Spike Magazine

Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
Interview [published September 2001]
J.G. Ballard: Not A Literary Man
Marcos Moure’s 1995 interview with J.G. Ballard about
his novel Rushing To Paradise
Ballard is one of the best writers of speculative fiction
alive today. Whether exploring the innate sexuality of
automobile accidents, the power of dreams as reality,
or navigating through the rubble of modern civilization,
his often savage, apocalyptic work has influenced
artists and filmmakers alike. Ballard himself counts
among his influences the surrealist painters Dalí, Magritte,
and Ernst, as well as William Burroughs, whom
he considers to be one of the most important authors of
the 20th century.
Ballard first entered the literary world as a science
fiction writer, a genre he soon exhausted and has not
explored in years. His transition to the mainstream
was not entirely smooth, however. His 1970 anthology,
The Atrocity Exhibition, was deleted from the
Farrar, Straus and Giroux catalogue soon after its
US publication because of short stories like ‘Why
I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan’ and ‘Plan for the
Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy’. After reading
his classic 1972 novel, Crash, an editor wryly commented,
“The author is beyond psychiatric help.”
I found Mr Ballard to be quite sane – piercingly so,
BUY J.G. Ballard books online from and
in fact – as he talked to me recently from his home in
Shepperton, a suburb of London. Ballard is the author
of 16 novels, including Hello America, The Crystal
World, Empire of the Sun, The Terminal Beach, The
Unlimited Dream Company and The Disaster Area. His
newest novel, Rushing to Paradise, was just published
by Picador USA.
Ballard as seen by Ballard
MM: How do you see yourself as a writer and what do
you think is your niche in the literary world?
JGB: I can’t speak for the United States, but I suppose
some still refer to me as a science fiction writer.
But since Empire of the Sun came out ten years ago,
I think people have welcomed me to the mainstream.
Although I’m not so sure I want to be embraced by
the mainstream. I think I’m still what I always was, a
kind of fringe writer. I think I’m an imaginative writer
who began his career by writing science fiction, but I
haven’t written any, really, for a very long time. I don’t
even consider Crash to be a science fiction novel. I
don’t know whether you’ve read it or not.
035
More
Spike
email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z