image from elbuco

It’s been a hellish start to the week. First we lost the impeccable author and philosopher J.G.Ballard, then we heard the news that Stephen Hawking has been hospitalized. I’d be utterly pissed if we lose him as well.

Here’s a musical selection in his honour and a few obits and stuff, the music is supposedly Ballardian which is an adjective coined in his honour meaning “dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments”. Expect the music to be quite dystopic and dark. R.I.P Ballard the godfather of dystopia and cyberpunk.

Ballard articulates clearly to me the implications of living in an age of total consumerism, of blanket surveillance, of enslavement designed as mass entertainment. Ballardian