From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBornJames 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 ExhibitionSpouseHelen Mary Matthews (m. 1955; died 1964)Children3, including Bea BallardJames Graham Ballard (15 November 1930 - 19 April 2009 was an English novelist, shortstory writer, and essayist who first becameassociated with the New Wave of science fiction for his post-apocalyptic novels such asThe Wind from Nowhere (1961) and The Drowned World (1962). In the late 1960s, he produced a varietyof experimental short stories (or "condensednovels"), such as those collected in the controversial The Atrocity Exhibition(1970).In the mid 1970s, Ballard published severalnovels, among them the highly controversial Crash (1973), a story about symphorophilia andcar crashfetishism, and High-Rise (1975), adepiction of a luxury apartment building's descentinto violent chaos.While much of Ballard's fiction would provethematically and stylistically provocative, hebecame best known for his relatively conventionalwar novel,Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young Britishboy's experiences in Shanghai during Japanese occupation.Described by The Guardian as "the best Britishnovel about the Second World War", thestory 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 thetraditional crime novel.Several of his earlier works have beenadapted into films, including David Cronenberg'scontroversial 1996 adaptation ofCrash and Ben Wheatley's 2015 adaptation of High-Rise.The literary distinctiveness of Ballard'sfiction has given rise to the adjective"Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive ofthe conditions described in J. G. Ballard'snovels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapesand the psychological effects of technological,social or environmental developments". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as beingoccupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies"ShanghaiBallard's father was a chemist at a Manchester-based textile firm, the Calico Printers' Association,and became chairman and managing directorof its subsidiary in Shanghai, the China Printingand Finishing Company His mother was Edna, néeJohnstone.Ballard was born and raised in the Shanghai International Settlement, an area under foreigncontrol where people "lived an American styleof life". He was sent to the Cathedral School, the AnglicanHoly Trinity Church near the BundShanghai After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ballard's family were forced to evacuate theirsuburban home temporarily and rent a house incentral Shanghai to avoid the shells fired byChinese and Japanese forces.After the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, theJapanese occupied the International Settlementin Shanghai.In early 1943, they began to intern Alliedcivilians, and Ballard was sent to the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center with his parents andyounger sister.He spent over two years, the remainder of WorldWar II, in the internment camp.His family lived in a small area in G block, a two-story residence for 40 families.He attended school in the camp, the teachersbeing camp inmates from a number of professions.As he explained later in his autobiography Miracles of Life, these experiences formed thebasis of Empire of the Sun, although Ballardexercised considerable artistic licence in writingthe book, such as the removal of his parentsfrom the bulk of the story.It has been supposed that Ballard's exposureto the atrocities of war at an impressionableage explains the apocalyptic and violent natureof much of his fiction. Martin Amis wrote that Empire of the Sun "gives shape to what shaped him." However, Ballard's own account of the experiencewas more nuanced:"I don't think you can go through the experienceof war without one's perceptions of the worldbeing forever changed.The reassuring stage set that everyday realityin the suburban west presents to us is torndown; you see the ragged scaffolding, andthen you see the truth beyond that, and itcan be a frightening experience." But also: "I have-I won't say happy-notunpleasant memories of the camp. [...]I remember a lot of the casual brutality andbeatings-up that went on-but at the sametime we children were playing a hundredand one games all the time!" Ballard laterbecame an atheist.Britain and CanadaIn late 1945, after the end of the war, hismother returned to Britain with Ballard andhis sister on the SS Arawa.They lived in the outskirts of Plymouth, andhe attendedThe Leys School in Cambridge.He won an essay prize whilst at the schoolbut did not contribute to the school magazine. After a couple of years his mother and sisterreturned to China, rejoining Ballard's father, leaving Ballard to live with his grandparentswhen not boarding at school.In 1949 he went on to study medicine atKing's College, Cambridge, with the intention ofbecoming a psychiatrist.At university, Ballard was writing avant-garde fiction heavily influenced bypsycho-analysis and surrealist painters.At this time, he wanted to become a writeras well as pursue a medical career.In May 1951, when Ballard was in his secondyear at Cambridge, his short story "The Violent Noon", a Hemingwayesque pastichewritten to please the contest's jury, won a crimestory competition and was published in thestudent newspaper Varsity.Encouraged by the publication of his story andrealising that clinical medicine would not leavehim time to write, Ballard abandoned his medicalstudies, and in October 1951 he enrolled at Queen Mary College to read English Literature. However, he was asked to leave at the endof the year.Ballard then worked as a copywriter for anadvertising agency and as an encyclopaediasalesman.He kept