Crash---Ze Conclusion

Crash is a novel that's heavily laden with symbols of sex and violence; symbols that seek to correspond to the various ways in which technology has changed human psychology. Upon finishing Crash, I was reminded of one of our earlier class discussions where we discussed the concept of the consumer as an addict. The various fascinations in the novel with the permanent divinity of celebrity, as well as the uncontrolled violence of automobile accidents seem to mirror the various obsessions of consumer culture; technology, celebrity, death. I find it interesting that Ballard was once quoted in reference to his motivations for this novel as saying "I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit, and force it to look in the mirror.". Its interesting to think that Ballard was already so disgusted with human submission, or transformation via technology in a year when technologies like the barcode had only been around for a few months. In our current era there would be a million jumping off points for writing a novel about the ills of technology. It was also interesting for me to consider the effect that the European recession as a result of a 200% increase in the price of oil by OPEC possibly had on Ballard in writing a novel about the dire effects of technology. Maybe seeing long line ups like this at gas stations around the UK inspired some mental images of "Automaggedon" for Ballard.