JG Ballard's Crash

JG Ballard's 1973 novel follows a group of people who re-enact car crashes involving Hollywood celebrities like James Dean and Jayne Mansfield. David Cronenberg filmed it in 1996.

The controversial 1973 novel by JG Ballard about car crash fetishists was, according to its author, "a total metaphor for man's life in today's society". Matthew Sweet is joined by the author and Ballard fan Iain Sinclair, by the film critic Muriel Zagha, by Mark Blacklock editor of Ballard's Selected Nonfiction, 1962-2007 and by Jo Stanley, who took part in an exhibition Ballard staged when he was developing the ideas that led to Crash.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

You can find previous episodes exploring film and fiction on the Free Thinking website, all available to download as Arts and Ideas podcasts.

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44 minutes

Last on

Thu 7 Dec 202322:00

BBC Radio 3

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