writing short fiction but found it impos-sible to get published.In spring 1954 Ballard joined the Royal Air Force and was sent to the Royal Canadian Air Force flight-training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,Canada.There he discovered science fiction inAmerican magazines. While in the RAF, he also wrote his first sciencefiction story, "Passport to Eternity", as a pasticheand summary of the American science fiction hehad read.The story did not see publication until 1962.Ballard left the RAF in 1955 after thirteenmonths and returned to England. In 1955 he married Helen Mary Matthews andsettled in Chiswick, the first of their threechildren being born the following year.He made his science fiction debut in 1956 withtwo short stories, "Escapement" and "PrimaBelladonna", published in the December 1956issues of New Worlds andScience Fantasy respectively. The editor of New Worlds, Edward J. Carnell, would remain an important supporterof Ballard's writing and would publish nearly allof his early stories.From 1958 Ballard worked as assistant editoron the scientific journal Chemistry and Industry. His interest in art led to his involvement inthe emerging Pop Art movement, and in thelate fifties he exhibited a number of collages that represented his ideas for a new kind ofnovel.Ballard's avant-garde inclinations did not sitcomfortably in the science fiction mainstreamof that time, which held attitudes heconsidered philistine.Briefly attending the 1957 Science Fiction Convention in London, Ballard left disillusionedand demoralised and did not write anotherstory for a year.By the late 1960s, however, he had becomean editor of the avant-garde Ambit magazine, which was more in keeping with his aestheticideals.Full-time writing careerIn 1960 Ballard moved with his family to themiddle-class London suburb of Shepperton inSurrey, where he lived for the rest of his lifeand which would later give rise to his monikeras the "Seer of Shepperton". Finding that commuting to work did not leavehim time to write, Ballard decided he had tomake a break and become a full-time writer.He wrote his first novel, The Wind from Nowhere,over a two-week holiday simply to gain afoothold as a professional writer, notintending it as a "serious novel"; in bookspublished later, it is omitted from the list of hisworks. When it was successfully published inJanuary 1962, he resigned from his job at Chemistry and Industry, and from then onsupported himself and his family as a writer.Later that year his second novel, The Drowned World, was published, establishingBallard as a notable figure in the fledgling New Wave movement of science fiction.Collections of his stories started getting published,and he began a period of great literary productivity,while pushing to expand the scope of acceptablematerial for science fiction with such stories as"The Terminal Beach".
J. G. Ballard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBornJames 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 ExhibitionSpouseHelen Mary Matthews (m. 1955; died 1964)Children3, including Bea BallardJames Graham Ballard (15 November 1930 - 19 April 2009 was an English novelist, shortstory writer, and essayist who first becameassociated with the New Wave of science fiction for his post-apocalyptic novels such asThe Wind from Nowhere (1961) and The Drowned World (1962). In the late 1960s, he produced a varietyof experimental short stories (or "condensednovels"), such as those collected in the controversial The Atrocity Exhibition(1970).In the mid 1970s, Ballard published severalnovels, among them the highly controversial Crash (1973), a story about symphorophilia andcar crashfetishism, and High-Rise (1975), adepiction of a luxury apartment building's descentinto violent chaos.While much of Ballard's fiction would provethematically and stylistically provocative, hebecame best known for his relatively conventionalwar novel,Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young Britishboy's experiences in Shanghai during Japanese occupation.Described by The Guardian as "the best Britishnovel about the Second World War", thestory 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 thetraditional crime novel.Several of his earlier works have beenadapted into films, including David Cronenberg'scontroversial 1996 adaptation ofCrash and Ben Wheatley's 2015 adaptation of High-Rise.The literary distinctiveness of Ballard'sfiction has given rise to the adjective"Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive ofthe conditions described in J. G. Ballard'snovels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapesand the psychological effects of technological,social or environmental developments". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as beingoccupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies"ShanghaiBallard's father was a chemist at a Manchester-based textile firm, the Calico Printers' Association,and became chairman and managing directorof its subsidiary in Shanghai, the China Printingand Finishing Company His mother was Edna, néeJohnstone.Ballard was born and raised in the Shanghai International Settlement, an area under foreigncontrol where people "lived an American styleof life". He was sent to the Cathedral School, the AnglicanHoly Trinity Church near the BundShanghai After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ballard's family were forced to evacuate theirsuburban home temporarily and rent a house incentral Shanghai to avoid the shells fired byChinese and Japanese forces.After the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, theJapanese occupied the International Settlementin Shanghai.In early 1943, they began to intern Alliedcivilians, and Ballard was sent to