"The body itself is only a medium" (Baudrillard 313). Particular motifs that I had previously mentioned are the constant references to scars and other bodily imperfections. Each character is scarred due to some, no pun intended, run-in with an automobile. Gabrielle loses sensation in her legs due to an accident and is therefore confined to a wheelchair; this handicap attracts James and he associates the hand pedals in Gabrielle's car with her actual body. After James gets in his first car crash and is sent to the hospital, he revels in the sight of his car's imprints in his chest and abdomen. Ballard is showing James' excitement for metaphorically turning into a car himself. Vaughan has the most surface impurites, and this conjoins him to cars - this is also possibly why James adores Vaughan so much. The closer James gets to Vaughan, the closer he gets to symbolically having sex with a machine. He is incredibly attracted to Vaughan's scars and licks them when they copulate in the car. After the two have sex, they "showed [their] wounds to each other, exposing the scars on [their] chests and hands to the beckoning injury sites in the interior of the car" (203). When James looks back on their sexual encounter, he realizes that the "sex act between [them] had been devoid of all sexuality" (212). James has a true love for what Vaughan represents; this sex is not comparable to the sex he has with random women, it is a union between James and his technologic love. Vaughan is the metaphoric embodiment of a car crash; he has a strong physique and is intense and destructive, yet damaged.
It is comforting for each character to be around someone who is, in their own way, damaged. Helen's scar was left on her heart when her husband died, but she found "happiness in Gabrielle's scars and injuries" (224). Ballard uses the word "perverse" (223) when he describes Helen's attraction to Gabrielle, perhaps contributing this affection to the off-beat world that they are living in. In the world of Crash, Ballard is trying to represent the beginning of an era completely dependent on technology. A culture that is so familiar to the readers is ceasing to have meaning because they will all begin to rely on machines. Vaughan is trying to kill Elizabeth Taylor, a classic celebrity icon and symbol of a generation. Vaughan has sex with women that look like Elizabeth Taylor in different stages of her life because society is brainwashed to try and look like their favorite stars. By killing off representations of a world that readers can recognize, Ballard is showing what the future will look like once people have begun to depend on technology to interact with each other. Vaughan is interacting with Elizabeth Taylor through automotive destruction as opposed to verbal communication.
Ballard also frequently uses the word "marriage". He may attempting to reclaim the meaning of the word which often resembles a traditional and conforming practice. After Seagrave died in Elizabeth Taylor's costume, Vaughan's plan of killing her was referred to as a "wedding with himself already celebrated across the bloody altar of Seagrave's car" (187). If there is an intimate moment between a person and a car, they are usually referred to as married. The woman Seagrave killed in the accident "[married] her body with the stylized contours of the instrument panel and windshield (189). In Crash's society of dysfunctional marriage and human interactions, the term "marriage" is used as a representation of union between a person and a machine.
It is comforting for each character to be around someone who is, in their own way, damaged. Helen's scar was left on her heart when her husband died, but she found "happiness in Gabrielle's scars and injuries" (224). Ballard uses the word "perverse" (223) when he describes Helen's attraction to Gabrielle, perhaps contributing this affection to the off-beat world that they are living in. In the world of Crash, Ballard is trying to represent the beginning of an era completely dependent on technology. A culture that is so familiar to the readers is ceasing to have meaning because they will all begin to rely on machines. Vaughan is trying to kill Elizabeth Taylor, a classic celebrity icon and symbol of a generation. Vaughan has sex with women that look like Elizabeth Taylor in different stages of her life because society is brainwashed to try and look like their favorite stars. By killing off representations of a world that readers can recognize, Ballard is showing what the future will look like once people have begun to depend on technology to interact with each other. Vaughan is interacting with Elizabeth Taylor through automotive destruction as opposed to verbal communication.
Ballard also frequently uses the word "marriage". He may attempting to reclaim the meaning of the word which often resembles a traditional and conforming practice. After Seagrave died in Elizabeth Taylor's costume, Vaughan's plan of killing her was referred to as a "wedding with himself already celebrated across the bloody altar of Seagrave's car" (187). If there is an intimate moment between a person and a car, they are usually referred to as married. The woman Seagrave killed in the accident "[married] her body with the stylized contours of the instrument panel and windshield (189). In Crash's society of dysfunctional marriage and human interactions, the term "marriage" is used as a representation of union between a person and a machine.
No comments:
Post a Comment