A Blogwork Orange

So I learned some interesting trivia from one of my teachers when he discovered that I was reading A Clockwork Orange which was that there is a secret 21st chapter that was exempt from the United States copies until 1986. This prompted a major difference between the film and the book because the final scene of the movie has Alex saying “I was cured all right,” whereas most copies of the book follow a completely different narrative. The ending was written by Burgess in the original copy, but apparently the American publishers read the book they found the 21st chapter to be “a sellout, bland, and veddy veddy British." The ending that Anthony Burgess originally intended for follows Alex up to his usual shenanigans with a new gang that he formed and then describes him “not feeling himself” and prompts him to leave roam the street alone. He then runs into Pete, from the old gang, at an old cafe, and discovers that he has married a woman named Georgina. Alex talks with them for a whil...

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...