Product Description
Making the case that J. G. Ballard's fictional and non-fictional writings must be read within the framework of Surrealism, Jeannette Baxter argues for a radical revisioning of Ballard that takes account of the political and ethical dimensions of his work. Ballard's appropriation of diverse Surrealist aesthetic forms and political writings, Baxter suggests, are mobilised to contest official narratives of postwar history and culture and offer a series of counter-historical and counter-cultural critiques. Thus Ballard's work must be understood as an exercise in Surrealist historiography that is politically and ethically engaged.Placing Ballard's illustrated texts within this critical framework permits Baxter to explore the effects of photographs, drawings, and other visual symbols on the reading experience and the production of meaning. Ballard's textual spectacles raise a variety of questions about the shifting role of the reader and the function of the written text within a predominantly visual culture, while acknowledging the visual contexts of Ballard's Surrealist writings allows a very different historical picture of the author and his work to emerge. ... Read more

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Cocaine Nights resonates quite neatly withBallard's earlier science fiction and experimental stories. As earlyas The AtrocityExhibition, Ballard was speculating about the salubriouseffects of transgression, and his science fiction novel High Rise alsodeals with the introduction of violence to a self-containedparadise. Cocaine Nights differs from that earlier workprimarily in that it is a naturalistic fiction set in a world that ismuch more ostensibly real, a world that, with a little less detachedtheorizing (even at his most natural, it seems, Ballard cannot helpbut be clinical) on the part of its characters, might even be mistakenfor real. --Ron Hogan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Not vintage Ballard
A retelling of High Rise, the apartment building in a dreary English suburb replaced with an insular retirement community on the Costa del Sol, and the same Lord of the Flies alchemy that this time around doesn't seem to have much gold left in it.While High Rise is so ingeniously plotted that it transcends the absurdity of its premise to say something meaningful, albeit disturbing, about the human condition, Cocaine Nights is tedious and unconvincing, lacking the sense of inevitability that makes the former novel so horrifying and, indeed, delightful.Here the detective story quickly loses interest and momentum.Ballard tries to work out solutions that are not too convenient, but by the time they are revealed the murder mystery is no longer the focus of the story.It's a bit like turning off a (boring) movie to watch the tail end of Scooby-Doo.

I made three false starts on this novel before finally resolving to finish it, convinced that Ballard could do no wrong, but I wish I had followed my hunch from the opening pages that Cocaine Nights was a waste of time.The name of the town where the novel takes place is Estrella de [sic] Mar.If you're writing a novel that takes place in a Spanish-speaking country, you should know that "Estrella de Mar" is not grammatically correct.It's "Estrella del Mar."J.G. Ballard didn't try very hard on this one.

`But to die in bed with his employer's wife showed an excessive sense of duty'
Yes, there is plenty of humour in J G Ballard's caustic dig at British ex-pat life on the Costa Del Sol but despite the claims of `dazzling originality' and `exhilarating imagination' it is instead a good but fairly conventional detective novel, very much in the English vein. Charles Prentice arrives in Estrella Del Mar, an outwardly genteel community of retired British professionals, where his brother Frank has confessed to starting a horrific fire which kills the Hollinger family. Frank was the manager of Club Nautico, the nerve pulse of the community, and nobody believes his confession, not even the police. As the Spanish police are ineffectual and disinterested Charles plunges into some clumsy amateur sleuthing to try and save his brother. However, he discovers that behind the façade of respectability the town is a hotbed of decadence and crime peopled by amoral and feckless egoists.
There is a popular tradition in English writing that enjoys depicting tranquil and genteel rural communities as a veneer for all manner of nefarious and murderous activities. An apposite comparison to Cocaine Nights would be ITV's Midsummer Murders series where deranged psychotics hell-bent on revenge lurk behind twitching net curtains or in watercolour classes. In Estrella Del Mar the principal force for good or for evil - depending on your point of view - is the implausible, floppy-haired, tennis playing Bobby Crawford who doubles as a burglar, high-powered drug dealer and pornographer. Charles is fascinated by the man and his motives and gradually becomes sucked into the dark underbelly of Estrella Del Mar and nearby Residencia Costasol forgetting about his brother languishing in jail.
Cocaine Nights is a pretty fast moving book, crisply written and not too deep, but the author does investigate the link between crime and creativity, demonstrates the danger of unbridled hedonism, and cleverly satirises the brain-dead, security-obsessed gated communities that were springing up in the 1990s.

