J. G. Ballard Criticism
The literary world has long been captivated by the unique narrative style and thematic complexity of J. G. Ballard's work. Initially met with mixed reviews, Ballard's oeuvre is now acclaimed for its philosophical inquiries and imaginative language. His novels and short stories, often set in symbolic landscapes that serve as characters themselves, challenge traditional narrative structures. Ballard's impact on science fiction, particularly through his exploration of "inner space," has been monumental. This psychological terrain, as compelling as outer space, is central to his work, which prioritizes atmosphere and imagery over linear storytelling. His approach has significantly influenced the genre, shifting the focus from external adventures to internal landscapes, as Peter Brigg notes in his analysis of Ballard's expressive and symbolic prose style.
Ballard's critique of modern consumer and technological societies is a recurring theme, as observed by Dennis Foster. His works invite readers to consider the implications of societal desensitization, a topic he discussed in an interview with Jeremy Lewis. Despite his unconventional style, Ballard's contributions to the literary landscape continue to influence and resonate within postmodern literature, marking him as a visionary figure in exploring the human condition. Roger Luckhurst's essays further articulate Ballard's style, focusing on his use of textual repetitions and surreal similes that craft his distinctive narrative voice.
Ballard's major works of short fiction, such as The Disaster Area and The Overloaded Man, explore themes of alienation, entropy, and the psychological impact of technology and media. His collection The Atrocity Exhibition stands out for its controversial exploration of modern society's desensitization to violence and media spectacle, a theme Gregory Stephenson analyzes in depth. Additionally, Ballard's influence extends to cyberpunk authors like William Gibson, underscoring his prescience in depicting a world dominated by media and consumer culture.
Ballard's narrative landscapes often merge personal and historical nightmares to craft haunting tales, a feature scrutinized by David Pringle in his examination of symbolic landscapes and the "death of affect." His novel Concrete Island uses themes of self-discovery and existential struggle, complicated by surreal characters, as explored by Martin Levin. In Low-Flying Aircraft, his thematic compulsion and stylistic talent are evident, resulting in fragmented narratives, as argued by Nick Totton. The novel The Unlimited Dream Company is praised for its imaginative narrative that blends fantasy and reality, with Malcolm Bradbury and Hermione Lee highlighting its exploration of modern displacement and the interpretation of archetypal dreams within contemporary settings.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Ballard, J. G. (Contemporary Literary Criticism)
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Return to the Source
(summary)
In the following review, Priest offers praise for The Day of Creation.
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Stranger than Fiction
(summary)
In the following review of War Fever, Diski finds Ballard's stories “stiff” and unimaginative in light of more extraordinary events precipitating the end of the Cold War.
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An Interview with J. G. Ballard
(summary)
In the following interview, Ballard and Lewis explore the pervasive influence of technology and mass culture on Western society, with Ballard suggesting that science and pornography are intertwined in his works like "Crash" and "The Atrocity Exhibition," while advocating for a stronger individual imaginative response to counteract societal desensitization.
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J. G. Ballard and the Transformation of Utopia
(summary)
In the following essay, Wagar discerns underlying elements of idealism and a longing for psychic transformation and transcendence in Ballard's fiction. According to Wagar, Ballard's work, despite its dark glorifications of nihilistic or amoral behavior, embodies a positive contribution to anti-capitalist utopian aspirations.
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The Sage of Shepperton
(summary)
In the following review, Kimberley offers a positive assessment of The Kindness of Women, noting that despite being a sequel and autobiography, it manages to be stimulating and substantial.
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After the Sun Had Set
(summary)
In the following review of The Kindness of Women, Montrose finds shortcomings in Ballard's “lacklustre” autobiographical novel.
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Ballard/Crash/Baudrillard
(summary)
In the following essay, Ruddick examines Jean Baudrillard's commentary on Crash—which Ruddick contends is a misreading of Ballard's work—and Ballard's misdirected attack on postmodern criticism in response to Baudrillard's essay.
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J. G. Ballard's Empire of the Senses: Perversion and the Failure of Authority
(summary)
In the following essay, Foster, an associate professor of English at Southern Methodist University, contends that Ballard's presentation of extreme perversity and violence—particularly as found in Running Wild, The Atrocity Exhibition, Crash, and Empire of the Sun—represents a stark critique of modern consumer and technological society which illustrates the objectification of the human body as an instrument of sexual pleasure and destruction.
