Synopses & Reviews
This book explores the grim underside of America's cult of the automobile and the frequently conspiratorial speculations that arise whenever people die in cars. Looking at fatal celebrity car accidents and other examples of death by automobile through personal memoir and forensic reports, cultural critics ponder people's fascination with car crashes. They explore car crash conspiracy theories, the automobile as a site of murder, car crash films, and the notion of the "accident." The book features original essays by such underground icons as Kenneth Anger and Adam Parfrey. Essays cover the deaths of Albert Camus, Jackson Pollock, James Dean, Jayne Mansfield, Princess Diana, Princess Grace, and Mary Jo Kopechine, amongst others.
Review
"What gets opened up to view in these disturbing, sometimes spectacular collisions is not just the statistical importance and multiple meanings of four-wheeled trauma for our culture today, but our insistent curiosity, fascination and horror—the shock or thrill of recognition, empathy or sadism or just the ubiquitous idling will to gawk that draws us alternately to the crash scene and these pages."
-- Dick Hebdige, author of
Subculture: The Meaning of Style and Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things A stimulating collection...
-South Atlantic Review
Synopsis
A morbidly fascinating and articulate collection of essays, this book explores the grim underside of America's cult of the automobile and the disturbing, frequently conspiratorial, speculations that arise whenever the car becomes the cause or the site of human death. Through analysis of fatal celebrity car accidents and other examples of death by automobile, as well as through personal memoir and forensic reports, cultural critics ponder our very human fascination with the car crash. Topics include the roles and experiences of passengers and bystanders, car crash conspiracy theories, the automobile as a site of murder, studies of car crash cinema, and psychological interpretations of the notion of the 'accident.' The book features original essays by such underground icons as Kenneth Anger and Adam Parfrey.
About the Author
Mikita Brottman is Assistant Professor of Literature at the Maryland Institute College of Art and has published books on horror films, cult cinema, and the history of cannibalism. She writes for a number of alternative and underground publications.
Table of Contents
Introduction—Mikita Brottman *
Car Crash Contemplations * Kar Krash Karma—Kenneth Anger * Clutching Pearls: Speculations on a Twentieth Century Suicide—A. Loudermilk * Existential Reality on Powell Boulevard—Adam Parfrey * This Wreckless Landscape—Eric Laurier * Strangers in the Night—William Luhr * Jump on In... Youre in Safe Hands—Howard Lake *
Car Crash Crimes * Dragging Deaths: A Case in Point—Jay D. Dix & Stephen Bolesta * The Love Bug—J.C. Rupp * Vehicular Suicides: Eleven Case Studies—Alex Pokorny, J.D. Smith, John Finch & Takeshi Imajo * Suicide and Homicide by Automobile—John M. McDonald * A Case with Bear Facts—Turhon Murad & Margie Boddy * Highway to Hell: The Case of Californias Freeway Killer—Michael Newton *
Car Crash Conspiracies * Car Crash Cover-Ups: The Deaths of Princess Diana and Mary Jo Kopechne—Philip L. Simpson * Why Dont We Make Believe it Happened in the Road?: The Many Deaths and Rebirths of Paul McCartney—Jerry Glover * Papal Conveyance—David Kerekes * SS-100-X—Pamela McElwain-Brown *
Car Crash Cinema * Machine Dreams—Harvey Roy Greenberg * The End of the Road: David Cronenbergs
Crash and the Fading of the West—Mikita Brottman & Christopher Sharrett *
Heart Like a Wheel --Tony Williams *
Thanatos ex Machina : Godard Caresses the Dead—David Sterritt *
Signal 30 —Mikita Brottman *
The Death Drive * Eleven Dead Caddies and One Dead Punk—Jeff Ferrell * Violence and Vinyl: Car Crash Pop Songs—Jack Sargeant * Death as Art / The Car Crash as Statement: The Death of Jackson Pollock—Steven Jay Schneider * Rebel With a Cause: The Death of Albert Camus—Derek Parker Royal * Car Crash Crucifixion Culture—Julian Darius * American Blood Ritual—Christopher Sharrett * Traffic of the Spheres: Prototype for a Memorial—Gregory Ulmer