J G Ballard on Alien and H R Giger

leading from

 Alien:Afterthoughts 
and
J G Ballard

a) Within the locality
World famous writer, J G Ballard, lived in Shepperton where the famous Shepperton film studios were located, and in the Kings Head pub hotel less than a mile from where Ballard's house was, the famous Swiss Surrealist artist H R Giger lived for several months back in 1978 while he worked on the movie Alien and J G Ballard was living in his semi detached house there at the same time as well and continued to live there.

b) JG Ballard, HR Giger and Alien 

b.i) When Ballard thought very little of the Alien movie
In 1984, a book "Re/Search no. 8/9" about him was published, JG Ballard had been interviewed and talked about film, he was asked about his view on to Blade Runner, and then he mentioned Alien, a film that he said he disliked,  so for a while, it seemed as if he didn't like this film at all

That year, David Pringle editor for Interzone magazine wrote to Ballard to query about a rumour he heard about that he had been offered the job of novelising Alien, and on 26th of February, Ballard wrote back stating that he was quite right , and it was when the shooting had just been completed, and someone had  brought the script over to from New York. He knew nothing about the film, he wasn't shown the film and when he read the script, he liked it even less. At the time it struck him as an unoriginal horror movie with almost no connection with science fiction. They offered him $20,000 but he found it easy to turn down. He found the film to be very glossy but empty at its centre.

But the truth be told, his own past experiences with Hammer films had put him off Science Fiction movies, he wrote a treatment for When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth, and so he saw them to be bad enough without having to novelise them, although he wouldn't have mind doing the novelisation for a scifi film like Alphaville.

b.ii) What Ballard was up to at the time
At the time of Alien's pre-production, J G Ballard was finishing off his 'Unlimited Dream Company' turning the town of Shepperton into a hallucinatory pandemonium, and during the production in 1978 he was writing occasional short stories such as "Zodiac 2000" and "Motel Architecture", and by the time that Alien came out, he was working on his novel 'Hello America.' set in 2114 AD which might be said to be a similar sort of time to when Alien is set but indeed a different sort of story completely. A plot summary states about the book "A century after America’s financial collapse and the climactic upheavals of the 1990s, Wayne stows away on SS Apollo, bound for the New World on a voyage of rediscovery. He and the crew encounter hazards at every turn and ghosts from the past as they travel West. In Las Vegas, roaming bands of Mexican teenagers welcome them to the citadel of late 20th century glitter. Their charismatic leader — a William Burroughs look-alike addressed reverently as President Charles Manson — invites Wayne into hs cybernetic stronghold. But suddenly the erratic president takes fright at Wayne’s alien presence and threatens to play deadly war games with an arsenal of leftover Titan warheads. Now it’s not just the Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe holograms that are at risk…"(Carroll & Grad 1981 edition)

b.iii) Ballard begins to think again
In 1987, he wrote a review for American Film saying " Alien is a tour de force of pure horror, a barrage of brutal eruptions (some literally so) that obscure the existence, behind the blood and terror, of an extremely elegant s-f film. Returning to Earth, the crew of the Nostromo is diverted to a remote planet and there unknowingly picks up the alien organism, which then proceeds to metamorphose its way through the cast until defeated by the courage and wiles of Sigourney Weaver, the s-f film's first feminist heroine. While all this is going on one has barely a pause to notice a host of fine details: the claustrophobic world of the spaceship, with its fraying camaraderie; the entropy of long voyages, time slowing down so that a brief conversation seems to last all day; the stylish interior of the Nostromo, a cross between a computer terminal and a nightclub; the final appearance of the alien, an insane mesh of ravenous teeth straight from the paintings of Francis Bacon that materializes just after Weaver strips down to her underwear. Dinner, fortunately, is delayed , at least until a sequel"

