Amazon.com
Easily one of the 20th century's most visionary writers, J. G. Ballard still lives far ahead of his time. Called his "prophetic masterpiece" by many, The Atrocity Exhibition practically lies outside of any literary tradition. Part science fiction, part eerie historical fiction, part pornography, its characters adhere to no rules of linearity or stability. This reissued edition features an introduction by William S. Burroughs, extensive text commentary by Ballard, and four additional stories. Of specific interest are the illustrations by underground cartoonist and professional medical illustrator Phoebe Gloeckner. Her ultrarealistic images of eroticism and destruction add an important dimension to Ballard's text.
Book Description
The Atrocity Exhibition is J.G. Ballard's most complex, disturbing work, with fabulous photos by Ana Barrado and artwork by Phoebe Gloeckner.
Customer Reviews:
Perversion Exposure.......2007-09-25
The Atrocity Exhibition is written with the kind of breath of a William S. Burroughs novel; particularly Naked Lunch. In both novels the characters seem to be lost in the labyrinth of their own mind. Whether or not the four male characters of Atrocity Exhibition are in fact living in a drug induced hell remains a mystery.
However what is clear, and believe me there is a lot left unclear in this work, is that the characters are living fractured lives. They are traumatized by events beyond their control. In a desperate attempt to gain some power over themselves, they grasp at one another, tearing apart emotions and using their bodies as a temple for self-actualization. It is difficult to grasp a cohesive narrative structure out of the novel and in a sense it is an anti-novel.
With characters and events that remain unclear, like Elizabeth Taylor and her ambiguous "gill slits." Despite these elements of nonsense this novel remains a kind of testament to how desperate people are to truly have a sense of self.
Once that self is grasped the characters enter some kind of new world where their dreams or fantasies become their reality. It is a kind of egotism where the sexual is not erotic but painful, the kind of pain found in isolation. Here you have to have a sense of methaphors and be able to pick apart the novels short-comings because it does get rather torrid trying to understand a work without empathy.
As the novel goes on I realized that Ballard wrote it in a way that he understands the inner-self so much that all he can do is show how these people experience reality. Without empathy the work becomes a lost testament to how disaffected people have become.
the atrocity exhibition.......2006-07-13
the atrocity exhibition is a watershed and seminal work in the canon of jg ballard. ballard is regarded and indeed classified as a writer in the 'science fiction' genre. if you consider science fiction to be the domain of 'star wars' et al. then reappraise, reevaluate and restart your imaginative capacity NOW.
ballard bestrides the real essence of what science fiction is all about. along with genre peers like william s burroughs and philip k dick ballard lets our everyday reality somersault into malleable form in order to glimpse through its creases as it bends and flips. and that is what science fiction is truly about.
the atrocity exhibition retells the imaganitive interpretation of a world gone vacant and disused despite its technological grandeur and will to power. the narrative dispells the need to lurk in the shadow of pessimmism for a dystopian world view of 'the future'. like pk dick, ballard is recounting a parallel universe that we are, in fact, already in yet refuse, deny and thus - vainly - extricate ourselves from. ballard simply removes the blinkers from our eyes and reveals the panaramic vision of 'our times'. less a parallel universe than a 'concurrent' one.
one aspect of ballards narrative(s) in general and (just one) significant difference when compared to the likes of philip k dick and burroughs, is the total lack of paranoia permeating the text.
ballard in my view is more prophet than paranoid.
the atrocity exhibition is one man's coming to sense with the 'real' world by tortuous and torturous understanding... he has to go 'mad' first.
i got my copy through RE/SEARCH PUBLICATIONS and anybody interested in the left of centre (and therefore) more substantial literary experience should check them out post-haste.
brain-terrorism .......2006-02-09
"The Atrocity Exhibition is the industrial brain-terrorism of a drug fetus and JG Ballard rapes the digital-chimpanzee's naked body in the corpse feti=streaming circuit of the abolition world." - Kenji Siratori, author of Blood Electric
Difficult to start, a chore to finish.......2005-11-24
Ballard makes several keen insights in this book (many of them startlingly prescient). However, digging those nuggets of clarity out of the surrounding mess is difficult and often unrewarding work. The repetetive and disjointed nature of the narrative quickly leads to confusion--confusion about the characters, their motives, and the surrounding events. And perhaps that was intentional, but it doesn't make for a satisfying read.
