Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34433 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-19
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Synopsis
The cult status of "Crash" has intensified since its original publication in 1973, making it a classic of underground literature. In this hallucinatory novel, the car provides the hellish tableau in which Vaughan, a 'TV scientist', experiments with erotic atrocities among crash victims, each more sinister than the last: ultimately, he craves a union of blood, semen and engine coolant in a head-on collision with Elizabeth Taylor.

Customer Reviews

Morbid melding of man and machine
The concerns of this novel are even more immediate today than they were when it was written some thirty years ago. Traffic volumes relentlessly increase and the shaping of the human psyche by technology grows deeper with every passing year. This is the theme of 'Crash'and one which pervades much science-fiction and speculative writing. The core of this novel is about the relationship between humanity and technology - the melding of man and machine.

The car is a potent symbol of this marriage and a violent crash the ultimate wedding. Just stand on any motorway footbridge during the evening rush-hour and Ballard's evocative prose is brought to mind. Just watch the streams of high-speed traffic flowing endlessly beneath the setting sun; each car containing within itself the potential for any number of complex collisions. The sexual urge is somehow translated into the urge to drive at speed and with the obsession with the forms of the car in all its curvatures. Indeed the many graphic sexual references in the book are clinical, stylised and highlighted in relation to an all-pervasive technology.

The backdrop of the novel is the alienating no-man's land on the sprawling outskirts of a metropolis (London). Most of the action takes place on motorway intersections, slip-roads, fly-overs, car-parks and airport terminals. In this world man has most definitely sold his soul with little return.

The writing style here is an acquired taste. Although Ballard's ideas are vivid and original the descriptive phraseology can be repetitive in structure. If you like novels with pace and well-defined plot then this book would be anathema to you. 'Crash' is almost a montage of highly descriptive vignettes played over the Outer-London wasteland: the connecting thread being the obsessional antics of Vaughan as seen from the viewpoint of Ballard (himself a character in the first person). In Vaughan we follow the development of the man/technology marriage taken to its extreme conclusion.

The sexual possibilities inherent in technology are quite fascinatingly described in these pages. The writer's obsession with the various components of a car's structure in relation to the human body and its functions become almost comically tiresome as the book progresses - but this very repetitiveness itself, like passing lights on a motorway, emphasises the soullessness and alienation of auto-technology. The scene in the automatic car-wash is particularly memorable and was picked up on to brilliant effect by Cronenberg in his 1996 screen version of the novel.

'Crash'is a novel of complex ideas and if the writer is unfamiliar to you, I think his earlier works such as 'The Drought' and 'The Drowned World' make an easier introduction. However 'Crash' can provide an enjoyable read in spite of its idiosyncratic style, disturbing content and pessimistic tone. One thing is for sure- after reading 'Crash'your experience of a high-speed motorway journey will never be quite the same again.

A great modern classic
If you ever hear someone moan that "There are no classics anymore." or ask "Are there any great British writers still alive?" point them to Ballard and arguably his masterpiece, Crash.

I say arguably, because the catalogue of J G Ballard is littered with classics. Empire of the Sun, Crystal World, Attrocity Exhibition and more, far more.

This is not a book for everyone. Ballard is not to all tastes, at least not at first. If you try Crash and feel alienated from it or find that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, try his short stories and work your way back to Crash once you've adjusted to him & acquired a taste for his style, his subject matter and his characters.

But don't be put off by anyone who claims to find Crash 'turgid' or worse. To not read Crash is really rather shameful.

A Work Of Genius
Ballard's dislike of modern life and in particular man's obsession with the motor car and the concrete monstrosities it runs on are central to this brilliant novel. Only Ballard has the imagination and insight into 20th/21st century life to write such a book. Only Ballard has the nerve and the literary audacity to show us what we have become. Ballard takes a premise and fashions it into a novel of such thought-provoking brilliance that anyone who awards this less than 5 stars has missed the point completely.