Crash (1973)

Much like the other Ballard texts I have read, I found Crash 'hyper-masculine' and too classically futurist in its disdain for women to enjoy. Ballard seems to me an 'ideas-writer' who creates very clever concepts which, for me personally, fail in execution.

"Even as I placed my penis in his rectum Vaughan had known he would try to kill me, in a final display of his casual love for me." Crash, page 172

That pretty much sums up Ballard’s attempt to, I don’t know, shock the world into realising how horrible we all are, maybe.

To be honest, having read it, I have no idea why anyone would want to write a novel like this, would want to put into other people’s minds images of animal sex and the results of the lack of attention to car safety in the 1970s.

Except to shock people into thinking humanity is a mess.

If so, the approach to take to the book is simple: if you know humanity is a mess and that not a single one of us contains an ounce of goodness unless by God’s saving grace through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, you don’t need to read it.

If you don’t believe that and still think people are somehow good at heart or all have the potential to be good if they try hard enough, read Crash until you decide otherwise.

At that point, you can stop reading.

If you get all the way through and think that a more accurate description of the human condition is portrayed by Little Women or anything by Jane Austen, then you are truly the lost soul that Ballard was writing about when he created the character Vaughan. ( )

What a book! Having read the blurb on the back side did not prepare me for this.
I don't understand it, I didn't like it one bit. How's one sexually aroused by car crashes? How (why) would you get married and then cheat on the person you're married to? Even watch?

This book is too explicit/detailed, but it felt like it was the sexual fantasy of a teenager who's mind revolves around only one thing.

One to cross off the list, never to think about again. I really am wondering why it was added to it in the first place... ( )

Une descente jusqu’au boutiste des fantasmes de violences automobiles dans la fétichisation de l’accident. Des corps et du métal, de la tôle et des plaies, du sexe et des fluides divers

Un livre absolu. Mais finalement, j’ai quand même trouvé ça un peu lassant, comme un exercice de style à l’exécution parfaite ( )

Crash is an infamous literary novel by prolific novelist JG Ballard, centering on the lives of a group of people who’s experiences with accidents have fostered a deeply sexual paraphilia for car crashes. Both it and the movie adaptation were wildly controversial when they came out, eliciting scathing reviews and campaigns for banning and censorship. Despite this, it remains a fetish classic that depicts, in a very raw kind of way, a look into deviant sexuality, trauma, and the human condition.

Read the full review on my blog: https://rosesbooks.home.blog/2020/09/25/review-crash-by-jg-ballard/ ( )