"The Assasination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race" was one of the few bright spots in the narrative, but not quite bright enough for me to consider this book as anything more than a failed experiment.
Mind blowing, in every sense of the term.......2005-09-20
This is a very difficult book, but also very rewarding for people with patience. I usually find experimental writing gimmicky, but the Atrocity Exhibition is haunting, paranoid, claustrophobic. Readers should be in the write state of mind to deal with a sometimes unpleasant read; those who do are usually transformed by it. This is a stunning work; I only give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of the edition...
Book Description
An astonishing visual expos of the German Army's crimes in World War II. For the better part of fifty years, the powerful German army of World War II has been seen as an organization of consummate skill and honor, one that had little in common with the criminal policies and ideology of the Nazi regime. Fascinating and unforgettable, The German Army and Genocide explodes that myth. Through newly discovered documents and hundreds of astonishing photographs culled from archives all across Europe, The German Army and Genocide reveals that the nearly twenty million soldiers who passed through the feared Wehrmacht (the German army) were subjected to a massive ideological indoctrination, and that many were involved in widespread crimes against civilians and prisoners of war, acting both on orders by their superiors and--in many instances--on their own initiative. Based on a three-year German exhibit that sparked riots and heated controversy throughout the country, The German Army and Genocide features harrowing photographs taken by the soldiers themselves (often gleeful) of massacres, hangings, and torture; official army documents directing military units to murder Jewish communities; private letters written home, such as one from a young soldier who boasts that his unit had killed 1,000 Jews, adding, "and that was not enough"; and military directives that definitively prove close collaboration between the SS and the regular army throughout the war.
Customer Reviews:
Is this something new??.......2007-04-06
Having read through the book and read the previous reviews, I am somewhat bemused to understand what the major fuss is all about. I think its no mystery to any well read individual on World War II that the German Army took part in host of war crimes against POWs, Jews and other civiilians. I am not talking about the SS but regular army units. None of this should be any surprise to anyone outside of novice historians of the subject.
This book reflects on that assumption, that the regular units of the German military committed war crimes and the photos showed that they did. Once more nothing truly revealing here. Problems with the photos is that while many does show German troops committing war crimes, others are more open to subjective perception. One of the reveiwers stated that the photos are rather on the small side and I agreed with him, they are terribly small and that affect their effectiveness.
As bad as the German Army were, many of the photos shows them shooting hostages or hanging paritsans if we take their word on it as the book does. While these are not politically correct methods, they are acceptable methods of warfare since the dawn of warfare. Every nation that ever fought a war uses these methods and applied them.
This book reflects on German war guilt and while that may be a noble effort, it doesn't exactly reflect the true nature of that guilt. It wasn't just those who wore the uniforms that made genocide work, but the civilians behind them who supported and aided their army to commit genocide. To commit genocide on a scale that Germany tried during World War II take more then an army, it takes a society, a national effort. To blamed it on the German Army as a whole, is simplistic cop-out.
Small as the photographs were, I found them pretty interesting and somewhat depressing that man can be reduced to such a state of brutality and casual hate.
Three stars is all I can give this book because it doesn't really state the true nature of the crimes. First the book doesn't say anything new here. Knowledgable readers already knows that the regular German Army committed host of war crimes outside of what the SS units have done. The photos are too small to be really effective and they are often open to conjecture on what the truth may actually be. Some are more effective then others, photos of mass execution of women and children however proves to be few and in-between here. The book shouldn't be read by novices as they may be misled into a wrong assumption.
Pure Apologetic Trash and Historical Rubish. .......2007-03-28
Once again, German intellectuals have gone the extra mile to make themselves feel guilty about WWII. If you want a book which will assault your common sense and your vision more than any other book dealing with the Holocaust or war crimes, this is it. Herr Wagner has it right, most of the incidents portrayed in this book are photos of barbarism committed by the Russians, NOT the Germans, and are scenes the Germans came upon as they moved east. This has been proven, and most of these photos are taken from former Soviet archives.
Here are just a few of the glaring problems that bother me about this book. One series of photos spread across three pages is captioned as being some 1,800 Jews rounded up in a Russian village prior to being shot. Yet, these people are very well clothed, in many cases carrying bags, some seem downright cheerful, and most interestingly, there are only four German soldiers to be seen in any of the photos, and only one of those four has a weapon - a pistol holster on his hip. These four guys shot 1,800 Jews with one pistol?
