Car Crash Culture

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.

Autorentext
MIKITA BROTTMAN has published books on horror films, cult cinema, and the history of cannibalism. She teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art and writes for a number of alternative and underground publications.

Inhalt
Introduction; M.Brottman CAR CRASH CONTEMPLATIONS Kar Krash Karma; K.Anger Clutching Pearls: Speculations on a Twentieth Century Suicide; A.Loudermilk Existential Reality on Powell Boulevard; A.Parfrey This Wreckless Landscape; E.Laurier Strangers in the Night; W.Luhr Jump on In... You're in Safe Hands; H.Lake CAR CRASH CRIMES Dragging Deaths: A Case in Point; J.D. Dix & S.Bolesta The Love Bug; J.C.Rupp Vehicular Suicides: Eleven Case Studies; A.Pokorny, J.D.Smith, J.Finch & T.Imajo Suicide and Homicide by Automobile; J.M.McDonald A Case with Bear Facts; T.Murad & M.Boddy Highway to Hell: The Case of California's Freeway Killer; M.Newton CAR CRASH CONSPIRACIES Car Crash Cover-Ups: The Deaths of Princess Diana and Mary Jo Kopechne; P.L.Simpson Why Don't We Make Believe it Happened in the Road? The Many Deaths and Rebirths of Paul McCartney Papal Conveyance; D.Kerekes 'SS-100-X'; P.McElwain-Brown CAR CRASH CINEMA Machine Dreams; H.R.Greenberg The End of the Road: David Cronenberg's Crash and the Fading of the West; M.Brottman & C.Sharrett Heart Like a Wheel ; T.Williams Thanatos ex Machina : Godard Caresses the Dead; D.Sterritt Signal 30 ; M.Brottman THE DEATH DRIVE Eleven Dead Caddies and One Dead Punk; J.Farrell Violence and Vinyl: Car Crash Pop Songs; J.Sargeant Death as Art/The Car Crash as Statement: The Death of Jackson Pollock; S.J.Schneider Rebel With a Cause: The Death of Albert Camus; D.P.Royal Car Crash Crucifixion Culture; J.Darius American Blood Ritual; C.Sharrett Traffic of the Spheres: Prototype for a Memorial; G.Ulmer