Good writing saves a weak plot.
A mild ride through the motivations of culture Ballard is so well-known for. His premises: a community needs crime to coalesce into a working, interesting place to live - and - if the community joins together to cover-up a heinous crime that community will thrive successfully.
I don't buy the fact that he necessarily succeeded in his premises, but it was fun to read his attempt.

"Crossing frontiers is my profession."
If there's anything crazier than coffee, it's cocaine, and this novel revels in the cultural effects of the hyperstimulant. Hyperstimulation is my middle name, man, and this book'll hit your frontal lobes like a weekend in Vegas with all the pretty lights. The main character goes on a journey from a wild coastal town in Spain to a massive social experiment carried out by a guy who makes Jim Jones (of the Kool-Aid party) seem like just another evangelist. Ballard crosses every frontier, from the boundries of civilization to the borderline of the sane.

If you like your books hot and twisted, read Rabid: A Novel by Kenyon, Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Johnson, The Pugilist at Rest: Stories by Jones, and Fight Club: A Novel by Palahniuk.

The Bookeater!

Bobby Crawfords biggest fan
an interesting novel about what people are willing to do to create and keep a small community active and interested in life. ... Read more

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Led by a charismatic and slightly unhinged woman, a group of environmentalists wins control over a small atoll in the Pacific and sets up a utopian community.Breeding other threatened species and among themselves, these homesteaders slowly transform an Eden of their own into a much darker place. A savage send-up of environmentalism, feminism, and extremism of all sorts, Rushing to Paradise is also a brave new exploration of that strange territory J. G. Ballard has illuminated over the course of his career.
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Customer Reviews (10)

What a clunker!
Rushing To Paradise reads more like a sub-par novel from Michel Houellebecq or Alex Garland and pales in comparison to almost every other J.G. Ballard title. This one far and away is the worst of the lot. It's not that the writing is bad or that the plot is terrible. It's just that NOTHING ever really goes anywhere, the characters are two-dimensional even more so than is common in Ballard books. In most Ballard books we are confronted with a "normal, professional" person subjected to some sort of extraordinary situation that reveals something about humanity and the world that we live in or one day might find ourselves in. However, in Rushing To Paradise we are given no chemistry for this process to happen. The characters and location never really click making any revelation impossible. Skip this one and read the short Terminal Beach instead, similar set up with a compelling insight that is utterly lacking in this novel.

interesting story but tediously told
About halfway through this book I almost gave up. The characters seemed like sketches of ideas rather than fully formed people. Dr. Barbara, as written, is not charismatic enough to make it believable that all of these people would follow her vision for a second. Even in a satire/fantasy you need some meat on the bones. Neil, as written, is almost invisible. Sadly, he is also astoundingly stupid so that by the end I actually longed for his demise. What kept me reading? The story. It was a very interesting and provocative premise and I wanted to know how it ended. If there had only been some characters I could root for, it would have been a great tale.

Ballard bites off a big chunk with this one
And I'm glad to say it was easy for him to chew.This is a perceptive and actually pretty nasty take on the more extreme ends of enviromentalism and feminism, the points where the former becomes psychosis and the latter becomes sexism of a virulent and violent sort.

What I love most about Ballard is his willingness to probe the darker corners of the human psyche.It's a rare gift to want to explore these places, let alone use them to comment on our society.This is an excellent book and worth your cash!

