Monday, April 20, 2009

R.I.P. J.G.B.

Well, it's not like one couldn't see it coming- J.G. Ballard has been dying of prostate cancer for the last few years; actually, he apparently completed a manuscript on the subject, which one hopes will be released soon.

And yet, it's sad to think that we'll never get to read another new J.G.Ballard novel. There were a few imitators, but nobody who could quite replicate his visionary writing style. He was 78.

3 comments:

irasocol said...

brilliant shit - every one I've read.

Holly said...

I can never quite bring myself to feel sad when authors die old and prolific. On the contrary, I'm a little pleased to think they're getting a tiny extra spurt of laudatory press, which will hopefully result in just a few more people getting into their genius.

Rufus said...

Yeah, Ballard was great. Sometimes you had to accept that his plots were a bit surreal and the characters could be somewhat interchangeable- something he poked fun at by quite often giving them the same first names. It was worth it though for the high level of his prose.

I know what you mean Holly- sad to say, but there are at least a few authors who I've read because I heard how great they were when they died.