In the 1960s, the new age of technology seemed to create a level of paranoia amongst the population that led to a generalized fear of apocalypse; it is this post-apocalyptic future that British author J.G. Ballard sets his 1962 novel The Drowned World in. In the novel, the world has become uninhabitable due to global warming, but there are some tiny pockets where human life can be sustained. One one of these, a team of scientists are working diligently to try to find out what is happening to a London that is now abandoned, derelict and submerged by water. It is considered to be the foundation stone of the literary genre climate fiction, a specific genre that focuses entirely on the results of climate change and global warming. Unlike most science fiction genres, cli-fi does not have to take place in a post-apocalyptic future; it can be centered firmly in the present, or harken back to the past; the genre is not based in a particular time or place, but solely in context and subject matter.
Ballard never intended the story to be a novel; in fact, it was barely even a novella when it was first published in the magazine Science Fiction Adventures in January 1962. He re-worked the story into a novella, and then, ultimately the same year, into the novel that went on to become one of the most widely renowned post-apocalypse novels of the twentieth century.
Most of the characters in the novel are chancers; people who take advantage of the current situation that the world finds itself to be in with the purpose of advancing themselves, whilst appearing to be trying to advance the cause of humankind. The novel was widely acclaimed, and catapulted Ballard into the literary stratosphere, although some critics, whilst generally praising the idea behind the novel, found the writing somewhat generic and lacking in credibility. Ballard generally achieved far more credibility after his death than he ever received during his lifetime. He achieved the majority of his fame whilst simultaneously creating controversy; his most controversial work was Crash, which was a story about characters who were sexually aroused by watching and being involved in car crashes. Much of his work depicted violence; however, his best-known novel turned out to be a highly non-controversial autobiographical novel about a young British boy living iin Shanghai during wartime, and Japanese occupation. Empire of the Sun is described as the best British novel about World War Two and in 2007 it was adapted for the big screen by Steven Spielberg, and introduced a young Christian Bale to the movie-going public. Most of the literary awards that Ballard was the recipient of were for Empire of the Sun, but in 2009 he was posthumously awarded the Golden Pen, and an honorary doctorate from Royal Holloway University of London.
