J.G. Ballard's Crash and the Pornographization of the Ordinary
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | J.G. Ballard's novel Crash (1973) caused significant controversy upon its publication. Some reviewers claimed it was "the most repulsive book [they]'ve yet to come across" (Mano 7), others, such as Michael Moorcock, conversely praised it due to the "moral line" running through the narrative (37). The text, in which the human body and the car intersect in the sexualized spectacle of the car crash, inevitably leads to polarizing reception. Numerous approaches to the novel are possible, yet the following two seem to be the most common: it is either read in terms of Jean Baudrillard's simulacrum and simulation (an approach common due to Baudrillard's chapter on Crash in Simulacra and Simulation) or analyzed through Georges Bataille's ideas on death and sexuality. Nevertheless, something is ignored through these approaches: from the first-person narrative or the clinical and emotionless language to the prevalence of photographs and photographic images in the novel, the text invites the reader to focus on the visual representations contained within. The gaze of the reader—faced with sexual acts juxtaposed with the automobile—manifests a pornographic obsession with the nonliving vehicles in a voyeuristic manner. The result is a "pornographization" rather than eroticization of the car, itself a stand-in for the ordinary. The novel then reveals the underlying principles of obsessive fetishizing of everyday reality as the truly pornographic mechanism. Works Cited: Mano, D.K. Review of Crash. New York Times Book Review, 23 Sept. 1973: 7. Print. |
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