Acts of reconsideration: J.G. Ballard (1930–2009) annotating and revising editions of The Atrocity Exhibition

Abstract

This essay analyses J.G. Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition (1970) primarily in terms of its author's numerous additions and annotations incorporated in new revised editions (1990; 1993), while considering the influence of radical, avant-garde 1960s' experimentation during its initial composition. Such changes transform the book's aesthetic meaning; they evidence Ballard's sense that over time his inchoate and fragmentary form required further explanation and contextualization. As a turbulent palimpsest the novel problematizes its reading; it centres on trauma and the spectacle. Recurrent symbols evoke feelings of disproportion, alienation, and disassociation. The trivial mundanities of bourgeois existence are rendered grotesque. Negativity triumphs both in the personal and cultural spheres. Only pathological desires and violence allow Ballard's alienated, dissociated characters any putative affect or meaning. Ballard's revisions evoke further radical uncertainty, potentially undermining the novel s fragmentary form. An economy of cultural wounding recurs, symbolized graphically by images of Kennedy's motorcade assassination, and of Marilyn Monroe's body. If such traumatized figures imply victimhood and violence, prevailing cultural perversities rather confirm a public fascination for wounding, a switching point between private and public spheres. Drawing on Theodor Adorno, Maurice Blanchot, Guy Debord Henri Lefebvre, and Mark Seltzer among others, this essay critiques Ballard's representation of modernity and meaninglessness, analysing his representation of pain in a commodified world lacking empathy.