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| Author | Anthony Burgess |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel, Satire |
| Publisher | William Heinemann (UK) |
| Publication date | 1962 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Cassette, CD) |
| Pages | 192 pages (Hardback edition) & 176 pages (Paperback edition) |
| ISBN | 0434098000 |
| OCLC | 4205836 |
A Clockwork Orange (1962) is a dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess.
The title is taken from an old Cockney expression, "as queer as a clockwork orange".¹, and alludes to the prevention of the main character's exercise of his free will through the use of a classical conditioning technique. With this technique, the subject’s emotional responses to violence are systematically paired with a negative stimulation in the form of nausea caused by an emetic medicine administered just before the presentation of films depicting "ultra-violent" situations. Written from the perspective of a seemingly biased and unapologetic protagonist, the novel also contains an experiment in language: Burgess creates a new speech that is the teenage slang of the not-too-distant future.
The novel has been adapted for cinema by Stanley Kubrick, and also by Andy Warhol; adaptations have also been made for television, radio, and the stage. As well as inspiring a concept album, the novel and films are referred to in and have inspired a number of songs.
Plot summary
Part 1: Alex's world
Alex, a 15-year-old living in near-future England, leads his gang on nightly orgies of opportunistic yet random violence. Alex's friends ("droogs" in the novel's Anglo-Russified slang) are Dim, a slow-witted bruiser who is the gang's muscle, Georgie, and Pete. Alex, who is quick-witted and possessing an often disconcerting sense of humour, is clearly the smartest of the group and even seemingly cultured.
The novel begins with the droogs sitting in their favourite milkbar, drinking drugged milk to hype themselves for the night's mayhem. They assault a scholar walking home from the library, stamp on a panhandling derelict, scuffle with a rival gang led by Billyboy, rob a newsagent and leave its owners unconscious, then steal a car. Joyriding in the countryside, they break into an isolated cottage and maul the young couple living there, beating the husband and raping his wife. The droogs ditch the car, and Dim and Georgie make clear their dissatisfaction with Alex's domination of the gang. At home in his dreary flat, Alex plays classical music thunderously while bringing himself to climax with fantasies of even more orgiastic violence.
Alex skips school the following morning and is visited by P. R. Deltoid, a "post-corrective advisor" assigned to remediate his juvenile delinquency. Visiting his favourite music shop, Alex meets a pair of 10-year-olds and takes them back to his parents' flat, where he feeds them alcohol and sexually assaults them while they are intoxicated.
Alex later chats with his parents, who are sceptical of his claims about having a night job, yet too intimidated to press the issue. Arriving late to meet the droogs, who have already pumped themselves up with "the old knifey moloko" (i.e., drugged milk), Alex is at a disadvantage. Georgie challenges Alex for leadership of the gang, demanding that they pull a "man-sized" job by robbing a wealthy old woman who lives alone with her cats. Alex quells the rebellion by slashing Dim and Georgie in a knife fight, then in a show of generosity takes them to a bar for some fortifying drinks. Georgie and Dim are ready to call it a night, but Alex bullies them into proceeding with the burglary. At the woman's house, Alex enters through a second-floor window and, after a farcical struggle, knocks the old woman unconscious. When he tries to flee, Dim stops him and attacks him with his "oozy" (a length of chain) and the droogs leave Alex incapacitated in the doorway as they run off, after which Alex is roughed up by the police. The next day he finds out that the woman has died and he is to be charged with murder.
Part 2: The Ludovico Technique
After enduring prison life for two years, Alex gets a job as an assistant to the prison chaplain. He feigns an interest in religion and amuses himself by reading the Bible for its lurid descriptions of "the old yahoodies (Jews) tolchocking (beating) each other" and imagining himself taking part in "the nailing-in" (the Crucifixion of Jesus). Alex learns of his ex-droog Georgie's death by an intended victim during a botched robbery. He also hears about an experimental rehabilitation programme called "the Ludovico technique", which promises that the prisoner will be released upon completion of the two-week treatment and, as a result, will not commit any crimes afterwards. The prison chaplain warns against it, arguing that moral choice is necessary to humanity — a theme introduced earlier during the home invasion scene, when Alex reads a passage from the victimised husband's work in progress.
After helping to kill (although accidentally) a fellow prisoner in his cell, Alex is selected to become the subject in the first full-scale trial of the Ludovico Technique. The technique itself is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is given a drug that induces extreme nausea while being forced to watch graphically violent films for two weeks. Strapped into a seat before a large screen, Alex is forced to watch an unrelenting series of violent acts. During the sessions, Alex begins to realise that not only the violent acts but the music on the soundtrack is triggering his nausea attacks (Kubrick's film version narrows this down so that only Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has this effect.) Alex pleads with the supervising doctors to remove the music, crying that it is a sin to take away his love of music and adding that "Ludwig Van" did nothing wrong and "only made music", claiming that it was wrong to use the composer in that way, but they refuse, saying that it is for his own good and that the music may be the "punishment element". By the end of the treatment, Alex is unable to listen to Beethoven's 9th symphony without incapacitating nausea and distress.
