Yes, even though it seems reductive to say that there is a "skeleton key" to any artist, with Ballard it's so clear that his feral childhood in the Shanghai internment camp shaped his life's work .
I like what Anthony Burgess said about Ballard: "Ballard considers that the kind of limitation that most contemporary fiction accepts is immoral, a shameful consequence of the rise of the bourgeois novel. Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination."
Thanks for this introduction! I notice more and more that my childhood library seems to have been skewed toward American science fiction writers. So it's only in adulthood that I'm discovering vintage British science fiction.
Yes, even though it seems reductive to say that there is a "skeleton key" to any artist, with Ballard it's so clear that his feral childhood in the Shanghai internment camp shaped his life's work .
I like what Anthony Burgess said about Ballard: "Ballard considers that the kind of limitation that most contemporary fiction accepts is immoral, a shameful consequence of the rise of the bourgeois novel. Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination."
Nice
Why haven't I heard of Ballard before? Thanks for bringing him to my attention - searching out these books now.
Makes my day!
Thanks for this introduction! I notice more and more that my childhood library seems to have been skewed toward American science fiction writers. So it's only in adulthood that I'm discovering vintage British science fiction.
Such a nice feeling to be opening doors for readers! Thanks for commenting!