J.G. Ballard and Empire of the Sun

Biographical Info

• Born James Graham Ballard in 1930 in the Shanghai International Settlement

• Died in 2009 in London, UK• Went to college to become a

psychiatrist, but abandoned that when he discovered a love and talent for writing.

• Published other novel before Empire that focused on a dystopian society.

The War

• 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.

War, cont’d.

• 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.

• 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 we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!"

Empire of the Sun

• Ballard did not write the novel until 40 years after the war. He is quoted as saying he needed “twenty years to forget and twenty more to remember.”

• His experiences during the war and in the camp formed the basis of Empire of the Sun, although Ballard exercised considerable artistic license in writing the book, notably removing his parents from the bulk of the story.

Empire of the Sun cont’d.

• Steven Spielberg directed the film adaptation of the novel in 1987 and even created a bit part for Ballard himself in a party scene.

Conclusion

• Sources used include:• Google images• www.wikipedia.com• An interview with J.G. Ballard

published by The New York Times