Sunday, January 11, 2009

Quote- Unquote

''… one has many layers, many levels of experience going on at the same time. On one level one might have the world of public events, Cape Kennedy, Vietnam, political life, on another level the immediate personal environment, the rooms we occupy, the postures we assume. On a third level, the inner world of the mind. All these levels are, as far as I can see them, equally fictional, and it is where these levels interact that one gets the only kind of valid reality that in fact exists nowadays.''
-J.G. Ballard, describing better than I could something I've tried to describe here.

2 comments:

Holly said...

JG Ballard is my articulation hero. Ever seen his thing about how airports and other transit hubs are the last bastion of functional community in the first world?

It's not necessarily TRUE, but it's certainly a compelling model.

Anonymous said...

Oh, absolutely. I really like Ballard, even though his books can get a wee bit repetitive. At some point in the near future I plan to post about an article on Ballard that Theodore Dalyrimple recently wrote.