How WEIRD it was
Average science fiction is about the future
Great science fiction is about the now
JG Ballard's science fiction is a mythology of the mid-20th century
A world being paved over by concrete motorways and shopping centres and tower blocks
and waiting for a nuclear armageddon
I read Ballard in the late part of the century. Living in this concrete landscape that we were told was "normal". Ballard showed me how f**king WEIRD it all was
Because Ballard narrated the transition from a real world dreaming of scifi, into a world that had BECOME science fiction.
I wonder what Ballard would have made of Trump. Ballard understood that marketing and advertising were the new politics and now we live in that reality. Trump's America is a nation run as a multi-level marketing scam. Trump's Bribe-coin could be an early Ballard short story.
Full video essay on the Science Fiction channel 🔗👇👇👇👇👇
LINK