b.iv) Unoriginal horror film transforms into one of the most original horror films
In 1990, he talked about the matter the Alien novelisation in an article in the Independent (which was republished in his book A User's Guide to the Millenium in 1996) Someone thought about J G Ballard being someone ideal to write the novelisation for the film, he was approached but declined and the final book was written by Alan Dean Foster, he wasn't at all happy about the script that he felt outlined a hackneyed story about a malevolent stowaway with dialogue that rarely rose above "Chow-time. Where's Dallas? 'Topside.' 'Uh-huh'. However when the film came out, what amazed him was that not that someone decided to film the script but that he had been able to make a movie based on script with such empty dialogue. And so what seemed to him like one of the most unoriginal horror movies ever made back in 1984 had transformed into one of the most original horror movies ever made for him and the throwaway dialogue perfectly set off the terrifying vacuum that expanded around the characters. He compared the stylish Nostromo interior to a computer terminal crossed with a nightclub and compared the final appearance of the alien with something from a painting by Francis Bacon and this film would eventually appear in his top ten of scifi movies.

Island of the Dead (fifth version) by Arnold Böcklin

b.v) Faux "David Cronenberg’s Alien — Novelization by J.G. Ballard"

Such was the fascination in the idea of an Alien novelisation by J G Ballard, that in 1993, on page 5 of #70, Interzone magazine still edited by David Pringle, announced a competition for the for the best short extract from an imaginary novelization of the science-fiction movie Alien as it might have been written by leading British novelist J.G. Ballard. The prize was a copy of the new edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (ed. Clute & Nicholls), . The response, for what was quite a demanding competition, pleased the magazine: over a dozen good entries were received. The clear winner, however, was Lyle Hopwood, who performed a clever double-twist: she not only reimagined the novelization as having been written by Ballard (rather than Alan Dean Foster), but she reimagined the film itself as having been directed by David Cronenberg (rather than Ridley Scott) and in the style of his movie Videodrome which came out back in 1983. (Click here to read the Lyle Hopwood's David Cronenberg’s Alien — Novelization by J.G. Ballard)


b.vi) Paul Laville questioned Ballard on Alien
In 1995, Paul Laville asked Ballard about the fact that in Re/Search it looked as if he didn't like Alien, and Ballard was able to clear the matter up, perhaps not realising what he must have said in the RE/Search interview but he actually was talking about Ridley Scott's Blade Runner film which left too little to the imagination and the sets didn't convince him, while Alien he found totally fine and convincing.  

vii) Ballard asked about Giger
See HR Giger's Homage To Böcklin

HR Giger's homage to Arnold Böcklin's Island of the Dead

b.viii) Giger admires Ballard's writings
In 1997. HR Giger was mentioned in an interview with the Italian version of SFX magazine that JG Ballard was his favourite author

b.ix) Alien in Ballard's Top Ten Sci-fi films
In 2005, in his top ten scifi films for the Independant, Ballard mentioned Alien with few statements borrowed and rewritten from his previous review,  that "This is a tour de force of pure horror in which Sigourney Weaver plays science fiction's first feminist heroine."  but instead of stating that the creature came from the paintings of Francis Bacon, he was able to declare that "The alien came from the imaginings of the Swiss designer HR Giger."

c) Loose Comparisons
Sometimes comparisons between their work have been offered such as by James Verniere in an introduction to an interview with J G Ballard for Twilight Zone magazine back in 1988. In 2012, Telegraph film reviewer Sukhdev Sandhu compared Giger's aesthetic to being a tacit dialogue with other pioneering work of the late Sixties and early Seventies such as JG Ballard's novel Crash. James Verniere, in his forward to his writeup of his interview with J G Ballard for the June 1988 issue of Twilight Zone mentioned that  "Like Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, Ballard sees the twentieth century as a horrible, post-nuclear mutation - the monstrous offspring of that "rough beast" that slouched - not to Bethlehem - but to Hiroshima to be born." 

