Third interview with J. G. Ballard

At Ballardian, the third and last of my re-translations of interviews with Ballard. ‘Der Visionär des Phantastischen’ comes from a German collection of essays on Ballard published in 1985, which makes that collection the first (and still the only) scholarly collection on Ballard’s work. It’s curious how quickly the Germans fastened onto Ballard’s importance: the Munich Round Up interview, a transcript of a TV interview, was very possibly only Ballard’s second interview ever given.

This interview seems either to be exceptionally well-edited or to be the result of a fortunate patience on the part of the interviewers, who are happy to let Ballard talk without interruption. Though the themes are well-worn – pornography, punk, LSD – the conversation still detours into more intriguing areas, particularly where Ballard disavows any influence of William Burroughs, and describes the difference between their approaches to ontology and the novel.

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