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richardr's review against another edition
Although JG Ballard stopped writing science fiction in the late sixties and regarded the genre as having ended with the space age itself, this collection of his interviews does make clear that he was remarkably adept at futurology. Over the course of this collection Ballard discusses his realisation that Reagan would become President before predicting reality television and same-sex marriage. His observation that the future envisaged by science fiction is now the past chimes with William Gibson's observation that the future is already here, even if it isn't evenly distributed. Gibson's switch to 'presentism' also mirrors the trajectory of Ballard's career, where the surrealist visions of 'The Crystal World' or 'The Unlimited Dream Company' eventually gave way to the pyschopathology of inner space mapped out from 'Crash' to 'Super Cannes.'
Although Ballard would have repudiated the term, his ability to interpret how technology would leave a post-traditional society increasingly deranged made him probably the great realist writer of my lifetime. That's why I often wonder how he would have responded to events over the course of the decade since his death. The author of 'The Drowned World' and 'The Drought' wouldn't have been surprised by the sight of San Francisco wreathed in thick orange smog as much of California burned. The author of ‘The Intensive Care Unit’ would not have been surprised by a world in which people have to stay at home to avoid a pandemic and communicate solely through technology. Most obviously, the author of 'Kingdom Come' was condemned at the time for patronising the English working classes but his vision of a hollowed out consumerist society sliding into soft fascism is an entirely accurate description of where we are a decade after his death.
Although Ballard would have repudiated the term, his ability to interpret how technology would leave a post-traditional society increasingly deranged made him probably the great realist writer of my lifetime. That's why I often wonder how he would have responded to events over the course of the decade since his death. The author of 'The Drowned World' and 'The Drought' wouldn't have been surprised by the sight of San Francisco wreathed in thick orange smog as much of California burned. The author of ‘The Intensive Care Unit’ would not have been surprised by a world in which people have to stay at home to avoid a pandemic and communicate solely through technology. Most obviously, the author of 'Kingdom Come' was condemned at the time for patronising the English working classes but his vision of a hollowed out consumerist society sliding into soft fascism is an entirely accurate description of where we are a decade after his death.
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