Selected Nonfiction, 1962-2007

J.  G. Ballards collected nonfiction from 1962 to 2007, mapping the cultural obsessions, experiences, and insights of one of the most original minds of his generation.

J.  G. Ballard was a colossal figure in English literature and an imaginative force of the twentieth century. Alongside seminal novelsfrom the notorious Crash (1973) to the semi-autobiographical Empire of the Sun (1984) Ballard was a sought-after reviewer and commentator, publishing journalism, memoir, and cultural criticism in a variety of forms. The Selected Nonfiction of J.  G. Ballard collects the most significant short nonfiction of Ballards fifty-year career, extending the range of the only previous collection of his nonfiction, A Users Guide to the Millennium (1996), which selected essays and reviews published between 1962 and 1995.
A decade on from  Ballards death in 2009, a new generation of readers needs a new collection. In the period following A Users Guide, Ballards writing addressed 9/11, British politics from New Labour onward, and what he termed the rise of soft fascisma diagnosis that maintains its relevance amid a shift toward right populism in European and US politics. Beautifully edited by Ballard scholar and novelist Mark Blacklock, this volume includes Ballards editorials and manifestos; commentaries on his own work; commentaries on the work of others; reviews; and more. Above all, it makes the case for the currency of Ballards work at a contemporary juncture at which so many of his diagnoses concerning the media and politics have become apparent.
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