Ballard, J.G.

Ballard, J.G.

▪ British author
born Nov. 15, 1930, Shanghai, China

      British author of science fiction set in ecologically unbalanced landscapes caused by decadent technological excess.

      The son of a British business executive based in China, Ballard spent four years of his boyhood in a Japanese prison camp near Shanghai during World War II. This experience is recounted in his largely autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun (1984; film, 1987). The devastated city and nearby countryside also provided settings for several of his apocalyptic novels. He attended King's College, Cambridge, but left without a degree. His first short stories appeared in the 1950s. Beginning in the 1960s, Ballard wrote longer works, including the well-known The Drowned World (1962), The Wind from Nowhere (1962), The Burning World (1964), and The Crystal World (1966).

      With the gory images of his surreal short stories in The Atrocity Exhibition (1970; also published as Love and Napalm: Export U.S.A.), Ballard began writing of dehumanized sex and technology at their most extreme. His novels Crash (1973), Concrete Island (1974), and High Rise (1975) depict 20th-century middle-class people devolving into savagery. Contrasting with this apocalyptic vision of the future were his almost wistful short stories about the decadent technological utopia Vermilion Sands; these were collected in Vermilion Sands (1971). Ballard's stylistic debts to Joseph Conrad are evident in his novel The Day of Creation (1987). Later works include the short-story collection War Fever (1990) and the novel The Kindness of Women (1991).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Ballard — ist der Name folgender Orte in den Vereinigten Staaten: Ballard (Arkansas) Ballard (Kalifornien) Ballard (Kentucky) Ballard (Maryland) Ballard (Mississippi) Ballard (Missouri) Ballard (North Carolina) Ballard (Oklahoma) Ballard (Utah) Ballard… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ballard — is a name used for a variety of people, places, and organizations:Places*Ballard, California *Ballard, Utah *Ballard, Seattle, Washington, a neighborhood that was once a city before being annexed by Seattle in the early 20th century *Ballard… …   Wikipedia

  • Ballard — Ballard, UT U.S. town in Utah Population (2000): 566 Housing Units (2000): 196 Land area (2000): 13.996287 sq. miles (36.250215 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 13.996287 sq. miles (36.250215 sq.… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Ballard, UT — U.S. town in Utah Population (2000): 566 Housing Units (2000): 196 Land area (2000): 13.996287 sq. miles (36.250215 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 13.996287 sq. miles (36.250215 sq. km) FIPS… …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • Ballard — (spr. Ballard), Canton im westlichen Theile des Staates Kentucky in den Vereinigten Staaten, an Missouri u. Illinois grenzend, von welchem letzteren Staate es durch den Ohio getrennt ist; Boden wellenförmig, im Süden fruchtbar, im Norden arm;… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Ballard — surname, attested from late 12c., probably meaning bald head; Cf. Wyclif Stye up, ballard, where Coverdale translates Come vp here thou balde heade [2 Kg.2:23 24, where God kills 42 children for making fun of Elijah s lack of hair.] …   Etymology dictionary

  • Ballard —   [ bæləd], James Graham, englischer Schriftsteller, * Schanghai 15. 11. 1930; verfasste Sciencefictionkurzgeschichten und Romane mit zunehmend psychologischer Ausrichtung; literarische Anerkennung erlangte er seit dem autobiographischen,… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Ballard — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Carroll Ballard : réalisateur américain. Christophe Ballard, imprimeur libraire en musique, fils et successeur du précédent, travaille à Paris de… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Ballard — (James Graham Ballard 1930– ) a British author born in China who is best known for his science fiction novels and short stories, and for Empire of the Sun (1984), about a boy’s experiences in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. It was… …   Universalium

  • Ballard — This unusual name is recorded in many spelling forms including Bullard, Ballard, Belward, Bellyard, Bil(l)yard, and Bellard. It is an example of that sizeable group of early surnames that were created from the habitual use of nicknames. These… …   Surnames reference

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