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Read The Atrocity Exhibition (1990)

The Atrocity Exhibition (1990)

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3.84 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
1889307033 (ISBN13: 9781889307039)
Language
English
Publisher
re/search publications

The Atrocity Exhibition (1990) - Plot & Excerpts

Impossible to rate or even classify this weird and disturbing book from the late '60s (it's not a novel, it's not a collection of mini-novels, it's not even a psychological treatise, though it has aspects of all three). It explores the links between death/danger and sexuality (his own wife had died suddenly a few years earlier). Parts of it will be thought obscene by many. It reflects Ballard's interests in psychoanalysis and surrealism: the very structure of the book is surreal. All of this makes more sense after reading his far more accessible autobiography, "Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton"http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....It is a non-linear narrative, divided into "chapters", of which each paragraph is a self-contained nugget, with its own title. In an introduction written more than 30 years after first publication, Ballard suggests readers scan a chapter for headings that catch their eye, and if they find them interesting, to move on to nearby ones, so maybe one approach is to list a selection of paragraph titles, out of sequence?departurejourneys to an interiorsome bloody accidentthe realization of dreamscontours of desirean existential yesthe conceptual deathquestions, always questionshung among the corridors of sleepsoft geometrythe impossible roomthe geometry of her facetransliterated pudendaimaginary perversionsinterlocked bodiesfractured smilethe lost symmetry of the blastosphereMy edition includes Ballard's extensive notes, without which much of it would be impenetrable (and not just the pop culture references) - though perhaps it would be less disturbing without them.There's little point trying to describe the "story" or characters, but it does involve one who monitors how subjects react to scenes of car crashes as a proxy for (well, in addition to) his own life and experiences: "the eucharist of the simulated auto-disaster". Many other characters explore predilections on the boundaries.There are many mentions of celebrities and events that were significant at the time (Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, assassination of JFK, the space race), surrealist and pop-art artists (especially Dali), Freud, and overall it shows that although Ballard decided not to pursue a career as a psychiatrist, he was still very interested in the field. Some elements are weirdly prescient, whether in a societal sense (the "banalization of celebrity... an instant, ready-to-mix fame as nutritious as packet soup", and that the Vietnam war becoming a rich vein for cinema), or in his own life and works: this was written in '67, published in '69, and in '70, Ballard did actually put on an exhibition of crashed cars in London, and in '73, he published "Crash", which is a more conventional novel, exploring the same themes. The real exhibition provoked strong, violent and sometimes strange reactions in ways that the same vehicles on the street outside would not. Most bizarrely, a model hired to interview visitors whilst she was naked, said, after seeing the exhibits, that she would only do it topless. Much of this is challenging and controversial. For example, saying in the notes that "Pornography is a powerful catalyst for social change, and its periods of greatest availability have frequently coincided with times of greatest economic and scientific advance", but fearing a new puritanism in the 1990s. Personally, I think it's more complicated: our society is simultaneously very sexualised (e.g. sexy underwear for pre-schoolers) and also paranoid about child abuse to the point that the damaging effects of that exaggerated fear may outweigh the risks. In the end, Ballard sometimes it goes too far for me and I actually stopped reading just over half way through. Sexual tastes that I don't share are one thing, but rape is referred to several times, often with an apologist slant, "Her strong stride... carried within its rhythm a calculated invitation to her own sexuality" and although I know there are valid debates about the nature of paedophilia and whether there are grey areas, it's not something I choose to explore in any detail.

Only a few pages in. Flashes of brilliance. He was a smart guy, this Ballard.This is proving a challenging and thought-provoking read.A couple of sentences I love:- "They hung on the enamelled walls like the codes of insoluble dreams, the keys to a nightmare in which she had begun to play a more willing and calculated role."- "For some reason the planes of his face failed to intersect, as if their true resolution took place in some as yet invisible dimension, or required elements other than those provided by his own character and musculature."References to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are calling up memories of when I interviewed the only person to have witnessed the explosion of three atomic bombs: the Trinity test, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If you bumped into him on the streets of Moscow, Idaho, you'd find him a humble and unassuming elderly man, the kind of retired academic that litter small college towns. You might never know that as a student of Luis Alvarez he helped design the ultra-fast detonator used in the Nagasaki bomb. As a young reporter, I was a little intimidated to interview this kind of witness to real history, someone who likely had been interviewed by reporters better than me and been asked every question under the sun. So I started by asking him what he wanted to talk about that no one had ever asked him. It was a rather lazy question, and one I haven't used again, but in that moment he lit up. What he wanted to talk about was how he'd been looking for God in science -- looking in nature, evolution, biology, physics. As we progressed into the interview and talked about his work on the Manhattan Project, and how those who created such destructive forces justified what they were doing, it seemed maybe he needed to see God in his science so that he could believe what man had wrought was true and right and just.7/6 I will pick this up again and finish it, but I'm a bit overwhelmed right now and need to de-clutter my "currently reading" list.

What do You think about The Atrocity Exhibition (1990)?

