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J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist and short-story writer, satirist and essayist known for psychologically provocative works of fiction that explore the relations between human psychology, technology, sex and mass media. Ballard first became associated with New Wave science fiction for post-apocalyptic novels such as '' The Drowned World'' (1962). He later courted controversy with the short-story collection '' The Atrocity Exhibition'' (1970), which includes the 1968 story " Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", and later the novel '' Crash'' (1973), a story about car-crash fetishists. In 1984, Ballard won broad critical recognition for the war novel '' Empire of the Sun'', a semi-autobiographical story of the experiences of a British boy during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Three years later, the American film director Steven Spielberg adapted the novel into a film of the same name. The novelist's journey from youth to mid-age is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Essayists
This is a list of essayists—people notable for their essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...-writing. Note: Birthplaces (as listed) do not always indicate nationality. A B C-D E-G H-J K-L M-N O-R S T-Z References {{DEFAULTSORT:Essayists List of essayists Lists of writers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and the intertwining of the psychological, physical, and technological. Cronenberg is best known for exploring these themes through sci-fi horror films such as '' Shivers'' (1975), '' Scanners'' (1981), '' Videodrome'' (1983) and '' The Fly'' (1986), though he has also directed dramas, psychological thrillers and gangster films. Cronenberg's films have polarized critics and audiences alike; he has earned critical acclaim and has sparked controversy for his depictions of gore and violence. ''The Village Voice'' called him "the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world". His films have won numerous awards, including the Special Jury Prize for '' Crash'' at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, a unique award ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crash (1996 Film)
''Crash'' is a 1996 Canadian erotic thriller film written, produced and directed by David Cronenberg, based on J. G. Ballard's 1973 novel of the same name. Starring James Spader, Deborah Kara Unger, Elias Koteas, Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette, it follows a film producer who, after surviving a car crash, becomes involved with a group of symphorophiliacs who are aroused by car crashes and tries to rekindle his sexual relationship with his wife. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received the Special Jury Prize, a unique award that is distinct from the Jury Prize as it is not given annually, but only at the request of the official jury (for example, the previous year, both a Jury Prize and a Special Jury Prize were awarded). When then-jury president Francis Ford Coppola announced the award "for originality, for daring and for audacity", he stated that it had been a controversial choice and that certain jury members "did abstain very passionately". It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miracles Of Life
''Miracles of Life'' is an autobiography written by British writer J. G. Ballard and published in 2008. Overview The book describes Ballard's childhood and early teenage years in Shanghai in the 1930s and the early 1940s, when the city is ravaged by the Second Sino-Japanese War in the Battle of Shanghai and World War II. After the happy years spent with his well-to-do family in the Shanghai International Settlement, Ballard experiences the horrors of war and then the deprivations of an internment camp, Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center, Lunghua, where he is imprisoned with his parents, his sister, and hundreds of other British, Belgian, Dutch and American nationals. After being liberated by the Americans in 1945, James "returns" to England with his mother and sister, but the return to a country which he has never known, being born in Shanghai, is made difficult by the dismal atmosphere of History of the United Kingdom (1945–present), post-war Britain and the difficulty of integ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Kindness Of Women
''The Kindness of Women'' is a 1991 novel by British author J. G. Ballard, a sequel to his 1984 novel '' Empire of the Sun''. ''The Kindness of Women'' drew on the author's boyhood in Shanghai during World War II, presenting a lightly fictionalized treatment of Ballard's life from Shanghai through to adulthood in England, culminating with an account of the making of Steven Spielberg's 1987 film '' Empire of the Sun''. A non-fiction account of the same experiences can be found in Ballard's autobiography, ''Miracles of Life''. It was first published in the UK by HarperCollins and in the U.S. by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Plot introduction ''The Kindness of Women'' is semi-autobiographical, and discusses Jim's departure from China, where he had been born and had been interned, to visit England, other parts of Europe and the United States. Jim is obsessed with two themes throughout the book: sex and death. The numerous sexual encounters are described in clinical and cold terms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire Of The Sun (film)