An important book about Political Correctness.
An extremely important work and one that should be read by anyone interested in the uses of Political Correctness for repression. In ordinarycircumstances a person like Dr. Barbara would either remain harmless orwould swiftly be judged an intellectual fraud and a homocidal maniac. Whatthis woman succeeds in doing, however, is to use the "liberal"predilections of other people against them tocontrive dystopiccircumstances that are extraordinary, putting her outside the possibilityof judgment and allowing her to murder at will. The models for Dr. Barbaraderive from such ancient sources as the myth of the Women of Lemnos andsuch modern ones as Moby Dick: she is a feminist Captain Ahab and isendowed with all of Melville's madman's persuasiveness and executiveskills. A brilliant book, which belongs on the same shellf with Brave NewWorld, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Lord of the Flies.

Not your average book
I really liked Rushing to Paradise and I don't see how it generated such negative reviews; except to say that it IS a "politically incorrect" book.Author Ballard has strange, almost hallucinatory descriptive powers which he delivers in cool, matter of fact language. Above all, the book resonates with a twilight of the gods atmosphere. Maybenot for everyone, but this doesn't make it a bad book.Quite the contrary. ... Read more

Product Description
Over the course of his career, J.G. Ballard has revealed hidden truths about the modern world. The essays, reviews, and ruminations gathered here—spanning the breadth of this long career—approach reality with the same sharp prose and sharper vision that distinguish his fiction. Ballard's fascination for and fixation upon this century take him from Mickey Mouse to Salvador Dali, from Los Angeles to Shanghai, from William Burroughs to Winnie the Pooh, from the future to today.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Ballardophile
Ballard describes this collection of published essays and reviews as a continuation of his fiction "by surreptitious means".Those accustomed to Ballard's imaginative gifts will be pleased to discover them no less diminished in describing the extravagances and banalities of ourfin du monde era.Above all, Ballard's distinctive, fluid flashes markthis book.On Max Ernst's "The Eye of Silence": "Thisspinal landscape with its frenzied rocks towering into the air above theslent swamp, has attained an organic life more real than that of thesolitary nymph sitting in the foreground.These rocks have the luminosityof organs freshly exposed to the light.The real landscapes of the worldare seen for what they are--palaces of flesh and bone that are the livingfacades enclosing our own subliminal consciousness."Ballard's wordsand worldview are always intelligent, if not always welcome.For those whocan keep up, this book offers marvelous vistas.

Continuing Iconography in the World According to Ballard.
In this, the first I believe, collection of J. G. Ballard's non-fiction writings, Ballard is again writing about his favorite themes and obsessions. Dali, Burroughs and Mae West all appear. This time, however, he is writing about them in reality, for book reviews and the like, not as characters and archetypes in a hallucinatory fictional landscape. Despite our knowledge that we a reading an alleged non-fiction collection, the overwhelming presence of the Ballard worldview remains and makes one wonder if perhaps the non-fiction of reality and the imagination of Ballard are more closely linked that we would like to admit. Ballard's prose and style shine through illuminating the seemingly mundane subject matter. Also the careful categorization of the essays/reviews furthers the reader's impression that this is indeed a Ballard collection. The chapter headings of Film, Lives, The Visual World, etc. and titles such as "Hitman for the Apocalypse" adorning the review of a book on Burroughs bring to mind the headers and chronology of The Atrocity Exhibition. This in not necessarily a book for Ballard beginners. Another point of entry would better initiate a reader new to Ballard. But if you are familiar with his work and his common themes and elements, it is fascinating to watch his skill as a writer and constructer as he creates vehicles of ideological validation from Sunday supplement subjects. ... Read more

