2009 Reading #80: A Clockwork Orange

[snurri]

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
71. The Elephant's Secret Sense by Caitlin O'Connell.
72. Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness by Berke Breathed.
73. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs.
74. The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Volume 1 by Clark Ashton Smith.
75. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg.
76. Hmong Means Free: Life in Laos and America by Sucheng Chan.
77. Dungeon: Zenith Volume 3: Back In Style by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Boulet.
78. Watchmen: Absolute Edition by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
79. Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur

80. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Nope, I had never read this before; saw the Kubrick adaptation years ago, and knew a bit about the book by reputation, but this was my first read. The edition I bought used somewhere-or-other turns out to be one of the earliest US editions, which means it lacks the final chapter of Burgess's original novel. (Fair warning: the site above is perhaps the best argument I've seen against white text on a black background.) Not sure, having now read that final chapter, whether I agree with the American publishers' initial decision to omit it. On the one hand, there's a satisfying circularity to the way it echoes the opening chapter; on the other, it has a feel of neatness and redemption that the rest of the book seems to resist. What most interested me about the book while reading it was the sly way that Burgess rebuts the tendency to blame the culture for delinquency; having Alex enjoy classical music and the Bible for the violence present in both is a (mostly) subtle stroke of genius. Oh, and the slang, which is the thing people seem to focus on--I don't know. It feels forced, a little; I could see someone now, in the days of Find/Replace, deciding to make up a word for "nose" and ending up with somewhat the same effect. There's some thought behind it, at least; the Russian influence suggests things about the world, and the rhyming slang is consistent with what I know of British slang. But I wonder if it doesn't make it easier to distance oneself from Alex, to see his violence (and his enjoyment of it) as more alien and less real. I'll be thinking about this book more.

Comments

[snurri.livejournal.com]

My memory of the film is spotty; I can say that I was rather repelled by the film and not so much by the book. It's almost analogous to the recent Watchmen adaptation, in some ways--in both cases the source material is inarguably violent, but in both cases the filmic adaptation lingers on and almost sensualizes the violence. Part of what is distressing about the book is the way that Alex (the narrator) just skims along past the violence he perpetrates, as though it's no big deal; the film, as I recall, takes its time over those scenes. So I guess my answer is no, it's not as misogynist, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it on that basis.