Simon Sellars

An existential odyssey weaving together lived experience and theoretical insight, this startling autobiographical hyperfiction surveys and dissects a world where everything connects and global technological delirium is the norm. The mediascapes of late capitalism reconfigure erotic responses and trigger primal aggression; under constant surveillance, we occupy simulations of ourselves, private estates on a hyperconnected globe; fictions reprogram reality, memories are rewritten by the future... Fleeing the excesses of 1990s cyberculture, a young researcher sets out to systematically analyse the obsessively reiterated themes of a writer who prophesied the disorienting future we now inhabit. The story of his failure is as disturbingly psychotropic as those of his magus—J.G. Ballard, prophet of the post-postmodern, voluptuary of the car crash, surgeon of the pathological virtualities pulsing beneath the surface of reality. Plagued by obsessive fears, defeated by the tedium of academia, yet still certain that everything connects to Ballard, his academic thesis collapses into a series of delirious travelogues, deranged speculations and tormented meditations on time, memory, and loss. Abandoning literary interpretation and renouncing all scholarly distance, he finally accepts the deep assignment that has run throughout his entire life, and embarks on a rogue fieldwork project: Applied Ballardianism, a new discipline and a new ideal for living. Only the darkest impulses, the most morbid obsessions, and the most apocalyptic paranoia can uncover the technological mutations of inner space. An existential odyssey inextricably weaving together lived experience and theoretical insight, this startling autobiographical hyperfiction surveys and dissects a world where everything connects and global technological delirium is the norm—a world become unmistakably Ballardian.

Memoir from a Parallel Universe

Applied Ballardianism

John Ryan

George Dunford

Lonely Planet's guide to self-proclaimed nations takes a curious look at some of the most curious places on the planet. This is a fully illustrated, humorous mock-guidebook to the nations that people create in their own backyards--most of which can be visited. The Republic of Molossia, for example, can be found at 226 Mary Lane, Dayton, Nevada, and was formed in 1977 under the auspices of the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which recognizes that all people have the right to self-determination. It is headed by His Excellency, Keven Baugh (b. 1962) and has a population of four.While Micronations is tongue-in-cheek, it is also informative and good reading, profiling a global selection of micronations, complete with facts and figures, cultural information, things to see and do, getting there and away, and full colour photographs and maps. Interviews provide insight into the quirky characters who've set themselves up as presidents, emperors and serene highnesses.

Micronations

Kalsari Jones is hooked on the Vexworld, a global mixed-reality network. Repulsed by his erotic attraction to AI, he allows his brain to be rewired, leaving him with unwanted telepathic powers and a new enemy: an angry band of rogue AI.

Code Beast

Lonely Planet

Sarah Baxter

Adam Skolnick

Andrew Bender

Emily Matchar

Christopher Pitts

Lisa Dunford

Regis St Louis

Alison Bing

Amy C Balfour

Karla Zimmerman

Brendan Sainsbury

Paul Bloomfield

Nate Cavalieri

Sara Benson

Tom Hall

Mariella Krause

Mark Andrew

Alex Leviton

Inside Lonely Planet's Experience USA you'll travel through sprawling cities, small towns, great plains, snow-capped mountains and redwood forests, road-tripping down the Pacific Coast Highway, learning how to spot a bear in the wild, and discovering where to find the country's best music, bourbon, barbeque and more.

Lonely Planet Experience USA

Ballardismo applicato

Simon Sellars

About

Books

Join the club