The Atrocity Exhibition

by J. G. Ballard

  Speed-King.

  Describing the Bonneville Salt Flats in America, jean Baudrillard remarks that the extreme horizontality of the landscape, flatter than anywhere else on earth, demanded the high-speed record attempts as a means of neutralizing that horizontality.

  The Him.

  There is a British pop group called God. At a recent book signing the lead singer introduced himself and gave me a cassette. I have heard the vega of God.

  Vega.

  Our galaxy is moving in the direction of the constellation Vega. Given that time dilation occurs, not only when we travel through space, but when we think about space, the rendezvous may be sooner than we expect.

  CHAPTER TEN

  PLAN FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF JACQUELINE KENNEDY

  In his dream of Zapruder frame 235

  Motion picture studies of four female subjects who have achieved worldwide celebrity (Brigitte Bardot, Jacqueline Kennedy, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, Princess Margaret), reveal common patterns of posture, facial tonus, pupil and respiratory responses. Leg stance was taken as a significant indicator of sexual arousal. The intra-patellar distance (estimated) varied from a maximum 24.9 cm (Jacqueline Kennedy) to a minimum 2.2 cm (Madame Chiang). Infrared studies reveal conspicuous heat emission from the axillary fossae at rates which tallied with general psychomotor acceleration.

  Tallis was increasingly preoccupied

  Assassination fantasies in tabes dorsalis (general paralysis of the insane). The choice of victim in these fantasies was taken as the most significant yardstick. All considerations of motive and responsibility were eliminated from the questionnaire. The patients were deliberately restricted in their choice to female victims. Results (percentile of 272 patients): Jacqueline Kennedy 62 percent, Madame Chiang 14 percent, Jeanne Moreau 13 percent, Princess Margaret 11 percent. A montage photograph was constructed on the basis of these replies which showed an ‘optimum’ victim. (Left orbit and zygomatic arch of Mrs Kennedy, exposed nasal septum of Miss Moreau, etc.) This photograph was subsequently shown to disturbed children with positive results. Choice of assassination site varied from Dealey Plaza 49 percent to Isle du Levant 2 percent. The weapon of preference was the Mannlicher-Carcano. A motorcade was selected in the overwhelming majority of cases as the ideal target mode with the Lincoln Continental as the vehicle of preference. On the basis of these studies a model of the most effective assassination-complex was devised. The presence of Madame Chiang in Dealey Plaza was an unresolved element.

  by the figure of the President's wife.

  Involuntary orgasms during the cleaning of automobiles. Studies reveal an increasing incidence of sexual climaxes among persons cleaning automobiles. In many cases the subject remained unaware of the discharge of semen across the polished paintwork and complained to his spouse about birds. One isolated case reported to a psychiatric after-care unit involved the first definitive sexual congress with a rear exhaust assembly. It is believed that the act was conscious. Consultations with manufacturers have led to modifications of rear trim and styling, in order to neutralize these erogenous zones, or if possible transfer them to more socially acceptable areas within the passenger compartment. The steering assembly has been selected as a suitable focus for sexual arousal.

  The planes of her face, like the

  The arousal potential of automobile styling has been widely examined for several decades by the automotive industry. However, in the study under consideration involving 152 subjects, all known to have experienced more than three involuntary orgasms with their automobiles, the car of preference was found to be (1) Buick Riviera, (2) Chrysler Imperial, (3) Chevrolet Impala. However, a small minority (2 subjects) expressed a significant preference for the Lincoln Continental, if possible in the adapted Presidential version (qv conspiracy theories). Both subjects had purchased cars of this make and experienced continuing erotic fantasies in connection with the trunk mouldings. Both preferred the automobile inclined on a downward ramp.

  cars of the abandoned motorcade

  Cine-films as group therapy. Patients were encouraged to form a film production unit, and were given full freedom as to choice of subject matter, cast and technique. In all cases explicitly pornographic films were made. Two films in particular were examined: (1) A montage sequence using portions of the faces of (a) Madame Ky, (b) Jeanne Moreau, (c) Jacqueline Kennedy (Johnson oath-taking). The use of a concealed stroboscope device produced a major optical flutter in the audience, culminating in psychomotor disturbances and aggressive attacks directed against the still photographs of the subjects hung from the walls of the theatre. (2) A film of automobile accidents devised as a cinematic version of Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed. By chance it was found that slow-motion sequences of this film had a marked sedative effect, reducing blood pressure, respiration and pulse rates. Hypnagogic images were produced freely by patients. The film was also found to have a marked erotic content.

  mediated to him the complete silence

  Mouth-parts. In the first study, portions were removed from photographs of three well-known figures: Madame Chiang, Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy. Patients were asked to fill in the missing areas. Mouth-parts provided a particular focus for aggression, sexual fantasies and retributive fears. In a subsequent test the original portion containing the mouth was replaced and the remainder of the face removed. Again particular attention was focused on the mouth-parts. Images of the mouth-parts of Madame Chiang and Jacqueline Kennedy had a notable hypotensive role. An optimum mouth-image of Madame Chiang and Mrs Kennedy was constructed.

  of the plaza, the geometry of a murder.

