A Clockwork Orange: Anthony Burgress

[Dark Muse]

A Clockwork Orange is the story about a group of violent youths, when one of them, Alex the narrator of the story is finally picked up by the police, he is entered into a special new treatment program by the government, intended to cure him of his badness and transform him into a good member of society. But after completely the treatment and being released, things do not go quite as planned.

The novel starts out rather brutally, but beneath its dark exterior, it is really quite hilarious as well. As much as you may wish to despise Alex, he does make a charming narrator for his story.

The way that Burgress uses language is very clever and witty, though at first it is difficult to get use to the strange slang he incorporates, and I had to acutely find a glossary online to help follow the book, you get use to it fairly quickly.

Overall I really enjoyed this story

[JBI]

It was good, to be honest, but is highly overrated (as most books are when they have excellent movies made from them). The ending was a little too optimistic for me, and the beginning seems a little too pointless in my opinion. It was meh at best, being that none of the characters besides the narrator are real characters, and that even the narrator has some uncharacter moments.

[John Goodman]

One of my favourite books. It's darkly humorous and the slang takes the book to a new level. It's a short read, so you really don't have an excuse for not picking it up.

[Sir Bartholomew]

i never cared about the dystopian plot, actually. i've seen the movie a couple of times so it made me focus more on its words. it's the NADSAT that made me love this book. read it out loud, great reading experience.

[Dark Muse]

Yeah, sense reading the book I began using NADSAT myself

[djy78usa]

I really enjoyed the book. I saw the movie several times before I read it, so it was a "will the book live up to the movie," instead of the more traditional "movie living up to the book" situation for me.

[Virgil]

Well, I thought it was a truely great novel. It stands with the greatest. Dark Muse, I'm surprised your book didn't include a glossary. Many editions do.

[Dark Muse]

Hehe yeah after reading the first chapter and barely understanding it I looked through the book and did not find one.

[JBI]

It's better without a glossary. Seriously, it isn't supposed to be translated. You are supposed to read it and make sense of it yourself, you know, really get the feel for it.

[djy78usa]

Here's a link to a Nadsat dictionary:

http://soomka.com/nadsat.html

[Drkshadow03]

It was good, to be honest, but is highly overrated (as most books are when they have excellent movies made from them). The ending was a little too optimistic for me, and the beginning seems a little too pointless in my opinion. It was meh at best, being that none of the characters besides the narrator are real characters, and that even the narrator has some uncharacter moments.

When did you feel Alex was being out-of-character? I didn't find the ending optomistic at all.

[Dark Muse]

It's better without a glossary. Seriously, it isn't supposed to be translated. You are supposed to read it and make sense of it yourself, you know, really get the feel for it.

Well I enjoyed reading it with the glossary

[ben.!]

I read A Clockwork Orange learning bits of Nadsat here and there from context, and for the ending part I had found a full glossary courtesy of Wikipedia.

I enjoyed it, the language did not inhibit the narrative in any way, and I found Alex quite a twisted creation, before and after the treatment. All in all, an interesting look on a rather dystopian future. I say it's up there with 1984 in terms of me enjoying it and its subject matter.

[JBI]

When did you feel Alex was being out-of-character? I didn't find the ending optomistic at all.

Well, did you read the American or British edition? The British one has an extra chapter, which was cut from the American one for being too optimistic (a move I agree with).

Basically, everything that happens after he gets hit with the milk can seems out of character in one way or another. His life in prison to me seems the most out of character in many ways. I don't want to dig for quotes, so please don't push me further.

[kat.]

I really want to read this one....but as you just wrote there#s a lot of slang in it....I guess I will kind of struggle for my English :(

[Dark Muse]

Most the slang is acutally in russian, the book uses a lot of russian words for things, but you can find glossories that help guide you along.

[kat.]

aaah...ok.....so i'll give it a try :) and then I'll let you know....Thanks a lot and have a nice day :)

[Drkshadow03]

Well, did you read the American or British edition? The British one has an extra chapter, which was cut from the American one for being too optimistic (a move I agree with).