Another photo series across two pages shows "Russian soldiers in Civilian Clothes being led away to be executed" and aludes to the point that these are not Russian soldiers at all, but innocent villagers. The problem here is, the men ARE wearing Russian uniforms! Three of them are wearing Russian officer's uniforms for pity's sake! It's now a war crime to lead POWs away at gunpoint?
There are a large number of photos of German soldiers just standing around, interacting with seemingly unbothered civilians, and in one case, HEAVEN FORBID, a German soldier is shown carrying "stolen" chickens! NO JOKE!
There are photos of partisan hangings and shootings, which no one would deny took place. There are also reprisal shootings shown in this book which are most certainly legitimate. One of the most graphic of these photo spreads shows Hungarian troops shooting a dozen partisans, however, not German soldiers. A number of the lynching photos are shown multiple times from different angles to give the impression of multiple events. I find it amazing how many innocent villagers who were lynched for no good reason happen to be wearing riding breeches and jack boots in these photos (Commisars perhaps?).
I collect WWII vintage photos, and I have many photos of German POWs under guard by American and British soldiers. I have some showing German POWs and even former Hitler Youth boys (still in HJ uniforms) digging trenches while US GI's stand over them with rifles and Thompson machine guns. If I used the logic of this particular book, I would caption these photos, "German soldiers being forced to dig their own graves before being shot." I have no idea what these guys are digging trenches for and I don't think anybody shot them. The same can be said for most photos in this book. Just because there's a photo of a Russian digging a ditch, often times photographed without a German anywhere in the picture, that doesn't mean he's digging his own grave! Give it a rest!
Then there's the problem of using the exact same photos several times in this book and captioning them as seperate incidents. One photo showing two partisans being lynched is captioned early in the book as having occured in 1941, and the exact same photo appears some fifty pages later, in a smaller format, and is captioned to be a reprisal hanging in the winter of 1944 and was "a photo found on a dead German soldier."
In short, yes, crimes were committed by the German army. Crimes are committed by every army in time of war. This book is an concerted effort to create a negative image on the Wehrmacht using very sketchy evidence and inventing facts which simply did not occur. This is a book with absolutely no credibility. If you can get this one on sale for a few bucks, it's worth it just to see how outrageous it is. As a historical record of "war crimes" or "genocide", this is a work of pure fantasy and all you have to do is look at the photos and believe your eyes to realize this.
The right book written by the wrong people.......2005-07-15
This book is mainly based on what was called the 'Wehrmachtsausstellung' or an exhibition on war-crimes of the wehrmacht during WW II. It has to be said that meanwhile this exhibition has been partly revised after a number of court trials revealed a considerable number of untrueisms.
Yet, it is a fact that some German soldiers were involved in mass shootings of members of the communist party and jewish civilians, and for that it is a necessary book. On the other hand, a whole number of incidents simply did not occur as shown in this book, many were committed by the NKWD (later became KGB) and the Germans got blamed for it. Let me point out, this is not opinion
but things which were found out during court trials before German courts, and even former KGB members testified this.
A Shocking Portfolio of Evil Incarnate In the Wehrmacht!.......2000-06-18
No one who views this book can any longer doubt the complicity and cooperation of the general German armed forces, or Wehrmacht, in the murderous acts of Germany's ignominious Third Reich. Literally hundreds of graphic and horrific photographs show average German soldiers shooting, hanging, bludgeoning, or otherwise mistreating, torturing, and murdering helpless civilian men, women and children during operations on the eastern front. This is a grim but necessary book.
Most surprising is the fact that the photographs were originally part of a German exhibition held in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War Two, and constitute a damning condemnation of the role of the average German soldier (as opposed to other specialized Waffen SS or Einsatzgruppe SS units) in visiting the whole panoply of horrors of egregious war crimes on the native populations of the subjugated countries during Operation Barbarossa. These were not crimes committed against opposing military forces, but were rather crimes committed against war prisoners, Jews, and other civilian segments of the subjugated regions.
This is, by its very nature, not an easy or pleasant book to view or read. One does so reluctantly and only in an effort to learn more about the demons that ultimately threaten each of us, as we face personal responsibility for all of our acts as individuals. The conclusion one reaches after viewing these photographs and reading the accompanying text is humbling, shocking, and intensely relevant, even though some fifty years have passed. With similar shocking events composing the headlines and bylines of contemporary news casts, the most shocking thing one realizes is that the world evidently has not yet learned from its past, as events in Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, and Somalia make perfectly clear. Human life is still held in little regard, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned in the blood and hate of ethnic, tribal, or national pedigrees.
