Book 139: Finished.

“When a man cannot chose, he ceases to be a man.”

This might be one of the first times I've finished a book off my list and don't think I will read it again (at least not for a long time). Sometimes when I read, I know that I will have to read a book again for various reasons. It might be that some passages were unclear, or that I loved it and want to revisit it, or that I feel pulled to it in some way. There are other reasons, of course, and while I was certainly blown away by what was in A Clockwork Orange, I think one read was enough for me...at least for now.

I talked a little bit about it when I wrote about my initial impressions last week, but this novel is insane. On top of the slang, there is also the violence. And while most of it takes place in the first few chapters, there are sentences and other passages later on that bring it back to the forefront of the novel. Usually I can handle violence and gore. On the few occasions that someone has been seriously injured at the park, I can completely handle whatever is in front of me. I can stand watching it in movies. I'm not okay with it, but I can see it and understand.

For some reason, the violence in A Clockwork Orange was a but much for me. I mentioned in my first post that Alex, the narrator, and his friends beat up and gang rape a young woman early on in the novel. That was a difficult scene to read, but Burgess mentions Alex leering at other women and thinking about raping them as well. It turned my stomach quite a few times.

I think the violence is so powerful because of the slang. I mentioned this in both of my earlier posts on the book, but Alex and his friends talk in nadsat, a crazy slang that dominates the novel. The words even sound harsh, so when Alex talks about raping a woman, or beating another person, it comes across even more violent, if possible. It is hard to explain exactly what I mean, but if you have read the novel, I hope you understand.

But, even with all the violence, Burgess has an interesting story, and one that I really loved...in some kind of weird way. Alex is finally imprisoned after being held responsible for killing an older woman. While in prison, Alex doesn't seem to change. Instead, the government decides to use a new technique on him to help him avoid violence. Forcing him to sit in a chair, his eyelids pried open, they show him super violent and horrifying movies, accompanied by music. Slowly, he begins to feel sick when seeing the videos and even when he has the tiniest thought of violence. The idea is to force him into making good decisions and making him a positive edition to society. He cannot choose to react by thinking violently without sickness crippling him. He is no longer free to choose his own response.

This is the part of the novel I truly loved, as it focused so much on those kinds of moral dilemmas. If we could reform violent criminals so that they could never have another violent thought, should we? Is it right to manipulate their brains and thought processes so they no longer have that kind of freedom? I like that Burgess brought that kind idea forward as we continued to read about Alex's adjustment to being unable to make decisions as he reentered the world as a free man.

Burgess actually made me sympathize with Alex as he struggles to find his place. Since the movies he watched were full of classical music, he can't listen to anything by Mozart, or Beethoven, or any of the others without feeling sick. Because in addition to suppressing his violent urges, they took away one of the only things that made him truly happy-listening to music and feeling it. I actually had to explain the whole thing to Matt so I wouldn't feel guilty about feeling bad for Alex.

At the end, the government who was responsible for the changes made in Alex is challenged, and he is healed-finally giving him back the power of choice in his own life. I was moved by it, and confused about how I felt. Like I said, I hated Alex at the beginning because of the things he did, but by the end...I felt for him.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to read this again. It was so violent and powerful I don't think it requires a second read. There are passages and bits that I don't think I'll forget, and others I would like to.

“That's what it's going to be then, brothers, as I come to the like end of this tale. You have been everywhere with your little droog Alex, suffering with him, and you have viddied some of the most grahzny bratchnies old Bog ever made, all on to your old droog Alex. And all it was was that I was young. But now as I end this story, brothers, I am not young, not no longer, oh no. Alex like groweth up, oh yes.

But where I itty now, O my brothers, is all on my oddy knocky, where you cannot go. Tomorrow is all like sweet flowers and the turning young earth and the stars and the old Luna up there and your old droog Alex all on his oddy knocky seeking like a mate. And all that cal. A terrible grahzny vonny world, really, O my brothers. And so farewell from your little droog. And to all others in this story profound shooms of lipmusic brrrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that call.”

