J.G. Ballard Death Watch

As regular readers well know, I contemplated buying J.G. Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition back in April.

Now comes word that Ballard has written his last book: his autobiography Miracles of Life, published in this year of our Lord two thousand and eight. However, all of his work has been vaguely autobiographical. This is what makes him such a fascinating figure, for me at least. The idea that one could draw a line from Jamie Graham of the 1940s Japanese-occupied Shanghai of Empire of the Sun to the automotive paraphiliac James Ballard of the transgressive new wave sf Crash. Either that, or its all one big joke.

Miracles of Life is Ballard's last book because frankly, he is dying. Terminally. Of advanced prostate cancer.

I still hope to get my hands on Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition. And Crash. And The Drowned World. And Empire of the Sun. And High-Rise. And anything else, and there is plenty else.

The Atrocity Exhibition famously, or infamously, includes the short story "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan." Reagan at the time of writing and publication in 1967-8 was, of course, still just Governor of California and a politician-to-watch. Here best to remember the man, a living memoriam, is an excerpt:

THE CONCEPTUAL ROLE OF REAGAN. Fragments of Reagan’s cinetized postures were used in the construction of model psychodramas in which the Reagan-figure played the role of husband, doctor, insurance salesman, marriage counselor, etc.

The failure of these roles to express any meaning reveals the nonfunctional character of Reagan. Reagan’s success therefore indicates society’s periodic need to re-conceptualize its political leaders. Reagan thus appears as a series of posture concepts, basic equations which reformulate the roles of aggression and anality. Reagan’s personality. The profound anality of the Presidential contender may be expected to dominate the United States in the coming years. By contrast the late JFK remained the prototype of the oral subject, usually conceived in pre-pubertal terms. In further studies sadistic psychopaths were given the task of devising sex fantasies involving Reagan. Results confirm the probability of Presidential figures being perceived primarily in genital terms; the face of LB Johnson is clearly genital in significant appearance--the nasal prepuce, scrotal jaw, etc. Faces were seen as either circumcised (JFK, Khrushchev) or uncircumcised (LBJ, Adenauer). In assembly-kit tests Reagan’s face was uniformly perceived as a penile erection. Patients were encouraged to devise the optimum sex-death of Ronald Reagan.

Twelve minutes to midnight.

Bonus Memoriam: A shot from the David Cronenberg's film adaptation of Crash. Here we see the vulva-like scar on the back thigh, an automobile accident-caused leg wound, of a character before the main character penetrates it sexually, liberating-ly so. These cars, this "perverse technology," this reshaping of the human body by modern technology," all brought to the forefront, the new flesh:


Bon appétit.

Weekly Wikipedia Find: Amputee fetishism

I was going to call this entry "devotee," but the Wikipedia entry for it is "amputee fetishism." We're getting a little ahead of ourselves, though.

There's something mysteriously alluring about somebody disabled. Somebody in a wheelchair or missing a leg or two.

Nubs.

It's just a whole new equation.

Where I'm coming at. My view of the eroticism is the new flesh angle. The New Flesh. This is the future. Body Mod. Transhuman.

Devotees, though. Those are the ones who have amputee fetishism. They have their own certain pathology. They are acrotomophiles. They prefer leg amputations to arm amputations. And stumps over no stumps. There name says it all: devotion. They want to be needed. They want to be of use. It's a power relationship. They want the amputee to be needing help, to be dependent.

And to that I say, "welcome to the new flesh."

Wikipedia by Week

Week Thirty: Turtles all the way down
Week Twenty-Nine: The Diogenes Club
Week Twenty-Eight: E pur si muove!
Week Twenty-Seven: Unico
Week Twenty-Six: Panopticon
Week Twenty-Five: Legendary
Week Twenty-Four: Ostern
Week Twenty-Three: Kilroy was here
Week Twenty-Two: Jack Parsons
Week Twenty-One: The Wold Newton Universe
Week Twenty: Anonymous
Week Nineteen: Monty Hall problem
Week Eighteen: Brown Booby
Week Seventeen: Dieter Dengler
Week Sixteen: New Jerusalem
Week Fifteen: Technological Singularity
Week Fourteen: Numbers Station
Week Thirteen: Culper Ring
Week Twelve: Mary Sue
Week Eleven: Byford dolphin diving bell accident
Week Ten: Deep-sea gigantism
Week Nine: Bloop
Week Eight: Rat king
Week Seven: Gustave Doré
Week Six: Tomorrow
Week Five: Borscht Belt
Week Four: Swampman
Week Three: Chinese room
Week Two: Ambrose Burnside
Week One: Lolita fashion