J.G. Ballard - The Short Fiction Concordance

concordance (n.) An alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts.

     

link to concordance

     
     


Particularly in his short work, Ballard has always experimented with the form of his fictions; fiction as book index, as questionnaire, as psychiatric report. This concordance of Ballard's short works is part of a project to 'decode' the work using some of Ballard's own techniques — as he says:

'...the open-ended character of my fiction requires the reader himself to make a significant contribution. I'm offering a kit with which the reader, using my books as a sort of instructional manual (fit nozzle A into socket B, and you'll hear a loud whirring noise, which is the cosmos getting through to him).'

The concordance is based on all the material in the one-volume Complete Short Stories (Flamingo 2001) together with the following stories from The Atrocity Exhibition:
The Atrocity Exhibition
The Assassination Weapon
Crash!
The Death Module
The Great American Nude
Love and Napalm: Export USA
Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy
The Summer Cannibals
Tolerances of the Human Face
The University of Death
You: Coma: Marilyn Monroe
You and Me and the Continuum

Eventually I hope to extend the concordance to the complete works.
link to concordance

Note
In the main panel of the concordance, the contexts are in page order (thus approximate chronological order) as taken from The Complete Short Stories. However, the page numberings for the extra Atrocity Exhibition stories are taken from the 1990 Re/Search edition with 2000 added to differentiate them from the Complete stories.
The contexts are also given a code indicating which story they come from, the key is below.

Made with the help of Concordance - Mike Bonsall - April 2007

 
             
   
13C Thirteen to Centaurus (1962)
60Z The 60 Minute Zoom (1976)
AD The Air Disaster (1975)
AE The Atrocity Exhibition (1966)
AJK The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race (1966)
ATQ Answers to a Questionnaire (1985)
AW The Assassination Weapon (1966)
B Billennium (1961)
BM The Beach Murders (1966)
C Chronopolis (1960)
CA The Comsat Angels (1968)
CC The Concentration City (1957)
CHC Cry Hope, Cry Fury! (1967)
CRA Crash! (1969)
CS The Cage of Sand (1962)
CSC The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D (1967)
DA The Dead Astronaut (1968)
DC Dream Cargoes (1990)
DE Deep End (1961)
DF The Day of Forever (1966)
DFW My Dream of Flying to Wake Island (1974)
DG The Drowned Giant (1964)
DM The Death Module (1967)
DS The Delta at Sunset (1964)
DT The Dead Time (1977)
E Escapement (1956)
EG End-Game (1962)
GA The Gentle Assassin (1961)
GAN The Great American Nude (1967)
GT The Garden of Time (1962)
GTN The Gioconda of the Twilight Noon (1964)
GTS The Greatest Television Show on Earth (1972)
GVD A Guide to Virtual Death (1992)
HFF A Host of Furious Fancies (1980)
HWT Having A Wonderful Time (1978)
I The Index (1977)
ICU The Intensive Care Unit (1977)
IM The Illuminated Man (1964)
IO The Insane Ones (1962)
KG The Killing Ground (1969)
LCC Love in a Colder Climate (1989)
LDG The Life and Death of God (1976)
LFA Low-Flying Aircraft (1975)
LL The Lost Leonardo (1964)
LNE Love and Napalm: Export USA (1968)
LTP The Largest Theme Park in the World (1989)
LW The Last World of Mr Goddard (1960)
M69 Manhole 69 (1957)
M99 The Man on the 99th Floor (1962)
MA Motel Architecture (1978)
MF Mr F. is Mr F. (1961)
MFM The Message from Mars (1992)
MNF Myths of the Near Future (1982)
 
MO Minus One (1962)
MSA Memories of the Space Age (1982)
MWM The Man Who Walked on the Moon (1985)
NFS News from the Sun (1981)
NTM Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown (1976)
NWS Now Wakes the Sea (1962)
NZ Now: Zero (1959)
OAU One Afternoon at Utah Beach (1978)
OM The Overloaded Man (1961)
OOA The Object of the Attack (1984)
PAJ Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy (1967)
PB Prima Belladonna (1956)
PCD Prisoner of the Coral Deep (1964)
PE Passport to Eternity (1962)
PTD A Place and a Time to Die (1969)
QR A Question of Re-Entry (1962)
R The Recognition (1967)
RE The Reptile Enclosure (1962)
ROP Report from an Obscure Planet (1992)
RUS Report on An Unidentified Space Station (1982)
S The Smile (1976)
S5 Studio 5, The Stars (1961)
SA The Sudden Afternoon (1962)
SBS Storm-Bird, Storm-Dreamer (1966)
SC The Summer Cannibals (1969)
SG The Screen Game (1962)
SGW Say Goodbye to the Wind (1970)
SM The Subliminal Man 63 (1962)
SS The Sound-Sweep (1960)
T12 Track 12 (1958)
TB The Terminal Beach (1964)
TDS The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista (1962)
TES The Enormous Space (1989)
THF Tolerances of the Human Face (1969)
TIM The Impossible Man (1966)
TMY Tomorrow is a Million Years (1966)
TP Time of Passage (1964)
TSS The Singing Statues (1962)
TT The Time-Tombs (1962)
TW Theatre of War (1977)
UC The Ultimate City (1976)
UD The University of Death (1968)
VD The Volcano Dances (1964)
VH The Venus Hunters (1962)
VS Venus Smiles (1957)
VT The Voices of Time (1960)
WF War Fever (1989)
WG The Waiting Grounds (1959)
WIW Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan (1968)
WT The Watch-Towers (1962)
WW3 The Secret History of World War 3 (1988)
YCM You: Coma: Marilyn Monroe (1966)
YMC You and Me and the Continuum (1966)
Z20 Zodiac 2000 (1978)
ZT Zone of Terror (1960)