d) See also: Alien vs Shivers vs High-Rise and Alien vs High-Rise

Quote sources

1. J G Ballard: Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979): This is a tour de force of pure horror in which Sigourney Weaver plays science fiction's first feminist heroine. The alien came from the
   imaginings of the Swiss designer HR Giger. (The Independent, March 2005) 
2. SFX: In che rapporti è con la lettertura di fantascienza? Quali sono i suoi autori preferiti?
   HR Giger: Ballard, senza dubbio. Ballard su tutti!
   Googletranslation:
   SFX: What's your relationship with the Literature of Science Fiction? What are your favorite authors?
   HR Giger: Ballard, no doubt. Ballard of all! (Cinema SFX #9, Gennaio 1997)
3. Paul Laville: I read in the Re/Search special that you disliked Blade Runner and Alien, two of the most influential sf films of the past few decades.
   JG Ballard:I didn't care for Blade Runner. The sets looked unconvincing and I didn't believe any of it. Alien however was a very fine film, totally  convincing.  (Interview by letter, July 1995)
4. J G Ballard: Years ago I was offered the chance to do the novelisation of a film then being made by a leading British director. The script outlined a hackneyed story about a malevolant stowaway, with dialogue that rarely rose above 'Chow-time. Where's Dallas?.' 'Topside.' 'Uh-huh.' What amazed me was not that someone had decided to film this script, but that he had been able to form any idea of the finished movie from those empty lines. Yet the film was Alien, one of the most original horror-movies ever made, and the throwaway dialogue perfectly set off the terrifying vacuum that expanded around those characters. (Independent on Sunday, 1990, republished in A User's Guide To The Millenium, 1996, p4)
5. James Verniere: Like Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, Ballard sees the twentieth century as a horrible, post-nuclear mutation -- the monstrous offspring of that "rough beast" that slouched -- not to Bethlehem -- but to Hiroshima to be born. (Twilight Zone, June 1988) 
6. J G Ballard: Alien is a tour de force of pure horror, a barrage of brutal eruptions (some literally so) that obscure the existence, behind the blood and terror, of an extremely elegant s-f film. Returning to Earth, the crew of the Nostromo is diverted to a remote planet and there unknowingly picks up the alien organism, which then proceeds to metamorphose its way through the cast until defeated by the courage and wiles of Sigourney Weaver, the s-f film's first feminist heroine. While all this is going on one has barely a pause to notice a host of fine details: the claustrophobic world of the spaceship, with its fraying camaraderie; the entropy of long voyages, time slowing down so that a brief conversation seems to last all day; the stylish interior of the Nostromo, a cross between a computer terminal and a nightclub; the final appearance of the alien, an insane mesh of ravenous teeth straight from the paintings of Francis Bacon that materializes just after Weaver strips down to her underwear. Dinner, fortunately, is delayed , at least until a sequel (American Film, 1987, republished in A User's Guide To The Millenium, 1996 p22)
7. Re/Search: The movie Blade Runner was supposed to be representative of Hong Kong.
   JG Ballard: From Philip K Dick's novel, directed by an Englishman, Ridley Scott; who made Alien, a film which I disliked a lot. In a lot of these blockbuster SF movies that come out of Hollywood - the Star Wars type of movie - they leave out the imagination. (Re/Search no 8/9, p17, 1984)
8. Sukhdev Sandhu: The mechanistic precision of Giger's aesthetic owes a great deal to his training in architecture and industrial design. It appears to be in tacit dialogue with other pioneering work of the late Sixties and early Seventies such as JG Ballard's novel Crash. (www.telegraph.co.uk/ 4th June 2012) 
9. James Verniere: Allusive, obsessive, fetishistic, and often full of pseudoscientific imagery, Ballard's fiction reveals a world where sex, the family, even the evolutionary process, have fallen prey to entropy. Like Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, Ballard sees the twentieth century as a horrible, post-nuclear mutation - the monstrous offspring of that "rough beast" that slouched - not to Bethlehem - but to Hiroshima to be born. And despite the inherent (and often petulant) strangeness of J.G. Ballard's fiction, the worlds he creates are hauntingly familiar. (Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Magazine,  June 1988)
10. David Pringle: Good stuff, Dom. Here's another quote for you... Ballard wrote to me on 26 February 1984, in reply to a query I'd made about a rumour I'd heard, namely that he'd been offered the job of novelizing _Alien_:
    
