“China-born English writer Ballard (Empire of the Sun; Crash) wrote nonfiction in addition to his novels and short stories…This volume of nonfiction, edited by literary scholar and novelist Blacklock (The Emergence of the Fourth Dimension), spans decades and covers topics like consumerism, Salvador Dalí, science fiction, future technology, civilization, and everyday ironies. The book is arranged by type of document (essays, reviews, commentaries), and the materials in each chapter are thus arranged chronologically. Ballard provides fascinating cultural criticism; he notes in 1962 that the U.S. population will likely be bored by space exploration, as real-life astronauts are not fitted with the robots and machines customary in a Buck Rogers adventure. Ballard excels at intriguing juxtapositions of items and ideas, a surrealism in prose form. A general introduction brings biographical context to Ballard’s life and work, and each chapter provides a contextual framework for the pieces within…An eclectic collection of essays for scholars of 20th-century literature.”
—Library Journal
“If everything for Ballard is fiction, what makes for inclusion in a selection of his nonfiction? Aware of his challenge, Blacklock hopes to ‘illuminate the full range of Ballard’s activities as a reviewer, essayist, journalist, commentator, memoirist, provocateur, compiler of lists, and talking head.’ He achieves this handsomely.”
—The Times Literary Supplement
“Ballard is exceptionally prescient, capturing a world that didn’t yet fully exist or wasn’t visible to most.”
—ArtReview
“As George Orwell died in January 1950 and J. G. Ballard began to publish professionally in 1956 we can describe the first as the greatest author of the twentieth century, and Ballard as the greatest author of the second part of the twentieth.”
—The Orwell Society
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