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Thirty years after the end of America's space programme, the forests and swamps of Florida are still inhabited by people dreaming of space exploration - but space exploration of a new kind. "Myths of the Near Future" is the title story in this collection of science fiction stories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Life at a Tangent
I am not usually a devotee of the short story compilation, but found this collection by Ballard, surely the most cerebral of sci-fi authors, to be utterly compelling. Nine of the works (the tenth "Dead Time"seems oddly out of place here),are complete entities in their own right,but together, compliment each other into creating a bizarre and disturbing,but scarily plausible vision of what humankind is becoming. Civil warerupts in the UK, whilst elsewhere, cyber-recluses fester in their fortresshomes. Folk experiment with practical time travel, living their lives infleeting moments of lucidity,whilst others get married and have familieswith spouses they can never meet. My particular favourite The Smile, ringsfaint echoes of Wilde's Dorien Gray and chilled me to the bone though Iread it on a hot sunny day in my garden. Ballard's visionary style is asinnovative as ever, often employing startling imagery that grabs the readerat a visceral level. Myths will not be to everyone's taste. If, however,you are an adventurous soul, I thouroughly recommend this book which,although parts of which are a quarter of a century old, remains hugelyvalid today. ... Read more

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For centuries, Western writers, historians, and intellectuals have been fascinated by China. In this remarkable book, Frances Wood shows how China influenced literature, memoir, and travel writing from vague Roman tales of silent silk merchants and medieval travelers such as Marco Polo, to Jesuit explorers, French poets, the Bloomsbury Group, and eyewitness accounts of war by Martha Gellhorn, Christopher Isherwood, and J.G. Ballard. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of the role of China in Western literature and culture.

Customer Reviews (7)

Wanted to like it, yessirree
I adore J.G. Ballard's writing and thought "empire of the sun" was one of the best books I ever read.This one however left me a bit blank.It plays with the notion of citizenship and how it is that people can feel more of a community on the basis of where they shop and the forces of consumerism, than they feel for their nation as a whole.It's set not too far in the future, and yet you can see how patriotism and citizenship in England are fraying today and how England's problems in adapting to diversity have the ability to force the nation apart.The themes of this book were very compelling but the characterization was much less so.Hence, the two stars.

The Fascim of Consumerism
Over the years, JG Ballard has often written about inner space and psychology.With his last fiction novel, KINGDOM COME, he's finally moved from having his main character be the observer of someone influencing the social change and breakdown to being the one who is orchestrating it.When Richard Pearson first comes to the town of Brooklands and its shopping Metro-Centre, he's trying to discover who was the shooter behind the mall rampage that killed his father.But after the main suspect is released, Pearson begins to investigate the town leaders and the 24-hour mall itself, finding a strange and lurking culture of consumerism and sports clubs.The more he tries to understand and disassemble it, the more he becomes a part of the expanding and unraveling dystopia.

Dystopia at a Distance
Like some of the other reviewers, I am a J.G. Ballard fan and have read most of what he's written. I consider some of his books to be great--Concrete Island, High Rise, Empire of the Sun--and some of his books to be bizarre--Hello America, Crash. In all of his books except Empire of the Sun, there is a remote feeling to the characters and action, a sort of dystopia at a distance. Sometimes this works well, such as in Concrete Island where this remote feel reinforces the central character's dislocation, but other times this does not work well, such as in Kingdom Come, where the central character seems to be observing his own naiveté from across the street.

Which doesn't mean that the themes of Kingdom Come are not worth the investment of time, just that those who are not regular readers of Ballard will probably struggle with the story and the style. Also, Americans who have not spent time in the UK may not understand all of the fascist references, hooliganism, and sports fervor that exists there. I mean, I've seen some Pittsburgh Steeler fans get pretty rowdy, but nothing on the scale of what English sports fans are capable of. The human race is potentially quite dangerous, Ballard says in an interview for the book. Even along the seemingly placid retail strips and shopping malls of suburban London, violence seethes just below the surface as any urban sense of community involvement and social evolution is replaced by a culture of consumption; shopping as an addiction that is at once insatiable and imminently vacuous and unsustainable. Ballard's scenes of modern retail mayhem seem a bit exaggerated, but then one remembers the crushing, free-for-all havoc that has occurred at Wal Mart stores during pre-Christmas sales and the wanton violence that has occurred around football (soccer) events in the UK.

Ballard's social commentary is right on, but the style of Kingdom Come will be a struggle for some readers.

