As noted all over the Internet this morning: J.G. Ballard has died.

This is a sad day for science fiction fans the world over. As a writer, Ballard produced some of the most unique, harrowing fiction of his day, and he will be sorely missed.

My introduction to his work came about, oddly enough, through a Doctor Who story which was based heavily on a the Ballard novel, High-Rise. (I recommend it, if you haven’t read it already.) From there I was guided to one of his short story collections, called Atrocity Exhibition, probably his most famous work besides Crash.

You remember the movie version of Crash, surely. The film that explored the erotic dimensions of automobile crashes, with scars by Georgia O’Keefe? The book also inspired a song called “Warm Leatherette”, which was eventually covered by Grace Jones as the title track of her second album.

Also: Ballard wrote a short piece entitled “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan,” (full text here) again using the imagery of auto-wrecks in his work.