  Sexual behaviour of witnesses in Dealey Plaza. Detailed studies were conducted of the 552 witnesses in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd (Warren Report). Data indicate a significant upswing in (a) frequency of sexual intercourse, (b) incidence of polyperverse behaviour. These results accord with earlier studies of the sexual behaviour of spectators at major automobile accidents (=minimum of one death). Correspondences between the two groups studied indicate that for the majority of the spectators the events in Dealey Plaza were unconsciously perceived as those of a massive multiple-sex auto-disaster, with consequent liberation of aggressive and polymorphously perverse drives. The role of Mrs Kennedy, and of her stained clothing, requires no further analysis.

  ‘But I won't cry till it's all over.’

  Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kenned

  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 stylized glamour of a motorcade, fuse together to provide a secondary narrative with very different meanings.

  ‘Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy’ was written in 1967 and published in. Ambit, the literary magazine edited by Dr Martin Bax. Somehow it came to the attention of Randolph Churchill (son of Winston), a former Member of Parliament and friend of the Kennedys. He denounced the piece, calling it an outrageous slur on the memory of the dead President and demanded that the Arts Council withdraw its grant.

  Soon after we were in trouble again, when Ambit launched a competition for the best fiction or poetry written under the influence of drugs. Lord Goodman, an intimate of Prime Mi
nister Harold Wilson, raised the threat of prosecution. In fart, we were equally interested in the effects of legal drugs – tranquillizers, antihistamines, even baby aspirin. The competition, and the 40-pound prize which I offered, was won by the novelist Ann Quin – her drug was the oral contraceptive. She herself was a tragic figure, a beautiful but withdrawn woman who might have strayed from the pages of The Atrocity Exhibition. As her schizophrenia. deepened she embarked on a series of impulsive journeys all over Europe, analogues perhaps of some mysterious movement within her mind. Eventually she walked into the sea off the south coast of England and drowned herself.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  LOVE AND NAPALM: EXPORT U.S.A.

  At night, these visions of helicopters and the D.M.Z.

  Sexual stimulation by newsreel atrocity films. Studies were conducted to determine the effects of long-term exposure to TV newsreel films depicting the torture of Viet Cong: (a) male combatants, (b) women auxiliaries, (c) children, (d) wounded. In all cases a marked increase in the intensity of sexual activity was reported, with particular emphasis on perverse oral and ano-genital modes. Maximum arousal was provided by combined torture and execution sequences. Montage newsreels were constructed in which leading public figures associated with the Vietnam war, e.g. President Johnson, General Westmoreland, Marshal Ky, were substituted for both combatants and victims. On the basis of viewers' preferences an optimum torture and execution sequence was devised involving Governor Reagan, Madame Ky and an unidentifiable eight-year-old Vietnamese girl napalm victim. Paedophiliac fantasies of a strongly sadistic character, i.e. involving repeated genital penetration of perineal wounds, were particularly stimulated by the child victim. Prolonged exposure to the film was found to have notable effects on all psychomotor activity. The film was subsequently shown to both disturbed children and terminal cancer patients with useful results.

  fused in Traven's mind with the spectre

  Combat films and the clinically insane. Endless-loop newsreels of Vietnam combat were shown to (a) an audience research panel, (b) psychotic patients (tertiary syphilis). In both cases combat films, as opposed to torture and execution sequences, were found to have a marked hypotensive role, regulating blood pressure, pulse and respiratory rates to acceptable levels. These results accord with the low elements of drama and interest in routine combat newsreels. However, by intercutting this psycho-physiological Muzak with atrocity films it was found that an optimum environment was created in which work-tasks, social relationships and overall motivation reached sustained levels of excellence. Given present socio-economic conditions, the advisability of maintaining the Vietnam war seems self-evident. Substitute military or civil conflicts, e.g. the imminent black-white race war, have proved disappointing in preliminary surveys, and the overall preference is thus for wars of the Vietnam type.

  of his daughter's body. The lantern of her face

  Vietnam and sexual polymorphism of individualized relationships of a physical character. The need for more polymorphic roles has been demonstrated by television and news media. Sexual intercourse can no longer be regarded as a personal and isolated activity, but is seen to be a vector in a public complex involving automobile styling, politics and mass communications. The Vietnam war has offered a focus for a wide range of polymorphic sexual impulses, and also a means by which the United States has re-established a positive psychosexual relationship with the external world.

  hung among the corridors of sleep.

  Tests were carried out to assess the sexual desirability of various national and ethnic groups. Montage photographs were constructed in which various features, e.g. face of Madame Chiang, pudenda of Viet Cong women prisoners, were selected to create the optimum sexual object. In all cases a marked preference was shown for a Vietnamese partner. Disguised elements depicting the faces of wounded children suffering severe facial pain were repeatedly chosen by panels of students, suburban housewives and psychotic patients. Further studies are in progress to construct an optimum sexual module involving mass merchandizing, atrocity newsreels and political figures. The key role of the Vietnam war is positively indicated throughout.