One problem with the book is that many of the photographs are small and difficult to appreciate in their full impact without a magnifying device. This, however, is a small quibble with a brave, terrible, and significant book such as this one. This is a book we should share with all those cynics who doubt that the Holocaust happened. Perhaps they can explain the hundreds of photos of ordinary German soldiers committing mayhem and murder in some clever fashion. Of course, the debate over what happened is not over. But this book and the documentation it constitutes makes understanding of the Holocaust and how it happened more possible.
Wehrmacht Complicity in Eastern Front Genocide & War Crimes.......2000-04-02
Through declassification of wartime documents and research into archives newly made available after the dismemberment of the Soviet bloc, far more detailed analysis of German war crimes and genocide is possible, indeed is necessary. Most studies of mobile extermination squads, the Einsatzgruppen, and the death camps emphasize the principal role of various branches of the SS in mass murder. Studies of the war on the Eastern Front have tended to focus on the herculean battles waged and the stratregy and tactics employed from the inception of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 to the 1945 fall of Berlin to the Red Army.
Generally, the German Army, the Wehrmacht, has escaped censure for the Holocaust in its earliest improvisational form and its later administratively controlled manifestation (the German Army wins no plaudits for treating Red Army prisoners according to the Geneva Convention but this seems to have greatly bothered relatively few Western historians).
This book explodes the myth that the German Army was not complicit in wholesale murder of Jews, Gypsies and anyone else targeted by the Nazi state. Comprised of very many damning photographs from a controversial exhibit in Germany and supplmented by an expert historian's analysis, "The German Army and Genocide" is not the last word on the subject but it will spur new research and force needed reappraisal of the conventional wisdom.
The controversy over the exhibit, and this book, is not over. Presentation of the exhibit in New York City has been delayed because of claims about the authenticitiy of some of the photographs and the accompanying legends. Nonetheless an increasing coterie of Holocaust and World War II scholars are finding ample evidence that the Wehrmacht not only aided the SS and the many reserve police battalions engaged in rounding up Jews and others for murder, its top field commanders knew full well what they were enabling and, in some cases, were enthusiastic albeit not very loud supporters.
The photos in this book are not easy to view. With their penchant for documentation, the Wehrmacht captured the sometimes agonised, occasionally amazed expressions of their victims just before they were murdered. This is, however, a chronicle that should be viewed by all interested in the reality of the Final Solution and the barbarity of the German onslaught into the East.
Average customer rating:
|
Erinnerung an einen Krieg: Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
Manufacturer: Jovis Verlagsburo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Perfect Paperback
 General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Germany
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Russia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
German
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History
| German
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| German
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All German Books
| German
| Foreign Language Books
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 3931321150 |
Average customer rating:
|
Kate Sands on atrocity exhibitions.: An article from: Arena Magazine
Kate Sands
Manufacturer: Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Australia & Oceania
| Books on CD
| Books on Cassette
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Political Science
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
General
| History
| Subjects
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
General
| History
| HTML
| Formats
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
General
| Nonfiction
| HTML
| Formats
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
Political Science
| Nonfiction
| HTML
| Formats
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: B0008GD3KU
Release Date: 2005-07-31 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Arena Magazine, published by Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd. on December 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1622 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Kate Sands on atrocity exhibitions.
Author: Kate Sands
Publication:
Arena Magazine (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2003
Publisher: Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd.
Issue: 68
Page: 52(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Amy thought love would never pass her way again. She didn’t know how close it was...until she met Silas. He is an answer to prayer for her injured father, Grant Nolan, who welcomes him with open arms. The brotherly way Silas feels toward Amy soon turns to deeper feelings of love.
Silas longs to have his love returned. But his sensitivity to Amy’s reluctant heart and the loss of her old flame keeps him from harboring false hopes for their future. As Silas prepares to leave, will Amy discover the truth about her heart before it’s too late?
A tender story of the flowering of hidden love and the nurturing of faith in the farmlands of Wisconsin.
Customer Reviews:
Very Well Written Romance!.......2002-10-05
I truly enjoy reading Lori Wick's books and I enjoy watching (or should I say reading) her grow as a writer. This was the first book I'd ever read that she wrote and I was hooked. It is very good for the young (teen) reader. A parent would have no worries as to what her daughter was being exposed to. I just finished reading her newest novel "The Rescue" and was able to see how she has grown as an author through the years. I praise God for talented authors such as Lori. (If you enjoy reading Lori Wick's books you should also try new author, Vicki Williamson's, books.)
