The Atrocity Exhibition

Famous people die
crash cars, but make it horny
pointless waste of time.

“The media landscape of the present day is a map in search of a territory. A huge volume of sensational and often toxic imagery inundates our minds, much of it fictional in content. How do we make sense of this ceaseless flow of advertising and publicity, news and entertainment, where presidential campaigns and moon voyages are presented in terms indistinguishable from the launch of a new candy bar or deodorant? What actually happens on the level of our unconscious minds when, within minutes on the same TV screen, a prime minister is assassinated, an actress makes love, an injured child is carried from a car crash? Faced with these charged events, prepackaged emotions already in place, we can only stitch together a set of emergency scenarios, just as our sleeping minds extemporize a narrative from the unrelated memories that veer through the cortical night. In the waking dream that now constitutes everyday reality, images of a blood-spattered widow, the chromium trim of a limousine windshield, the stylised glamour of a motorcade, fuse together to provide a secondary narrative with very different meanings.”

~

The exploration of the inner psyche in the aftermath of the pop culture explosion and media saturation of the 1960s offers a complex interplay between collective trauma and cultural phenomena. The connectivity of events such as the JFK assassination and the Vietnam War contrasts sharply with the fascination of cars, brutality architecture, and the idolization and lust of figures like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Jayne Mansfield, Elizabeth Taylor, and even Ronald Reagan. With equal parts medical history, sexual fantasy, warmongering, and psychopathic obsession, J.G. Ballard navigates this fragmented landscape, probing the depths of taboo within a disintegrated reality in search of meaning and belonging. This leads to a critical inquiry: do our most chaotic thoughts and desires constitute the final frontier of original thought in a homogenizing herd mentality society?

As Ballard once aptly noted in an interview, “Psychopathology is the last reservoir of the human imagination.” In his provocative work, The Atrocity Exhibition, he presents a compelling depiction of modern "doom-scrolling" reflective of today's algorithm-driven engagement on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Insta; not literally, but in reading this nonlinear narrative, it felt like one of the best portrayals of such. This overwhelming submergence of global life marking events at each turn, of varying significance yet inescapable to your senses. It doesn't matter if you don't listen to Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter, you're going to be bombarded with whatever they're up to at all times, just as you're going to be waterboarded with whatever the current political dirtbag is spouting regardless of how hard you try to censor seeing him. Ballard captures the essence of the social media and dark web interconnectivity and deviance—perhaps unintentionally. The material traverses a spectrum of hyperviolence, political dissension, celebrity scandals, sexuality, mental health, and the entwined nature of materialism and capitalist allure—all wrapped within a surreal encapsulation of contemporary existence. At times, it felt like you were listening to the rants of Brad Pitt’s character in 12 Monkeys.

The novel's fragmented structure poses challenges that stem more from its unconventional form and frankness than its content. Upon its initial publication, The Atrocity Exhibition was likely met with an unprepared audience, one not yet fully desensitized to the overwhelming media landscape of today. But in a contemporary mind state, I argue that it holds more palpable value and resonance to its weight. Its experimental narrative served as a precursor to his later work, Crash, which was also controversial and seen as taboo by the masses on release—but perhaps adhering more to a metamodernist condition. Regardless of your stance on his works, like his fellow literary predecessors Wells, Huxley, and Orwell, Ballard demonstrates an uncanny ability to foresee societal issues and trends ahead of their time.

While The Atrocity Exhibition tends to exhibit repetition—particularly in the latter third "who shot who" segments—its capacity to provoke thought and introspection remains significant. Ballard’s oeuvre challenges readers to reflect critically on their positions within the sociocultural climate, a rare feat among contemporary authors.