JG Ballard dies aged 78

[maleslate]

He needed three goes reading CRASH to get it. How very obtuse from an Amis..

[diskochimp]

"The great thing about science fiction is that nobody lives in Hampstead."

[alienbaroque]

He was a genius. 

[drplbiftin]

Amis forgets that it wasn't just Ballard's experiences in Shanghai which shaped his writing, it was also the extremely premature death of his wife and having to bring up his children on his own. He actually wrote The Atrocity Exhibition as a way to deal with why he she had to die. 

[zetetic666]

And obviously Martin Amis still doesn't really get Crash...

[Wanderlustus]

Amis sounds like a twat in this'n.

[mchelland]

"Sexual novel about the road accident, not very promising subject."

[handsomevision]

CRASH!!!

[keytoothed]

Why do they call him a SF writer? Why not just a great writer, period?

[sassyschoolmarm]

I wrote him a letter once when I was young and star struck. My favourite writer of all time. He wrote back such a beautiful and kind letter that it is one of my most treasured possessions. Rest In Peace Jim. The world will not be the same without your unique perspective. I smashed a cup when I heard. :-(. I learned to observe with broader eyes because of him.

[keytoothed]

Wonderful.

[Wanderlustus]

I called him up in '85. Just finished a trip to southeast asia while reading Empire . . . . We kept up these Tel conversations until about a year before he died. A very gracious guy. Miss him bad.

[MithrasAtDusk]

I agree, drpl! Last Sunday was hard to cope with...

[drplbiftin]

J.G. Ballard was a genius and a gentleman, he will be sorely missed. R.I.P.