the comments someone has already invited ‘Ballard’ to do a reading.
With all due respect to the people who erected this (and thanks for the link, by the way), why even go there? Myspace is a terrible evil gated community of people with bad design sense and a pathological desire to be loved, infested with spammers, robots, stalkers, hotlinkers, bandwidth bandits, nightmare fonts, overcrowded backgrounds, autoplay songs (perhaps the biggest SIN), Rupert Murdoch, and perhaps the lowest signal to noise ratio on the entire web.
You know what Ballard would say, don’t you?
“Never mind Chelsea Marina, ” he’d say. “Blow up myspace!”
(Where’s Nikoleye Gledenatch, the feared Macronational Butcher of Oakleigh, when you need him?)
PS: Who is that on the profile pic?
UPDATE: The profile pic is the character Kerans, from Ballard’s The Drowned World, as realised on the cover of the 1981 Dragon’s Dream edition.
UPDATE 2: There’s a follow-up to this post.
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Simon… that person is Kerans, in London, in The Drowned World… as illustrated by Dick French in 1981
“Myspace is a terrible evil gated community of people with bad design sense and a pathological desire to be loved, infested with spammers, robots, stalkers, hotlinkers, bandwidth bandits, nightmare fonts, overcrowded backgrounds, autoplay songs (perhaps the biggest SIN), Rupert Murdoch, and perhaps the lowest signal to noise ratio on the entire web.”
Hmmm… Sounds like a virtual version of Super Cannes/Running
Wild.
And this from people who organise and attend academic conferences about Ballards work.’Evil gated community’, ‘desire to be loved’, we are talking about academia here aren’t we?
The quote chosen for the myspace page seems apt though maybe it needs adjust. Suggest change mute to ignorant.
I also notice that the ballardians opinions on my space did not seem to get in the way of their signing up to a myspace account some time with the profile ID http://www.myspace.com/jgballard I assume the description, therefore, includes present company. Pot? have you met Kettle.
touche. well, someone’s got their back up. p. o’connell, are you behind the myspace ballard page? sorry if i offended anyone, but just to make this crystal clear, my post is not necessarily an attack on the jg ballard myspace profile, but really a comment on myspace as an entity. come on, admit it — the myspace phenomenon does have its faults. and i’m happy to discuss/debate this further. oh, and just so you know, i’m probably going to sign up for a second life account, too. doesn’t mean i have to enjoy myself. maybe see you in there? peace out.
” ‘desire to be loved’, we are talking about academia here aren’t we?”
Humm…
Most academics I know seem to have a desire to be hated…
P.O doesn’t sound particularly offended to me. In fact, I think he / she made quite a witty point
Of course, many of the things and concepts we build as humans are for egotistical purposes, whether they’re MySpace, academic conferences, or, heck, even this blog. I got the impression that was the irony they were trying to highlight.
ok peter. can’t argue with that. but i think your comment strays from the main topic, namely that myspace functionality is riddled with obstacles. for elaboration, see my follow-up post, with its links to recent criticisms of myspace from other commentators.