J.G. Ballard’s life and work contains many incongruities, outraging the Daily Mail and being offered a CBE (which he rejected), and variously appealing to both Spielberg and Cronenberg. In a recent piece, Edmund Gordon unpicks the contradictions and contrarianism in Ballard’s non-fiction writing, and he joins Tom to continue the dissection. They explore Ballard’s strange combination of ‘whisky and soda’ conservatism and the avant-garde, what he was trying to achieve through his fiction, and how ‘Ballardian’ Empire of the Sun really is.Sponsored links:Find out more about Pace Gallery London’s Kiki Kogelnik exhibition here: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/kiki-kogelnik-the-dance/Learn more about Serious Readers: https://try.seriousreaders.com/pages/lrb/Sign up to the LRB's Close Readings subscription:In Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.