crash - j. g. ballard

P.130 ‘Not a major crash — it means that everything lies in the future for her. With a little forethought she could die in a unique vehicle collision, one that would transform all our dreams and fantasies. The man who dies in that crash with her…’

P.168 Yet, as he moved around the apartment, taking a shower and changing his clothes, Vaughan was self-consciously absorbed in these fading images, straightening their curling corners as if frightened that when they finally vanished his own identity would also cease to matter. I saw this attempt at tagging himself, to fix his identity by marking it upon some external event, as we drove along the expressways that evening.