J. G. Ballard
Overview
James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave
movement in science fiction. His best-known books are Crash (1973), adapted into a film
by David Cronenberg
, and the semi-autobiographical Empire of the Sun
(1984), made into a film by Steven Spielberg
, based on Ballard's boyhood in the International Settlement
and internment by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War
.
The literary distinctiveness of his work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary
as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J.
New Wave (science fiction)
New Wave is a term applied to science fiction produced in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a "literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "soft" as opposed to hard science. The term "New Wave" is borrowed from the French...
movement in science fiction. His best-known books are Crash (1973), adapted into a film
Crash (1996 film)
Crash is a 1996 Canadian/British drama thriller film written and directed by David Cronenberg based on the J. G. Ballard 1973 novel of the same name. It tells the story of a group of people who take sexual pleasure from car accidents, a notable form of paraphilia. The film generated considerable...
by David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
, and the semi-autobiographical Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun is a 1984 novel by J. G. Ballard which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story, "The Dead Time" , it is essentially fiction but draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II...
(1984), made into a film by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, based on Ballard's boyhood in the International Settlement
Shanghai International Settlement
The Shanghai International Settlement began originally as a purely British settlement. It was one of the original five treaty ports which were established under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the first opium war in the year 1842...
and internment by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
.
The literary distinctiveness of his work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J.
Quotations
I feel that the surrealists have created a series of valid external landscapes which have their direct correspondences within our own minds.
Conversation with George MacBeth on Third Programme (BBC) (1 February 1967), published in The New S.F. (1969), edited by Langdon Jones
A car crash harnesses elements of eroticism, aggression, desire, speed, drama, kinesthetic factors, the stylizing of motion, consumer goods, status — all these in one event. I myself see the car crash as a tremendous sexual event really: a liberation of human and machine libido (if there is such a thing).
Interview in Penthouse (September 1970)
Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.
"Fictions of Every Kind" in Books and Bookmen (February 1971)