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Petition, Repetition, and ‘Autobiography’: J. G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women
(summary)
In the following essay, Luckhurst examines the interrelationship between Ballard's fiction and autobiography, as evident in Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women. According to Luckhurst, the numerous retellings, inversions, and variations of key events in Ballard's fiction and autobiography further problematize interpretation of Ballard's oeuvre, rather than serving as a mechanism for 'decoding' or 'decrypting' his work.
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Images from the Disaster Area: An Apocalyptic Reading of Urban Landscapes in Ballard's The Drowned World and Hello America
(summary)
In the following essay, Rossi provides comparative analysis of The Drowned World and Hello America, focusing on Ballard's portrayal of post-apocalyptic London, New York, and Las Vegas as physical and metaphorical “Dead Cities,” and the interplay of historical and trans-historical themes in the texts.
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Repetition and Unreadability: J. G. Ballard's Vermilion Sands
(summary)
In the following essay, Luckhurst analyses Ballard's “signature” style, as exemplified in the stories of Vermilion Sands. According to Luckhurst, Ballard “seduces” the reader with his distinct idiom, his use of incongruous similes, and textual repetitions which, taken together, comprise the indefinable essence of his work.
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Crime or Banishment
(summary)
In the following review, Barrow praises Cocaine Nights as “a wonderfully readable and self-confident book.”
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Cocaine Nights
(summary)
In the review below, Olsen offers a positive review of Cocaine Nights.
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Allusions in Ballard's The Drowned World
(summary)
In the following essay, McCarthy examines Ballard's use of literary allusions in The Drowned World, including references to works by Joseph Conrad, William Golding, Daniel Defoe, John Donne, John Keats, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, and others.
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Cocaine Nights
(summary)
In the following review, Roberts makes a positive evaluation of Cocaine Nights. British writer J. G. Ballard leads us once more into the dystopian future. Cocaine Nights, recently released in the United States, presents a world of leisure with a distinctly sinister side.
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Modernity and Its Discontents
(summary)
In the following review of Iain Sinclair's Crash: David Cronenberg's Post-Mortem on J. G. Ballard's “Trajectory of Fate,” Gray discusses Ballard's literary significance and the major themes and disturbing cultural observations in his work.
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A review of High-Rise
(summary)
In the following review, Amis offers a generally favorable assessment of High-Rise.
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Return to the Source
(summary)
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Ballard, J(ames) G(raham) (Vol. 14)
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Fiction: 'Concrete Island'
(summary)
In the following essay, Martin Levin explores J. G. Ballard's use of the "Robinson Crusoe" and "search-for-self" themes in "Concrete Island," highlighting how the introduction of surreal characters complicates protagonist Robert Maitland's existential quest, though the resolution of thematic questions remains elusive.
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Gems and Ruins
(summary)
In the following essay, Nick Totton contends that J. G. Ballard's collection Low-Flying Aircraft showcases his stylistic prowess but also highlights a repetitive thematic compulsion, as Ballard continually reconfigures apocalyptic imagery without achieving true synthesis, instead offering suggestive but fragmented narratives.
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This Is Not the End of the World
(summary)
In the following essay, Michael Wood examines J. G. Ballard's exploration of "inner space" in his science fiction, highlighting how Ballard's works blend personal and historical nightmares to create haunting landscapes that reflect mental states of psychosis and obsession with endings.
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The Stuff of Dreams
(summary)
In the following essay, Hermione Lee argues that J. G. Ballard's novel "The Unlimited Dream Company" masterfully explores the interplay between fantasy and reality, using a lush, allegorical narrative to depict the manifestation of archetypal dreams within modern settings, despite occasional challenges in interpretation.
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Fly Away
(summary)
In the following essay, Malcolm Bradbury praises J. G. Ballard's novel "The Unlimited Dream Company" for its inventive and fantastical narrative that uses science fiction techniques to explore modern displacement, while highlighting Ballard's imaginative prowess and positioning him as a significant contemporary fantasist.
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David Pringle
(summary)
In the following essay, David Pringle chronicles J. G. Ballard's literary evolution, emphasizing Ballard's originality, his engagement with contemporary reality through symbolic landscapes, and his exploration of psychological and societal themes such as the "death of affect," ultimately characterizing Ballard as a solitary defender of individual awareness amid technological and social change.
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Fiction: 'Concrete Island'
(summary)
- Ballard, J(ames) G(raham) (Vol. 3)
- Ballard, J(ames) G(raham) (Vol. 6)
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Ballard, J. G. (Short Story Criticism)
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Introduction to J. G. Ballard
(summary)
In the following essay, Brigg analyzes Ballard's expressive and intensely symbolic writing style in his short stories.
