tremendous book. ignore bunbury's uninformed rant about existentialism (if indeed that was directed at a previous Celine reader as I got the impression it was, if not I apologise).

yea i was kinda in a french mood before celine it was sartre* i dunno there just something i dig about early 20th century french writing their thoughts on war as if the charcters were mere observers rather than being soliders its wicked hip
*i think i spelled it wrong

I haven't read that one yet but I have read a fair few of Ballards other books (about 5 of them...I haven't kept track) and he is generally pretty ace. The Atrocity Exhibition I would rate as one of his best. And perhaps most obtuse. Super Cannes was also really nice.

I think I am going to read Djinn by Alain Robbe-Grillet next.

Poetry, Language, Thought - Martin Heidegger

Atrocity Exhibition is my friend's favourite novel of all time. I found it great but a bit taxing at times... we named some of our songs by opening Atrocity Exhibition and selecting arbitrary phrases... came out with Beach Fatigue and Dead Planetarium... High Rise is the best thing I've read of his so far.. unless it really starts to suck at the end but I doubt it will

Lew N. Tolstoj - How Much Land Does a Man Need

I don´t like it very much so far.

I need to read that one. I am a pretty big David Cronenberg fan so any comparison to Shivers interests me. And obviously there are plenty of similarities between Cronenberg and Ballard I think. Not least the fact that Cronenberg obviously adapted Crash (which I still haven't read)

Alas, my local library is pretty lame when it comes to their selection of JG Ballard stuff.

I end up reading about 4 books at once usually. At the moment its 'Yes: Yoko Ono' retrospective I got for xmas, A Clockwork Orange and a book on radiohead.

I went to the opening of stars, deaths and disasters (Cronenberg's co-curated Warhol exhibit at the art gallery of ontario), to see him speak and I was a little disappointed. It was a really good exhibit, but he just slanted all the interpretations of non-death/disaster works to fit into his theme, which annoyed me a little.

read harold bloom's "the anxiety of influence" which will explain what cronenberg was doing

--

by the way, miss, i attempted to read that book you posted

EAT THE DOCUMENT

but i couldn't get into it.

well i lack the time & focuse these days, so i don't blame her.

did you finish? you think is worth the effort of a 2nd charge?

oh. just did chapter 1.

see i think i have a problem w/ american. what should i call it. realism?

i need writers who drink deep from kafka et. al.

but i'll give it a try again. maybe this weekend. thanks.

What book? If there's one thing I'm keen on, it's free books. Obviously, an actual hard copy would be preferable but you can't be fussy when something is free.

i got mine at the library. i do pay taxes!

Actually, I had forgotten how good David Cronenberg is until yesterday. I rewatched eXistenZ and enjoyed it for the Nth time. I thought I was burnt out on him (haven't got round to seeing History of Violence yet even) but I guess I still have a lot of time for him. I wrote my dissertation about his films...I thought that had killed any enjoyment I might have of his stuff but it hasn't at all. Actually, I just found my dissertation in a box today...my my, what pseudo intellectual tosh.

Oh, I thought you meant posted a link to a text file on the internet or something. I just looked and my library has it 'on order'. I have a pile of books that have been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read....I might stick that one in the queue.

sorry, not special.

I got my Cindy Sherman/POP culture/Identity paper back today.

Comment read:

CONvoluted!

well youre not an academic so don't worry.

don't let those eggheads kill your joy.

CONvoluted?

ugh, but the plan is to become a monsterous version of susan sontag.