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Gloeckner 25 ricordano la serie di immagini prodotte dall’artista belga Wim Delvoye denominate
‘Kiss’, ottenute attraverso un procedimento che prevede l’utilizzo dei raggi X 26 . In Crash la vicenda
narrata ruota intorno all’aspetto psicologico dei fenomeni legati alle perversioni sessuali, ben
presente anche in The Atrocity Exhibition. I protagonisti di Crash, mossi da un malessere spirituale
che si manifesta come una vera e propria psicopatologia, cercano l’appagamento sessuale nella sfida
con la morte posta in essere attraverso gli incidenti automobilistici. Alla base di entrambi i testi
troviamo pertanto elementi quali violenza, tecnologia, erotismo. Interrogato sullo strano
accostamento tra sesso e automobili, Ballard spiega che l’accento non è tanto sull’auto quanto sulla
tecnologia, servendosi di un’equazione che pare modellata su quella della teoria einsteiniana della
relatività (energia = massa x velocità della luce al quadrato):
[Domanda:] Sex and the motor car seems, on the face of it, rather an odd mixture, one a deep
expression of humanity, the other a symbol of the machine age, why draw a correlation between the two
when they seem so much like oil and water – or spermatic fluid and anti-freeze?
[Risposta:] Crash is not so much about the motor car as about technology as a whole, and it is
precisely the sinister marriage between sex and technology which is the book's subject. Sex x Technology =
the future. A disquieting equation, but one we have to face. Incidentally, I do not see machines as necessarily
forbidding or inhuman 27 .
Nella stessa intervista l’autore afferma che l’accuratezza dei termini medici scientifici e
della descrizione delle ferite deriva dalle sue esperienze giovanili da studente di medicina che
comportavano anche la dissezione di cadaveri, con il supporto del testo medico Crash Injuries. Tale
accuratezza è strumentale al carattere di investigazione scientifica che ha voluto assegnare al
romanzo, oltre che funzionale al distacco emotivo che lo caratterizza. In The Atrocity Exhibition
l’asetticità dell’approccio scientifico si esprime principalmente attraverso il personaggio del Dr.
25 «Phoebe Gloeckner‘s precisely-drawn illustrations […] realism dismantles “pornography” like Ballard’s text: as a
series of fragmentary, alienated, passionless responses to a set of stimuli. A penis inside a mouth takes on the detached
distancing of a medical lecture, its eroticism excised – just as an atrocity on the news is neutralized by the commercial
that follows, resulting in deadened emotional response. Implied here is a critique of science as ultimate pornography,
capable of reducing the ineffable [corsivo dei curatori] – unique personal relationships, the source of our greatest delight
– to objectified purely functional commodifications». V. Vale e A. Juno, “Introduction”, in J. G. Ballard, Atrocity, a
cura di V. Vale e A. Juno, op.cit., p. 6.
26 «[Delvoye’s] ‘Kiss’ series of x-ray photographs involved Delvoye asking friends to ‘paint themselves with small
amounts of barium’ (that liquid used in x-rays for digestion and such like) and then be “photographed” having sex in
medical clinics. […] Actually, it’s very relevant, given Ballard’s medical background and his observation in the
introduction to Crash that we live in a time in which ‘Thermo-nuclear weapons systems and soft-drink commercials
coexist in an overlit realm ruled by advertising and pseudo-events, science and pornography [grassetto dell’autore].’
[…] Of Ballard’s books, it’s The Atrocity Exhibition that most clearly makes the case for this fusion, something
the RE/Search edition of Atrocity brilliantly enhanced with its anatomical art from Phoebe Gloeckner, art that very
much anticipates the spirit of Delvoye’s ‘Kiss’.» Uno dei commenti dei lettori del sito, a firma Rick Trembles (nota n.
8) recita: «Besides his dolls, much of Bellmer’s drawn artwork dealt with translucence; incredibly detailed x-ray visions
of what’s going on with (& within) the genitals during the often disturbing sorts of sexual situations he was expert at
depicting. Genital folds merge perfectly with internal organs during the sex act, etc…» Simon Sellars, “The fusion of
science and pornography” (http://www.ballardian.com/the-fusion-of-science-and-pornography) [Ultima visita il
05/08/2010].
27 James Goddard, “Ballard on Crash: Answers to Some Questions”, Cypher [fanzine] n. 10, ottobre 1973, pp 53-54.
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