Intersection of consumerism and fascism
An intelligent friend recently asked me where is the British Don Delillo. I suggested J.G. Ballard. The pairing is not perfect, but like Delillo, Ballard is an archly modern writer, a dweller in the suburban jungles, with his ear close to the ground, following the beat of a strange tom-tom.

Kingdom come deals, as with much of late period Ballard, with the cultural wastelands of M25 commuter towns. As he explains in the novel, this is the real Britain. Sophisticated, metropolitan inner London is a tiny slice of British life. Take the train or, even better, the car, outside the ring road, and you are greeted by a cultural wasteland - commuter towns without libraries, museums, theatres, churches. Barely a cultural edifice between them.

What they do have, is vast shopping malls. The Metro Centre, a giant shopping mall, is the principal character of this novel of ideas. RichardPearson, and advertising executive, starts to investigate the shooting of his father in the shopping mall while he was out buying tobacco. He is led into a labyrinth of telemarketing, cultural brainwash, consumerism and fascism - the sort of lunkenheaded nationalism that sprouts its ugly head whenever England football team qualifies for a major tournament and the summer becomes a sea of George Cross flags hanging out car windows.

A suburban landscape where sports clubs become the dominant cultural pastime (a glowing indicator of a bored society) and race riots erupt against Asians and other ethnic minorities on a daily basis. A future dystopia? Nah, it's pretty much Britain as we know it.

One final word on Ballard. He has recently announced he is suffering from advanced prostate cancer. Kingdom Come, while certainly not his best work, may well be his last novel. If so, we should be grateful to him for what he has done. He is one of the few contemporary writers with the brains, talent, courage and imagination to stare modernity in the face, and bring forth a fascinating fictional output that helps us understand the times we are living through.

The Ideal Atrocity Exhibition
J.G Ballard's new novel Kingdom Come is set in an ultra-modern shopping centre where the consumerist dream of ideal homes and endless sporting events has reached their inevitable apotheosis as a new form of fascism. The shopping centre in question is the fictional Metro-Centre located off the M25, but Kingdom Come could so easily read as an admonitory tale implying a retail dystopia which is very real and somewhat closer to home.
J.G Ballard is the writer of Crash and Empire of the Sun, both of which have been filmed by the `Bergs' (that's Speil and Cronen) and has been described as the `Seer of Sheperton', an `autobahn prophet' and our `greatest living author'. In his 1968 novel The Atrocity Exhibition he predicted that Ronald Reagan would become president of America a good thirteen years before said governor of California achieved assassination status. Certainly no other writer seems to have his finger as firmly on the pulse of the 20/21st century's psycho-sociological state of play.

But with Kingdom Come Ballard appears to be writing the same book as if caught in a time glitch from one of his short stories of the 1950's. His last four novels have all been set within high-concept living environments where the attainment of a perfect life loses out to an inherent will to violence. In the fourth of what I'd call the `modern life is rubbish' "quadrilogy" (Thank you 20th Century Fox) Cocaine Nights, Super Cannes, Millennium People and now Kingdom Come all begin with a seemingly meaningless murder in a perfect enclosed society with an outsider arriving to solve the mystery which turns out to be no real mystery at all because it's always a barely concealed conspiracy involving all the residents; and it's not Ballard's first exploration of ideal living environments which, in `Ballard world', inevitably degenerate into chaos; High Rise was written during his `golden period' in the early 70's, as a reaction to the explosion oftower blocks which threatened to be the de rigor living experience of the future.

This said, even when Ballard doesn't appear to be trying he still urinates from a great height on the likes of your Iain Banks' and Alex Garland's. Which I suppose goes some way to illustrating that the great are only great when they have to be. But Kingdom Come is recommended reading for residents of `designer towns' like Milton Keynes (U.K) and Celebration (U.S) who yearn for meaning in increasingly meaningless times.

