Good grief, what happened yesterday? Everything seems so much more relaxed today. Very strange. Anyway, a thought to help get things back to normal from J. G. Ballard, who reminds us that:
‘Most people do not even grasp the fact that they need information to keep their imagination up to par.’
A need for jumping off points – the more, the better. And of course the starting point determines the destination. It’s not so much look before you leap, as leap from many places at once.
Went to a reading Ballard did a couple of years back, btb – he comes across as an immensely clubbable, affable fellow, and you listen to him for a couple of minutes, and suddenly realise just how sharp and subversive a mind he has. I imagined an alien scalpel of uncertain origin and purpose, potentially lethal if mishandled, cunningly disguised as a double gin and tonic on a Surrey golf club bar.
‘A person’s obsessions are as close to reality as you can get.’
Words to live by.