bed

I've been a bit sicky and so have spent quite some time in bed over the past few days. At first i was so sick that all i could do was moan, and sweat and try to sleep but now i'm much better - just a little weak. In an attempt to make this situation a little more interesting i decided to invite a man in to bed with me.....J G Ballard!

Ballard and I have had a thing going on for a few years now. His science fiction is some of the best i have ever read. There have been art projects, struggles with his neuroses and revisitations of old texts. When i was in the library i happened across his autobiography and decided to take him home with me.

Rhys Tranter puts it just right in his review on the blog A Piece of Monologue : Ballard's themes feel more like obsessions, constantly recurring through the body of his work, like the neurotic symptoms of a psychoanalytic patient....Ballard's novels appear to chart the 'inner-space' of protagonists who are undergoing profound mental trauma, defined in the context of post-war Western society: a culture defined by the mass media, celebrity, consumerism and advanced technology.

But thats his novels, and this is his autobiography which, thus far is certainly no less gripping. You can see from Ballards young boy eyes the kinds of atrocities and 'culture gone crazy' that he will later draw on for inspiration in his works of fiction.

I Love how a good book can take you to another world without even having to leave your bed!