Crash (novel)
Crash is the title of a 1973 published novel of British author James Graham Ballard . This book is the first volume in a dystopian trilogy , followed by Concrete Iceland (dt. The concrete island or concrete island ) (1974) and High-Rise (1975) (dt. Skyscraper or Block ). The story is about a group of people who gain sexual pleasure from staging and participating in car accidents.
The first German edition of the same name appeared in 1985, translated by Joachim Körber and illustrated by Uwe Mayer , in an edition of 1000 copies.
content
The main character, like the author Ballard by name, leads a marriage reduced to empty sexuality with his wife Catherine. After Ballard's accident, he and his wife are joined by a group of accident fetishists around Dr. Robert Vaughan, a former media scholar. Vaughan is convinced that a car accident, especially a fatal one, releases the driver's sexual energy and hopes to capture something of this when he recreates the accident: “a new sexuality born from a perverse technology” (Original: “a new sexuality , born from a perverse technology "). Vaughan's greatest dream is to die in a head-on accident with Elizabeth Taylor . The attempt fails, Vaughan dies in a collision with a tourist bus. Ballard and the rest of the group continue their sex and death fixated lives.
analysis
The book examines changes in the human psyche due to modern technology and consumer culture. The fascination that emanates from celebrities is also highlighted.
The people in the novel are usually cold and devoid of passion, unless some form of modern technology is involved. In the novel, these are mostly cars or architecture. The often serious injuries and disfigurements of the accident victims are not viewed as bad, but rather as sexual liberation and expansion of the possibilities that still need to be explored. For example, there is a scene in which a man and a woman have sex right in the accident vehicle after a car accident . However, the man does not penetrate the woman's vagina, but rather penetrates a wound in her thigh that she has recently sustained.
In the end, the question is asked why such an enlightened society like ours can accept such a perverse technology that kills thousands of people every year and has even made it an integral part of its culture.
Aftermath
Movie
- In 1986 the book was unauthorized by Susan Emerling and Zoe Beloff 30-minute short film titled Nightmare Angel filmed
- In 1996, David Cronenberg 's film of the same name was released , which is closely based on the book
music
- The song Warm Leatherette (1978) by Daniel Miller's band The Normal was inspired by the novel
Secondary literature
- Logic of deviance in JG Ballard's »Crash«, master's thesis by Axel Fischer at the University of Konstanz, 1997
- Kai U. Jürgens : On the beauty of splintering car bodies. JG Ballard's controversial cult novel »Crash« in new translation , February 18, 2020
Individual evidence
- ↑ Filmography by Zoe Beloff, accessed July 24, 2012.
- ↑ Daniel Miller & His Home Studio • Mute Records • The Instrument Studio , article on Soundonsound.com, accessed July 24, 2012.