tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671167.post113527706495930995..comments2023-10-31T17:13:32.715+01:00Comments on OCTOPUS 99: David Pelham CoversDominic Zerohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14459420315772992316noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671167.post-1135700539224944502005-12-27T17:22:00.000+01:002005-12-27T17:22:00.000+01:00But The Man in the High Castle was trying so hard ...But The Man in the High Castle was trying so hard not to be SF Dick even included a chapter where two characters discuss whether or not a similar book is SF or not. All a bit self-referential (and possibly even egotistical) for my liking.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the cover pics!Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03404701333748291101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671167.post-1135379616885741592005-12-24T00:13:00.000+01:002005-12-24T00:13:00.000+01:00The whole point of Ballard is actually how normal,...The whole point of Ballard is actually how <I>normal, middle-class English</I> he actually is. That's what gives his best work its bite or poignancy....<BR/><BR/>I'd recommend pretty much most of his output, though you could sub-divide his work into 3, maybe 4 distinct phases. Probably one the 10 or so most important and/or influencial writers/thinkers of the 20th century...yeah, no shit.<BR/><BR/>"The Kindness of Women" would've been a potential Nobel Lit Prize winner if he wasn't considered a 'genre' writer for some of his early SF 'disaster' novels, etc (ditto: Dick and "Man in the High Castle")...as it is, it's an absolutely fabulous novel that lays his soul open in a beautifully understated Brit way (move along, there's nothing to see here...); the stuff about losing his wife is so ghastly and banal at the same time that I defy anyone not to be moved by it...I am not Kek-whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06616348388558622213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7671167.post-1135359619583260862005-12-23T18:40:00.000+01:002005-12-23T18:40:00.000+01:00A "friend" of mine forced me to read Crash. Yes, ...A "friend" of mine forced me to read Crash. Yes, knife to throat forced.<BR/><BR/>I had to avoid him for 2 months after he finished the Atrocity Exhibition.<BR/><BR/>What a twisted man Ballard is. Or he's in much better touch with his <I>weird</I> than am I.KOMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00801562785410076164noreply@blogger.com