  Warning him, she summoned to her side

  The latent sexual character of the war. All political and military explanations fail to provide a rationale for the war's extended duration. In its manifest phase the war can be seen as a limited military confrontation with strong audience participation via TV and news media, satisfying low-threshold fantasies of violence and aggression. Tests confirm that the war has also served a latent role of strongly polymorphic character. Endless-loop combat and atrocity newsreels were intercut with material of genital, axillary, buccal and anal character. The expressed faecal matter of execution sequences was found to have a particular fascination for middle-income housewives. Prolonged exposure to these films may exercise a beneficial effect on the toilet training and psychosexual development of the present infant generation.

  all the legions of the bereaved.

  The effectiveness of a number of political figures, e.g. Governor Reagan and Shirley Temple, in mediating the latent sexual elements of the war indicates that this may well be their primary role. Montage photographs demonstrate the success of (a) the late President Kennedy in mediating a genital modulus of the war, and (b) Governor Reagan and Mrs Temple Black in mediating an anal modulus. Further tests were devised to assess the latent sexual fantasies of anti-war demonstrators. These confirm the hysterical nature of reactions to films of napalm victims and A.R.V.N. atrocities, and indicate that for the majority of so-called peace groups the Vietnam war serves the role of masking repressed sexual inadequacies of an extreme nature.

  By day the overflights of B-52s

  Psychotic patients exposed to continuous Vietnam war newsreel material have shown marked improvements in overall health, self-maintenance and ability to cope with tasks. Similar advances have been shown by disturbed children. Deprivation of newsreel and TV screenings led to symptoms of withdrawal and a lowering of general health. This accords with the behaviour of a volunteer group of suburban housewives during New Year truce periods. Levels of overall health and sexual activity fell notably, only restored by the Tet offensive and the capture of the U.S. embassy. Suggestions have been made for increasing the violence and latent sexuality of the war, and current peace moves may require the manufacture of simulated newsreels. Already it has been shown that simulated films of the execution and maltreatment of children have notably beneficial effects on the awareness and verbal facility of psychotic children.

  crossed the drowned causeways of the delta,

  Fake atrocity films. Comparison of Vietnam atrocity films with fake newsreels of Auschwitz, Belsen and the Congo reveals that the Vietnam war far exceeds the latter's appeal and curative benefits. As part of their therapy programme a group of patients were encouraged to devise a fake atrocity film employing photographs of buccal, rectal and genital mutilations intercut with images of political figures.

  unique ciphers of violence and desire.

  Optimum child-mutilation film. Using assembly kits of atrocity photographs, groups of housewives, students and psychotic patients selected the optimum child-torture victim. Rape and napalm burns remained constant preoccupations, and a wound profile of maximum arousal was constructed. Despite the revulsion expressed by the panels, follow-up surveys of work-proficiency and health patterns indicate substantial benefits. The effects of atrocity films on disturbed children were found to have positive results that indicate similar benefits for the TV public at large. These studies confirm that it is only in terms of a psychosexual module such as provided by the Vietnam war that the United States can enter into a relationship with the world generally characterized by the term ‘love’.

  Love and Napalm: Export USA.

  ‘Love and Napalm: Export U.S.A’ was the title chosen, against my advice, for the edition of The Atrocity Exhibition which Grove Press published in 1972. I remember sitting in a London hotel with Fred Jordan, th
e intelligent and likeable editor at Grove, and arguing against the title on the grounds (a) that the Vietnam war was over (this was 1971), and (b) that it would give an apparently anti-American slant to the whole book. Jordan maintained that the war was not over and would continue to rouse violent passions for years to come. I felt that he was wrong, and that though the tragedy would cast its shadow for decades across America, the era of street protests and marches was over. Even from our side of the Atlantic it was clear that the U.S. public had seen more than enough of the war.

  As for the apparent anti-Americanism, the hidden logic at work within the mass media – above all, the inadvertent packaging of violence and cruelty like attractive commercial products – had already spread throughout the world. If anything, the process was even more advanced in Britain. The equivalent of the U.S. television commercial on British TV is the ‘serious’ documentary, the ostensibly highminded ‘news’ programme that gives a seductive authority to the manipulated images of violence and suffering offered by the conscience-stricken presenters - an even more insidious form of pornography Recognizing this, our new puritan watchdogs have recently called for censorship of the news. Corpses should never be shown at the scene, say, of an air crash, which gags our emotional response (and civic sense that something should be done), and may even engender the unconscious belief that a plane crash is an exciting event not far removed from a demolition derby. ‘Responsible’ TV is far more dangerous than the most mindless entertainment At its worst American TV merely trivializes the already trivial, while British TV consistently trivializes the serious.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CRASH!

  Each afternoon in the deserted cinema