Out of the Night and Into the Dream

The author of Empire of the Sun and other acclaimed novels and stories, British writer J. G. Ballard is here given a penetrating analysis, his work being explored in terms of its internal coherence, thematic continuity and development, and mythic and metaphysical aspects. Ballard's fiction is widely considered to be a critique of our secular, rational, technological culture, but the writer is shown not to be fatalistic, but, rather, concerned with the redemption and regeneration of the human psyche. This study examines Ballard's output over four decades and compares him to several British and American writers of the post-World War II era--within and beyond the often too-rigidly applied categorization of science fiction, as well as to Romantic visionaries of the past.