People Who Died: J.G. Ballard

J.G. BALLARD, 1930 - 2009, R.I.P.

I was very bummed to find out after coming back from Palm Springs that the English author J.G. Ballard died in London on April 19 of prostate cancer. Ballard was not only the author of the 1984 book Empire of the Sun, based on his own experiences of a WWII internment camp under the Japanese in China, which was adapted into the 1987 Steven Spielberg film starring Christian Bale, but he was also a hardcore sci-fi visionary, whose disturbing take on things is often summed up in the mainstream by his 1973 novel, Crash. For a lovely article on just how out-there Ballard's visions could get, and how he could really piss people off, check out Salon.

Crash, a story of car crash sexual fetishism, on which The Normal's 1978 song "Warm Leatherette" was based, was also adapted into a 1996 film by David Cronenberg that still upsets and perplexes folks to this day. I love the twisted originality of this story and another uniquely artistic voice bites the dust.

I'm putting up this 2006 live cover of "Warm Leatherette" by Nine Inch Nails featuring Peter Murphy of Bauhaus in tribute to the one and only Ballard. R.I.P.