RE/Search #8/9: J. G. Ballard

This is the most comprehensive introduction to this visionary writer, the William Burroughs of England. J.G. Ballard finally achieved world recognition when Steven Spielberg filmed his autobiography (childhood til age 15) in Empire of the Sun. But Ballard has been a visionary iconoclast since the 50s, beginning with his trilogy of disaster novels, The Burning World, The Drowned World, and The Crystal World, and most notoriously, his automobile death-wish classic, Crash, about the psychopathology of the car crash. He predicted Ronald Reagan as president 15 years before it happened! This volume contains long interviews, including one by soundtrack composer/SPK founder Graeme Revell, stories, a biography, bibliography, and many provocative quotations. Ballard is possibly the most futuristic philosopher of the 20th century.