the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center with his parents andyounger sister.He spent over two years, the remainder of WorldWar II, in the internment camp.His family lived in a small area in G block, a two-story residence for 40 families.He attended school in the camp, the teachersbeing camp inmates from a number of professions.As he explained later in his autobiography Miracles of Life, these experiences formed thebasis of Empire of the Sun, although Ballardexercised considerable artistic licence in writingthe book, such as the removal of his parentsfrom the bulk of the story.It has been supposed that Ballard's exposureto the atrocities of war at an impressionableage explains the apocalyptic and violent natureof much of his fiction. Martin Amis wrote that Empire of the Sun "gives shape to what shaped him." However, Ballard's own account of the experiencewas more nuanced:"I don't think you can go through the experienceof war without one's perceptions of the worldbeing forever changed.The reassuring stage set that everyday realityin the suburban west presents to us is torndown; you see the ragged scaffolding, andthen you see the truth beyond that, and itcan be a frightening experience." But also: "I have-I won't say happy-notunpleasant memories of the camp. [...]I remember a lot of the casual brutality andbeatings-up that went on-but at the sametime we children were playing a hundredand one games all the time!" Ballard laterbecame an atheist.Britain and CanadaIn late 1945, after the end of the war, hismother returned to Britain with Ballard andhis sister on the SS Arawa.They lived in the outskirts of Plymouth, andhe attendedThe Leys School in Cambridge.He won an essay prize whilst at the schoolbut did not contribute to the school magazine. After a couple of years his mother and sisterreturned to China, rejoining Ballard's father, leaving Ballard to live with his grandparentswhen not boarding at school.In 1949 he went on to study medicine atKing's College, Cambridge, with the intention ofbecoming a psychiatrist.At university, Ballard was writing avant-garde fiction heavily influenced bypsycho-analysis and surrealist painters.At this time, he wanted to become a writeras well as pursue a medical career.In May 1951, when Ballard was in his secondyear at Cambridge, his short story "The Violent Noon", a Hemingwayesque pastichewritten to please the contest's jury, won a crimestory competition and was published in thestudent newspaper Varsity.Encouraged by the publication of his story andrealising that clinical medicine would not leavehim time to write, Ballard abandoned his medicalstudies, and in October 1951 he enrolled at Queen Mary College to read English Literature. However, he was asked to leave at the endof the year.Ballard then worked as a copywriter for anadvertising agency and as an encyclopaediasalesman.He kept writing short fiction but found it impos-sible to get published.In spring 1954 Ballard joined the Royal Air Force and was sent to the Royal Canadian Air Force flight-training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan,Canada.There he discovered science fiction inAmerican magazines. While in the RAF, he also wrote his first sciencefiction story, "Passport to Eternity", as a pasticheand summary of the American science fiction hehad read.The story did not see publication until 1962.Ballard left the RAF in 1955 after thirteenmonths and returned to England. In 1955 he married Helen Mary Matthews andsettled in Chiswick, the first of their threechildren being born the following year.He made his science fiction debut in 1956 withtwo short stories, "Escapement" and "PrimaBelladonna", published in the December 1956issues of New Worlds andScience Fantasy respectively. The editor of New Worlds, Edward J. Carnell, would remain an important supporterof Ballard's writing and would publish nearly allof his early stories.From 1958 Ballard worked as assistant editoron the scientific journal Chemistry and Industry. His interest in art led to his involvement inthe emerging Pop Art movement, and in thelate fifties he exhibited a number of collages that represented his ideas for a new kind ofnovel.Ballard's avant-garde inclinations did not sitcomfortably in the science fiction mainstreamof that time, which held attitudes heconsidered philistine.Briefly attending the 1957 Science Fiction Convention in London, Ballard left disillusionedand demoralised and did not write anotherstory for a year.By the late 1960s, however, he had becomean editor of the avant-garde Ambit magazine, which was more in keeping with his aestheticideals.Full-time writing careerIn 1960 Ballard moved with his family to themiddle-class London suburb of Shepperton inSurrey, where he lived for the rest of his lifeand which would later give rise to his monikeras the "Seer of Shepperton". Finding that commuting to work did not leavehim time to write, Ballard decided he had tomake a break and become a full-time writer.He wrote his first novel, The Wind from Nowhere,over a two-week holiday simply to gain afoothold as a professional writer, notintending it as a "serious novel"; in bookspublished later, it is omitted from the list of hisworks. When it was successfully published inJanuary 1962, he resigned from his job at Chemistry and Industry, and from then onsupported himself and his family as a writer.Later that year his second novel, The Drowned World, was published, establishingBallard as a notable figure in the fledgling New Wave movement of science fiction.Collections of his stories started getting published,and he began a period of great literary productivity,while pushing to expand the scope of acceptablematerial for science fiction with such stories as"The Terminal Beach".