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saul bellow-Herzog, pretty good!

Shackleton: His antarctic writing's.

Loads from Isaac Asimov.

My reading's gone downhill recently so I'm forcing myself to read

J.G. Ballard- Crash

and

Michel hollebeq (or however its spelten)- Atomised

this week. Crash first.

Corpsey wrote:My reading's gone downhill recently so I'm forcing myself to read

J.G. Ballard- Crash

ugh that's a truly horrible book. it really is unpleasant, it's supposed to be but still. it's probably perfect for you though lol

had to read that for a dystopian literature module at uni and couldn't finish, and loads of other people in my seminar didn't either. most annoying thing about it is that the film seems to utterly miss the point of the book and glamourises it whilst the book is doing the opposite

just started reading memoirs of a survivor by doris lessing, another book i was supposed to have read for that module but never got round to. seems good so far but not read a lot yet

I suppose I am reading it for its extremity, though not just because its gorey/depraved or whatever- I'd like to think I've grown out of reading books just because they've got tits/chopped off tits in them.

I've read a lot of Ballard interviews and pieces on Ballard, but I've only read ''High Rise'', so I wanted to read a Ballard book- and I reckon it'll be a pretty good blend of his ideas regarding modernity/technology and its influence on human instincts/potentialities and his style- which I enjoyed in 'High Rise'- whereby he manages to communicate the hyper-perceptive, emotionless and humourless (though funny for the reader and Ballard) mindset of a psychopath.

The film, as Martin Amis wrote in a review of it, manages to get that cool, blunted gaze but didn't quite work, did it? All I really took from it was how I want to snog Holly Hunter while my brain is sliding down an airbag.

Corpsey wrote:The film, as Martin Amis wrote in a review of it, manages to get that cool, blunted gaze but didn't quite work, did it? All I really took from it was how I want to snog Holly Hunter while my brain is sliding down an airbag.

heh yeah that's exactly what i thought. but i don't suppose many people would want to go and watch Crash if it was shot as it is portrayed in the book so maybe artistic decisions had to be made. would probably have been better off just not doing a film of it though... but that's the film industry for you

haven't read high rise but it sounds interesting. didn't ballard do a book about someone that gets stuck on a roundabout and has to live there as well?

Yeah, it's called 'Concrete Island'. I haven't read it (obviously).

High Rise is good, fairly insane but then its supposed to be communicating a sense of insanity. I reckon Ballard might be a writer who is more interesting than enjoyable to read, if that can be allowed to make any sense.

I really enjoyed Crash when I read it. Think Ballard is a great writer who has never written a great book.

Corpsey wrote:I suppose I am reading it for its extremity, though not just because its gorey/depraved or whatever- I'd like to think I've grown out of reading books just because they've got tits/chopped off tits in them.

I've read a lot of Ballard interviews and pieces on Ballard, but I've only read ''High Rise'', so I wanted to read a Ballard book- and I reckon it'll be a pretty good blend of his ideas regarding modernity/technology and its influence on human instincts/potentialities and his style- which I enjoyed in 'High Rise'- whereby he manages to communicate the hyper-perceptive, emotionless and humourless (though funny for the reader and Ballard) mindset of a psychopath.

The film, as Martin Amis wrote in a review of it, manages to get that cool, blunted gaze but didn't quite work, did it? All I really took from it was how I want to snog Holly Hunter while my brain is sliding down an airbag.

I haven't read the book, but i walked out of the film, not because i found it repulsive, it was just crap.

I've read quite a bit of ballard, most of his more recent ones and i'm starting to read back, the Drowned World most recently which was great.

Has anyone read the Atrocity Exhibition?

I'm reading 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'

Good read.

badger wrote:

Corpsey wrote:The film, as Martin Amis wrote in a review of it, manages to get that cool, blunted gaze but didn't quite work, did it? All I really took from it was how I want to snog Holly Hunter while my brain is sliding down an airbag.

heh yeah that's exactly what i thought. but i don't suppose many people would want to go and watch Crash if it was shot as it is portrayed in the book so maybe artistic decisions had to be made. would probably have been better off just not doing a film of it though... but that's the film industry for you

haven't read high rise but it sounds interesting. didn't ballard do a book about someone that gets stuck on a roundabout and has to live there as well?

Ballard was reading extracts from his autobiography all last week on radio 4 in the morning, he seemed to rather rate Cronenberg's film.

Began Crash last night, immediately struck by how roll-your-eyes absurd it is, and how simultaneously fascinating and imaginatively-oppressive it is. I'm not sure if the absurdity belongs to Ballard or 'Ballard' (the character)- constant harping on about smegma, sternums, 'geometry' and the eroticism of vomit. I suppose if its an evocation of obsession that makes sense, and also if its a satire then the absurdity of the book's premise (although, I suppose people do fetishise strange, violent things) can be explained as a colossal, and meaningful, sick joke.

There's definitely something in his style that grips you, though, and quite coldly and joylessly.

Reading "A Confederacy of Dunces". Funniest book ever if you like quirky characters and odd dialogues.

Corpsey wrote:I reckon Ballard might be a writer who is more interesting than enjoyable to read, if that can be allowed to make any sense.

that's exactly it. i suppose it's enjoyable in the sense that a bad acid trip could be. it's not pleasant but it's still an interesting experience

Corpsey wrote:Began Crash last night, immediately struck by how roll-your-eyes absurd it is, and how simultaneously fascinating and imaginatively-oppressive it is. I'm not sure if the absurdity belongs to Ballard or 'Ballard' (the character)- constant harping on about smegma, sternums, 'geometry' and the eroticism of vomit. I suppose if its an evocation of obsession that makes sense, and also if its a satire then the absurdity of the book's premise (although, I suppose people do fetishise strange, violent things) can be explained as a colossal, and meaningful, sick joke.

There's definitely something in his style that grips you, though, and quite coldly and joylessly.

i might have a go at reading it again sometime. it properly ruined sex for me for a bit though with the way it described stuff. all that cold, often pretty disturbing imagery was not pleasant at all

stanton wrote:Ballard was reading extracts from his autobiography all last week on radio 4 in the morning, he seemed to rather rate Cronenberg's film.

really? can't see why myself but suppose he's probably in a better position to judge

badger wrote:i might have a go at reading it again sometime. it properly ruined sex for me for a bit though with the way it described stuff. all that cold, often pretty disturbing imagery was not pleasant at all

Ahh well you see its alright for me as I never have sex. In fact making myself disgusted with sex is one step closer to not throwing myself in front of a train next Wednesday.

Actually, given the subject matter maybe it'll encourage me.

To be honest I don't find the endless grotesque images and brutal acts of violence in it very shocking or disturbing in-of-themselves, the rate with which they occur makes them seem absurd and meaningless. Which again I think might be the point - to evoke a mindstate which is so compulsively directed towards repulsive ideas, the wounding and leaking of bodies and so on, that a single repulsive idea becomes, within the matrix of that mentality, a stylization or cliche.

Again however, its difficult to tell if its all intended or whether the cliches are in fact Ballard's, if it is HIS imagination that thrives upon gore- which I suppose it does. And Ballard's whole idea is that fiction should be about internal pyschological 'reality', not the decredited notion of a concrete and knowable exterior reality.

One thing I find ridiculous about Ballard is the way every person who appears on a scene is identified by their proffession

Shut up, geek.

Don't hate me because my mind's beautiful

No, I hate you because you made me think of Russell Crowe. wanker.

You were already thinking of him, I just made you think of him fully clothed sat by a window doing equations in the condensation