Damn you JG Ballard!
Aug. 7th, 2006 03:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skull_bearerYou are a sexist, formularic and incredibly frustrating author. Why do I like you so much???
Sexist because: Mostly due to the attitudes of the time, I can forgive, but it would be nice to see a woman who hasn't got 'compusary love interest' branded on her forehead and who trancends traditional gender roles. He also can't write good romance worth beans I accept it by thinking that it's the release of stress and there isn't anyone else to vent it upon. Still, it gets rather old.
Formularic because: Let's take three of his books as examples-
The Drought- The civilised world ends due to a drought (already read).
The Drowned Land- The civilised worlds ends due to a flood (need to read).
The Wind from Nowhere- The civilised world ends due to a hurricane (nearly finished reading).
Please, am I the only one seeing a pattern here? Has he written one where the civilised world ends due an earthquake to complete the elemental cycle? There are more comparisons- like how the main (male) characters seem to calmly accept their fate in a way that would be annoying if I didn't identify so much. I suppose there is a certain delight in watching everything you've known destroyed, despite the consequences. There's usually a rich eccentric who defies the disaster, and who will probably end up dead at the end (I've not got to that bit yet, but I can see which way the wind's blowing ;) There's also never any real antagonist, unless you count the disaster of the day.
The most aggravating thing is that his books are fairly short, and he never covers what happens after the disaster. I've got only a few more pages left to go, and the wind hasn't slowed yet, so the chance to seeing Ballard describe the society that rises for the ruins is diddly-squat. It was okay in The Drought, since we had an interesting society during the drought, but this book just begs a sequel explaining what happens next. Unlike in The Drought, there is no society, just a bunch of people living underground and most of them are dead anyway.
Despite the fact that this can get rather predictable, I still love the guy. Despite the fact that his books are rather depressing to read, I still keep an eye out for them.
Why?
Because that guy can write, and think up really good situations. When his disasters happen, they are real disasters. When the hurricane tears around the earth, it doesn't just tear up human habitations, it also lifts the topsoil (and now the subsoil, apparently), drains rivers and seas dry and turns the sky a rather depressing black. When the drought happens, Ballard thinks up a very intelligent and interesting alternate society in the dried world.
Anyway, it's three am and I am very, very tired, so I'll shut up now and finish my book.
12/8/06 Edit: Concerning new data obtained by actually reading 'The Drowned Land', all negative comments are now withdrawn. This book is so fantastic I don't know where to start.
Thank you-
Skull Bearer.
Sexist because: Mostly due to the attitudes of the time, I can forgive, but it would be nice to see a woman who hasn't got 'compusary love interest' branded on her forehead and who trancends traditional gender roles. He also can't write good romance worth beans I accept it by thinking that it's the release of stress and there isn't anyone else to vent it upon. Still, it gets rather old.
Formularic because: Let's take three of his books as examples-
The Drought- The civilised world ends due to a drought (already read).
The Drowned Land- The civilised worlds ends due to a flood (need to read).
The Wind from Nowhere- The civilised world ends due to a hurricane (nearly finished reading).
Please, am I the only one seeing a pattern here? Has he written one where the civilised world ends due an earthquake to complete the elemental cycle? There are more comparisons- like how the main (male) characters seem to calmly accept their fate in a way that would be annoying if I didn't identify so much. I suppose there is a certain delight in watching everything you've known destroyed, despite the consequences. There's usually a rich eccentric who defies the disaster, and who will probably end up dead at the end (I've not got to that bit yet, but I can see which way the wind's blowing ;) There's also never any real antagonist, unless you count the disaster of the day.
The most aggravating thing is that his books are fairly short, and he never covers what happens after the disaster. I've got only a few more pages left to go, and the wind hasn't slowed yet, so the chance to seeing Ballard describe the society that rises for the ruins is diddly-squat. It was okay in The Drought, since we had an interesting society during the drought, but this book just begs a sequel explaining what happens next. Unlike in The Drought, there is no society, just a bunch of people living underground and most of them are dead anyway.
Despite the fact that this can get rather predictable, I still love the guy. Despite the fact that his books are rather depressing to read, I still keep an eye out for them.
Why?
Because that guy can write, and think up really good situations. When his disasters happen, they are real disasters. When the hurricane tears around the earth, it doesn't just tear up human habitations, it also lifts the topsoil (and now the subsoil, apparently), drains rivers and seas dry and turns the sky a rather depressing black. When the drought happens, Ballard thinks up a very intelligent and interesting alternate society in the dried world.
Anyway, it's three am and I am very, very tired, so I'll shut up now and finish my book.
12/8/06 Edit: Concerning new data obtained by actually reading 'The Drowned Land', all negative comments are now withdrawn. This book is so fantastic I don't know where to start.
Thank you-
Skull Bearer.