Adrian Stranik ... Read more

Product Description
Ballard's books have remained fresh decades after they were first published, and the thoughts collected in J.G. Ballard: Quotes have worn equally as well. Small enough to fit in a pocket, this book brings together J. G. Ballard's trenchant thoughts on music, film, celebrity, the rise of corporate media, the death of reality, and much more. Grouped by topics such as "Sex: Relationships, Sex x Technology equals the Future, Pornography" and "Surrealism, Imagination," these quotes are both concise and clear, and provide a strong beacon for readers who are used to a baffling daily assault of advertisements, phone calls, and e-mails. They are also an excellent resource to help readers better understand Ballard's novels, which stand among the most visionary, provocative literature of the 20th century. A Ballardian glossary, the essay "Guide to Virtual Death," and a bibliography round out this excellent resource. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

self-help guru for the irreparably disaffected
Much as it pains me to do so, I'm forced to give J.G. Ballard: Quotes one fewer star than the five I would have loved to have given it for the simple reason that it's slapdash in comparison with the indispensable RE/Search #8/9 (the Ballard issue): "unknown" is a too-frequent citation; the loving inclusion of every possible permutation of a given quote, culled from decades of interviews, is calculated to appeal to the devout fan only; and the choice of a tacky, inapt cover image---a bilious illustration from the golden age of SF pulps---over one of Ana Barrado's eerie, desolate photos of Ballardian cityscapes is a Class A design crime.

Nonetheless, four stars at least, since this is a bottomless font of insights and inspiration from the incomparable Ballard, a visionary novelist whose black-comedic critique of the postmodern condition is more trenchant, and wittier by far, than anything French philosophy has to offer. Read Baudrillard and Virilio as science fiction and Ballard as philosophy---or, better yet, self-help guru for the irreparably disaffected.

I begin every day with a quote, chosen at random, from this book of daily affirmations---or, more properly, daily negations---and go forth with a spring in my step, intellectually well-armed to do battle with my local megamall, multistory parking garage, gated community, and other Ballardian horrors come to life.

Like a Drug
J.G. Ballard's "Quotes" is one of my favorite books. How does Ballard do it? He offers the starkest insights about Western culture and the psychopathology of the human race, and yet the book is fun, exciting, and totally addictive. The editors have combed all of Ballards books for interesting excerpts, and they have arranged them conveniently into chapters. There is a chapter on Writers and Writing, a chapter on 9/11, a chapter on Beaches, a chapter on William S. Burroughs--it goes on and on. Yes, sometimes there are redundancies, but that did not bother me. In fact, it is interesting to see how Ballard takes an insight or prediction and retools it slightly over time. One of my favorite of his predictions is that in the future, science and pornography will intersect. That may seem obvious to some people now, but Ballard made this prediction in the early 1970's. Another thing this book is good for: getting titles to other interesting books. Ballard reads widely, and he recommends books throughout this volume; some are books I had never heard of. "The Black Box", for instance, contains the transcripts of dialogue between pilots and air-traffic controllers for flights that eventually crashed. Ballard cites one of his favoite books: "The Los Angeles Yellow Pages". He considers this directory a surrealist work. Likewise, the chapter on film is good for some titles: after reading Ballard I returned to "The Road Warrior" and "The Hitcher" (two of my childhood favorites) and saw them in a new, Ballardian light. If you like this one, I would also recommend the book of Conversations with Ballard and "A User's Guide to the Millenium". Of course, "Crash" is not to be missed...

suicide-code
"J.G. Ballard scans the suicide-code of a chemical=anthropoid into the abolition world, as if the drug fetus's modem=heart of the corpse mechanism is aspirated acid." - Kenji Siratori, author of Blood Electric

Is "sex times technology equals the future" the new "E=MC...
RE/Search has compiled the best blips and ramblings from Ballard's extensive body of work, illuminating the uninitiated and re-affirming to the already converted that Ballard is one of the sharpest commentators on the modern world. The book itself is compact and formated for easy digestion during commuting hours or periods in limbo, and each quote is a gem. This book will definitely keep you intrigued and sane on your otherwise dismal journey through the day to day.

Slices of the Future Subconscious
J.G. Ballard has had his fingers on a strange universal pulse for many years, somehow seeing just around the corner in time.His comments, whether in fictional form from his literary characters, or from himself in interviews, are truly unique.

