Misplaced Pages

Crash (Ballard novel): Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 17:22, 24 September 2009 editCobraBot (talk | contribs)17,825 editsm Adding OCLC# to book infobox based on ISBN (User:CobraBot; problems?)← Previous edit Latest revision as of 21:30, 10 December 2024 edit undoJJMC89 bot III (talk | contribs)Bots, Administrators3,678,039 editsm Moving Category:Novels about adultery to Category:Novels about infidelity per Misplaced Pages:Categories for discussion/Log/2024 December 2#Category:Novels about adultery 
(209 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|1973 novel by J. G. Ballard}}
{{Refimprove|date=August 2009}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox Book | <!-- See ] or ] -->
{{Infobox book|
| name = Crash
| title_orig = | name = Crash
| translator = | title_orig =
| image = ] | translator =
| image = Crash(1stEd).jpg
| image_caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover)
| author = ] | image_size = 200px
| caption = Cover of first edition (hardcover) by Bill Botten
| illustrator =
| author = ]
| cover_artist =
| country = ] | illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| language = ]
| series = | country = United Kingdom
| genre = ], ] | language = English
| publisher = ] | series =
| genre = ], ], ]
| release_date = 1973
| publisher = ]
| english_release_date =
| release_date = June 1973
| media_type = Print (] & ])
| media_type = Print (] and ])
| pages =
| isbn = 0-224-00782-3 | pages = 224
| isbn = 0-224-00782-3
| oclc= 797233
| dewey = 823/.9/14
| preceded_by = ]
| congress = PZ4.B1893 Cp PR6052.A46
| followed_by = ]
| oclc = 797233
}}
| preceded_by = ]
'''''Crash''''' is a novel by ] author ], first published in ]. It is a story about ] ]: its protagonists become sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car-crashes, often with real consequences. Ballard uses a cold and detached language about this automotive ] which gives the novel the tone of an ] or a ].
| followed_by = ]
}}
'''''Crash''''' is a novel by British author ], first published in 1973 with cover designed by ]. It follows a group of car-crash ] who, inspired by the famous crashes of celebrities, become sexually aroused by staging and participating in car accidents.


It was a highly controversial novel: famously one ] returned the verdict "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!"<ref>], ''A Philosophy of Boredom'', trans. John Irons (London: Reaktion Books, 2005), 82.</ref> The novel was made into a ] in ] by ]. The novel was released to divided critical reception, with many reviewers horrified by its provocative content. It was adapted into a controversial ] by ].


==Plot summary== ==Synopsis==
The story is told through the eyes of ] James Ballard, named after the author himself, but it centers on the sinister figure of Dr. Robert Vaughan, a “former TV-scientist, turned nightmare angel of the expressways”. Ballard meets Vaughan after being involved in a car accident himself near London Airport. Gathering around Vaughan is a group of alienated people, all of them former crash-victims, who follow him in his pursuit to re-enact the crashes of celebrities, and experience what the narrator calls "a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology". Vaughan’s ultimate fantasy is to die in a head-on collision with movie star ]. The story is told through the eyes of narrator James Ballard, named after the author himself, but it centers on the sinister figure of Dr. Robert Vaughan, a former TV scientist turned "nightmare angel of the highways".<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last1=Canton |first1=James |title=The Literature Book |last2=Cleary |first2=Helen |last3=Kramer |first3=Ann |last4=Laxby |first4=Robin |last5=Loxley |first5=Diana |last6=Ripley |first6=Esther |last7=Todd |first7=Megan |last8=Shaghar |first8=Hila |last9=Valente |first9=Alex |publisher=] |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4654-2988-9 |location=New York |page=332}}</ref> James meets Vaughan after being injured in a car crash near ]. Gathering around Vaughan is a group of alienated people, all of them former crash victims, who follow him in his pursuit to re-enact the crashes of ] celebrities such as ] and ], in order to experience what the narrator calls "a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology". Vaughan's ultimate fantasy is to die in a head-on collision with movie star ].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8-iHi1IBigC|title=Crash|first=J. G.|last=Ballard|date=October 5, 2001|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-42033-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref>


==Analysis== == Development ==
The Papers of J. G. Ballard at the ] include two revised drafts of ''Crash'' (Add MS 88938/3/8). Scanned extracts from Ballard's drafts are included in ''Crash: The Collector's Edition,'' ed. Chris Beckett.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beckett|first=Chris|title=Crash: The Collector's Edition|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2017}}</ref>
The book explores themes such as the transformation of human psychology by modern technology, and ]'s fascination with ] and technological commodities. The human characters in the novel are cold and passionless, unable to become sexually excited unless some kind of technology is involved (typically architecture and cars). The gruesome damage inflicted on car-crash victims is not seen as shocking, but as the liberation of new sexual possibilities, that have yet to be explored, such as in one scene where a man and a woman have sex in a car that was involved in an accident, but rather than have ], he penetrates a wound on her thigh that she received in a crash.


