Walsh thinks of Ballard as two distinct personalities: there was Jimmy, the man who sat on her sofa reading the papers, playing with her cats, and there was JG, the novelist, who would sometimes retreat into himself. “Most of the time with Jimmy you weren’t going all that deep, but he set aside times for JG, as it were. He stopped watching television a long time ago, he never listened to the radio, and he didn’t like music. He liked quiet. In those moments if I asked him what was on his mind, he would just say: I am thinking about my life.”

For a while, I’ve been clicking links in the web and following various pages about Ballard. The above is from an interview with Claire Walsh, Ballard’s partner, in the Guardian.

It’s strange, I think, to watch the articles and reprints of his work burst out after his death. There’s some drama, of course, in that the New Yorker and the Guardian both published short pieces, without acknowledging the reprints–the drama seems to be part of a desire to claim Ballard by literary establishments, but I might be wrong there, and truthfully, I’m not too fussed either way. But it’s strange to watch the way people talk about him, as if by dying, Ballard gave himself over to the public, and the analysing of his life and work has a hint of being something of a celebratory autopsy, with excitement arising when the heart is found.

As tributes to the late, great JG Ballard continue to roll in from all quarters, his publisher has quietly cancelled publication of what would have been his final book.

HarperCollins had planned to bring out the non-fiction title, which would have been an account of Ballard’s discussions with his doctor, this September. But the author, suffering from cancer, was too ill to work on it, and plans for Conversations with My Physician – subtitled The Meaning, If Any, of Life – were abandoned.

“We had agreed the terms but Jim became too ill last winter to start any work on it,” said his editor Clare Reihill. “He had written a wonderful, quite detailed proposal - the book was laid out, he knew exactly what he was going to do, but sadly he became too ill to do any more so unfortunately it won’t happen.”

Miracles of Life, the autobiography he published last year and for which demand has surged in the days since his death, would be his final book, Reihill said. “In the final chapter he does tell us that it is his last book, and it sadly turned out to be the case after all.”

It was too early, she said, to know if there were other unfinished novels or manuscripts that Ballard had left behind. “It would be wonderful of course, but he was such a meticulous man that I imagine everything was left in the way he intended it to be.”

Link.

I just got an email from Dj, which ended with, “Am I living next to an illegal brothel?”

Some days, I miss having a comic

I have, of late, been toying with the idea of doing something new on the blog for a while. I haven’t yet come up with anything yet, so don’t hold your breath, but there’s an itch in the back of my head, and that’s usually the first sign of my desire to do something. I think it might be motivated by the fact that it has been feeling a bit stale around here, and part of that, I think, is due to me just being busier than usual with the real world. The business of writing (which is, I assure you, not writing) has taken up more than I like, which is frustrating, but something that has to be dealt with. But it’s gotten me thinking about doing something new, having a bit of fun, maybe upsetting a few people. I’m not quite sure yet, but I’m thinking–thinking–I might do another set of linked dialogue pieces, much like I did for the first ones, four years ago. That, incidentally, was a bit of a shock to discover: that four years have passed since I dragged Dj out into the streets dressed up like Jesus so he could pretend to steal a car.

Of course, the only camera I have nowadays is on my phone, and I haven’t the money to buy a new one. Still, that’s workable, and I would like to do something, even if I haven’t figured out yet quite what I should do. Give me a bit, though, and my mind will click over.

I couldn’t tell you why, but I bought a box of these a few weeks ago, absurdly pleased that they still exist. You should always have room in your life for a gaytime.

An English teacher marking the exam that Black Sheep appeared in came by and left the official questions:

Dear Mr Peek,
I’m an English teacher correcting the exams on your book at the moment.

The exact questions were:

1. Outline the protagonist’s situation, his crime and the consequences as presented in the extract from the novel.

2. Analyse the way the totalitarian state is portrayed in this excerpt from the novel Black Sheep. Consider narrative perpsective, atmosphere, interaction and language.

3.1 In this future state “Multiculturalism [is seen as] a most heinous crime” (l. 13). Against the background of this view discuss the problems and chances of multiculturalism. Refer to your knowledge of multicultural societies today and to the film “East is East”.

or

3.2 A publishing house is planning an anthology of dystopian literature. Write a letter to the person in charge in which you recommend this extract as an excellent example of a dystopian text. Support your views with your knowledge of dystopian literature and current events.

Text: Ben Peek, Black Sheep, London: Prime Books, 2007, p. 9-11

All the best
C

I told a couple of people about this on the weekend, and the first thing I was asked by everyone was, ‘Did you get paid for that?’

In other news, it seems that I’m going to be the guest of honour at a dinner in a couple of weeks. It’s happening out at UNSW, which is where I picked up my PhD, and I’m fairly sure I’m a last minute replacement, but I’ve never actually been a guest of honour before, and it ought to be good for a laugh. Apparently I have to give a speech, and I was thinking that maybe I’d just talk for a while about the fact that I paid seventeen fifty for a film last week and that I’m thinking of starting a campaign wherein I write to movie stars and demand my cash back. Or, maybe I’ll come up with something different. Either way I have a bit of time to come up with something to say to a room full of people who won’t know who I am. Perhaps I’ll pretend to be an astronaut.

Or perhaps I’ll write an apology to German students who got stuck with questions about Black Sheep.

Apparently, it is true: an extract from Black Sheep has appeared in a literacy test in Germany.

Hey Ben,

it’s right, what Lisa said. In the final exams for the subject “English basic course” you can choose two topics:
One was a globalization text and the other one was your dystopian novel. I chose it ;-). It was the extract, where Isao is send to prison.
Tasks:
1.) You should write the situation of Isao and what his crime was.
2.) Analyse the extract (atmosphere, language etc.)
3.1) Write a comment with the today’s problem with Multiculturalism.

That’s cool, innit? I always thought it’d be really lame to have a book involved in any kind of English department around the world, but I guess I got to admit that it’s pretty cool to have folk forced to read my work. Though I guess I’m a bit sorry that it inspires such questions.

I wonder how it even made it to an exam, though? I mean, the book hasn’t been published in Germany and it doesn’t have any distribution in the country it was published. I don’t think I would ever have put money on the copies that got sold making it to Germany and someone who designs exams, but it’s a strange and cool world, and however it got there is alright by me.