what are you reading now?

[luka]

youd be amazed how thick this lot are. barely know which way round to hold a book

 

[shiels]

his flat characterisation isnt wholly deliberate though is it?

 

[luka]

i dont beleive in characterisation its more for girls in my opinion.

 

[Clinamenic]

i dont beleive in characterisation its more for girls in my opinion.

Girls go to Venus to engage in characterization, as they say.

 

[Clinamenic]

Anyway I've finally started reading The Odyssey.

 

[shiels]

As you get further entrenched into middle age there can be this thing of trying to transcend charisma, the game. you start to fixate on the pragmatic, this kind of wooden cynicism that you perform but you know its a lie deep down

 

[luka]

Anyway I've finally started reading The Odyssey.

which translation? Chapman or Pope?

 

[Benny Bunter]

Been years since I read Ballard, plan to read them all again in the near future, but you should read drowned world asap, that was my favourite - mad hallucinogenic visions of dinosaurs and giant iguanas and stuff fucking brilliant

 

[luka]

As you get further entrenched into middle age there can be this thing of trying to transcend charisma, the game. you start to fixate on the pragmatic, this kind of wooden cynicism that you perform but you know its a lie deep down

ive been worried you were having a nervous breakdown. youd come online and just stare in morose silence, no chat. it lasted months. i thought it was terminal decline. glad to see youre brushing the cobwebs off. i was going to saying something, like, are you having a nervous breakdown but thought that might just make it worse.

 

[woops]

i don't like ballard personally. it's the same thing every book. halfway through they all start hallucinating, i remember liking concrete Island, though

 

[luka]

@woops dont understand it. its too difficult for him

 

[shiels]

ive been worried you were having a nervous breakdown. youd come online and just stare in morose silence, no chat. it lasted months. i thought it was terminal decline. glad to see youre brushing the cobwebs off. i was going to saying something, like, are you having a nervous breakdown but thought that might just make it worse.

does this mean you agree or you think this is evidence of the brekdown?

 

[Clinamenic]

which translation? Chapman or Pope?

Translated by Robert Fitzgerald

 

[Benny Bunter]

Only one I didn't like was atrocity exhibition, had absolutely no idea what it was about or supposed to be doing. Maybe I'd like it more if I read it now, dunno.

 

[version]

Havent read it yet actually, I dont know why. liking it? read High Rise at the end of last year. would you say his writing leaves an impression on ugly human nature without relying too heavily on strong characters, so the flatness or superficiality is actually the point. constant reference to peoples jobs / roles was irritating me but on reflection did that serve the lesson on status etc

I'm liking it, but I've only just started it.

There's a Martin Amis intro to my edition where he talks about Ballard's 'antique' plotting and dialogue in contrast to his poetic and futuristic landscapes and says Ballard's more interested in human isolation than human interaction, other than mob atavism and mass hysteria, so the former are really there as a necessity. The focus of a Ballard novel is mood, landscape and the mapping of an isolated mental terrain.

With High-Rise in particular, it was originally written as a psychological report on the inhabitants of the building and didn't have a protagonist or anything like that, so the referencing of jobs and roles makes sense.

 

[shiels]

i don't like ballard personally. it's the same thing every book. halfway through they all start hallucinating, i remember liking concrete Island, though

I dont know if I like him personally! He's fascinating and frustrating, and sometimes a no joke sometimes bad writer, then pays off with a stunning line that gets a massive grin. a real sicko

 

[luka]

Only one I didn't like was atrocity exhibition, had absolutely no idea what it was about or supposed to be doing. Maybe I'd like it more if I read it now, dunno.

yeh that ones too trendy, no story

 

[version]

I dont know if I like him personally! He's fascinating and frustrating, and sometimes a no joke sometimes bad writer, then pays off with a stunning line that gets a massive grin. a real sicko

He was a great interviewee.

 

[Benny Bunter]

i don't like ballard personally. it's the same thing every book. halfway through they all start hallucinating, i remember liking concrete Island, though

They are all pretty much exactly the same it's true. Maybe diminishing returns with the later stuff, but high rise crash concrete island drowned world all brilliant.

Empire of the sun is great as well, different kettle of fish though

 

[version]

The Crystal World was perhaps the one I found most disappointing. There was too much focus on the love triangle and the blokes chasing each other around when I'd rather have heard about the religious cult walking into the jungle.