Apedia

Ballard Fiction Ballard's Story J G World Mid

Front J. G. Ballard
Back 1930-2009
novelist
as an avant garde science fiction but diversified in the mid 1960s into surreal contemporary fiction
his most successful novel, empire of the sun 1984,
focus on the psychological adaptations, the drowned world 1962 , the drought 1965 , and the crystal world 1966
James Graham Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009)[2] was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist who first became associated with the New Wave of science fiction for his post-apocalyptic novels such as The Wind from Nowhere (1961) and The Drowned World (1962). In the late 1960s, he produced a variety of experimental short stories (or "condensed novels"), such as those collected in the controversial The Atrocity Exhibition (1970). In the mid 1970s, Ballard published several novels, among them the highly controversial Crash (1973), a story about symphorophilia and car crash fetishism, and High-Rise (1975), a depiction of a luxury apartment building's descent into violent chaos.

J. G. Ballard



Ballard in 1993

BornJames Graham Ballard
15 November 1930
Shanghai International Settlement, ChinaDied19 April 2009 (aged 78)
London, EnglandOccupationNovelist, short story writerAlma materKing's College, Cambridge
Queen Mary University of London[1]GenreScience fiction
transgressive fictionLiterary movementNew WaveNotable worksCrash
Empire of the Sun
High-Rise
The Atrocity ExhibitionSpouse

Helen Mary Matthews
(m. 1955; died 1964)

Children3, including Bea Ballard

While much of Ballard's fiction would prove thematically and stylistically provocative,[3] he became best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young British boy's experiences in Shanghai during Japanese occupation. Described by The Guardian as "the best British novel about the Second World War",[4] the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg starring Christian Bale. In the following decades until his death in 2009, Ballard's work shifted toward the form of the traditional crime novel. Several of his earlier works have been adapted into films, including David Cronenberg's controversial 1996 adaptation of Crash and Ben Wheatley's 2015 adaptation of High-Rise.

The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's fiction has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments".[5] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".[6]

Life




Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.

Next card: Baraka amiri black baraka's american plays identity slave

Previous card: Form ballads song french rhyming line common verse

Up to card list: Wordsworth companion to literature by Bahman Moradi