*Finishing this one means one book down for the Magical March Reading Event!*

Book 139: On First Impressions and Imagery.

I finally began to sit down with A Clockwork Orange after mulling over your comments on my book stats post. I was a little frightened when some of you suggested printing a glossary or familiarizing myself with "nadsat," the slang of the characters within the novel.

I decided against it, after thinking about how often I have to rely on context clues when I read high fantasy. I figured one or two words wouldn't throw me completely off.

Are you laughing at me yet?

I had to reread the first chapter a couple of times to get into the flow of the novel, and I find myself concentrating very hard on what I am reading. But as I am moving forward in the novel, I find that the slang gets easier to understand as my mind begins to make connections between the words Burgess uses and my own English word to replace it. And my idea about using context clues? Hehe. When a sentence is comprised of mainly slang, context clues are essentially no good.

Let me show you what I mean. Here is the first portion of the novel taken from chapter 1:

"'What's it going to be then, eh?'

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither," (3).

See what I mean?

But once you get into the flow of how young Alex talks, it becomes easier and easier to understand. It is just getting over that hump of understanding what the heck is trying to say.

The beginning of the book transitions from beautiful descriptions and detail, to horrible violence and pain. I get what Burgess is trying to show me-that youth can be insane and violent and misunderstood-but that it has consequences, and I know those consequences are coming for Alex.

Very early on in the novel, Alex and his droogs are out on the town and commit multiple acts of violence towards the people they come across. They rip up a professor's books and break into a couple's home-beating them both and gang raping the wife. It is violent and angry and gives the reader the impression that these boys cannot be human to do these things to others. I had to set the book down for a moment after the rape scene. It was disturbing and something I wanted to avoid thinking about.

But what drew me back to the book was the writing. Because as crazy and as insane as the boys are, they're people.

There is a passage that I absolutely loved. I actually posted it on my Facebook Sunday afternoon because I was blown away by the power of the imagery and the words....

“Oh it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh. The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three-wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder. Oh, it was wonder of wonders. And then, a bird of like rarest spun heavenmetal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now, came the violin solo above all the other strings, and those strings were like a cage of silk round my bed. Then flute and oboe bored, like worms of like platinum, into the thick thick toffee gold and silver. I was in such bliss, my brothers," (37).

In that passage, I could almost be Alex. As someone who plays an instrument (trumpet), I know how it feels to be in the midst of classical music. There is something so powerful and wondrous about music written centuries before. It captures the same sense of human emotion that we feel today-love, power, loss, and yes, violence. And I love that Burgess shows that while Alex has a crazy yearning for violence, he can feel that power in things other than himself, like music.

I can't wait to keep reading-to see where Burgess takes Alex-and whether Alex will redeem himself and grow up.

I think I'm going to love this when I finish.

Book 139: A Clockwork Orange and Book Stats.

Title: A Clockwork Orange
Author: Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)

First Published: 1962

My Edition: Norton Paperback (seen at left)

Pages: 212

Other Works Include: Time for a Tiger (1956), The Enemy in the Blanket (1958), Beds in the East (1959), The Worm and the Ring (1960), Honey for the Bears (1963), A Vision of Battlements (1965), Abba Abba (1977), Earthly Powers (1980)

I decided that while I am chugging slowly along in Nicholas Nickleby I should start something a little smaller for Adam's Magical March Event. After looking at the titles I had on my list, this one seemed to jump out at me as being one that would suck me in.

I don't know too much about this one, beyond that fact that it is a dystopian and that it is on the weird side. I remember a friend in high school reading this for AP English, and he said it was crazy! I think I've also heard that there is some crazy slang and such. That's about it. But since I like dystopia and weird, I'm sure I'll find something to like in this one. :)

Anyone read this one before? Any advice for me as I tackle it?