The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard

What slasher films are to cinema, J.G. Ballard's books are to literature. Violence is put on center stage, not for condemnation or edification, but for the sheer adrenalin boost of 'exhibiting' severe damage inflicted on people and objects. Yet the peculiarly repulsive flavor of Ballard's narratives comes from their constant juxtaposition of violence an…