Lysenkoism: A forlorn attempt not merely to colonize the botanical kingdom, but to instill a proper sense of the puritan work ethic and the merits of self-improvement. J. G. Ballard More Quotes by J. G. Ballard More Quotes From J. G. Ballard The twentieth century ended with its dreams in ruins. The notion of the community as a voluntary association of enlightened citizens has died forever. We realize how suffocatingly humane we've become, dedicated to moderation and the middle way. The suburbanization of the soul has overrun our planet like the plague. J. G. Ballard community dream forever My brief stay at the hospital had already convinced me that the medical profession was an open door to anyone nursing a grudge against the human race. J. G. Ballard nursing race doors The car as we know it is on the way out. To a large extent, I deplore its passing, for as a basically old-fashioned machine, it enshrines a basically old-fashioned idea: freedom. J. G. Ballard machines car ideas A kind of banalization of celebrity has occurred: we are now offered an instant, ready-to-mix fame as nutritious as packet soup. J. G. Ballard soup kind fame I believe that if it were possible to scrap the whole of existing literature, all writers would find themselves inevitably producing something very close to SF ... No other form of fiction has the vocabulary of ideas and images to deal with the present, let alone the future. J. G. Ballard vocabulary believe ideas The catastrophe story, whoever may tell it, represents a constructive and positive act by the imagination rather than a negative one, an attempt to confront the terrifying void of a patently meaningless universe by challenging it at its own game. [. . .] Each one of these fantasies represents an arraignment of the finite, an attempt to dismantle the formal structure of time and space which the universe wraps around us at the moment we first achieve consciousness. J. G. Ballard space imagination games For the sake of my children and grandchildren, I hope that the human talent for self-destruction can be successfully controlled, or at least channelled into productive forms, but I doubt it. I think we are moving into extremely volatile and dangerous times, as modern electronic technologies give mankind almost unlimited powers to play with its own psychopathology as a game. J. G. Ballard technology children moving The residents had eliminated both past and future, and for all their activity, they existed in a civilized and eventless world. J. G. Ballard residents past world An arts degree is like a diploma in origami. And about as much use. J. G. Ballard degrees use art Perhaps violence, like pornography, is some kind of an evolutionary standby system, a last-resort device for throwing a wild joker into the game? J. G. Ballard lasts violence games Sleep is an eight-hour peep show of infantile erotica. J. G. Ballard hours eight sleep Their violence (the jungle wars of the '70s), and all violence for that matter, reflects the neutral exploration of sensation that is taking place, within sex as elsewhere and the sense that the perversions are valuable precisely because they provide a readily accessible anthology of exploratory techniques. J. G. Ballard technique war sex I thought it was a wonderfully conceptual act actually, to fire a replica pistol at a figurehead - the guy could have been working for Andy Warhol! J. G. Ballard guy fire war 'What was being on the moon literally like?' [. . .] 'Being on the moon?' His tired gaze inspected the narrow street of cheap jewellery stores, with its office messengers and lottery touts, the off-duty taxi-drivers leaning against their cars. 'It was just like being here.' J. G. Ballard tired car moon After being bombarded endlessly by road-safety propaganda it was almost a relief to find myself in an actual accident. J. G. Ballard relief car safety Elaborate burial customs are a sure sign of decadence. J. G. Ballard burial decadence customs Deep assignments run through all our lives; there are no coincidences. J. G. Ballard assignments coincidence running Maybe you are a poet and a dreamer, but don't you realize that those two species are extinct now? J. G. Ballard dreamer realizing two If you can smell garlic, everything is all right. J. G. Ballard garlic smell ifs The human race sleepwalked to oblivion, thinking only of the corporate logos on it's shroud. J. G. Ballard logos race thinking
