Books

1973. New York: Farrrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973. 8vo., Original faded blue card boards, pp. [iv], 7-224; spine tips lightly compressed; else a near-fine copy which is a touch sunned to the spine and front cover. Uncorrected page proof edition Adapted into film in 1996 by David Cronenberg, starring James Spader and Holly Hunter. A highly controversial work, exploring the experiences of a group of car-crash fetishists who become sexually aroused by staging and participating in car accidents, inspired by the famous crashes of celebrities. Unsurprisingly, opinion was highly divided upon publication, with the New York Times writing "hands-down, the most repulsive book I've yet to come across" and another reviewer returning the verdict "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!". Ballard, however, wrote of his work: "Throughout Crash I have used the car not only as a sexual image, but as a total metaphor for man's life in today's society. As such the novel has a…

Crash is a novel by English author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1973. It is a story about symphorophilia; specifically car-crash sexual fetishism: its protagonists become sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car-crashes.