Editing Crash (Ballard novel)

{{short description|1973 novel by J. G. Ballard}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book|
| name              = Crash
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = Crash(1stEd).jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| caption           = Cover of first edition (hardcover) by Bill Botten
| author            = [[J. G. Ballard]]
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = United Kingdom
| language          = English
| series            = 
| genre             = [[Postmodern novel]], [[transgressive fiction]], [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian]]
| publisher         = [[Jonathan Cape]]
| release_date      = June 1973
| media_type        = Print ([[Hardcover]] and [[paperback]])
| pages             = 224
| isbn              = 0-224-00782-3
| dewey             = 823/.9/14
| congress          = PZ4.B1893 Cp PR6052.A46
| oclc              = 797233
| preceded_by       = [[The Atrocity Exhibition]]
| followed_by       = [[Concrete Island]]
}}
'''''Crash'''''  is a novel by British author [[J. G. Ballard]], first published in 1973 with cover designed by [[Bill Botten]]. It follows a group of car-crash [[sexual fetishism|fetishists]] who, inspired by the famous crashes of celebrities, become sexually aroused by staging and participating in car accidents.

The novel was released to divided critical reception, with many reviewers horrified by its provocative content. It was adapted into a controversial [[Crash (1996 film)|1996 film of the same name]] by [[David Cronenberg]].

==Synopsis==
The story is told through the eyes of narrator James Ballard, named after the author himself, but it centers on the sinister figure of Dr. Robert Vaughan, a former TV scientist turned "nightmare angel of the highways".<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last1=Canton |first1=James |title=The Literature Book |last2=Cleary |first2=Helen |last3=Kramer |first3=Ann |last4=Laxby |first4=Robin |last5=Loxley |first5=Diana |last6=Ripley |first6=Esther |last7=Todd |first7=Megan |last8=Shaghar |first8=Hila |last9=Valente |first9=Alex |publisher=[[DK (publisher)|DK]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4654-2988-9 |location=New York |page=332}}</ref> James meets Vaughan after being injured in a car crash near [[London Heathrow Airport|London Airport]]. Gathering around Vaughan is a group of alienated people, all of them former crash victims, who follow him in his pursuit to re-enact the crashes of [[Hollywood cinema|Hollywood]] celebrities such as [[Jayne Mansfield]] and [[James Dean]], in order to experience what the narrator calls "a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology". Vaughan's ultimate fantasy is to die in a head-on collision with movie star [[Elizabeth Taylor]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8-iHi1IBigC|title=Crash|first=J. G.|last=Ballard|date=October 5, 2001|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-42033-8 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

== Development ==
The Papers of J. G. Ballard at the [[British Library]] include two revised drafts of ''Crash'' (Add MS 88938/3/8). Scanned extracts from Ballard's drafts are included in ''Crash: The Collector's Edition,'' ed. Chris Beckett.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beckett|first=Chris|title=Crash: The Collector's Edition|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2017}}</ref>

In 1971, [[Harley Cokeliss]] directed a short film entitled ''Crash!'' based on a chapter in [[J. G. Ballard]]'s book ''[[The Atrocity Exhibition]]'', where Ballard is featured, talking about the ideas in his book. British actress [[Gabrielle Drake]] appeared as a passenger and car-crash victim. Ballard later developed the idea, resulting in ''Crash''. In his draft of the novel he mentioned Drake by name, but references to her were removed from the published version.<ref name="baxter">{{cite book |last=Baxter |first=John |title=The Inner Man: The Life of J. G. Ballard |date=8 September 2011 |publisher=[[Hachette (publisher)|Hachette]] |isbn=978-0-297-86352-6 |chapter=34, The Nasty}}</ref> 

==Interpretation==
{{Blockquote
|text  = Throughout ''Crash'' I have used the car not only as a sexual image, but as a total metaphor for man's life in today's society. As such the novel has a political role quite apart from its sexual content, but I would still like to think that ''Crash'' is the first pornographic novel based on technology. In a sense, pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other in the most urgent and ruthless way. Needless to say, the ultimate role of ''Crash'' is cautionary, a warning against that brutal, erotic and overlit realm that beckons more and more persuasively to us from the margins of the technological landscape.<ref name="jr">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120131151534/http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=6667 JonathanRosenbaum.com » Blog Archive » Sex Drive [on CRASH]]}}</ref>
|author = J. G. Ballard
|source = ''Crash''
}}

''Crash'' has been difficult to characterize as a novel. At some points in his career, Ballard claimed that ''Crash'' was a "cautionary tale", a view that he would later regret, asserting that it is in fact "a psychopathic hymn. But it is a psychopathic hymn which has a point".<ref>{{cite journal | first=Pedro | last=Groppo | title='Death and the Machine: J. G. Ballard's Crash' | journal=Aletria | year=2017 | volume=27 | issue=1 | pages=161–180 | doi=10.17851/2317-2096.27.1.161-180| doi-access=free }}</ref> Likewise, Ballard previously characterized it a science fiction novel, a position he would later take back.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

