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I can't speak about his other work, but A Clockwork Orange would be timeless even without the Kubrick movie. It is such a special language he invented, and I fi
by niklasd 7y ago
I can't speak about his other work, but A Clockwork Orange would be timeless even without the Kubrick movie. It is such a special language he invented, and I find such bold experiments quite rare among the literature I read.
On the cover of my book they quote William S. Borroughs: "I do not know any other writer who has done as much with language... a very funny book". And he is quite right (at least with the first part).
- vibrolax 7y agoAgree that the book is timeless on its own. But every time I re-read it, Malcom McDowell provides Alex's voice. One of my Russian speaking colleagues was highly amused when I spoke to him in Nadsat. Because Nadsat is uses standard English grammar, it's even more accessible than Newspeak, my other favorite dystopian language.
- scrape_it 7y agoOh, my beloved devotchka and droogs of HN!
- allenbrunson 7y agoclockwork orange, the book, has 21 chapters. for whatever dumb reason, burgess' american publisher decided to omit the last chapter on publication. burgess believes this entire subverts the book's message, making it say the opposite of what he meant it to say. alas, it appears kubrick's treatment in the film also omits the last chapter. burgess wrote at length about this in "rolling stone" back in the day. i kept that particular issue all these years because i think it's an important story. i can't find a copy of it online, though. the story is somewhat covered in the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)#Novelist's_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)#Nove... ... which also mentions that american versions of the book after 1986 restore the final chapter.
- eternalban 7y agoHere you go: https://ia800108.us.archive.org/3/items/AnthonyBurgessAClockworkOrange/Anthony-Burgess-A-Clockwork-Orange.pdf https://ia800108.us.archive.org/3/items/AnthonyBurgessAClock... "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 vonny 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 lip music brrrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that cal." -- The End.
- allenbrunson 7y agogood find! it's been decades since i read this, but the one thing i remember pretty clearly is burgess' high level of indignation, which, yep, is thoroughly on display.
- soperj 7y agoKubrick didn't know there was a last chapter until later.
- allenbrunson 7y agowikipedia disagrees with you: "In Kubrick's opinion — as in the opinion of other readers, including the original American editor — the final chapter was unconvincing and inconsistent with the book." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(novel)
- 7y ago