Crash (J. G. Ballard novel)

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Crash  
Crash(1stEd).jpg
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author(s) J. G. Ballard
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Novel, Transgressive fiction
Publisher Jonathan Cape
Publication date June 1973
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
ISBN 0-224-00782-3
OCLC Number 797233
Dewey Decimal 823/.9/14
LC Classification PZ4.B1893 Cp PR6052.A46
Preceded by The Atrocity Exhibition
Followed by Concrete Island

Crash is a novel by English author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1973. It is a story about symphorophilia or car-crash sexual fetishism: its protagonists become sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car-crashes.

It was a highly controversial novel: famously one publisher's reader returned the verdict "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!"[1] The novel was made into a movie of the same name in 1996 by David Cronenberg. An earlier, apparently unauthorized adaptation called Nightmare Angel was filmed in 1986 by Susan Emerling and Zoe Beloff. This short film bears the credit "Inspired by J.G. Ballard."[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

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 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 Elizabeth Taylor.

[edit] References in popular music

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lars Svendsen, A Philosophy of Boredom, trans. John Irons (London: Reaktion Books, 2005), 82.
  2. ^ Taylor, Brett (Oct/Nov 2009). "The Forgotten Crash: Nightmare Angel". Video Watchdog (152): 12–16. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Crash (J. G. Ballard novel)
Novels:

The Wind From Nowhere (1961) • The Drowned World (1962) • The Burning World (1964) • The Crystal World (1966) • The Atrocity Exhibition (1969) • Crash (1973) • Concrete Island (1974) • High Rise (1975) • The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) • Hello America (1981) • Empire of the Sun (1984) • The Day of Creation (1987) • Running Wild (1988) • The Kindness of Women (1991) • Rushing to Paradise (1994) • Cocaine Nights (1996) • Super-Cannes (2000) • Millennium People (2003) • Kingdom Come (2006)
Short stories:

"Mobile" (1957) • "Track 12" (1958) • "Zone of Terror" (1960) • "The Sound-Sweep" (1960) • "The Voices of Time" (1960) • "Studio 5, The Stars" (1961) • "Deep End" (1961) • "Mr F. is Mr F." (1961) • "Billennium" (1962) • "Minus One" (1963) • "The Recognition" (1967) • " The Day of Forever" (1967) • "The Concentration City" (1967) • "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" (1968) "Venus Smiles" (1971) •
Short story
collections:
Essays and reviews
Autobiography
Film adaptations
and work

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) • Crash! (1971) • Empire of the Sun (1987) • Crash (1996) • The Atrocity Exhibition (2001) • Aparelho Voador a Baixa Altitude (2002)
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