The Atrocity Exhibition (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Easily one of the 20th century's most visionary writers, J. G. Ballard still lives far ahead of his time. Called his "prophetic masterpiece" by many, The Atrocity Exhibition practically lies outside of any literary tradition. Part science fiction, part eerie historical fiction, part pornography, its characters adhere to no rules of linearity or stability. This reissued edition features an introduction by William S. Burroughs, extensive text commentary by Ballard, and four additional stories. Of specific interest are the illustrations by underground cartoonist and professional medical illustrator Phoebe Gloeckner. Her ultrarealistic images of eroticism and destruction add an important dimension to Ballard's text. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'I would argue that "The Atrocity Exhibition" represents the zenith of the experimental novel in English. But Ballard's marginalia are a tour de force, a wholly original work in their own right. One can hear Ballard's voice as he offers a surreal evening class on his own work, life and preoccupations. This one is a must.' Will Self, Time Out 'Brilliant and unnerving!a writer with talent to burn.' The Times 'These stories -- "condensed novels", Ballard has called them -- are a high-water mark in English experimental fiction.' New York TImes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Re/Search Publications; 2nd edition (June 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889307033
• ISBN-13: 978-1889307039
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #442,338 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars We are disgusted at our own enjoyment., May 24, 2000

By	Dark Trippers (Doncaster, Yorkshire England) - See all my reviews

You're in for a bumpy ride...

The Atrocity Exhibition is an perversely original, deeply disturbing tale of the `New Reality', and the disintegration of Society. It is bursting at the seams with a ferocious wit, sexuality and, always a key Ballard theme, much railing against the irrational, all-pervading violence of the modern world. He writes with a spare, exact prose that almost makes his subject matter inviting, drawing us along irresistibly. His is the dark poetry of reason, rationalising the truly irrational. Beautiful words evoking hideous imagery. Sex and violence have never been so intrinsically linked. He wishes to arouse our dormant sensibilities, to shock us, perhaps test our tolerance threshold.

Much in common with Ballard's later Crash, this hauntingly powerful novel employs Burroughsesque non-linear techniques to convey his controversial ideas. The text is broken up into composite bands of sub-heading and paragraph, giving the reading a very fragmentary feel, and like The Naked Lunch it can be dipped into at any stage of its development with satisfying results. The prose exists in isolation, the essence of good writing. The barely-plotted, minimalist storyline reflects the central character's inner mindscape haunted by dreams of JFK and Monroe, dead astronauts and motor-crash victims, as he traverses the terrible wastes of nervous breakdown. Seeking his sanity, he casts himself in a number of roles: H-bomber pilot, presidential assassin, psychopath. Finally, through the black, perverse magic of violence he transcends his psychotic turmoil to find the key to a bizarre new sexuality.

The Atrocity Exhibition is cleverly controlled tour de force of inventive writing. Every page filled with death, depravity, delusion, genocide, or some other unspeakable vice.

We are disgusted at our own enjoyment.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Atrocity Exhibition: The Motherload of Ballard's Darker Vein, February 14, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Atrocity Exhibition (Re-Search Series) (Paperback)

I could easily title this review The Patients are Running the Asylum (and Isn't It Wonderful), but you'll have to read The Atrocity Exhibition to find out why....

This strangely elegant work seems to be the nexus of Ballard's 'Concrete Trilogy' (formed by Crash, Concrete Island, and High Rise) . These other works are crisper with straight ahead, if fantastic, plots and a tight focus on their subject matter. Atrocity Exhibition is where Ballard fuses everything from this period of his writing. Sex and Speed collide with Isolation and Arhitecture to create a narrative seemingly out of control, but with its own dream logic.

Small, usually paragraph-sized, snap shots follow hard on one another in this artfully crafted non-linear tale. It's also decidely fast paced. Imagine someone resurrecting Max Ernest to direct a Hong Kong-style thriller. The reader zips along in divine confusion as characters that we think we understand seem to drift from there moorings into an increasingly abstract landscape. And its hard to tell if we are looking at decay or evolution.

For that matter opposites are played against one another throughout. We are left to balance discourses on Freud and Jung with chapter titles like 'Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan' and 'The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Road Race'. In true Dadaist style Ballard pushes our preconceptions of high and low art with this kind of play.

The greatest delight of Atrocity Exhibition is how hard the reader has to work to keep up. Just when you think you've figured out what this tale is about, you realize that you've only reached the foothills of another steep learning curve. But don't worry, the wonder, the strangeness, and the perversity will keep you coming for more. The mind's natural desire to create narrative is thwarted again and again to be rewarded with something deeper and more profound, but almost indescribable.

Full of strange intertextual references and images this book is still years ahead of its time. It's also not without it's own deadpan humor. At one point we see a full scale replicable of Keinholz's sculpture 'Dodge '57' (which consists of the back end of a '57 and the legs of a couple making out) zooming down the highway. Ballard also weaves in his obsession with the Space Program. Even though the manned interstellar missions are over for now, we've only begun to explore the space these travels have opened up in our minds. Atrocity Exhibition, written in the late '60s, places Ballard firmly in the vanguard of those exploring the fertile space between machine and mythology.

This work is by a master of the surrealistic at the height of his powers. The next time you hear someone carping about the impossiblity of interactivity in art, just smack 'em in the side of the head with a copy of The Atrocity Exhibition.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The precursor is playing a perverted game on us, May 4, 2003

By	filterite "filterite" (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

Again Ballard is perverting our perceptions of life. You can either see that as a good thing or a bad thing. It's not an easy book to read. In fact at some times you may end up feeling frustrated with the book but if you persevere with it it'll be alright...once you have his notes explaining the book to you but even then he still leaves you to think about the nature of what it is all about

What I think the book is about is the whole cult of celebrity fame and the ever narrowing medical definition of it's conditions. What we see is that today's world is leading us to be dehumanized neurotic people with dangerous and repressed fetishes. Again the contents of Crash appear hear but in prequel form. He was only starting out his ideas of Vaughan's crazed nature and so on. There is also the reinactment of many of the car crashes such as JFK and Elizabeth Taylor and so on.

They say the book is experimental in it's approach. I'm not much of a book hound so I don't know what the hell they mean but it certainly one which is different in it's topical approach. Perhaps it could be said that it is experimental because it kinda reads as a magazine - a sort of doctor's journal where even the doctors are as insane as you are. You can read any part of it that you like and go over it again and again to suit your fancy. But it still holds out an enigma that will not make itself clear

Frustrating and not altogether enjoyable but it's a book that gets you thinking and makes you wonder - How messed up are we?