In 1971, ] directed a short film entitled ''Crash!'' based on a chapter in ]'s book '']'', where Ballard is featured, talking about the ideas in his book. British actress ] appeared as a passenger and car-crash victim. Ballard later developed the idea, resulting in ''Crash''. In his draft of the novel he mentioned Drake by name, but references to her were removed from the published version.<ref name="baxter">{{cite book |last=Baxter |first=John |title=The Inner Man: The Life of J. G. Ballard |date=8 September 2011 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-297-86352-6 |chapter=34, The Nasty}}</ref>
Finally, the book asks why we, as an enlightened society, accept such a “perverse technology” – that kills a vast number of people yearly – as such an integral part of our culture.


==Interpretation==
Ballard writes in the foreword: “Do we see, in the car-crash, the portents of a nightmare marriage between technology, and our own sexuality? … Is there some deviant logic unfolding here, more powerful than that provided by reason?”
{{Blockquote
|text = Throughout ''Crash'' I have used the car not only as a sexual image, but as a total metaphor for man's life in today's society. As such the novel has a political role quite apart from its sexual content, but I would still like to think that ''Crash'' is the first pornographic novel based on technology. In a sense, pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other in the most urgent and ruthless way. Needless to say, the ultimate role of ''Crash'' is cautionary, a warning against that brutal, erotic and overlit realm that beckons more and more persuasively to us from the margins of the technological landscape.<ref name="jr">] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131151534/http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=6667 |date=2012-01-31 }}</ref>
|author = J. G. Ballard
|source = ''Crash''
}}


''Crash'' has been difficult to characterize as a novel. At some points in his career, Ballard claimed that ''Crash'' was a "cautionary tale", a view that he would later regret, asserting that it is in fact "a psychopathic hymn. But it is a psychopathic hymn which has a point".<ref>{{cite journal | first=Pedro | last=Groppo | title='Death and the Machine: J. G. Ballard's Crash' | journal=Aletria | year=2017 | volume=27 | issue=1 | pages=161–180 | doi=10.17851/2317-2096.27.1.161-180| doi-access=free }}</ref> Likewise, Ballard previously characterized it a science fiction novel, a position he would later take back.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}
==Quotes==


] wrote an analysis of ''Crash'' in '']'' in which he declared it "the first great novel of the universe of simulation". He made note of how the fetish in the story conflates the functionality of the automobiles with that of the human body and how the characters' injuries and the damage to the vehicles are used as equivalent signs. To him, the hyperfunctionality leads to the dysfunction in the story. Quotes were used extensively to illustrate that the language of the novel employs plain, mechanical terms for the parts of the automobile and proper, medical language for human sex organs and acts. The story is interpreted as showing a merger between technology, sexuality, and death, and he further argued that by pointing out Vaughan's character takes and keeps photos of the car crashes and the mutilated bodies involved. Baudrillard stated that there is no moral judgment about the events within the novel but that Ballard himself intended it as a warning against a cultural trend.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baudrillard
*“After having … been constantly bombarded by road-safety propaganda, it was almost a relief to find myself in a real accident.”
|first=Jean |author-link=Jean Baudrillard |translator-last1=Glaser |translator-first1=Sheila Faria |date=1994 |chapter=Crash |title=Simulacra and Simulation |location=Ann Arbor, MI |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |pages= 111–119 |isbn=978-0-472-09521-6}}</ref>
*“Trying to exhaust himself, Vaughan devised an endless almanac of terrifying wounds and insane collisions: The lungs of elderly men punctured by door-handles; the chests of young women impaled on steering-columns; the cheek of handsome youths torn on the chromium latches of quarter-lights. To Vaughan, these wounds formed the key to a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology. The images of these wounds hung in the gallery of his mind, like exhibits in the museum of a slaughterhouse.”
*"The crushed body of the sportscar had turned her into a being of free and perverse sexuality, releasing within its dying chromium and leaking engine-parts, all the deviant possibilities of her sex."
*Ballard (as author) talking about his reasons for writing the book: "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit, and force it to look in the mirror"


The story can be classed as ].<ref name=":32" />
== References in popular culture ==

* Both the novel and "Warm Leatherette" have been acknowledged as influences on ]'s 1980 album '']'', which features titles such as "Underpass" and "No-One Driving".{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}
==Critical reception==
* The ]' song "Mausoleum" from 1994's "The Holy Bible" contains the famous Ballard quote about the book.
The novel received divided reviews when originally published. One ] returned the verdict "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!"<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/j-g-ballard|title=J. G. Ballard|last=Halford|first=Macy|magazine=The New Yorker |date=2009-04-20|access-date=2019-08-01|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref> A 1973 review in '']'' was equally horrified: "''Crash'' is, hands-down, the most repulsive book I've yet to come across."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/98/07/12/specials/ballard-crash.html|title=Crash|website=The New York Times|access-date=2019-07-31}}</ref>
* The ] song "Miss The Girl" is directly inspired by the novel. {{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}

