Comments on: A particular fascination http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:59:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Simon Sellars http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1168 Simon Sellars Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:16:00 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1168 Eric, again, interesting. You're welcome to expand upon these thoughts in a guest post if you like... you've already made a good start! I'm not entirely convinced that the car park in Ballard's work functions exactly as you say it does, but I'd be keen to hear more. Eric, again, interesting. You’re welcome to expand upon these thoughts in a guest post if you like… you’ve already made a good start! I’m not entirely convinced that the car park in Ballard’s work functions exactly as you say it does, but I’d be keen to hear more.

]]> By: Eric Ostrowidzki http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1169 Eric Ostrowidzki Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:18:41 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1169 Simon: It seems that, for Ballard, our steel, concrete, and technological landscapes of post-industrial society have caused a fundamental alienation within the psyche. Not only do these external spaces become projections of the internal mutations in our collective psyche, but they also serve as causative forces that have precitipated the "death of affect." To overcome this death of affect, Ballard has proposed two ways: either going through the looking glass in an orgasmic collision between flesh and steel as depicted in Crash. Or, as of late, Ballard has proposed fascist violence as an antidote to our posthuman malaise (e.g.,our loss of emotion) where only the most extreme forms of psychopathology can rouse within us affect. Hence the appearence of fascist violence in Ballard that becomes thematized in Super-Cannes. Even more recently, in Kingdom Come, Ballard treats Fascism as an evolutionary outgrowth of and form of resistance against consumer capitalism, a violence that restores a sense of meaning to an otherwise banal and affectless life organized around our addiction to consumption. Ultimately, then, the carpark becomes one more signifier (in a long line of symbols) that serves as a harbinger of our devolution towards a neo-barbarism that finds its most violent and apocalyptic expression in neo-fascism--fascism as both a dangerous symptom of our psychopathologies as well as a panacea for our alienation. Simon: It seems that, for Ballard, our steel, concrete, and technological landscapes of post-industrial society have caused a fundamental alienation within the psyche. Not only do these external spaces become projections of the internal mutations in our collective psyche, but they also serve as causative forces that have precitipated the “death of affect.” To overcome this death of affect, Ballard has proposed two ways: either going through the looking glass in an orgasmic collision between flesh and steel as depicted in Crash. Or, as of late, Ballard has proposed fascist violence as an antidote to our posthuman malaise (e.g.,our loss of emotion) where only the most extreme forms of psychopathology can rouse within us affect. Hence the appearence of fascist violence in Ballard that becomes thematized in Super-Cannes. Even more recently, in Kingdom Come, Ballard treats Fascism as an evolutionary outgrowth of and form of resistance against consumer capitalism, a violence that restores a sense of meaning to an otherwise banal and affectless life organized around our addiction to consumption. Ultimately, then, the carpark becomes one more signifier (in a long line of symbols) that serves as a harbinger of our devolution towards a neo-barbarism that finds its most violent and apocalyptic expression in neo-fascism–fascism as both a dangerous symptom of our psychopathologies as well as a panacea for our alienation.

]]> By: Simon Sellars http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1166 Simon Sellars Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:53:22 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1166 Eric, very interesting. I see Ballard's interest as part joke and part 'technoerotic' posthumanism, along the lines of what you're describing. Can you explain a bit more about what you mean by 'intimations of fascism'? Eric, very interesting. I see Ballard’s interest as part joke and part ‘technoerotic’ posthumanism, along the lines of what you’re describing. Can you explain a bit more about what you mean by ‘intimations of fascism’?

]]> By: Eric Ostrowidzki http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1167 Eric Ostrowidzki Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:53:53 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1167 In Freudian terms, the car-park serves as the manifest content of the latent content of deep-structural changes within the human psyche. The car-park not only bespeaks of a post-human evolution in the psyche, but it also bespeaks of our modern alienation: the monadic cells of the individual car-stalls preventing authentic relations to Others. Confined with the techno-erotics of concrete and steel, sex leads not to regeneration but to death: mutilation and dismemberment. Or, conversely, perhaps the car-park leads to a higher level of social organization that we are in the midst of evolving towards. Intimations of fascism that we find it Ballard's later works In Freudian terms, the car-park serves as the manifest content of the latent content of deep-structural changes within the human psyche. The car-park not only bespeaks of a post-human evolution in the psyche, but it also bespeaks of our modern alienation: the monadic cells of the individual car-stalls preventing authentic relations to Others. Confined with the techno-erotics of concrete and steel, sex leads not to regeneration but to death: mutilation and dismemberment.
Or, conversely, perhaps the car-park leads to a higher level of social organization that we are in the midst of evolving towards. Intimations of fascism that we find it Ballard’s later works

]]> By: Simon Sellars http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1163 Simon Sellars Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:21:08 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1163 Ominously, the wiki article suggests that 'With the development of the MetroCentre, commercial interest in Gateshead town centre continued to decline in the 1980s'... Ballard fans will surely understand the significance of 'the MetroCentre' muscling in on the action. Ominously, the wiki article suggests that ‘With the development of the MetroCentre, commercial interest in Gateshead town centre continued to decline in the 1980s’…

Ballard fans will surely understand the significance of ‘the MetroCentre’ muscling in on the action.

]]> By: Tim Chapman http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1160 Tim Chapman Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:00:08 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1160 The Twentieth Century Society has been on the case in Gateshead for years now - http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/press/040408_carpark.html But demolition's due to start in the spring, according to Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Centre_Multi-Storey_Car_Park The Twentieth Century Society has been on the case in Gateshead for years now -
http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/press/040408_carpark.html

But demolition’s due to start in the spring, according to Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Centre_Multi-Storey_Car_Park

]]> By: Simon Sellars http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1161 Simon Sellars Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:57:00 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1161 Oh good! There's a chance we can still save the Gateshead. Start a petition, Tim. Oh good! There’s a chance we can still save the Gateshead. Start a petition, Tim.

]]> By: TimC http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1162 TimC Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:27:41 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1162 The Gateshead carpark in 'Get Carter' was still there when I was up two months ago. Demolition is very much on the cards, though. The Tricorn was fantastic - one of my favourite bits of Portsmouth when I lived there. There was a good comic shop deep in its bowels as well. The Gateshead carpark in ‘Get Carter’ was still there when I was up two months ago. Demolition is very much on the cards, though.

The Tricorn was fantastic – one of my favourite bits of Portsmouth when I lived there. There was a good comic shop deep in its bowels as well.

]]> By: Simon Sellars http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1165 Simon Sellars Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:37:05 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1165 Oh, that's a shame. They also destroyed the car park used in Get Carter. Oh, that’s a shame. They also destroyed the car park used in Get Carter.

]]> By: Matt http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination/comment-page-1#comment-1164 Matt Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:40:32 +0000 http://www.ballardian.com/a-particular-fascination#comment-1164 The bastards tore down the Tricorn Centre - just look at her, the great hulking beauty... The bastards tore down the Tricorn Centre – just look at her, the great hulking beauty…

]]>