    "You're quite right about my being offered the novelization of Alien ‑‑ the shooting of the film had just been completed, at Shepperton I think, but someone brought the script over from New York. I knew nothing about the film, which I was never shown, and when I read the script I liked it even less. It struck me as an unoriginal horror movie with almost no connection with sf. They offered me $20,000 but it was surprisingly easy to turn down ‑‑ the film is very glossy, but empty at its centre. Anyway, my experiences with Hammer had put me off sf movies ‑‑ bad enough without having to novelize them, though I wouldn't mind doing the novelization of Alphaville, or even Huston's Moby Dick or Hawks's Big Sleep (Welles's Macbeth would pose some problems)." (e-mail sent to the JG Ballard forum at Yahoogroups in response to Wmmvrrvrrmm's post about this page here, 12th June 2014) 
11. On page 5 of Interzone 70 we announced a competition for the best short extract from an imaginary novelization of the science-fiction movie Alien as it might have been written by leading British novelist J.G. Ballard. The prize is a copy of the new edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (ed. Clute & Nicholls), kindly provided by publishers Little Brown/Orbit. The response, for what was quite a demanding competition, pleased us: over a dozen good entries were received. The clear winner, however, was Lyle Hopwood, who performed a clever double-twist: she not only reimagined the novelization as having been written by Ballard (rather than Alan Dean Foster), but she reimagined the film itself as having been directed by David Cronenberg (rather than Ridley Scott).(Interzone 75, September 1993)
12. JG Ballard: The dominant image people still have of science fiction is that provided by visual sources. This is the sad thing: it's still Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien and so on ... But I can now look back over 25 years and see that the climate has changed. Everyone doesn't automatically think of SF as being nothing but Star Wars; there's a small percentage who have realised that it's capable of producing a genuine speculative fiction about the present day. This is as you'd expect: so many mainstream writers have gone into SF -- Anthony Burgess, Kingsley Amis, William Burroughs, Doris Lessing -- that I think people are gradually beginning to realise that the sort of freedoms available to, let's say, Huxley and Orwell and Wells are available to writers now, and that one doesn't have to write within the narrow format of fifties American SF; that SF isn't just Heinlein and Asimov and Poul Anderson. ( vector96_magazine, 1979_january)
13. Roger Luckhurst: The team had finally come together. Alien was shot in sixteen weeks at Shepperton Studios, west of London, between July and October 1978, on the sound stages where Star Wars and Superman had been filmed. It is the town where science-fiction writer J G Ballard lived, then at work on the feverish fantasy of The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) which turns Shepperton into a weird zone of eroticism and death, and just beyond the tangle of roads that featured in Ballard's piece of sex-and-death provocations, Crash (1973). (Alien( BFI film classics))
14. Wmmvrrvrrmm: Just noticing that a reference to Ballard living in Shepperton at the time of Alien’s filming managed to get into the BFI book about Alien. 
I wonder if this BFI book author read my blog.
Then author mentions that Ballard would have been feverishly writing his Unlimited Dream Company in 1978
    David Pringle: Thanks for that, Dom.
According to the manuscript held (anomalously) at the University of Texas, Ballard completed his second draft of _The Unlimited Dream Company_ (341 typescript pages) in March 1978.
So I doubt he was still "feverishly writing" the book when he was approached to do a possible novelization of _Alien_.
 According to what Wikipedia has to tell us, _Alien_ was filmed over 14 weeks from 5 July to 21 October 1978. Principal photography took place at Shepperton Studios, while model and miniature work was done 30 miles away at Bray Studios. ... Editing and post production work on the film took roughly 20 weeks to complete.
    David Pringle: The book that JGB was actually engaged in writing while _Alien_ was shooting and in post-production, was _Hello America_.
    Wmmvrrvrrmm: And to be fair to Professor Luckhurst, I should add that he said "It is the town where science fiction author J G Ballard lived, then at work on the feverish fantasy of the Unlimited Dream Company” rather than my misreading that "he was feverishly working",  but still it was the wrong book

    David Pringle:  On second thoughts, no, I'm wrong about this. Sorry. I was getting confused between 1978 and 1979. JGB didn't start writing _Hello America_ until 1979. He was writing it when I interviewed him in June of that year. So at the time of filming of _Alien_ he was in a period between novels -- and writing the occasional short story (e.g. "Zodiac 2000" and "Motel Architecture"). (jgh@yahoogroups.com,4th April 2015)