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Crash
 
 
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Crash (Paperback)

by J.G. Ballard (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (19 Jan 1995)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099334917
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099334910
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 212,756 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #8 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Fiction
    #33 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Ballard, J.G.

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Product Description

Product Description
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.

From the Publisher
'Ballard is amongst our finest writers of fiction' Anthony Burgess --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Postmodern Classic, 21 Feb 2003
By Ms. L. Thacker "loullabelle" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
To say that J.G Ballard's classic postmodern novel is merely out for the 'shock value' it can extract from its reader is completely missing the point.

This isn't an erotic novel, the sexual content is handled in such a way to make it clinical, almost replulsive to the reader (sexual organs are described with as much enthusiasm as a steering wheel column). Sex becomes just another mechanical act, like driving a car, the repetition only serves to highlight that fact. The endless cycle and the numbing realisation that as a postmodern audience we become deadened to the horrors that surround us that are brought into our homes by the media is also central to understanding this text.

Ballard's novel brings to light the desensitised nature of human beings who watch mass murders on the nightly news with as much affect as the advertisement for soap powder which follows.

Ballard's novel is an implossion of fantasy and reality. Bringing together the society that thrives on spectacle to the point that watching a car crash has become prime time viewing. The death of affect - the fulfilment of human passions onto material technologies rather than people, resulting in a displacement of passion and an inability to connect is also central to this text.

After this read The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A caustic look at a 20th century sexual nightmare, 13 Mar 1999
By A Customer
Ballard yet again has explored parts of the human psyche that few dare to probe.He matches de Sade and Mirbeau in his illustration of new sexualities and sexual landscapes, caressing the lost edifices of a primitive erotic language, hidden in the modern technology that rules our everyday lives.Crash still remains one of the few novels that dares to explore the modern influence on sexuality, still as shocking and brilliant as it is beautiful.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Without precedent, 10 Mar 2001
Ballard's tale is the only truly postmodern book I've read, and the apparent lack of depth is crucial to understanding the author's aims. His alloyage of human and mechanic affectation, of the miscegenation of image and reflection, of a sexuality without precendent or escape are the themes he explores through scalpel sharp and riveting prose. Buy it, shoplift it or whatever, just read it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Abysmal
This tedious little offering manages at the same time to be compelling (because it is so egregiously repulsive) and dull. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Oxford

1.0 out of 5 stars Crash
TRIED HARD TO GET INTO THIS BOOK, BUT FOUND IT DISAPPOINTING.FOR ME IT DID NOT LIVE UP TO ITS HYPE.
Published 3 months ago by Peter K. Mullins

3.0 out of 5 stars Burroughs without the balls
At the beginning of this novel I felt as if I was embarking upon a William Burroughs effort that had been filtered, edited and contrived; sadly that impression didn't change much... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Alexander Lindsay

5.0 out of 5 stars Sick and twisting tale
Anyone familiar with the work of J G Ballard will know Crash. Anyone familiar with the darker side of cinema will know Crash. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Sa Bell

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining ride
I'd been wanting to read Ballard for ages but after begining a novel I would find his style over-done, amateurish. Read more
Published 5 months ago by pingpong

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant even though lots of people say so
Relentlessly aggressive and pornographic in a psycho-geographical kind of way. Brilliant even though lots of people say so. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Pablo K

4.0 out of 5 stars 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. Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2003 by Damian of Clitheroe

5.0 out of 5 stars 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? Read more
Published on 12 May 2003 by theTramp

5.0 out of 5 stars 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. Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2003 by Steven Moses

1.0 out of 5 stars don't bother.....
...Indeed, as one of the other reviews points out, after the first chapter everything is very predictable, and a number of the relationships that are explored are anticipated many... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2002

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