Crash

Ballard, J[ames] G[raham]. Crash. London: Cape, 1973. New York: Farrarr, 1973. Rpt. with author's introd. New York: Vintage, 1985.

"Crash was called by its author [...] 'the first pornographic novel based on technology', and [....] the car-crash and the moment of orgasm are literally overlaid to explore or propound a new kind of sexuality [...]." We quote here Brian Baker, "The Resurrection of Desire: J. G. Ballard's Crash as a Transgressive Text" (Foundation 80 [Autumn 2000] pp. 84-97, here p. 84).[1] Brian quotes Ballard's "Some Words About Crash" in Foundation 9 (November 1975): pp. 45-54, specifically p. 49, and goes on to site "Ballard's own reading of Crash" emphasizing "the car crash as a symbol of the 'nightmare marriage between sex and technology'" (Baker p. 95).

Described by Sargent (1988; q.v. under Reference) as "Dystopia—sex and technology," and discussed in terms of the mechanical and the sexual by J. Baudrillard.

Ballard's Crash is the source of CRASH (1996), David Cronenberg director and script,[2] an intriguing film but, like Baker's article, somewhat tangential to the subject of this wiki. Note, though, quotation from Cronenberg that "A lot of people still think of CRASH as a sci-fi book [...]" and suggesting those people may have a point in terms of "the psychology of the people" in the works. Quoted in an interview with Paul Wardle, "David Cronenberg Goes "Crash," Cinefantastique 28.10 (April 1997): 29.

Expanded RDE, Initial Compiler, 16March19; 15Aug22