* ]'s ] song "]" was also inspired by the novel.
However, retrospective opinion now considers ''Crash'' to be one of Ballard's best and most challenging works. Reassessing ''Crash'' in '']'', ] wrote, "C''rash'' is an ] book about how ''everybody uses everything''. How everything uses everybody. And yet it is not a hopeless vision." On Ballard's legacy, she writes: "In Ballard's work there is always this mix of futuristic dread and excitement, a sweet spot where dystopia and utopia converge. For we cannot say we haven't got precisely what we dreamed of, what we always wanted, so badly."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/04/zadie-smith-jg-ballard-crash|title=Sex and wheels: Zadie Smith on JG Ballard's Crash|last=Smith|first=Zadie|date=2014-07-04|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-07-31|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
* ]'s instrumental "Crash!" was inspired by the novel. {{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}

==References in popular art==
===Music===
]'s 1978 song "]" was inspired by the novel as was "]," a 1983 single by ].
The ]' song "Mausoleum" from 1994's '']'' contains the famous Ballard quote about his reasons for writing the book, "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit. I wanted to force it to look in the mirror."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/20/jg-ballard-film-music-architecture-tv|title=How JG Ballard cast his shadow right across the arts|first1=Peter|last1=Bradshaw|first2=Deyan|last2=Sudjic|first3=Dave|last3=Simpson|first4=Iain|last4=Sinclair|first5=Mark|last5=Lawson|newspaper=The Guardian |date=April 20, 2009|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> ]'s album '']'' contains songs that have Ballardian themes, such as "No-one Driving".

===Other film adaptations===
An apparently unauthorized adaptation of ''Crash'' called ''Nightmare Angel'' was filmed in 1986 by Susan Emerling and ]. This short film bears the credit "Inspired by J. G. Ballard".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Brett|title=The Forgotten Crash: Nightmare Angel|journal=Video Watchdog|date=Oct–Nov 2009|issue=152|pages=12–16}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
*]


==References== ==References==
{{reflist}}
<references/>


==External links== ==External links==
{{wikiquote}} {{wikiquote}}
*
* , reviewed by Ted Gioia ()
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005230224/http://www.bl.uk/works/crash |date=5 October 2016 }} at the British Library
*
<!--* James Ballard-IMDb--> <!--* James Ballard-IMDb-->


Line 63: Line 81:


{{DEFAULTSORT:Crash (1973 Novel)}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Crash (1973 Novel)}}
] ]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 21:30, 10 December 2024

1973 novel by J. G. Ballard

Crash
Cover of first edition (hardcover) by Bill Botten
AuthorJ. G. Ballard
LanguageEnglish
GenrePostmodern novel, transgressive fiction, dystopian
PublisherJonathan Cape
Publication dateJune 1973
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardcover and paperback)
Pages224
ISBN0-224-00782-3
OCLC797233
Dewey Decimal823/.9/14
LC ClassPZ4.B1893 Cp PR6052.A46
Preceded byThe Atrocity Exhibition 
Followed byConcrete Island 

Crash is a novel by British author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1973 with cover designed by Bill Botten. It follows a group of car-crash fetishists who, inspired by the famous crashes of celebrities, become sexually aroused by staging and participating in car accidents.

The novel was released to divided critical reception, with many reviewers horrified by its provocative content. It was adapted into a controversial 1996 film of the same name by David Cronenberg.

Synopsis

The story is told through the eyes of narrator James Ballard, named after the author himself, but it centers on the sinister figure of Dr. Robert Vaughan, a former TV scientist turned "nightmare angel of the highways". James meets Vaughan after being injured in a car crash near London Airport. Gathering around Vaughan is a group of alienated people, all of them former crash victims, who follow him in his pursuit to re-enact the crashes of Hollywood celebrities such as Jayne Mansfield and James Dean, in order to experience what the narrator calls "a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology". Vaughan's ultimate fantasy is to die in a head-on collision with movie star Elizabeth Taylor.

Development

The Papers of J. G. Ballard at the British Library include two revised drafts of Crash (Add MS 88938/3/8). Scanned extracts from Ballard's drafts are included in Crash: The Collector's Edition, ed. Chris Beckett.

In 1971, Harley Cokeliss directed a short film entitled Crash! based on a chapter in J. G. Ballard's book The Atrocity Exhibition, where Ballard is featured, talking about the ideas in his book. British actress Gabrielle Drake appeared as a passenger and car-crash victim. Ballard later developed the idea, resulting in Crash. In his draft of the novel he mentioned Drake by name, but references to her were removed from the published version.