I read the British, but saw the movie first and read the intro essay where Burgess talks about the addition of the last chapter cut from the American version. This is one of those cases where I think the author is plain wrong about his text, and hasn't thought about it.

I think the British version is far more depressing. There is nothing particularly optimistic about it. It gives the illusion of optimism. Alex never really changes. He abandons his life of violence, but not for the right reasons. It is this reason that the extra chapter is more depressing. His reasons are simple: violence has grown boring. He outgrows his violent childhood, but never shows remorse for it. He never once empathizes with his victims. He never once feels sorry for the people he hurt. The story never stops being about Alex, never about the people he hurt, not even when he decides to abandon that life. There isn't even a moment reflection beyond I'm bored with this.

It's for this reason that the extra chapter is in fact darker and more pessimistic. He starts out a complete narcissist and ends a narcissist. That's what I think most people completely miss when they read the story (an important point, however); they notice the superficial change in the last chapter, but they fail to notice his REASONS for changing, and when you really start pondering them it becomes apparent that in fact not only has Alex not changed at all, but it makes it even darker than the 20 chapter ending.

I had some thoughts on this a little while ago on the blog (http://beyondassumptions.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/re-visiting-a-clockwork-orange/)

[NickAdams]

Yeah, sense reading the book I began using NADSAT myself

Hard to avoid. I wrote my location in NADSAT after reading the book.

[Dark Muse]

I would have to agree. I do not think this ending was very optomistic at all. Really it is rather sad. Alex does not really learn anything nor does he reform, or truly feel bad for anything he has done. He never truly has a problem with violence, he just gets older so it does not really entertain him any more as it use to.

In fact he even says something about how the violence was just a part of being young, and talks about how if he has his son his son will do the same things he did, but he does not seem to be bothered at all by that idea.

[JBI]

It isn't optimistic about the character, but optimistic about society. Instead of him keeping going with his disgusting life style, he "matures" out of it, a move I disagree with on Borges' part. Society wouldn't make him mature, it is optimistic to think time fixes these problems, when really he should have gone on being a sick disturbed narcissistic murdering rapist.

[Dark Muse]

I do not really see it as being optimistic on society, because the violence will perpetuate through the Alex Jr.'s of the world, so the problem is not truly be resolved at all, even if he does "mature" his attitude is the same, and so he will not discourage the behavior in his children, so the violence will continue.

[Sir Bartholomew]

I really want to read this one....but as you just wrote there#s a lot of slang in it....I guess I will kind of struggle for my English :(

most of the slang here are derived from russian

[kat.]

unfortunately I don't know Russian :(

[Moses25]

Loved this book. It was real horrorshow.

Made my golova be filled with all kinds of chepooka.

Cheers. :lol:

[Dorian Doyle]

I read it translated to spanish -in most cases, this is what I do-, and I didn't like it as much as I liked the movie. I think it is a good piece of work, but I don't like that famous last chapter at all -I think Kubrick did not, also-. It is far too innocent to think that a boy like Alex would stop being a criminal at the age of eighteen. Come on, that is childish. What did the author think? That a criminal is a criminal because he is not old enough to notice? Besides, that nadsat thing is formidable.

[AlysonofBathe]

I first read this when I was 14, and oh man was that a fun conversation with my parents - "What you reading there, dear?" "A Clockwork Orange!" And then my mother burst into flames. :P

Seriously though, I adore this book. I've read it a handful of times since and it's just so twisted and wonderful. As to the nadsat, I would suggest using a glossary only if you're really struggling; not understanding it and having to work with associations and context really adds to the alienation affect.

Cheers,
Alyson

[russellb]

its many years since i read clockwork orange. I seem to remember reading that anthony burgess created a fictional slang because he didn't want the novel to become dated. It also seems to be floating around my recollection that the slang sounded russian. I prefer the ending to the film, if i remember, because there's something of a mystery to it, rather than the book in which alex decides to become a 'decent' citizen. Perhaps burgess felt it would be unsatisfactory for alex to simply return to his 'pre clockwork' state. The novel does resonate with anxieties about crime and i think there are many who would think a criminal having their free will compromised in the way alex did might actually be rather liberal.