![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
R.I.P. JG Ballard - it goes without saying one of the great sf writers, and one of the great writers of the twentieth century. The swimming pool is a little more empty, the lone astronaut more bereft.
Compare and Contrast:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8007331.stm
The author JG Ballard, famed for novels such as Crash and Empire of the Sun, has died aged 78 after a long illness.
His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill "for several years" and had died on Sunday morning.
Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Jim Ballard said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future".
His most acclaimed novel was Empire of the Sun, based on his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China.
The author of 15 novels and scores of short stories, Ballard grew up amongst the ex-patriot community in Shanghai.
During World War II, at the age of 12, he was interned for three years in a camp run by the Japanese.
He later moved to Britain and in the early 1960s became a full-time writer.
Ballard built up a passionate readership, particularly after Empire of The Sun, a fictionalised account of his childhood, was made into a film by Steven Spielberg.
He said of his experiences: "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!"
Director David Cronenberg brought Ballard's infamous book about the sexual desires stimulated by car crashes to the screen in the film Crash.
The film caused a media stir, adding to Ballard's reputation for courting controversy.
In later years he wrote other acclaimed novels such as Super-Cannes and Millennium People.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-dies-aged-78
JG Ballard, novelist and short-story writer, has died after a long battle will illness, his agent has said.
The 78-year-old author, who was best known for the award-winning Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical novel written in 1984, and his controversial novel, Crash, later adapted into film by David Cronenberg.
His agent, Margaret Hanbury, said it was "with great sadness" that Ballard had passed away this morning after several years of ill health.
In a prolific career the 78-year-old attracted critical acclaim and controversy in equal measure for his work.
Born in Shanghai, China, he was educated at Cambridge University before becoming an RAF pilot, advert agency copywriter, encyclopaedia salesman and assistant editor of scientific journal Chemistry and Industry.
Since arriving in Britain, he built up a passionate readership, particularly after Empire of The Sun, a fictionalised account of his childhood was made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1987.
The book tells the story of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai, describing his experiences of starvation, survival and death marches.
He said of his childhood: "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!"
Director David Cronenberg also brought Ballard's infamous book about the sexual desires stimulated by car crashes to the screen in the film Crash.
His more recent works include Super-Cannes and Millennium People.
Hanbury, who worked with Ballard for more than 25 years, said he was a "brilliant, powerful" novelist.
She said: "JG Ballard has been a giant on the world literary scene for more than 50 years.
"Following his early novels of the 60s and 70s his work then reached a wider audience with the publication of Empire of the Sun in 1984 which won several prizes and was made in to a film by Steven Spielberg.
"His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status."
Compare and Contrast:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8007331.stm
The author JG Ballard, famed for novels such as Crash and Empire of the Sun, has died aged 78 after a long illness.
His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill "for several years" and had died on Sunday morning.
Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Jim Ballard said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future".
His most acclaimed novel was Empire of the Sun, based on his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China.
The author of 15 novels and scores of short stories, Ballard grew up amongst the ex-patriot community in Shanghai.
During World War II, at the age of 12, he was interned for three years in a camp run by the Japanese.
He later moved to Britain and in the early 1960s became a full-time writer.
Ballard built up a passionate readership, particularly after Empire of The Sun, a fictionalised account of his childhood, was made into a film by Steven Spielberg.
He said of his experiences: "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!"
Director David Cronenberg brought Ballard's infamous book about the sexual desires stimulated by car crashes to the screen in the film Crash.
The film caused a media stir, adding to Ballard's reputation for courting controversy.
In later years he wrote other acclaimed novels such as Super-Cannes and Millennium People.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-dies-aged-78
JG Ballard, novelist and short-story writer, has died after a long battle will illness, his agent has said.
The 78-year-old author, who was best known for the award-winning Empire of the Sun, a semi-autobiographical novel written in 1984, and his controversial novel, Crash, later adapted into film by David Cronenberg.
His agent, Margaret Hanbury, said it was "with great sadness" that Ballard had passed away this morning after several years of ill health.
In a prolific career the 78-year-old attracted critical acclaim and controversy in equal measure for his work.
Born in Shanghai, China, he was educated at Cambridge University before becoming an RAF pilot, advert agency copywriter, encyclopaedia salesman and assistant editor of scientific journal Chemistry and Industry.
Since arriving in Britain, he built up a passionate readership, particularly after Empire of The Sun, a fictionalised account of his childhood was made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1987.
The book tells the story of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai, describing his experiences of starvation, survival and death marches.
He said of his childhood: "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!"
Director David Cronenberg also brought Ballard's infamous book about the sexual desires stimulated by car crashes to the screen in the film Crash.
His more recent works include Super-Cannes and Millennium People.
Hanbury, who worked with Ballard for more than 25 years, said he was a "brilliant, powerful" novelist.
She said: "JG Ballard has been a giant on the world literary scene for more than 50 years.
"Following his early novels of the 60s and 70s his work then reached a wider audience with the publication of Empire of the Sun in 1984 which won several prizes and was made in to a film by Steven Spielberg.
"His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status."
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject