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The Atrocity Exhibition: Annotated (Flamingo Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by J.G. Ballard (Author), William S. Burroughs (Preface)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (21 May 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007116861
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007116867
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 8,527 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Burroughs, William S.
    #1 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Fiction
    #5 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Ballard, J.G.

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Easily one of the 20th century's most visionary writers, JG Ballard still lives far ahead of his time. Called his "prophetic masterpiece" by many, The Atrocity Exhibition practically lies outside of any literary tradition. Part science fiction, part eerie historical fiction, part pornography, its characters adhere to no rules of linearity or stability. This reissued edition features an introduction by William S Burroughs, extensive text commentary by Ballard and four additional stories. Of specific interest are the illustrations by underground cartoonist and professional medical illustrator Phoebe Gloeckner. Her ultra-realistic images of eroticism and destruction add an important dimension to Ballard's text. --Joaquim della Mirandella


Review

'I would argue that "The Atrocity Exhibition" represents the zenith of the experimental novel in English. But Ballard's marginalia are a tour de force, a wholly original work in their own right. One can hear Ballard's voice as he offers a surreal evening class on his own work, life and preoccupations. This one is a must.' Will Self, Time Out 'Brilliant and unnerving!a writer with talent to burn.' The Times 'These stories -- "condensed novels", Ballard has called them -- are a high-water mark in English experimental fiction.' New York TImes
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The Atrocity Exhibition: Annotated (Flamingo Modern Classics)
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The Atrocity Exhibition: Annotated (Flamingo Modern Classics) 4.1 out of 5 stars (17)
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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth reading., 19 May 2003
Quite a surreal book. Not sure I understood it completely but here goes...

The sexual pathology of the main protagonist is revealed in a series of psychosexual experiments involving the positioning of objects in the geometry of space time. These are attempts to unlock the latent sexuality of, among others, a motorway overpass, a particular arrangement of wrecked cars, or the angle between walls, along with the re-enactment of the (real or imaginary) deaths of the famous in an effort to achieve a sexual ideal; often personified by Elizabeth Taylor.

In each chapter the main character's identity is viewed from another angle, another facet of his personality, and we accompany him through his apparent psychoses. Even his character name changes throughout and sometimes the events and characters appear only in his mind. Other characters, such as Dr Nathan who is our window of rationality in this surreal world, or Karen Novotny the eternal victim, provide their necessary roles in the psychodrama.

I enjoyed reading this book and, having only read one other J.G. Ballard (The Crystal World), will no doubt read another of his work. However, I felt that The Atrocity Exhibition, good though it was, (ironically) didn't really reach the climax I expected. Maybe I just need to read it over again.

The annotation in this edition by J.G. Ballard is essential - although my copy does not have the illustrations mentioned above.

SGL

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars virtually reality, 15 Mar 2001
By A Customer
This fantastically odd book reads like an amphetamine crazed encyclopaedia of the late twentieth century. The world it describes is one in which sci-fi has become a Freudian reality (no surprises for Ballard's fans then), psychiatrists go madder than their patients and mutilated dream characters fall down an enormous replica of Liz Taylor's vagina in an abandoned film set.

I just hope, for the sake of those who haven't read it before, that this new edition is annotated. Otherwise, some of those dense references are a little obscure for those of us who were not around in the 6o's and 70's.

Oh yes, and it's written in the style of the Warren Commission Report, too.

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The True Tradition, 30 Jan 2002
Burroughs was championed in the UK by Ballard and Moorcock, who took his cut-up ideas and made them into something far more refined and socially accurate, though lacking the mad humour of The Naked Lunch.
These stories first appeared in New Worlds, which was running Pynchon, D.M.Thomas, George MacBeth,
Thomas M. Disch, M.John Harrison, James Sallis and a whole lot of talented (and very young!) writers.
They anticipated 'post-modernism' by a good few years. These stories are as good as they were when they first dropped through my mail-box almost thirty years ago. This is the edition to own.
The missing name in this equation, too, is Barrington Bayley, from whom Burroughs borrowed a great deal and who remains the 'forgotten' talent of that still-vital movement of which The Atrocity Exhibition remains one of the central and most essential books. Read this with The Cornelius Quartet and get the buzz that cheered us all up in
the 60s and 70s when angry authors were engaging more effectively with the issues of the world -- none of which have gone away. This book, rather than his better known Crash, proves that Ballard is a true visionary, a true master for the 21st century. It's a great tradition...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but convoluted.
Why say it in five words, when you can say it in a hundred? I thought books, and hence written communication, were supposed to simplify a communicative exchange. Not this book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jonny R

5.0 out of 5 stars An unforgettable hallucinatory journey
It is difficult to do justice to the controlled artfulness and uncompromsing directness of Ballard's vision in The Atrocity Exhibition. Read more
Published 9 months ago by pburgess

1.0 out of 5 stars I hope I'm not thick
I think I'm a pretty bright sort of a bloke. I got a good degree in English Literature from a very respectable university. Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. Pollard

1.0 out of 5 stars The 'atrocious' exhibition
'The Atrocity Exhibition' is a very apt title, because I have never read a more atrocious book. 'Experimental' translated means 'Avant-Garde', He mentions rape, torture,... Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2006 by J. Roberts

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly visionary
Will Self describes this book, on the cover, as representing "the zenith of the experimental novel in English. Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2005 by ronthedog

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I ever read!
Yes, this is a difficult and complex book. Yes, it is dense, cryptic and multi-layered. Yes, it lacks a clear linear plot. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing - the geometry of virtual un-reality
ballard himself said that every paragraph of this frightening, obscure and obtuse puzzle-fiction is a condensed novel. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2005 by B. D. Hopkins

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Book I Ever Read!
Perhaps not a popular opinion.
If you can get through a page of this book without finding the words 'geometry' or 'algebra' or 'equation' somewhere in there... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Dont give up too soon!!!!
Perhaps the most bizarre and visionary work that I have read since Lindsay's "Voyage to Arcturus", at at times almost as inscrutable. Read more
Published on 21 Jul 2004 by randombullmerde

5.0 out of 5 stars A rewarding read
Although it's one of Ballard's more cryptic works this is a very rewarding read. This large format edition provides plenty of room for notes in the margins expanding on and... Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2004 by Nicholas Dunn

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