Crash (Ballard novel)

Did You Know?

• The Papers of J. G. Ballard at the British Library include two revised drafts of Crash (Add MS 88938/3/8).
• In 1971, Harley Cokeliss directed a short film entitled Crash! based on a chapter in Ballard's book The Atrocity Exhibition, where Ballard is featured talking about the ideas in his book.
• In his draft of the novel Ballard mentioned Gabrielle Drake by name, but references to her were removed from the published version.

Synopsis

The narrator, James Ballard, shares his name with the author. The story revolves around Dr. Robert Vaughan, a former television scientist who becomes a "nightmare angel of the highways." After a car crash near London Airport, James joins Vaughan and his followers, a group of alienated former crash victims. They restage the fatal accidents of celebrities like Jayne Mansfield and James Dean to explore "a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology." Vaughan’s own goal is to die in a head-on collision with Elizabeth Taylor.

Interpretation

Ballard stated that he used the car as a total metaphor for man's life in today's society, and that the novel has a political role apart from its sexual content. He called Crash "the first pornographic novel based on technology", arguing that pornography is the most political form of fiction. Ballard described the novel's ultimate role as cautionary, a warning against a brutal, erotic realm beckoning from the margins of the technological landscape. At times he claimed Crash was a "cautionary tale", a view he later regretted, asserting it is "a psychopathic hymn. But it is a psychopathic hymn which has a point". He previously characterized it as science fiction, a position he later took back. Jean Baudrillard declared it "the first great novel of the universe of simulation", noting how the fetish conflates automobile functionality with the human body and how injuries and vehicle damage are used as equivalent signs. Baudrillard argued that hyperfunctionality leads to dysfunction, and that the story shows a merger of technology, sexuality, and death. He stated there is no moral judgment within the novel but that Ballard intended it as a warning. The story can be classed as dystopic.

Critical reception

When it first came out, Crash split critics. One publisher’s reader declared the author beyond psychiatric help and refused to publish it. A 1973 New York Times review called it the most repulsive book ever encountered. Today, however, it is seen as one of Ballard’s finest and most demanding works. Zadie Smith later described it in The Guardian as an existential novel about mutual use, adding that its vision is not hopeless.

References in popular art

The Normal's 1978 song "Warm Leatherette" was inspired by the novel, later covered by Grace Jones in 1980. The Creatures' 1983 single "Miss the Girl" was similarly inspired. The Manic Street Preachers' song "Mausoleum" from 1994's The Holy Bible contains Ballard's quote about his reasons for writing the book. An unauthorized adaptation called Nightmare Angel was filmed in 1986 by Susan Emerling and Zoe Beloff.