A Blogwork Orange

But does Alex have a purpose? The short answer is yes, but it isn’t one the viewer likes or understands. Let me explain. Right from the beginning we understand Alex to be a character that enjoys “the old ultraviolence.” Not because he enjoys necessarily getting in fights and winning, but because he is incredibly manipulative. Take this passage from the beginning for instance: “... and there we found what we were pretty well looking for, a malenky jest to start off the evening with… …’I see you have books under your arm, brother. It is indeed a rare pleasure these days to come across somebody that still reads, brother.’… …’Yes,’I said. "It would interest me greatly, brother, if you would kindly allow me to see what books those are that you have under your arm. I like nothing better in this world than a good clean book, brother." … ...The one I had was called 'Elementary Crystallography', so I opened it up and said: ‘Excellent, really first-class,’ keeping tu...

So it seems as though I read a lot of books about sociopaths. I started out the year with No Country for Old Men , which focused quite a bit on Anton Chigurh, who murdered a hefty amount of people over the course of the book. Then I read Song of Solomon , which followed Milkman who wasn’t the greatest guy in terms of caring for others, but he never actually killed anyone… so I suppose that doesn’t actually classify as a “sociopath.” After Song of Solomon there was Macbeth, which I guess is not as much of a stretch because this guy, Macbeth, was insane and was ready to do anything to stay in power. Speaking of staying in power House of Cards is super good and if you like political dramas you should check it out. Kevin Spacey is brilliant with his portrayal of Frank Underwood, and it’s freighting watching the sort of schemes he develops. There is also Robin Wright which is incredible as Claire Underwood, and plays a character with far more dimensions than Frank in my opinio...

So after numerous posts criticizing both aspects of The Road directly, and the audiobook guy who narrates it in an extremely personal manner, I have moved on to a new book called A Clockwork Orange . After seeing a few scenes from the film at various points in my life, and also hearing other students discuss their experiences reading it, I decided to give it a try. I can assure you that the unusually low page number was not a factor in my decision. Now there’s something quite special about this novel, which is that a great deal of the words in the novel are from a made-up language called Nadsat. This is because Alex is used to speaking of in this teenage slang, and since the perspective is first-person, we get to read this a s a result. Anthony Burgess invented this language as a sort of British slang to provide context to the futuristic society that novel depicts. So the novel is narrated from a first-person perspective by our main character, Alex. Alex is only fifteen-years o...

Seriously, Watch Whiplash So upon request I thought I’d spend this blog post comparing some of the ideas from No Country for Old Men and The Road. Both of these novels were written by McCarthy, and frankly both are very grim. They’re nothing like the opening scene of La La Land where people are dancing and singing a wonderful song in traffic and just for a short while you forget about the existential dread of being single for the last seven months. God that was an amazing movie. I often listen to the soundtrack on the way to school and I think my sister is becoming increasingly concerned about a developing obsession with Damien Chazelle who directed both Whiplash and La La Land . Also if you still haven’t seen Whiplash , I’m disappointed but forgive you. Watch it tonight and forget about actual responsibilities like AP Literature blog posts. McCarthy wrote No Country for Old Men a year before The Road . No Country for Old Men was a thrilling novel because of it’s non-traditional...

Cannibal Club So readers I finally made it to the end of the novel. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. So The Man dies from some sort of sickness that he was carrying on for quite a long time. The boy wakes up and finds his father dead, and is clearly very mournful of this, but stumbles upon another man that eventually invites him to their group. The man explains how the group operates: “You dont eat people. No. We dont eat people.” (McCarthy 284). So this was clearly the disappointing part. When I was reading this scene I was cheering a little in my head thinking that the boy was being accepted into a cannibal group. I clearly misread one of the lines of dialogue, and wondered if the final scene was the boy joining this group of cannibals. I thought it’d be a weird dark twist to end the novel, similar to the dark twist towards the end of No Country for Old Men. This was unfortunately not the case, as the boy showed disinterest whe...

Whiplash is the Best If you’ve never seen the movie Whiplash, your life is not complete. Objectively the most spectacular and engaging film ever produced, and with marvellous characters, Whiplash stomps all competition, and that’s not up for debate. Watch it tonight if you haven’t seen it. Anyway, there’s a small dialogue scene in the film in which the main character, Andrew Neiman, explains his progress towards pursuing a career in music. He explains this while having dinner with his family: “I’m part of Shaffer's top jazz orchestra, which means… well it’s the best in the country. And i’m a core member, so I’ll start playing in competitions.” His brother replies: “How do you know who wins a music competition? Isn’t it subjective?” Andrew replies with a staunch “No.” Again, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s the best film ever made. This scene in particular got me thinking, though, about how one judges things are subjective. Naturally, people hold different opinions, ...