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Trying to exhaust himself, Vaughan devised an endless almanac of terrifying wounds and insane collisions: The lungs of elderly men punctured by door-handles; the chests of young women impaled on steering-columns; the cheek of handsome youths torn on the chromium latches of quarter-lights. To Vaughan, these wounds formed the key to a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology. The images of these wounds hung in the gallery of his mind, like exhibits in the museum of a slaughterhouse.
J. G. Ballard
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote explores the connection between technology and human experience, highlighting the dark side of innovation.

In this passage, J. G. Ballard presents a chilling vision of how technology can shape human sexuality and experience through pain and injury. Vaughan's obsession with the violent and traumatic aspects of technology raises questions about the relationship between modernity and the human condition, suggesting that our advancements may carry unsettling implications that are often overlooked. This perspective invites readers to consider the hidden costs of technological progress and its potential to distort our understanding of intimacy and desire.

Themes

TechnologySexualityPainInnovationHuman ExperienceViolence

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion on the impact of technology on relationships during a seminar.

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Science is the ultimate pornography, analytic activity whose main aim is to isolate objects or events from their contexts in time and space. This obsession with the specific activity of quantified functions is what science shares with pornography.
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Au revoir, jewelled alligators and white hotels, hallucinatory forests, farewell.
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Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.
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Most English writers are not interested in change but in the social novel. That demands a static backdrop. I'm intensely interested in change - probably as a matter of self-preservation. What the hell is going to happen next?
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Deserts possess a particular magic, since they have exhausted their own futures, and are thus free of time. Anything erected there, a city, a pyramid, a motel, stands outside time. It's no coincidence that religious leaders emerge from the desert. Modern shopping malls have much the same function. A future Rimbaud, Van Gogh or Adolf Hitler will emerge from their timeless wastes.
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