tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593767377429109854.post7662178684787242284..comments2012-12-01T16:26:34.486-08:00Comments on Experimenting Madly, Fall 2012: Ending Isolation dorian stuberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069923023770087626noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593767377429109854.post-55882007505428717652012-11-09T22:00:27.477-08:002012-11-09T22:00:27.477-08:00To address that last question, it's difficult ...To address that last question, it's difficult to answer because (as I stated in class on Thursday), we're not given any characters with dissenting (or even remotely critical) opinions. It is interesting, however, to examine the fact that it almost seems as if James Ballard (the character) might be trying to convince the reader (or himself) that everyone else places this much significance on car crashes. This is potentially evidenced during the scene in which he is describing the broken glass near the place of his initial crash collecting on the side of the road - "Within fifty years, as more and more cars collided here, the glass fragments would form a sizable bar, within thirty years a beach of sharp crystal." Although he doesn't explicitly refer to a fetish that eventual crashers will experience, it seems as if he's (with a noticeable abnormality) trying to convince of a certain universality. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15615307884196532784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593767377429109854.post-61261088974283189602012-11-08T09:46:51.447-08:002012-11-08T09:46:51.447-08:00I think I agree too. It seems as though Ballard is...I think I agree too. It seems as though Ballard is definitely making a statement about the impersonal nature of the world we live in. But I also think that there may be more to it than that. Impersonal conventions are shattered by the characters' car "accidents," but that doesn't explain the sexual nature of the machine for these people in particular - because not everyone is affected in the same lustful way (that we know about). I guess that raises a new question: does everyone in the world of Ballard's novel that is in a car accident begin to share this fetish for the machine, or are these people unique? CooperFKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07525485069350403245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593767377429109854.post-41837264667127365612012-11-07T17:07:49.736-08:002012-11-07T17:07:49.736-08:00I agree with your point that the reason it has to ...I agree with your point that the reason it has to be car crashes instead of "normal" social bonding is the bewilderment of a car wreck, but I think you're missing an element too.<br /><br />An automobile is the instrument of the very distancing that you describe. It is mechanization and the hyper-stimulation (think of all the loud noises and glaring lights in this novel) of our age that make it impossible to connect as humans. Mechanization means that even our unions have to be mediated by a car - we are no longer able to do so independent of them. For example, James mentions that he is only homosexually attracted to Vaughan when they're both driving (117). Without the machine, there can be no intimacy.JillAnn Meunierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07465039797975505312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593767377429109854.post-23370212325509630242012-11-07T17:07:25.325-08:002012-11-07T17:07:25.325-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.JillAnn Meunierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07465039797975505312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6593767377429109854.post-11335848358854165432012-11-07T17:05:17.608-08:002012-11-07T17:05:17.608-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.JillAnn Meunierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07465039797975505312noreply@blogger.com