First thing's first: Crash is, by no stretch of the imagination, intended for the faint of heart. The novel is brimming with graphic violence, llose morals, and sexual perversion of every stripe. However, if you're not offended by that sort of thing, you'll find that Crash is nothing less than a bizarre, brilliant good time.

The novel is, at heart, the story of a rather unusual friendship between two men: The novel's narrator and protagonist (who is, strangely enough, named James Ballard), and Dr. Robert Vaughan, a renegade scientist and borderline psychopath. The two men are united by their obsession with the erotic possibilities of the common car accident. They men spend much of their time "experimenting" with various sexual situations involving automobiles. As such, Crash is a sort of inverted, pseudo-satirical deconstruction of the steriotypical image of the car as a source of sexuality and moodern hedonism, and on that level, it's quite effective: The novel is oddly insightful, and often darkly funny. Vaughan and Ballard, meanwhile, are positively fascinating characters, brimming with contradictrions, quirks, and demented insights, while the writing itself is eerie, raw, and addictive. If you like your literature twisted and weird, don't hesitate to read Crash.

J.G. Ballard is known as a contraversial and aggresive writer, and Crash is a prodigious accumulation of sex and fantasy. He doesn't analyze the character's sexual attraction in relation to car crashes and subsequent injury insomuch as he tells a very labryrinthine yet unadorned story. I liked this book because it made me cringe and, at times, sick to my stomach. The book isn't one I'd dog ear and pass onto my friends and family for a good read, or whip out on a cold rainy day for a reread, but it is an exceptional and impassioned story that those with stomachs of stone (or other semi-hard substances) will no doubt be glad they read.

In the modern age the car has become a symbol of freedom and status and the sexiness of a graceful automobile holds a powerful attraction to many. At the same time, the car crash is a voyer's delight that satisfies a primitive instinctive enjoyment gained from the destruction and deformation of smooth metal surfaces and soft human tissue. Ballard sees all of this and implies a perverse extension in which this voyerism has become sexual. In doing so he makes a powerful statement about the role of technology in reshaping human lives.

While others have complained about this, for me the book's repetative focusing on car parts, car crash injuries and sexual acts matches the compulsive nature of sexual obsessions that can be satisfied temporarily but will continue to return again and again. In this way the book's torrid and relentless flow of ideas and visions is consistent with the foundation of it's plot. The book reads rapidly and yet it is increadilbly dense with amazingly poetic phrases and sentences. In this way the book adds ever increacing weight to its central ideas.

Overall, this work is still as fresh in concept today as it must have been when it was first published. Like many of Ballard's books, Crash is a self-contained masterpeice that does not seek to be understood or praised by its readers - it can hold its place among the worlds greatest literature with ease.

J.G Ballard's crash is about sex, cars, and society. The novel reaches deeply into society's fascination with automobiles and its appeal. To some, like the characters in this book, it is something erotic and arousing. The characters of the book emulate famous crashes such as James Dean, and find it exhilarating and sexually stimulating. You could almost consider the characters as a cult, or an obsessive group of people who could be considered perverted in their own way.
The themes from the story are without a doubt about the influence of technology and society. The fact that the characters in the book can find car crashes sexually stimulating is almost sick, but these kinds of fetishes are also what define subcultures in today's society. It is undoubtable that technology and society both evolve. In terms of J.G Ballard's Crash, the fascination with automobiles and sex, has evolved into something twisted.
The book was an enjoyable read. It is the type of story that is graphic with lots or sexual intent. I agree with the user "Katie" as the gist of the novel can easily be discovered within the first few chapters. If you're a reader who enjoys twisted nuances about a cult of sexually deranged people, by all means look into this book. The themes about technology and society are something can also be enjoyed as well. Ballard easily raises the question of limitations on sex, technology, and society.

Brian Carroll
GOVT 490
06/21/06

Crash Book Review

Historically, sex has been a popular attraction to the people of this world. The car has also played a widespread role in the lives of many people in this world, but especially in the lives of many Americans. Although the car and the topic of sex have been prominent and popular subjects in many places across this world, the way J. G. Ballard intertwines automobiles and sex provides a new sexuality influenced from technology that changes how sex works that is not acceptable and furthermore disgusting in my opinion.
J.G. Ballard's "Crash" suggests that technology changes how sex works. The novel sets out to show that the ideas of sex are transforming themselves. The ideas of sex are transforming themselves in a frightening subculture that finds eroticism from severe automobile crashes. People that are included in this subculture strive to re-enact dangerous fatal accidents that claimed the life of James Dean. Additionally all throughout the novel members of this perverted subculture are imagining, planning, and striving to get off through means of an erotic crash involving Elizabeth Taylor.
I have never read a more disgusting display of human infatuation. I understand the intrigue in the topic of sex and the interest in the topic of automobiles separately, but I simply find it too disgusting and disturbing the fascination in satisfying one's desires through the brutal physical repercussions involved in car accidents.
A certain degree of preparation should be taken upon trying to withstand this novel. The one thing that many readers can appreciate in this novel is the high level of word choice and writing style displayed in this piece. However, just because the word choice and writing style presented can be appreciated by readers; by no means does that word choice and writing style outweigh the grotesque nature of a new sexual subculture offered in this account.