Tuesday, April 21, 2009

GODDAMN IT: JG BALLARD IS DEAD




i dont normally post non-fiction stuff on here but jg ballard is dead. him, burroughs, bukowski and (lester) bangs were the b-boys, the ones who shaped the development of my writing, my head, my heart, the reason i never got to "c" in the library. goddamn it. i never get sad about the deaths of famous people because i never met them or drank with them or talked with them, but this feels different. saying anything more than that would become mawkish and sentimental, two things that ballard never was (in his writing, at least - again, i never knew the man). but, jesus christ, he was a giant. he rewired the world. we will not see his like again. goddamn it.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's always hard when a writer we love passes away. We don't know them personally but how can we not mourn for someone who has shaped our lives?
The world seems a little less bright without them. A sad day, indeed.

Jason Gusmann said...

yr sweet. it's always so weird to grieve someone you never met, and the strange feelings of not being worthy of those feelings because, again, this wasn't someone close to you or who cared for you directly. im usually pretty unsentimental, but like i said, the man was a giant. there are few left.

Eman said...

You know, the fact that he inspired you that much says that he served a purpose. The thing about writers, they belong to everybody you has read and loved them, cried, when they came to the ending of their book, because they inflect themselves into it. You have every right to mourn him, and I'm sure he would be honored.

I'll have a couple drinks tonight for both of you.

Cheers

Jason Gusmann said...

thank you harmonie. yr kindness is palpable, not only in yr comments but yr work as well. cheers.

Anonymous said...

Who invented this death thing, and why?