J.G. Ballard’s life and work contains many incongruities, outraging the Daily Mail and being offered a CBE (which he rejected), and variously appealing to both Spielberg and Cronenberg. In a recent piece, Edmund Gordon unpicks the contradictions and contrarianism in Ballard’s non-fiction writing, and he joins Tom to continue the dissection. They explore Ballard’s strange combination of ‘whisky and soda’ conservatism and the avant-garde, what he was trying to achieve through his fiction, and how ‘Ballardian’ Empire of the Sun really is.
Sponsored links:
Find out more about Pace Gallery London’s Kiki Kogelnik exhibition here: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/kiki-kogelnik-the-dance/
Learn more about Serious Readers: www.seriousreaders.com/lrb
Sign up to the LRB's Close Readings subscription:
In Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