Revisited this right before Christmas...Check out this back cover blurb:When the ATROCITY EXHIBITION was originally printed (1970), Nelson Doubleday saw a copy and was so horrified he ordered the entire press run shredded.What Nelson Doubleday allegedly saw that made him figuratively soil himself in righteous indignation was one of the stories near the end of this book entitled 'Why I Want To Fuck Ronald Reagan.' Legend has it that a wag distributed copies of this story (minus title and headings) at the 1980 Republican National Convention and it was roundly praised by attendees as a thorough psychological analysis of Reagan's public appeal. Heh heh.This is easily one of Ballard's most experimental works. Arguments can be made as to whether this is a collection of loosely connected short stories or an actual novel. A sloppy summary of this book would be that the main character, Traven, is sliding towards a mental breakdown and is on a quest in the interim to recreate the deaths of iconic media celebrities such as JFK in a way that "makes sense." References to Ballard's love for the surrealists are also hidden throughout this work, particularly Ernst and Dali. Traven is fairly typical of most of Ballard's characters in that he is basically an empty jacket walking around. I'm not sure if this is a deficiency on Ballard's part as a writer or if this was his way of allowing the reader to more easily step into the role of the main character. As his mental deterioration continues his name also changes within each section (Travis, Tallis, Talbot, etc.). His cold, clinical prose style shines brilliantly throughout this book. To wit:The Geometry of Her Face. In the perspectives of the plaza, the junctions of the underpass and the embankment, Talbot at last recognized a modulus that could be multiplied into the landscape of his consciousness. The descending triangle of the plaza was repeated in the facial geometry of the young woman. The diagram of her bones formed a key to his own postures and musculature, and to the scenario that had preoccupied him at the Institute. He began to prepare for departure. The pilot and the young woman now deferred to him. The fans of the helicopter turned in the dark air, casting elongated ciphers on the dying concrete.If it is still in print, the Re/Search Publications edition of this book is the one to get. It contains sidebar commentary written by Ballard twenty years later along with the addition of his celebrity cosmetic surgery stories.
—Matt

First I have to make clear that this is not the ReSearch annotated edition, but a mass market book from a British publisher Thiad Panther, and issued in 1970. Nevertheless this is a very stimulating book. J.G. Ballard is probably one of the great visionary writers regarding culture as it is now. I want to say he predict what will happen, but I think it was happening when he wrote his series of classic novels, but most of us were not aware of that 'Ballard' world that was and is clearly out there and here and everywhere. "The Atrocity Exhibition" is a series of very brief narratives that deal with the John F. Kennedy assassination as the ground zero of anxiety, dread and fear. For Americans at the moment, it's 9/11, but for my generation, the Kennedy assassination opened up an inner world of demons, secrets, and disappearing identities on a landscape one couldn't trust being there or being altered in some fashion. I think Ballard is commenting on the role we all play, but especially the powers-to-be, whoever they may be, in planting a world that is not of our choosing, but one that we just have to deal with. Which includes sexual desire when confronting death, shock, and machinery. Ido not know if his novel "Crash" came before or after "The Atrocity Exhibition, but the book does deal with the same issues of the erotic pull of car accidents and iconic personalities. Ballard gets extra points for including Ralph Nader among the celebrities that get maimed or killed by the automobile. Now mostly remembered for his political viewpoints as well as running for President, he at the time of this novel was famous for going after the automobile industry for not making cars more safer with respect to seat belts, etc. What we get here is a college effect of names, who at the time were still alive, being sacrificed to the automobile death culture as well as interesting commentary on the readers obsession with famous people and how they are placed in our world as entertainment, but also masking secret desires that are not fully exposed to the public. Ballard mixes the agony of death, of losing someone, and how culture eats up the anxiety of the 20th century (and now the 21st...) and spits out in a diseased form, which can be this piece of literature. A great book, whose sister is Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" and a cousin to classic Surrealist painters.
—Tosh

Undeniably disturbing but hauntingly memorable, The Atrocity Exhibition is difficult to rate, review or even describe. Utterly unconventional in every way, it is a diverse collection of largely unconnected snippets – some are narrative-based while others are fictitious scientific reports. Together they form a monstrous, disjointed portrait of violence, eroticism and celebrity. It's a satirical exploration of what types of grotesque, violent injuries are the most sexually arousing. (Although, such a description doesn't come close to capturing the full breadth of this book. As many other reviewers have also noted, it's honestly quite difficult to summarise.)Linked inextricably to the time period it was written in, The Atrocity Exhibition derives much of its unsettling imagery from the Second World War and the era of classic Hollywood stars. Many of J.G. Ballard's real life experiences are woven in there as well, for example the death of his wife. Many (most?) readers will find this book unappealing and offensive but it nonetheless contains some very insightful thematic ideas, particularly about the media, many of which still resonate today.The edition I read included extensive annotations written by Ballard which elucidate where the germ ideas for each snippet originated from. These annotations arguably make the intellectual and frequently bizarre text more accessible. They also successful expose the mind of the artist, exposing the process of inspiration and creation – I especially enjoyed reading about Ballard's fascination with space exploration. The Atrocity Exhibition is disgusting, shocking, weird, confusing, pornographic and rather pretentious. It's also endlessly thought-provoking. It's easy to see its continuing influence on contemporary literature, cinema and art.
—Laura

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