Reality as a Stage Set

As a child, J. G. Ballard lived in affluence in an enclave of ex-pats in Shanghai, a world of large villas, tennis courts and country clubs.  When the Japanese invaded, all of that was disrupted and he eventually found himself in an interment camp, his life suddenly impoverished and his safety uncertain. (Among other traumas, he witnessed bored Japanese soldiers cruelly beat a Chinese rickshaw driver to death.)

J. G. Ballard said that one of the things that the end of his childhood taught him is that reality is a stage set that can be dismantled at any moment.