The accomplished author died a few days ago at 78. This, at Guardian:
[As a] science fiction author [he] "wasn't interested in the far future, spaceships and all that", he explained; rather he was interested in "the evolving world, the world of hidden persuaders, of the communications landscape developing, of mass tourism, of the vast conformist suburbs dominated by television - that was a form of science fiction, and it was already here".
Ballard was the first author who brought the vision of bleakness and dystopia into my teenage life.
More like this
There's a slick new online Sci Fi rag called Lightspeed. I like this one because they also publish nonfiction pieces that are relevant to their fiction stories.
Last Friday I went to at talk by Brian David Johnson from Intel. That sentence sounds like any other that an academic could write--always with the going to seminars we acahacks are.
"The British are sniffy about sci-fi, but there is nothing artificial in its ability to convey apprehension about the universe and ourselves."
Cat and Girl offers a smashing take on facts and fiction. An excerpt from Spoiler Alert:
I first read Ballard when I was about 10. Terminal Beach, if I recall properly. In some pulp mag. He fit in well with my then and now generally dystopian viewpoint.