A wonderful book!!!.......2001-07-17
Excellent story! I'd give it a ten if I could! It's really beautiful Christian love story. It makes one really believe in love.
Interesting, but not her best.......2001-03-26
The first mistake I made was reading Lori Wick's Californian series first. In light of those, all of the rest of her books seem a little mediocre. A Song of Silas started off so slowly I thought I would never get through it but I eventually got involved- not engrossed but involved. The storyline is interesting enough, although I didn't get the same thrilling feeling that I've gotten with some of her other books. I would recommend this only as part of the series, does not hold enough weight on its own.
Interesting, but not her best.......2001-03-26
The first mistake I made was reading Lori Wick's Californian series first. In light of those, all of the rest of her books seem a little mediocre. A Song of Silas started off so slowly I thought I would never get through it but I eventually got involved- not engrossed but involved. The storyline is interesting enough, although I didn't get the same thrilling feeling that I've gotten with some of her other books. I would recommend this only as part of the series, does not hold enough weight on its own.
A very sweet and tender story that continues the original........2000-07-27
"A Song For Silas" continues the story of the Camerons, a Wisconsin family, and their trials and tribulations throughout life. When Grant Nolan, a friend of the family, breaks his leg, Silas Cameron feels more than obliged to fill in the position of running his farm. There, with Grant's 18-year-old daughter, Amy, Silas becomes closer to God, and to Amy. This story was a very good read. The first book was lighthearted enough, but this story is bubblegummy-sweet on an out-of-control level. Also, some of the characters from the original book don't seem to be that interesting in this entry. However, errors aside, it is a satisfying read, considering how boring a book this COULD'VE been, but was not.
Product Description
Tender stories of flowering love and nurturing faith in the farmlands of Wisconsin. Through pain and loss, shattered dreams and threat of danger, the Cameron family's trust in God and in the power of prayer sets them apart from their neighbors as they open their hearts and their homes to all around them. 4 volumes including: A Place Called Home, A Place Called Home Series #1 / A Song for Silas, A Place Called Home Series #2 / The Long Road Home, A Place Called Home Series #3 / A Gathering of Memories, A Place Called Home Series #4
Product Description
Silas is an answer to prayer for the injured Grant Nolan and his daughter, Amy, who welcome him with open arms. But the brotherly way Silas feels toward Amy soon turns to deeper feelings of love. Silas longs to have his love returned. But his sensitivity to Amy's reluctant heart and the loss of her old flame keeps him from harboring false hopes for their future. As Silas prepares to leave, will Amy discover the truth about her heart before it's too late? A tender story of the flowering of hidden love and the nurturing of faith in the farmlands of Wisconsin.
Average customer rating:
|
A Song in the Night: The Story of Paul and Silas in Prison (Nederveld, Patricia L., God Loves Me, Bk. 50.) (Nederveld, Patricia L., God Loves Me, Bk. 50.)
Patricia L. Nederveld
Manufacturer: Faith Alive Christian Resources
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Stories | Bible | Christianity | Religions | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Baby-3 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
New Testament | Bibles | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Baby-3 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Stories | Bible | Christianity | Religions | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
New Testament | Bible | Bible & Other Sacred Texts | Religion & Spirituality | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
ASIN: 156212319X |
Books:
- The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky (Modern Library)
- The Box Man: A Novel
- The Catalans: A Novel
- The Cement Garden
- The Clayborne Brides: One Pink Rose, One White Rose, One Red Rose
- The Colony of Unrequited Dreams: A Novel
- The Dreamland Chronicles
- The Facts of Winter
- The Famished Road
- The Girls He Adored : A Novel
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Mies Van Der Rohe: 1886 - 1969
- Grey Knights
- Art History: A Critical Introduction to Its Methods
- Arban's: Famous Method for Trombone
- Creative Black & White Photography
- Cracking the AP Biology Exam, 2006-2007 Edition
- Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881
- Growing Artists: Teaching Art To Young Children, 3
- Breaking Through: Essays, Journals, and Travelogues of Edward F. Ricketts
- Against All Odds: Shot Down over Occupied Territory in WWII
Crash
The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard
Concrete Island
High Rise (Flamingo Modern Classic)
The Soft Machine (Burroughs, William S.)
