J.G. Ballard on RE/Search
J.G. BALLARD: “I’m glad too that you’re an admirer of Vale and his remarkable publishing house — he has produced an amazing series of books over the years and kept the flag of independent publishing flying during a very difficult time — the most consistently interesting publisher in America, without a doubt.” [“Well, THANKS, J.G. BALLARD — you’re the most consistently interesting writer in the known world!” – V. Vale]
J.G. Ballard on V. Vale and RE/Search Publications
The original Search & Destroy one could spend hours reading. It was full of new and exciting material.
(From S.F. Eye, 1991.)
Vale, the San Francisco publisher of the RE/Search series – with excellent volumes on Burroughs and Gysin, and the Industrial Culture Handbook – is a one-man information satellite beaming out a stream of fascinating things.
(From Paris Review, 1984.)
I’m stunned by what an extraordinary and important publishing enterprise the Re/Search books and Search & Destroy have been — a life-line for the imagination almost suffocated to death by the huge eiderdown of bourgeoise culture. Your books feed the desperate imagination.
(From a personal letter to V. Vale, 1987)
JGB on Search & Destroy
I’m stunned by what an extraordinary and important publishing enterprise the Re/Search books and Search & Destroy have been — a life-line for the imagination almost suffocated to death by the huge eiderdown of bourgeoise culture. Your books feed the desperate imagination.
– J.G. Ballard
The original Search & Destroy one could spend hours reading. It was full of new and exciting material.
– J.G. Ballard (From S.F. Eye, 1991.)
J.G. Ballard on RE/Search books
(Excerpted from personal letters and faxes from Ballard to V. Vale)
High Priest of California by Charles Willeford:
A totally hard-edged and unsentimental fiction.
Pranks:
Pranks is absolutely fascinating – remarkable source material for any experimental psychologist. It crosses the whole spectrum from mere pranks and practical jokes into concept art and the shaky foundations of a lot of everyday reality, and beyond that into pure psychopathy, in a few cases. One of your very best books yet.
Pranks 2:
Hilariously funny, but thought-provoking. A perfect example of Vale's urban anthropology at its best.
Industrial Culture Handbook:
Packed with fascinating material, and as always beautifully produced and designed. A real insight into what links these artists and their obsessions.
Modern Primitives:
Modern Primitives is a stunning compilation, so densely packed with strange material that all adds up to something much more than a succession of mere weirdnesses — the human body as its own extreme metaphor, or the body as an extreme metaphor of its own mind. A real terminal document.
The Torture Garden:
Extraordinary. I loved the illustrations, done with all the sophistication I take for granted from RE/Search, with their strange washed-out light and postures that might be out of some 1930s novel.
Angry Women:
I was tremendously impressed by Angry Women — brilliant interviewing that went way beyond the usual enquiries into feminist topics. A great piece of publishing.
JGB Quotes:
I can’t resist dipping into it to find out what I think.
Quotes from J.G. Ballard: Conversations, 2005
In Vale’s J.G. Ballard Conversations (2005), there are countless examples of Ballard and Vale discussing ongoing book projects and coming up with ideas, including phone conversations discussing the creation of The Atrocity Exhibition in the RE/Search edition.
I’ve signed a helluva lot of RE/Search books in New York, Miami, Chicago, and in my trips around here [San Francisco] – I’ve signed hundreds of the RE/Search volumes.
(May 1988 interview with V. Vale)
My impression is that the RE/Search series, particularly the later ones – Pranks and Incredibly Strange Films – are being recognized for what they are, as brilliantly original. I think you’re going to be profiled in the New York Times…
(May 1988 interview with V. Vale)
I loved the introduction in your previous book, and all the introductions to the other wonderful books you’ve made. Incidentally, your last publication, Modern Primitives, was extraordinary. That was an amazing book – that was a genuine work of modern urban anthropology. It was incredible. You could have been Margaret Mead going to Samoa – it was the equivalent of that. And it was never voyeuristic. It was an extraordinary book, beautifully conceived and researched in such depth. That’s what’s so wonderful about all your publications: the depth of them – they just go on and on. Where most books end, yours are just about beginning. I mean they really are very, very impressive. You’ve produced really amazing books; there’s no question about that.
(From a 1990 telephone conversation about the preparation of the RE/Search edition of The Atrocity Exhibition.)
The RE/Search #8/9: J.G. Ballard book is an incredibly impressive effort; everybody here says so, too. Very impressive layout-wise; it’s beautifully designed. My reaction to it was, ‘This writer sounds interesting, who is he?’
(From a 1985 interview at J.G. Ballard’s home)