This new collection from Re/Search is like a box of psychopathology candy.Your brain is going to be nibbling on these bits for a long time.The collection draws from his published work, private notes, and interviews.If the usual inspirational sayings leave you feeling rather flat, just open a page of this book and read one at random.Chances are you will be thinking about it the rest of the day.

The quotes are organized into topical sections including (but not limited to) The Future, The Past, Virtual Reality, Celebrity, Death, Film, Art, Technology and Science, America, Airports, Freeways, Swimming Pools, Car Crash, Sex, William S. Burroughs, and reflections by Ballard on his unique life and experiences.

A great book for Ballard fans, those who love to discuss/debate, or anyone who likes to keep their brain dusted off. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Why you want this book
Most of these stories are from the late 1960s; some have not to my knowledge been reprinted since. This represents some of the best English-language literature, let alone fantasy.

Keith Roberts, "Monkey and Pru and Sal"
Norman Spinrad, "No Direction Home"
William Woodrow, "The Meek"
M John Harrison, "The Causeway"
JG Ballard, "Visions of Hell"
BJ Bayley, "Four-Color Problem"
Peter Tate, "Fifth Person Singular"
George Zebrowski & Jack Dann, "Listen, Love"
Thomas Disch, "Feathers from the Wings of an Angel"
Michael Coney, "Monitor Found in Orbit"
Richard Pollack, "Pandora's Bust"
Arthur Sellings, "The Key of the Door"
M John Harrison, "By Tennyson Out of Disney" ... Read more

Product Description
Collection of short stories. ... Read more

Product Description

Mondo Cane in 1962 was the blueprint for a shocking, controversial and influential documentary film cycle. Known collectively as "mondo films" or "shockumentaries," this enduring series of films is a precursor of the reality TV show.

A box-office draw for three decades and now a staple of the video rental market, these explosive exposs would often pass fabricated scenes as fact in order to give the public a sensationalist, highly emotive view of the world.

Sweet & Savage is the first-ever English-language book devoted exclusively to the mondo documentary film. A study of mondo as a global film phenomenon, it includes a detailed examination of the key films and includes exclusive interviews with the godfathers of this cult genre.

Customer Reviews (3)

Some Real Intense Analysis
I'm a Religious Studies student at NYU, and I bought this book to help me research a term paper on the depiction of religious practices in shockumentaries, particularly Mondo Cane. While Goodall's take on the genre's tropes and themes often get bogged down in pedantry, his arguments are deep and intriguing, and it's obvious he took great care when viewing and reading these films. His survey goes far beyond Mondo Cane...pretty much every shockumentary available on US DVD is present here (and then some). It certainly helped me with my paper. Recommended for film and media scholars!

