Desert Island Discs J G Ballard
Feb 2, 1992
J G Ballard, acclaimed writer of Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women, reflects on his Shanghai childhood, internment, and life as a novelist. He talks about music that shaped his memories, his fascination with aircraft and change, surviving family tragedy and single parenthood, and why visual imagination and provocative work like Crash matter to him.
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Why He Clung To Science Fiction
- Ballard embraced the label science fiction despite its low status because he was chiefly fascinated by immediate change and the near future.
- He said England's big postwar changes in the 1950s drew him to write speculative work about societal shifts.
Shanghai As The Wickedest City
- Ballard described 1930s Shanghai as a modern, energetic city created by Westerners with air conditioning, American cars and hundreds of nightclubs.
- He called it the Paris of the Orient and said the ethnic mix produced excitement he still values.
Boyhood Adventures Through Dangerous Shanghai
- As a child Ballard often lied to his nanny to ride into downtown Shanghai on a small bike, navigating trams, rickshaws and gangsters.
- He recalled his father's automatic pistol in the wardrobe and admitted it was a miracle he never shot himself.
