Comments on: Myths of the Near Future and The Venus Hunters http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2011/06/26/myths-of-the-near-future-and-the-venus-hunters/ A Life In Science Fiction Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:58:27 +0000 hourly 1 By: James Meyer http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2011/06/26/myths-of-the-near-future-and-the-venus-hunters/#comment-1558 Tue, 29 May 2012 05:18:53 +0000 http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/?p=593#comment-1558 I couldn’t agree with Gibson more. Ballard’s seventies work especially is going forward with all these great advancements of the novel that writers like Mirabeau, Bataille, and Roussel were putting out fifty years prior. I love Ballard, he goes well beyond being just a sci-fi writer into being an ultra modern avant garde writer and really excels, much like Kobo Abe in Japan at around the same time, who I would also highly recommend. Secret Rendezvous is amazing, and completely horrifying in a way that the novel has rarely ever been.

]]> By: dbcooper http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2011/06/26/myths-of-the-near-future-and-the-venus-hunters/#comment-765 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:06:37 +0000 http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/?p=593#comment-765 I’m kind of a burnt out Ballard super fan, so I’m really glad to see your appreciation for him.

I’d recommend the RE/Search publications and his collected non-fiction for further reading on his obsessions/processes/critical world view. There’s also a yahoo discussion group run by a former colleague of his.

Now you gotta read “The Sixty Minute Zoom” – his best short story. IMO :)

]]> By: Claire Evans http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2011/06/26/myths-of-the-near-future-and-the-venus-hunters/#comment-704 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:36:40 +0000 http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/?p=593#comment-704 Yes! I’m glad I plunged headfirst into him.

You know that phenomenon of paying attention to something for the first time, and suddenly it seems like the whole world is thinking about it, too? But really you’ve just started paying attention to a conversation that has been happening for ages? That’s happening to me right now with Ballard. I just read a great interview with William Gibson in the new Paris Review (recommended) where he talks about his early writing techniques, and how he achieved the particular kind of future shock he’s known for: “You get to a certain place in the story and you just step on the Ballard.”

]]> By: plysndz http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2011/06/26/myths-of-the-near-future-and-the-venus-hunters/#comment-703 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:55:34 +0000 http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/?p=593#comment-703 Love this blog!!! Happy to see Ballard here. I’m in the midst of reading a bunch of his novels (picking up Drowned World from the library later today). I’ve been meaning to read him for some time (pretty much since hearing “Warm Leatherette” back in the late 70s). I hadn’t read much criticism on him, but the surrealist aspect makes a lot of sense to me. When reading High Rise I remember thinking how the writing style evoked a kind of dream-like or separated-from-reality feeling. He’s quickly becoming a favorite.

Must also say, new Yatch CD is wonderful. Please come play in Boston again – missed you last time.

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