The Atrocity Exhibition

J. G. Ballard

Paperback

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The Atrocity Exhibition is an experimental novel of linked
stories or "condensed novels" by British writer J.G. Ballard. Genre is
experimental, science-fiction, dystopian, speculative fiction.

It is J.G. Ballard's most complex, disturbing work, with fabulous photos by Ana Barrado and artwork by Phoebe Gloeckner.

Book Details

Publisher: Re/Search Publications
Publish Date: Jun 1st, 1990
Pages: 127
Language: English
Edition: Revised - undefined
Dimensions: 11.00in - 8.40in - 0.40in - 1.00lb
EAN: 9781889307039
Categories: • Science Fiction - General• Literary• Erotica - Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror

About the Author

Ballard, J. G.: - "James Graham Ballard (15 November 1930 - 19 April 2009) was an English novelist and short story writer who was a prominent part of the science fiction New Wave movement. His best-known novels are the controversial Crash, an exploration of sexual fetishism connected to automobile accidents, and the loosely autobiographical Empire of the Sun, about his childhood internment by the Japanese during World War II after the invasion and conquest of Shanghai, where Ballard was born in the International Settlement. Both books were adapted into films, by David Cronenberg and Steven Spielberg respectively. So distinctive was his work that the adjective "Ballardian" entered the language, defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2006, from which he died in London in April 2009."

Praise for this book

"...the amazing 1980 RE/Search edition, an unsettling
large-format juxtaposition of a newly Ballard-annotated text against deftly detourned
medical illustrations and photographs of modern architecture. Likely the
perfect form of an edifice of deconstructed experience of the 20^th
century."--Goodreads, Nate D

"...The Atrocity Exhibition is a profound book in which
a man's fragmented self explores the post-modern era of Hollywood stars, art
icons, Pop celebs and Congo massacres, WW3 (yes) bomber pilots, pornography
(the ultimate form of scientific exploration of the human body). The main
character's several identities set off in search of a meaning--a journey through
the chaotic orgy of madness and violence taking place all around him (and us)
at any given moment. All we vaguely know is that our man is a doctor, possibly
a psychiatrist or a neurologist. Then his psyche, haunted by the daily
'atrocity exhibition' of our era and struggling to make sense of it all,
degenerates into a shapeshifting conundrum of identities... images of
celebrities: Marilyn Monroe (disfigured by radioactivity bruises), Albert
Camus, Lee Harvey Oswald, Brigitte Bardot, Jacqueline Kennedy, Ralph Nader are
all actors in the same atrocity newsreel--atrocious exhibits in the frightening
museum of our time...

"The great icons of Surrealism provide the writer with a
huge amount of visual inspiration; in fact he explicitly refers to the art of
Dali, Dominguez, Tanguy, Ernst, Matta all throughout the book... The Atrocity
Exhibition is an enigma to be deciphered. A medieval mystery of the atomic
era... I therefore recommend those readers who are still unacquainted with
Ballard to start with this absolute masterpiece, without being afraid of its
reputation. It is neither incomprehensible nor meaningless; just let yourself go
and delve into it. Believe me, you'll feel at home."--Goodreads, Fede