Interview with JGBallard for Swedish Television from 1986. JGBallard is filmed in his home in Shepperton and talks about his books EMPIRE OF THE SUN, THE DROWNED WORLD, HIGHRISE, CONCRETE ISLAND etc.
"Took 20 years to forget and another 20 years to remember." - J.G. Ballard with regards to the writing of Empire of the Sun. William S. Burroughs brought me here.
I love the modesty of his house, garden and study. He obviously could have afforded to live in a country mansion if he'd wanted to, since his novels were so successful.
I've loved the works of Ballard since I was first introduced to them back in my teens (the 1970's).His books and short stories I've always found worth revisiting due to their depth and, occasionally, my failure to interpret their meaning correctly. Ballard has never written for idiots; he assumes a level of intelligence in his readers which is in itself refreshing. I was very sad to hear of his passing in 2009. There will never be another like him. Thank you for this video.
*paused at 2 minute mark* I'm just staring, attentively, at that paused image of his garden, attempting to siphon even a mere fraction of his creativity. My attempts might be futile though, as I think his creativity was spurred and nourished by all those little birds, chirpin' away almost imperceptibly in the background, quietly and poetically feeding Ballard their creative ideas from their little bird brains.
I'm buggered if I know what the dialectic is, but this 'The sixties' dream of the future [becoming] today's nightmare' I rather suspect is getting pretty close to it, i.e. white becoming black. Is that right ?
