J.G. Ballard

April 20

J G Ballard died of cancer yesterday at the age of 78. You can find articles on him here, here, here and here.

The Burning World, J.G. Ballard's second novel (1964) was breathtaking in its predictive qualities. It is about a planet that, after centuries of misuse, turns on its occupants and prevents rain (and this concept is being stated 15 years before the publication of books on Gaia Theory, though the science was being developed in the 1960s). Rain stops and the fires begin. Thousands, if not millions, are killed in water wars. But I don't mean to reduce the novel to Ballard's prophetic capacities - in fact The Burning World (first published as The Drought) is so surreal it couldn't be seen to actually represent any realistic world. But it evokes the times that are upon us now more vividly than realism, or science, ever could.

When I interviewed my father, Peter Nicholls, the co-author of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction for this journal a few years ago on the future of science fiction he said: ' Science fiction writers are the hounds of hell, they raise their shaggy black heads and sniff the wind, and feel the future coming. And then they howl.'

Honour Ballard's memory this way. Read The Burning World and then howl.

Update: I found this article on Ballard's unconventional relationship - over a period of 40 years - with Claire Marshall, very moving.

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