SOURCE: Brigg, Peter. “Recent Short Fiction, 1970-1982.” In J. G. Ballard, pp. 77-95. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House Inc., 1985.

In the following essay, Brigg discusses “the obsessive quality” of Ballard's later short stories.

Ballard's recent short fiction consists of twenty-five stories and fragments, most of which have been collected in the volumes Low-Flying Aircraft (1976) and Myths of the Near Future (1982). It is a mixed body of writing: some of it highly experimental and innovative and some of it echoing old themes and styles. Ballard can undoubtedly be charged with repeating himself, but most artists—whether graphic, verbal, or musical—explore and expand upon basic lines of development throughout their careers. It is just particularly obvious in the case of Ballard because of the obsessive quality of his themes and scenes.

While all of Ballard's late fiction is dominated by images of mythic proportion, usually closely tied to the...