Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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One of Ballard's oft-used techniques is repeating shocking things over and over again while using dry medical language until there is nothing shocking about (in Crash) the explicit mangling of human bodies in car crashes and people finding that arousing and having sex immediately while the wounds are still fresh. It will obviously vary significantly by reader whether they find anything worthwhile in that approach. Crash might be his most extreme version where it really could've been 1/2 or 1/3 the length without much loss in what he seemed to be going for. For the most part, the short story was his best medium and his novels are varying in quality.
His approach is intended for satirical purposes, to create a jarring disconnect between the story's emotional state and the subject matter its dealing with. Car crashes drew his interest because they sit at an intersection between domestic consumerism and horrendous violence. Most people are likely to get into a car crash in their lives, and cars are extremely dangerous, as well as sexy, machines, yet no one raises an eyebrow at their ubiquity. Likewise he tended to go on about how desensitized people are to mass violence through news reporting, and the steady normalization of pornography in mainstream culture, an equally generally unremarked upon phenomenon, at least relative to its broader significance. Personally I would say these were and still are very relevant materials to be dealing with in fiction. He shines a light on them in interesting ways, providing more enhanced perspectives than what you'd get from the anime smut most people in the rationalist sphere seem to get. What he doesn't do is focus on the narrative element of suspense, which is probably the main reason people often find him boring. I myself find him boring at times, but his ideas and stylistic approaches are as frequently able to spark my interest. The distancing effect of the medical jargon in particular is capable of enhanced power, ironically because it refuses to do what's expected for the subject matter. Its best employment was probably, in fact undoubtedly, in The Atrocity Exhibition, though, not Crash. There's some good surreal distancing in The Terminal Beach, too. One way to enjoy Ballard's satires is to remain conscious of the humor in them.
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