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I have read Ballard's Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes, both very entertaining and thought-provoking. I can recommend both. Will definitely pick up Crash one of these days!
2. Crash by J.G. Ballard
The infamous novel that was the inspiration for the infamous David Cronenberg film. I suppose that this ranks quite highly in the pantheon of transgressive fiction. The transgression isn't located in just the literal aspects of the novel - the endless cataloging of disfigurement, gruesome car crashes, bodily fluids, "weird sex", etc. - but also the philosophical ideas that Ballard managed to sneak in among all the prurient material, which went beyond the limits of what most people would dare conceive. I can imagine that the idea of human activities (ALL human activities) being molded, shaped, and mediated by a technology as everyday as the automobile was fairly revolutionary at the time that this was written. It still has the capacity to shock and to make you think.
I have read Ballard's Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes, both very entertaining and thought-provoking. I can recommend both. Will definitely pick up Crash one of these days!