academic study of the mondo movie genre
SWEET& SAVAGE (the title refers to a 1983 Antonio CLIMATI and Mario MORRA directed mondo film of the same name, which is actually quite good) is a great (unfortunately too academic) account of the popular mondo film genre. The name mondo stems from a Tuscean colloquial phrase (a dog's world or a world gone to the dogs), which was used as the title of the film that started it all: MONDO CANE. Helmed in 1962 byGualtiero JACOPETTI and Franco PROSPERI MONDO CANE became an instant world wide success and would spawn a whole genre - the mondo (or shockumentary) movie.
The book is a precise study of the genre. It examines how the shockumentary relates to the classic documentary, exploitation and arthouse film. Often ridiculed by traditional documentary filmmakers and critized for the use of faked material and staged sequences the mondo film nonetheless shares aspects of the documentary film.
Another interesting aspect is the relation between arthouse film and mondo. While mondo films routinely mock modern art (evidenced e.g.in a sequence in MONDO CANE, where famous artist Yves KLEIN is derided for using naked women as "brushs" for painting), the frequent use of a stream of consciousness (anti)narrative or juxtaposing images indicate that the mondo genre is not averse of using arthouse techniques.
I also found the chapter regarding animals in mondo films particularly interesting. One of the more unpleasant aspects of the shockumentary is the frequent depiction of animal cruelty, regularly as social metaphor (c.f. "dog world"), but more often than not as a cheap shock effect.
A wide variety of mondo films are reviewed in detail, ranging from the JACOPETTI/PROSPERI directed classics (MONDO CANE, LA DONNE NEL MONDO, AFRICA ADDIO, GOODBYE UNCLE TOM and MONDO CANDIDO) to the Italian imitations of the 1960ies (like I MALAMONDO and GO! GO! GO! WORLD), cheap US imitations (MONDO FREUDO), the gruesome, but beautifully photographed films directed by Antonio CLIMATI and Mario MORRA with their emphasis on animal suffering (like SAVAGE MAN, SAVAGE BEAST) and parodies (MR. MIKE'S MONDO VIDEO). It goes without saying that FACES OF DEATH is reviewed as well.
I have seen a lot of the movies under review and can assure you that they are spot-on and insightful, e.g. when it is pointed out how immensly the infamous horror movie CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST was inspired by the mondo movie THIS VIOLENT WORLD or the author elaborates on the contributions of famous writer Alberto MORAVIA to several mondo films.
SWEET & SAVAGE is lavishly illustrated with movie stills, posters, lobby cards and pictures of directors. Great!
Another aspect of the book that found favour with me is the appendix on mondo soundtrack, entitled "bittersweet symphonies of death", which is very insightful and full of interesting trivia (for instance, I did not know that the well-known cheesy 1969 hit single"Mah Na' Mah Na'" was composed for the mondo film SVEZIA:INFERNO E PARADISO aka SWEDEN: HEAVEN AND HELL) I also strongly agree with the author's assessment of composer Riz ORTOLANI (academy award nominee for "More", the MONDO CANE title song). ORTOLANI is a true genius; his score for ADDIO ZIO TOM (aka GOODBYE UNCLE TOM) is in my book the best score ever composed for a motion picture, period!
The second appendixisan essay by Mr. Gualtiero JACOPETTI himself, originally written in 1966, nicely accompanied by pictures of the man himself.
My main critism regarding the book is that it is unnecessarily academic, which can be a bit frustrating for the general reader (e.g. "It is this reflexive quality of the mondo film that creates the most transgressive moments, which when refracted through a post-modern aesthetic continues to shock and surprise.", p. 11) I understand the need for more thoughtful writing on genre film than fanboy ravings, but I honestly think that one can write accessibly without compromising the intellectual quality.
Unfortunately the author Mr. GOODALL once or twice veers towards political correctness, e.g. in his review of the movie MONDO CANE 2000, when he complains about the mocking of homosexuals in the film narrative. (PC is out of place in a mondo movie or a mondo review.)
I would also have liked to read more about Mr. JACOPETTI`s life. It is for instance briefly mentioned that WOMEN OF THE WORLD is dedicated to British actress Belinda LEE (Mr. JACOPETTI's girlfriend), unfortunately we are not informed about the car accident that claimed Belinda LEE'S life and left JACOPETTI injured.

Last not least it should be noted that the classic mondos from Gualtiero JACOPETTI and Franco PROSPERI are available in both a beautiful large DVD Boxand in budget price box sets (SHOCKUMENTARIES VOL. 1 & 2) here on amazon. You can read more on the mondo film genre and related subjects in the book KILLING FOR CULTURE. AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF DEATH FILM FROM MONDO TO SNUFF by David KEREKES and David SLATER. I reviewed KILLING FOR CULTURE here on amazon and found it excellent, one of the best film books ever written.

The First Filmbook about the "Mondo"-Genre
"Sweet and Savage" is to my knowledge the first filmbook to the exploitation-genre of the Mondo-Films (Shockumentaries) and the cult around Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi and belongs therefor in any filmbook-collection. Nevertheless improvement is possible (colour pictures, more pictures, better structure, more information) - so let's hope this is not the last work about this underground-filmgenre !
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