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Sandrine 2022-03-23 09:01:53

Title Empire of the Sun
Author JG Ballard
Edition Reprint
Publisher Simon & Schuster, 2005
ISBN 0743265238, 9780743265232
Pages 288

JG Ballard was born to British parents in Shanghai, China on November 15, 1930. While a child during World War II, he spent four years in a Japanese POW camp. This experience was the basis for the emotionally moving novel Empire of the Sun, which he adapted into a successful movie, directed by Steven Spielberg. Before becoming a full-time writer, he studied medicine at Cambridge University and served as a pilot in the British Royal Air Force. Ballard is best known for his science fiction writings. His early works were heavily influenced by surrealism. Most of his novels deal with death and destruction of the human spirit. Novels such as Crash, Concrete Island, and High Rise portray a society that is devolving into barbaric chaos. Crash was made into a movie by David Cronenberg in 1996. The Drowned World describes an apocalyptic society,with a hero that ushers in the destruction of the world. In his more recent works, such as Empire of the Sun and its sequel, The Kindness of Women, Ballard moved away from science fiction, but he is still considered one of the leading authors of the genre. He died on April 19, 2009 at the age of 78.

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Extended Reading
  • Ladarius 2022-03-21 09:01:53

    Shooting the wartime scenes of the 1940s in Shanghai in the 1980s was a brilliant visual, but the wavering between the child's perspective and the adult mind unfortunately blurs the whole theme of the film, which seems serious enough, but not enough light.

  • Timmy 2022-03-25 09:01:08

    A Child's Eyes on the Pacific War, Christian Bale's first film. When I was a child, I was much cuter than now, but now my acting skills are enough to make up for my increasingly crippled appearance.

Empire of the Sun quotes

  • Jim: We should eat the weevils, Mrs. Victor.

    Mrs. Victor: Oh, yes, I know, Jim. Dr. Rawlins told you.

    Jim: He said we need the protein.

    Mrs. Victor: Yes, well, Dr. Rawlins is right. We should *all* eat the weevils.

  • Jim: Basie, where do you live?

    Basie: Here.

    Jim: No, I mean after the war.

    Basie: Somewhere else.