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James Graham "J. G." Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009) 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 Shanghai 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. G. Ballard’s novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments."
Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2006, from which he died in London in April 2009.
In 2008, The Times included Ballard on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Ballard's father was a chemist at a Manchester-based textile firm, the Calico Printers' Association, and became chairman and managing director of its subsidiary in Shanghai, the China Printing and Finishing Company. Ballard was born and raised in the Shanghai International Settlement, an area under foreign control where people "lived an American style of life". He was sent to the Cathedral School in Shanghai. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ballard's family were forced to temporarily evacuate their suburban home and rent a house in downtown Shanghai to avoid the shells fired by Chinese and Japanese forces.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese occupied the International Settlement. In early 1943 they began interning Allied civilians, and Ballard was sent to the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center with his parents and younger sister. He spent over two years, the remainder of World War 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 teachers being camp inmates from a number of professions. These experiences formed the basis of Empire of the Sun, although Ballard exercised considerable artistic licence in writing the book, notably removing his parents from the bulk of the story.
It is often supposed that Ballard's exposure to the atrocities of war at an impressionable age explains the apocalyptic and violent nature of 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 experience was more nuanced: "I don't think you can go through the experience of war without one's perceptions of the world being forever changed. The reassuring stage set that everyday reality in the suburban west presents to us is torn down; you see the ragged scaffolding, and then you see the truth beyond that, and it can be a frightening experience." But also: "I have—I won't say happy—not unpleasant memories of the camp. [...] I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on—but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!"
In 1960 Ballard moved with his family to the middle-class London suburb of Shepperton in Surrey. Finding that commuting to work did not leave him time to write, Ballard decided he had to make 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 a foothold as a professional writer, not intending it as a "serious novel"; in books published later, it is omitted from the list of his works. When it was successfully published in January 1962, he quit his job at Chemistry and Industry, and from then on supported himself and his family as a writer.
Later that year his second novel, The Drowned World, was published, establishing Ballard as a notable figure in the fledgling New Wave movement. Collections of his stories started getting published, and he began a period of great literary productivity, while pushing to expand the scope of acceptable material for science fiction with such stories as "The Terminal Beach".
In 1964 Ballard's wife Mary died suddenly of pneumonia, leaving him to raise their three children – James, Fay and Bea Ballard – by himself. Ballard never remarried; however, a few years later his friend and fellow author Michael Moorcock introduced him to Claire Walsh, who became his partner for the rest of his life (in fact he died at her London residence), and is often referred to in his writings as "Claire Churchill". After the profound shock of his wife's death, Ballard began in 1965 to write the stories that became The Atrocity Exhibition, while continuing to produce stories within the science fiction genre.
The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) proved controversial – it was the subject of an obscenity trial, and in the United States, publisher Doubleday destroyed almost the entire print run before it was distributed – but it gained Ballard recognition as a literary writer. It remains one of his iconic works, and was filmed in 2001. Along with the book, he also produced a 75-hour installation for the ICA called The Assassination Weapon, the title of one of the book's chapters, featuring a film about a deranged H-bomber pilot projected simultaneously on three screens to the sound of cars crashing.
Another chapter of The Atrocity Exhibition is titled "Crash!", and in 1970 Ballard organised an exhibition of crashed cars at the New Arts Laboratory, simply called "Crashed Cars". The crashed vehicles were displayed without commentary, inspiring vitriolic responses and vandalism. In both the story and the art exhibition, Ballard explored the sexual potential of car crashes, a preoccupation which culminated in the novel Crash in 1973.
The main character of Crash is called James Ballard and lives in Shepperton (though other biographical details do not match the writer), and curiosity about the relationship between the character and his author gained fuel when Ballard suffered a serious automobile accident shortly after completing the novel. Regardless of real-life basis, Crash, like The Atrocity Exhibition, was also controversial upon publication. In 1996, the film adaptation by David Cronenberg was met by a tabloid uproar in the UK, with the Daily Mail campaigning actively for it to be banned.
In October 2008, before his death, Ballard's literary agent Margaret Hanbury brought an outline for a book by Ballard with the working title Conversations with My Physician: The Meaning, if Any, of Life to the Frankfurt Book Fair. The physician in question is oncologist Professor Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College, London, who was treating Ballard for prostate cancer. While it was to be in part a book about cancer, and Ballard's struggle with it, it reportedly was to move on to broader themes. In April 2009 The Guardian reported that HarperCollins announced that Ballard's "Conversations With My Physician" could not be finished and plans to publish it were abandoned.
More information:
Code:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7010931.J_G_Ballard |
Empire of the Sun series
J.G. Ballard - Empire Of The Sun (read by Gerard Doyle)
J.G. Ballard - The Kindness Of Women (read by David Neal)
Other
J.G. Ballard - The Drowned World (read by Clifford Norgate)
J.G. Ballard - Cocaine Nights (read by Gordon Griffin)
J.G. Ballard - Super-Cannes (read by Gordon Griffin)
J.G. Ballard - The Crystal World (read by Clifford Norgate)
J.G. Ballard - Kingdom Come (read by David Rintoul)
J.G. Ballard - Millennium People (read by David Rintoul)
J.G. Ballard - The Unlimited Dream Company (read by Dylan Lynch)
J.G. Ballard - Rushing To Paradise (read by Jonathan Oliver)
J.G. Ballard - The Voices Of Time (read by Various)
J.G. Ballard - The Disaster Area (read by Arthur Blake)
J.G. Ballard - The Day Of Forever (read by John Livesey)
J.G. Ballard - War Fever (read by Nigel Carrington)
J.G. Ballard - The Complete Stories Of J.G. Ballard (read by Mark Ashby)
Code:
Empire of the Sun series
http://rapidgator.net/file/b339c89601f671cdd81db6592bfa0ebf/Empire_Of_The_Sun.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/ee5fd40871d51442ea5527fe34daf448/The_Kindness_Of_Women.rar.html
Other
http://rapidgator.net/file/1997e15add9dc708b61ad51f2dfe102c/The_Drowned_World.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/7eb194bd1a206bc81e21bee7ae92d834/Cocaine_Nights.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/8145ea0b568cfe00b2c49002f708eacd/Super_Cannes.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/94af12d074007eae7e30177a62bd0b5c/The_Crystal_World.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/4326429c6924208013ed035e8a8a08be/Kingdom_Come.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/f0bbbf57b3dad746c54deee150611f1a/Millennium_People.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/02cdfaff594002dd737eba4792f2ffe2/The_Unlimited_Dream_Company.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/0bd3af5e0262215a042aea356e4e0d6b/Rushing_To_Paradise.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/98a68a9a16f552226dfb2ce0987e09d8/The_Voices_Of_Time.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/509c7c1014b1e829af9baee52faf88d1/The_Disaster_Area.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/4f22895bf04c7f692e23702cc7c8496b/The_Day_Of_Forever.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/cd4da51efea09e2c7a9330252269ec83/War_Fever.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/31f2b7a3b1972123bd83be6d60ab3f80/The_Complete_Stories_Of_JG_Ballard.part1.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/cca20d78b159706bf73d1ba904401b74/The_Complete_Stories_Of_JG_Ballard.part2.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/ffc977e11d21da6eae912390e795340c/The_Complete_Stories_Of_JG_Ballard.part3.rar.html
http://rapidgator.net/file/2e87ee36d7592983f12ccad3508a2551/The_Complete_Stories_Of_JG_Ballard.part4.rar.html |
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