The Atrocity Exhibition - JG Ballard

" The Sex Kit. 'In a sense', Dr Nathan explained to Koester, 'one may regard this as a kit, which Talbert has devised, entitled "Karen Novotny" - it might even be feasable to market it commercially. It contains the following items: 1) Pad of pubic hair, 2) a latex face mask, 3) six detachable mouths, 4) a set of smiles, 5) a pair of breasts, left nipple marked by a small ulcer, 6) a set of non-chafe orificices, 7) photo cut-outs of a number of narrative situations - the girl doing this and that, 8) a list of dialogue samples, of inane chatter, 9) a set of noise levels, 10) descriptive techniques for a variety of sex acts, 11) a torn anal detrusor, 12) a glossary of idioms and catch phrases, 13) an analysis of odour traces (from various vents), mostly purines, etc., 14) a chart of body tempertures (auxillary, buccal, rectal), 15) slide of vaginal smears, chiefly Ortho-Gyno jelly, 16) a set of blood pressures, systolic 120, diastolic 70 rising to 200/150 at onset of orgasm...' Deferring to Koester, Dr Nathan put down the typescript. 'There are one or two other bits and pieces, but together the inventory is an adequate picture of a woman, who could easily be reconstituted from it. In fact, such a list may well be more stimulating than the real thing. Now that sex is becoming more and more a conceptual act, an intellectualization divored from affect and physiology alike, one has to bear in mind the positive merits of the sexual perversions. Talbert's library of cheap photo-photography is in fact a vital literature, a kindling of the few taste buds left in the jaded palates of our so-called sexuality.' JG Ballard