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Early Short Fiction, 1956-1969
(summary)
In the following essay, Brigg surveys the “antecedents” or influences and stylistic forms of Ballard's early short fiction.
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The Atrocity Exhibition (1970) (Love and Napalm: Export U.S.A.—American Title)
(summary)
In the following essay, Brigg offers a stylistic and thematic examination of The Atrocity Exhibition. The Atrocity Exhibition is Ballard's most ambitious extended experiment in the techniques of fiction and is a watershed in the development of his work, summing up much of what has gone before and opening the way to much of what is to follow. It is a technically complex book, but its effects are directly arresting and disturbing to the reader. It is also a fiercely difficult book to describe and discuss because of its lack of clear narrative line, its unusual mixture of fiction and contemporary reality, and, above all, the cumulative effect of its atmosphere, which cannot be transmitted in brief quotations.
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Recent Short Fiction, 1970-1982
(summary)
In the following essay, Brigg discusses “the obsessive quality” of Ballard's later short stories.
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J. G. Ballard's Crash Course in Modern Civ
(summary)
In the following essay, Carr emphasizes the role of the body and the notion of inner space, among other themes, in Ballard's work.
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‘Deserts of Vast Eternity’: J. G. Ballard and Robert Smithson
(summary)
In the following essay, Finkelstein compares the ethos which animates the science fiction works of J. G. Ballard and Robert Smithson to that which inspires modern and postmodern art.
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Superhistory
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Parrinder comments on the recurring themes in Ballard's fiction, citing as examples the stories in War Fever. Ballard's fiction maps a very different historical frontier, including a picture of Europe on the point of being overrun by totalitarian sun-worshippers and a 'Secret History of World War Three' that ran for four minutes on 27 January 1995, but nobody really noticed. The metaphor of the theme-park serves Ballard's purposes, depicting Europe's destiny as 'The Largest Theme-Park in the World' and exploring themes of nostalgia and entropic decay.
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Introduction to Out of the Night and Into the Dream: A Thematic Study of the Fiction of J. G. Ballard
(summary)
In the following essay, Stephenson delineates how Ballard consistently subverts basic assumptions about the nature of reality and identity in his fiction, and provides an overview of Ballard's career and critical discussion of his works.
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The Dimension of the Disaster: The Early Short Fiction
(summary)
In the following essay, Stephenson scrutinizes the metaphysical themes of Ballard's early short stories.
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Technological Tartarus: The Atrocity Exhibition, Crash, Concrete Island, and High Rise.
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Stephenson regards The Atrocity Exhibition as a diagnosis 'of the malady afflicting modern consciousness.'
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‘Trapped Aircraft’: The Later Short Fiction
(summary)
In the following essay, Stephenson analyzes Ballard's thematic employment of illusion, focusing on the misapprehensions we accept, self-deceptions regarding reality and identity, and the limitations imposed on our awareness for manipulation and control. The dangerous consequences of illusion and ways to attain release from it are central concerns in Ballard's later stories.
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Confusion of Origins
(summary)
In the following essay, Latham considers the significance of War Fever in Ballard's short fiction oeuvre.
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Portrait of the Artist as a Jung Man: Love, Death and Art in J. G. Ballard's Vermilion Sands
(summary)
In the following two-part essay, Schuyler attempts to amend David Pringle's pioneering study of Jungian psychological symbols used commonly by Ballard.
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Portrait of the Artist as a Jung Man: Love, Death and Art in J. G. Ballard's Vermilion Sands Part II of II
(summary)
In the following essay, Schuyler explores the Jungian symbolism of Vermilion Sands.
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J. G. Ballard: Time Out of Mind
(summary)
In the following essay, Brigg perceives Ballard's treatment of time and reality as entities apprehended subjectively by the individual.
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The Atrocity Exhibition and the Problematic of the Avant-Garde
(summary)
In the following essay, Luckhurst discusses both the modernist and postmodernist characteristics of Ballard's work.
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Mediation, Simulation, Recalcitrance: Crash to Hello America, with Detours
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Luckhurst compares Ballard's short fiction with the novels Crash and Hello America.
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The Signature of J. G. Ballard
(summary)
In the following essay, Luckhurst explores stylistic and thematic aspects of Ballard's writing.
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Introduction to J. G. Ballard
(summary)
- Further Reading