Essay Instructions: This project is for Serban.
The Theme is Finding Reality
Adult content warning. Crash by J.G. Ballard.
This text is not for the weak of heart!
J.G. Ballard is the only author on our list whose last name has been turned into a dictionary word. According to the Collins English Dictionary, Ballardian is defined as: "(adj) 1. of James Graham Ballard (J.G. Ballard; born 1930), the British novelist, or his works (2) resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in Ballard's novels & stories, esp. dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes & the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments.”
It is these “psychological effects” that we want to explore in what is arguably Ballard’s most famous novel, Crash. The most notable effect, of course, is the sexual fetishism of the characters.
According to Sigmund Freud fetishism is the result of psychological trauma. A boy, longing to see his mother's penis, averts his eyes in horror when he discovers that she has none. To overcome the resulting castration anxiety he clings to the fetish as a substitute for the missing genital. The fetish object is a substitute or stand-in for something desired. The fetish object becomes an object of pleasure when the original desire is projected onto the fetish object.
Fetishism only becomes “abnormal,” when the desire for the fetish object supercedes the desire for normal sexual contact, which Freud defines as genital intercourse. In Freud’s words, “What is substituted for the sexual object is some part of the body (such as the foot or hair) which is in a general way inappropriate for sexual purposes, or some inanimate object which bears an assignable relation to the person whom it replaces and preferably to that person’s sexuality (e.g. a piece of clothing or underlinen). Such substitutes are with some justice likened to fetishes in which savages believe that their gods are embodied […]The situation only becomes pathological when the longing for the fetish passes beyond the point of being merely a necessary condition attached to the sexual object and actually takes the place of the normal aim, and, further, when the fetish becomes detached from a particular individual and becomes the sole sexual object.” (249).
Ballard’s novel challenges us to understand the fetishism of his characters from two directions. The object of that fetish, and the cause of that fetish.
As Freud points out “fetish” has a wider usage. In archaeology or anthropology, a “fetish” can be any object, usually a small keepsake or icon of sorts, used as a “stand-in” for a god or power. As a “fetish,” the power of that god literally imbues the fetish object with supernatural power.
But perhaps the most useful intriguing definition, for all of its cultural implications, is its usage in the theories of Karl Marx. Commodity fetishism is a theory of a society in which relations among people take the form of relations among things. This derives from Marx’s general assertion that capitalist society forces people to relate to each other in terms of their “economic value” rather than their humanity.
Briefly, Marxist analysis focuses on socioeconomic classes and seeks to explain all human relationships in terms of the distribution and dynamics of economic power. According to Marx economic exchange (in Capitalistic and other societies) operates on certain assumptions of value.
In pre-capitalistic societies objects are valued based on their “use value,” that is their pragmatic usefulness. For example, bread has a high “use value” because it prevents death by providing nourishment. In Capitalist economies, the valuation of objects and services changes to one of exchange value, that is, the perceived value of what an object or service can be exchanged for. This operates ona supply and demand kind of sliding scale, in which, for example, 1 loaf of bread is equal to 3 fish. And finally, there is sign-exchange value, a phenomena in which objects themselves with no intrinsic usefulness obtain high exchange values. Gold, for instance, has no intrinsic “use-value” but a high sign-exchange value. As a “sign,” gold stands for something. The relative utility of a Ford Pinto and a BMW are the same (they’re both cars that get you from point A to point B) but the perceived sign-exchange value of a BMW is much greater than that of a Pinto. “BMW” in and of itself communicates social status. It is an objects “sign-exchange” value that makes it a commodity. Commodification is the phenomena of relating to objects and people in terms of their sign-exchange value. Market driven economies such as Capitalism promote sign-exchange value to encourage spending, which in turn leads to the commodification of existence
The commodity itself becomes an artificial substitute for something “Real.” The danger of Capitalism is that it deludes people into believing that its commodities have intrinsic value. The tacit, more sinister, implication is that without them, life has none.
There are many more definitions of fetishism and it might be useful to search the web for some alternate definitions that might be useful in understanding Ballard’s story.
Some questions to consider: What is/are the object/s of the fetish in Crash? Why is this/are these object/s significant? How does this choice of object fit with our understanding of Postmodern themes or issues? As a psychological mechanism, what does this fetish replace? What is missing? What is the cause of the fetish? What psychological trauma do these characters suffer from? Is Ballard making a comment on contemporary society? How is this book about Postmodern culture or capitalism? How is the fetish object related to capitalism? Could we consider Postmodern alienation a “trauma” and the cause of cultural fetishism towards objects as stand-ins for experience? Is Reality TV a fetish for life lived? Are their other cultural fetishes you can observe? What is the role of sex in this story? What is the role of sex in life? What does sex achieve? Is pro-creation the only goal of sex? How does this text define normal and abnormal sexual behavior, or does it?
Some questions to consider: What is/are the object/s of the fetish in Crash? Why is this/are these object/s significant? How does this choice of object fit with our understanding of Postmodern themes or issues? As a psychological mechanism, what does this fetish replace? What is missing? What is the cause of the fetish? What psychological trauma do these characters suffer from? Is Ballard making a comment on contemporary society? How is this book about Postmodern culture or capitalism? How is the fetish object related to capitalism? Could we consider Postmodern alienation a “trauma” and the cause of cultural fetishism towards objects as stand-ins for experience? Is Reality TV a fetish for life lived? Are their other cultural fetishes you can observe? What is the role of sex in this story? What is the role of sex in life? What does sex achieve? Is pro-creation the only goal of sex? How does this text define normal and abnormal sexual behavior, or does it?
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