''Empire of the Sun'' is a 1987 American epic coming-of-age war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tom Stoppard, based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical 1984 novel of the same name. The film tells the story of Jamie "Jim" Graham ( Christian Bale), a young boy who goes from living with his wealthy British family in Shanghai to becoming a prisoner of war in an internment camp operated by the Japanese during World War II. The film also stars John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, Joe Pantoliano, Masatō Ibu, Leslie Phillips, Ben Stiller, and Robert Stephens. Harold Becker and David Lean were originally to direct before Spielberg came on board, initially as a producer for Lean. Spielberg was attracted to directing the film because of a personal connection to Lean's films and World War II topics. He considers it to be his most profound work on "the loss of innocence".Forsberg, Myra"Spielberg at 40: The Man and the Child". ''The New York Time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is the highest-grossing film director of all time. Several of Spielberg's works are considered among the greatest films in history, and some are among the highest-grossing films ever. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. He moved to California and studied film in college. After directing several episodes for television, including '' Night Gallery'' and '' Columbo'', he directed the television film ''Duel'' (1971), which was approved by Barry Diller. He made his theatrical debut with '' The Sugarland Express'' (1974) and became a household name with the summer blockbuster ''Jaws'' (1975). He directed more escapist box office successes with '' Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' (1977), '' E.T. the Ext ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part of World War II, and often regarded as the beginning of World WarII in Asia. It was the largest Asian war in the 20th century and has been described as The Asian Holocaust, in reference to the scale of Japanese war crimes against Chinese civilians. It is known in China as the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. On 18 September 1931, the Japanese staged the Mukden incident, a false flag event fabricated to justify their Japanese invasion of Manchuria, invasion of Manchuria and establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo. This is sometimes marked as the beginning of the war. From 1931 to 1937, China and Japan engaged in skirmishes, including January 28 incident, in Shanghai and in Northern China. Chinese Nationalist and C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexual Fetishism
Sexual fetishism is a sexual fixation on an object or a body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regarded as a mental disorder if it causes significant psychosocial distress for the person or has detrimental effects on important areas of their life. Sexual arousal from a particular body part can be further classified as partialism. While medical definitions restrict the term ''sexual fetishism'' to objects or body parts, ''fetish'' can, in common discourse, also refer to sexual interest in specific activities, peoples, types of people, substances, or situations. Definitions In common parlance, the word ''fetish'' is used to refer to any sexually arousing stimuli, not all of which meet the medical criteria for fetishism. This broader usage of ''fetish'' covers parts or features of the body (including obesity and body modifications), objects, situations and activities (such as smoking or BDSM) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Why I Want To Fuck Ronald Reagan
"Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" (1968), by J. G. Ballard, is a short story written in the style of a scientific report on a series of experiments intended to measure the psychosexual disorder, psychosexual appeal of the Californian politician Ronald Reagan, who then was governor of California, governor of the state of California, and also a candidate for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, which he lost to Richard Nixon. First published as a pamphlet in 1968 by the Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, the short story was later republished in ''The Atrocity Exhibition'' (1970), a collection of thematically related short stories. It was later used as part of a prank at the 1980 Republican National Convention, at which Reagan was nominated as president. History In the preface to the 1990 edition of ''The Atrocity Exhibition'' (1970), the novelist J.G. Ballard said that he was impressed and inspired by the phenomenon of ''media politicians'' who speak for private interests, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Drowned World
''The Drowned World'' (1962), by J. G. Ballard, is a British science fiction novel that depicts a post-apocalyptic future in which global warming, caused by increased solar radiation, has rendered uninhabitable much of the surface of planet Earth. The story follows a team of scientists researching environmental developments in the flooded city of London. The novel is an expansion of the novella "The Drowned World", which was first published in '' Science Fiction Adventures'' magazine, in the January 1962 issue, Vol. 4, No. 24. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named ''The Drowned World'' one of the ten best novels about a post-apocalyptic world on Earth. In science fiction literature, ''The Drowned World'' is considered one of the founding novels of the climate fiction sub-genre. Synopsis In the mid-22nd century, violent and prolonged solar storms enlarge the Van Allen radiation belt, which deteriorated the ionosphere of the Earth. The solar radiation bombarding the planet increase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