Interpretation

Throughout Crash I have used the car not only as a sexual image, but as a total metaphor for man's life in today's society. As such the novel has a political role quite apart from its sexual content, but I would still like to think that Crash is the first pornographic novel based on technology. In a sense, pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other in the most urgent and ruthless way. Needless to say, the ultimate role of Crash is cautionary, a warning against that brutal, erotic and overlit realm that beckons more and more persuasively to us from the margins of the technological landscape.

— J. G. Ballard, Crash

Crash has been difficult to characterize as a novel. At some points in his career, Ballard claimed that Crash was a "cautionary tale", a view that he would later regret, asserting that it is in fact "a psychopathic hymn. But it is a psychopathic hymn which has a point". Likewise, Ballard previously characterized it a science fiction novel, a position he would later take back.

Jean Baudrillard wrote an analysis of Crash in Simulacra and Simulation in which he declared it "the first great novel of the universe of simulation". He made note of how the fetish in the story conflates the functionality of the automobiles with that of the human body and how the characters' injuries and the damage to the vehicles are used as equivalent signs. To him, the hyperfunctionality leads to the dysfunction in the story. Quotes were used extensively to illustrate that the language of the novel employs plain, mechanical terms for the parts of the automobile and proper, medical language for human sex organs and acts. The story is interpreted as showing a merger between technology, sexuality, and death, and he further argued that by pointing out Vaughan's character takes and keeps photos of the car crashes and the mutilated bodies involved. Baudrillard stated that there is no moral judgment about the events within the novel but that Ballard himself intended it as a warning against a cultural trend.

The story can be classed as dystopic.

Critical reception

The novel received divided reviews when originally published. One publisher's reader returned the verdict "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!" A 1973 review in The New York Times was equally horrified: "Crash is, hands-down, the most repulsive book I've yet to come across."

However, retrospective opinion now considers Crash to be one of Ballard's best and most challenging works. Reassessing Crash in The Guardian, Zadie Smith wrote, "Crash is an existential book about how everybody uses everything. How everything uses everybody. And yet it is not a hopeless vision." On Ballard's legacy, she writes: "In Ballard's work there is always this mix of futuristic dread and excitement, a sweet spot where dystopia and utopia converge. For we cannot say we haven't got precisely what we dreamed of, what we always wanted, so badly."

References in popular art

Music

The Normal's 1978 song "Warm Leatherette" was inspired by the novel as was "Miss the Girl," a 1983 single by The Creatures. The Manic Street Preachers' song "Mausoleum" from 1994's The Holy Bible contains the famous Ballard quote about his reasons for writing the book, "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit. I wanted to force it to look in the mirror." John Foxx's album Metamatic contains songs that have Ballardian themes, such as "No-one Driving".

Other film adaptations

An apparently unauthorized adaptation of Crash called Nightmare Angel was filmed in 1986 by Susan Emerling and Zoe Beloff. This short film bears the credit "Inspired by J. G. Ballard".

See also

References

  1. ^ Canton, James; Cleary, Helen; Kramer, Ann; Laxby, Robin; Loxley, Diana; Ripley, Esther; Todd, Megan; Shaghar, Hila; Valente, Alex (2016). The Literature Book. New York: DK. p. 332. ISBN 978-1-4654-2988-9.
  2. Ballard, J. G. (5 October 2001). Crash. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-42033-8 – via Google Books.
  3. Beckett, Chris (2017). Crash: The Collector's Edition. HarperCollins.
  4. Baxter, John (8 September 2011). "34, The Nasty". The Inner Man: The Life of J. G. Ballard. Hachette. ISBN 978-0-297-86352-6.
  5. JonathanRosenbaum.com » Blog Archive » Sex Drive Archived 2012-01-31 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Groppo, Pedro (2017). "'Death and the Machine: J. G. Ballard's Crash'". Aletria. 27 (1): 161–180. doi:10.17851/2317-2096.27.1.161-180.
  7. Baudrillard, Jean (1994). "Crash". Simulacra and Simulation. Translated by Glaser, Sheila Faria. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. pp. 111–119. ISBN 978-0-472-09521-6.
  8. Halford, Macy (20 April 2009). "J. G. Ballard". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  9. "Crash". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  10. Smith, Zadie (4 July 2014). "Sex and wheels: Zadie Smith on JG Ballard's Crash". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  11. Bradshaw, Peter; Sudjic, Deyan; Simpson, Dave; Sinclair, Iain; Lawson, Mark (20 April 2009). "How JG Ballard cast his shadow right across the arts". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
  12. Taylor, Brett (October–November 2009). "The Forgotten Crash: Nightmare Angel". Video Watchdog (152): 12–16.

External links

Works by J. G. Ballard
Novels
Short stories
Short story
collections
Essays, reviews
and interviews
Autobiography
Film adaptations
Categories: