In dealing with very large breasts in older subjects, it may be necessary to reduce the huge volume of breast tissue in two stages, since the radical reduction in one stage may well interfere with the nerve supply of the nipple and prevent the erection of the nipple during subsequent sexual excitation. Miss West was warned, therefore, of the possible need for a second operation.
Procedure
A marked degree of asymmetry between Miss Mae West's two breasts was found. The left breast was appreciably larger than the right. The most important step before operating on the breasts was to ascertain carefully the sites proposed for the new nipples. Measurements were made in her suite before operation with Miss West sitting up. The mid-clavicular point was marked with Bonney's blue. Then, steadying each of the breasts in turn with both hands, the assistant drew a line directly down from this point to the nipple itself. The new nipple should fall on this line 7½ inches from the suprasternal notch. This corresponded to a position just below the midpoint of the upper arm when it was held close to the patient's chest. The entire skin of Miss West's chest wall was cleaned with soap and water and spirit, and then wrapped in sterile towels. Miss West was then ready for operation.
Removal of breast tissue. It was first considered how much breast tissue could be removed without damaging the blood supply to the nipple. The breast was brought forward and laid on a board of wood. A large breast knife was carried down from above, curving very close to the nipple. The final amount of tissue was not removed in the first stage, and the remaining tissue of the breast was folded round and up to judge whether the breast formed a shape that would be acceptable to Miss West, or whether it would be possible to remove more tissue.
Once more the entire field was reviewed for bleeding points. These were controlled by diathermy, but the pectoral vessels running down the border of pectoralis major were ligated. The skin covering was arranged to fit snugly over the newly formed breast A curved intestinal clamp was used, but the fact that it fitted tightly on the skin margins did not appear to damage the vitality of the skin edges in any way.
All the stages described above were performed on the other side. It remained merely to bring out the nipples through new holes at the chosen position above the vertical suture line. Having found where the nipple would He most comfortably, a circle of skin was excised. The nipple was then sutured very carefully into this circle.
The completion of the operation was to ensure that there were no collections of blood in the breast, and that the breast was adequately drained on both sides. Corrugated rubber drains running both vertically and horizontally were satisfactory. The breasts were very firmly bandaged to the chest wall using a many-tailed bandage. Firm pressure was applied to the lower half of the breast with Miss West lying absolutely flat on her back.
Post-operative recovery. The operation was a lengthy one and Miss West suffered a serious degree of surgical shock. Intravenous saline solution was given during the operation. The foot end of Miss West's bed was raised on blocks, and she was allowed to lie comfortably on her back until she recovered a normal pulse rate and a normal blood pressure.
Miss West was not allowed to go home before the fitting of an adequate supporting brassiere. It had a good deep section around the thorax, and the cups were of adequate size and gave good support from below. It was some time before Miss West's breasts reached their final proportions and shape, and there was no urgency about trimming scar lines until six months had passed. The left breast was then found to be too full in the lower quadrant, and the scar lines were unsatisfactory. Both these points were attended to. The ultimate results of this operation with regard to sexual function are not known.
Mae West's Reduction Mammoplasty.
Still fondly remembered. Mae West was one of Hollywood's most effective safety valves, blowing a loud raspberry whenever the pressures of film industry self-inflation grew too great. No one in her admiring audience was ever in any doubt about the true purpose of that splendid body. Yet despite her earthiness, she retained a special magic of her own, and ended her days as a pop icon who might have been created by Andy Warhol. That he never decided to re-invent her reflects the fact I think, that she got there before him, and might have dangerously subverted the whole Warhol ethos. Besides, Warhol was always at his best with vulnerable women.
Were her breasts too large? No, as far as one can tell, but they loomed across the horizons of popular consciousness along with those of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. Beyond our physical touch, the breasts of these screen actresses incite our imaginations to explore and reshape them. The bodies of these extraordinary women form a kit of spare parts, a set of mental mannequins that resemble Bellmer's obscene dolls. As they tease us, so we begin to dismantle them, removing sections of a smile, a leg stance, an enticing cleavage. The parts are interchangeable, like the operations we imagine performing on these untouchable women, as endlessly variable as the colours silkscreened on to the faces of Warhol's Liz and Marilyn.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Most of the film stars and political figures who appear in The Atrocity Exhibition are still with us, in memory if not in person – John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Together they helped to form the culture of celebrity that played such a large role in the 1960s, when I wrote The Atrocity Exhibition.
Other figures, though crucially important to the decades that followed, have begun to sink below the horizon. How many of us remember Abraham Zapruder, who filmed the Kennedy assassination in Dallas? Or Sirhan Sirhan, who murdered Robert Kennedy? At the end of each chapter I have provided a few notes that identify these lesser characters and set out the general background to the book.
Readers who find themselves daunted by the unfamiliar narrative structure of The Atrocity Exhibition – far simpler than it seems at first glance – might try a different approach. Rather than start at the beginning of each chapter, as in a conventional novel, simply turn the pages until a paragraph catches your eye. If the ideas or images seem interesting, scan the nearby paragraphs for anything that resonates in an intriguing way. Fairly soon, I hope, the fog will clear, and the underlying narrative will reveal itself. In effect, you will be reading the book in the way it was written.
J.G. Ballard, 2001
About the Author
J.G. Ballard
was born in 1930 in Shanghai, China, where his father was a businessman. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he and his family were placed in a civilian prison camp. They returned to England in 1946. After reading Medicine at Cambridge for two years, he worked as a copywriter and Covent Garden porter before going to Canada with the RAF. His first short stories appeared in 1956, and after working on scientific journals he published his first major novel, The Drowned World, in 1962. His landmark 1984 novel Empire of the Sun won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was later filmed by Steven Spielberg. His 1973 novel Crash was also made into a controversial film by David Cronenberg.
J.G. Ballard's recent publications include the Sunday Times-bestselling novels Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes, and The Complete Short Stories, in which all of his highly acclaimed stories have been gathered together for the first time in one volume.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
From the reviews of The Atrocity Exhibition:
‘A powerful book … phrase and image are constantly disturbing and stimulating. The central figure is a doctor moving through an underworld of psychosis. Reality and fantasy glide into each other. His chosen guides are tile token figures of late-twentieth-century violence.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘The Atrocity Exhibition plays variations on the theme of human cruelty through surrealistic glimpses of car crashes, images of decay and destruction, and public figures imagined in odd sexual attitudes.’
Sunday Times
‘A doctor suffering fr
om a nervous breakdown is obsessed by images of violence: the assassination of President Kennedy, car crash victims, the death of Marilyn Monroe. Escaping from hospital, he rationalizes these fantasies by restaging events of violence in a way that he considers will give them new meanings – a disturbing book.’
Irish Times
Works by J.G. Ballard
THE DROWNED WORLD
THE VOICES OF TIME
THE TERMINAL BEACH
THE CRYSTAL WORLD
THE DAY OF FOREVER
THE VENUS HUNTERS
THE DISASTER AREA
THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION
VERMILION SANDS
CRASH
CONCRETE ISLAND
HIGH-RISE
LOW-FLYING AIRCRAFT
THE UNLIMITED DREAM COMPANY
HELLO AMERICA
MYTHS OF THE NEAR FUTURE
EMPIRE OF THE SUN
THE DAY OF CREATION
RUNNING WILD
WAR FEVER
THE KINDNESS OF WOMEN
RUSHING TO PARADISE
A USER'S GUIDE TO THE MILLENNIUM (NF)
COCAINE NIGHTS
SUPER-CANNES
THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES
Copyright
Flamingo
An imprint of Harper CollinsPublishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
Flamingo is a registered trade mark of HarperCollinsPublishers Limited
www.fireandwater.com
A Flamingo Modern Classic 2001
5
Copyright © J.G. Ballard 1993
This revised, expanded, annotated edition of The Atrocity Exhibition was first published in a large format in Great Britain by Flamingo 1993
A revised, expanded, annotated, illustrated edition was first published in the USA by Re/Search Publications 1990
Copyright © J.G. Ballard 1990
The original edition was first published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd 1970, and first published in paperback by Panther Books in 1972 Copyright © J.C. Ballard 1969
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Set in New Baskerville and Gill Sans by Rowland Photo typeset ting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © 1993 ISBN: 9780007322190
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
The Atrocity Exhibition Page 16