Post Crash Reflections

After the crash our main character undergoes a definite shift in perspective. This much is self evident in the text with lines like : "in my eyes, the image of the car had changed, almost as if its true nature had been exposed by my accident" & "the crash was the only real experience I had been through for years". Not only does Ballard's main character become obsessed with all that is automotive, but perhaps more specifically during his recovery becomes hyper-conscious of the interplay between traffic, its patterns, and people. The world through which we know the main character seems to become increasingly surrounded by the infrastructure that facilitates car movement. More interestingly though is the way in which Ballard describes this world of traffic as almost bound for certain destruction. The way in which our main character gazes at the flow, or lack thereof in certain instances, of the surrounding traffic paints a picture that is reminiscent of the world of Hot Wheels I once played with. I am continually brought back to the image of all the cars connected by string, invisible string, and when one moves the whole world is set into motion. In this way, I get the impression that the obsession with crashing vehicles is perhaps the most romantic and subversive act in a world bound to move to their death, slowly,- machinations of a certain systematicity.... To win the game you must induce others to this realization by your example, the bigger your deviation from this order, the better.