[[Jean Baudrillard]] wrote an analysis of ''Crash'' in ''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]'' in which he declared it "the first great novel of the universe of simulation". He made note of how the fetish in the story conflates the functionality of the automobiles with that of the human body and how the characters' injuries and the damage to the vehicles are used as equivalent signs. To him, the hyperfunctionality leads to the dysfunction in the story. Quotes were used extensively to illustrate that the language of the novel employs plain, mechanical terms for the parts of the automobile and proper, medical language for human sex organs and acts. The story is interpreted as showing a merger between technology, sexuality, and death, and he further argued that by pointing out Vaughan's character takes and keeps photos of the car crashes and the mutilated bodies involved. Baudrillard stated that there is no moral judgment about the events within the novel but that Ballard himself intended it as a warning against a cultural trend.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baudrillard
|first=Jean |author-link=Jean Baudrillard |translator-last1=Glaser |translator-first1=Sheila Faria |date=1994 |chapter=Crash |title=Simulacra and Simulation |location=Ann Arbor, MI |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |pages= 111–119 |isbn=978-0-472-09521-6}}</ref>

The story can be classed as [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopic]].<ref name=":32" />

==Critical reception==
The novel received divided reviews when originally published. One [[publisher's reader]] returned the verdict "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!"<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/j-g-ballard|title=J. G. Ballard|last=Halford|first=Macy|magazine=The New Yorker |date=2009-04-20|access-date=2019-08-01|language=en|issn=0028-792X}}</ref> A 1973 review in ''[[The New York Times]]'' was equally horrified: "''Crash'' is, hands-down, the most repulsive book I've yet to come across."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/98/07/12/specials/ballard-crash.html|title=Crash|website=The New York Times|access-date=2019-07-31}}</ref>

However, retrospective opinion now considers ''Crash'' to be one of Ballard's best and most challenging works. Reassessing ''Crash'' in ''[[The Guardian]]'', [[Zadie Smith]] wrote, "C''rash'' is an [[existential]] book about how ''everybody uses everything''. How everything uses everybody. And yet it is not a hopeless vision." On Ballard's legacy, she writes: "In Ballard's work there is always this mix of futuristic dread and excitement, a sweet spot where dystopia and utopia converge. For we cannot say we haven't got precisely what we dreamed of, what we always wanted, so badly."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/04/zadie-smith-jg-ballard-crash|title=Sex and wheels: Zadie Smith on JG Ballard's Crash|last=Smith|first=Zadie|date=2014-07-04|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-07-31|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

==References in popular art==
===Music===
[[The Normal]]'s 1978 song "[[Warm Leatherette]]" was inspired by the novel, and later covered in 1980 by [[Grace Jones]]. Similarly inspired was "[[Miss the Girl]]," a 1983 single by [[The Creatures]].
The [[Manic Street Preachers]]' song "Mausoleum" from 1994's ''[[The Holy Bible (album)|The Holy Bible]]'' contains the famous Ballard quote about his reasons for writing the book, "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit. I wanted to force it to look in the mirror."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/20/jg-ballard-film-music-architecture-tv|title=How JG Ballard cast his shadow right across the arts|first1=Peter|last1=Bradshaw|first2=Deyan|last2=Sudjic|first3=Dave|last3=Simpson|first4=Iain|last4=Sinclair|first5=Mark|last5=Lawson|newspaper=The Guardian |date=April 20, 2009|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> [[John Foxx]]'s album ''[[Metamatic]]'' contains songs that have Ballardian themes, such as "No-one Driving".

===Other film adaptations===
An apparently unauthorized adaptation of ''Crash'' called ''Nightmare Angel'' was filmed in 1986 by Susan Emerling and [[Zoe Beloff]]. This short film bears the credit "Inspired by J. G. Ballard".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Brett|title=The Forgotten Crash: Nightmare Angel|journal=Video Watchdog|date=Oct–Nov 2009|issue=152|pages=12–16}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
*[[Autassassinophilia]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.jgballard.ca/terminal_collection/1968_73.html The Terminal Collection: JG Ballard First Editions]
*[http://www.bl.uk/works/crash ''Crash''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005230224/http://www.bl.uk/works/crash |date=5 October 2016 }} at the British Library
<!--* James Ballard-IMDb-->

{{J. G. Ballard}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crash (1973 Novel)}}
[[Category:1973 British novels]]
[[Category:1973 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:1970s LGBTQ novels]]
[[Category:British science fiction novels]]
[[Category:British psychological novels]]
[[Category:British erotic novels]]
[[Category:British LGBTQ novels]]
[[Category:LGBTQ speculative fiction novels]]
[[Category:Postmodern novels]]
[[Category:Dystopian novels]]
[[Category:Bisexual fiction]]
[[Category:BDSM literature]]
[[Category:Science fiction erotica]]
[[Category:Novels about technology]]
[[Category:Novels about infidelity]]
[[Category:Novels about necrophilia]]
[[Category:Novels about gay topics]]
[[Category:Novels about transgender topics]]
[[Category:Fiction about sexual addiction]] 
[[Category:Fiction about casual sex]]
[[Category:Male bisexuality in fiction]]
[[Category:Female bisexuality in fiction]]
[[Category:Literature about pedophilia]]
[[Category:Books about cars]]
[[Category:Works about cars]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Science fiction novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]
[[Category:Novels by J. G. Ballard]]
[[Category:Jonathan Cape books]]