A few weeks later, Alex is presented to an audience of prison and government officials as a successfully rehabilitated inmate and potential member of society. Alex's conditioning makes him unable to defend himself against a pummelling bully and cripples him with nausea when the sight of a scantily clad woman arouses his predatory sexual impulses. The prison chaplain rises to denounce the treatment and accuses the state of stripping Alex of the ability to choose good over evil. "Padre, these are subtleties", a government official replies. "The point is that it works". And so Alex is released into society.
Part 3: After prison
After his release from prison, Alex's former victims seek revenge. The Ludovico treatment leaves him ill when he attempts violence, so he is powerless. Alex returns home joyful at the thought of starting afresh, but finds that his parents have rented out his room to a lodger named Joe, essentially "replacing" their son. Despondently wandering, Alex stops at the Korova Milk Bar and drinks synthemesc-laced milk, as opposed to his usual drencrom-laced milk. He visits the music store, but the technique has rendered him incapable of listening to his beloved classical music. Alex decides to commit suicide, yet is unable to because the technique prevents him from committing any act of violence, including against himself. In the public library, Alex is quickly recognised by the elderly librarian whom he had beaten up with his droogs in chapter one. With his friends, the librarian attacks and beats Alex. The police (summoned by the librarian) turn out to be Dim and Billyboy. Taking advantage of their positions, they take Alex to the town's edge, beat him, and leave him for dead.
Alex wanders in a daze through the countryside until he collapses at the door of an isolated cottage. Too late he realises this is the home he and his droogs invaded at the start of the book. He is taken in by F. Alexander, the husband of the woman the droogs gang-raped; Mr. Alexander doesn't recognise Alex because the droogs were wearing masks during the assault. We learn that Mrs. Alexander died of the injuries inflicted during the rape, and her husband has decided to continue "where her fragrant memory persists" despite the horrid memories. Alex has been careless with words during his time in Mr. Alexander's care, and the writer begins to suspect they have met before. Mr. Alexander recognises Alex from newspaper publicity about the behaviour-mod treatment, and sees an opportunity to use him as a political weapon by turning him into a poster child for the victims of fascism.
One of Mr. Alexander's political activist friends takes Alex aside and puts the question to him bluntly: Alex, cornered, makes a non-denial denial by saying "Lord knows I've suffered". "We'll speak no more of it", the friend assures him, but later on Alex is taken to another house, locked into a room, and tormented with classical music, triggering the maddening effect of the Ludovico treatment. Driven to insanity by the music, Alex jumps from his bedroom window in an attempt to end his life.
Alex wakes up in a hospital, where he learns that the government, trying to reverse the bad publicity it incurred in the wake of Alex's suicide attempt, has reversed the effects of the Ludovico treatment. Mr. Alexander has been incarcerated in a mental institution, "for his own protection and for yours," Alex is told. In return for agreeing to "play ball" with the powers that be, Alex is promised a cushy job at high salary. His parents take him back in, and Alex happily ponders returning to his life of ultra-violence.
In the final chapter, Alex finds himself half-heartedly preparing for yet another night of crime with a new trio of droogs. After watching them beat an innocent stranger walking home with a newspaper, he begins to feel bored with his life of violence. He abandons the gang, then has a chance encounter with Pete, who has reformed and married. Alex begins contemplating giving up crime himself to become a productive member of society and start a family of his own, while reflecting on the notion that his own children could be just as destructive as he was himself.
Characters
- Alex: The novel's anti-hero and leader among his droogs. He often refers to himself as "Your Humble Narrator". (Having seduced two girls in a music shop, Alex refers to himself as "Alexander the Large" while ravishing them; this was later the basis for Alex's claimed surname DeLarge in the 1971 film.)
- George or Georgie: Effectively Alex's greedy second-in-command. Georgie attempts to undermine Alex's status as leader of the gang. He later dies from a botched robbery attempt during Alex's stay in prison.
- Pete: The most rational and least violent member of the gang. He is the only one who doesn't take particular sides when the Droogs fight among themselves. He later meets a girl, reunites with Alex, causing Alex to consider joining society.
- Dim: An idiotic and thoroughly gormless member of the gang, persistently condescended to by Alex, but respected to some extent by his droogs for his formidable fighting abilities, his weapon of choice being a length of bike chain. He later becomes a police officer, exacting his revenge on Alex for the abuse he once suffered under his command.
- P. R. Deltoid: An anally retentive social worker assigned the task of keeping Alex on the straight and narrow. He seemingly has no clue about dealing with young people, and is devoid of empathy or understanding for his troublesome charge. Indeed, when Alex is arrested for murdering an old woman, and then ferociously beaten by several police officers, Deltoid simply spits on him.
- The prison chaplain: The character who first questions whether or not forced goodness is really better than chosen wickedness. The only character who is truly concerned about Alex's welfare; he is not taken seriously by Alex, though. (He is nicknamed by Alex "prison charlie" or "chaplin", a nod to Charlie Chaplin.)
- Billyboy: A rival of Alex's. Early on in the story, Alex and his droogs battle Billyboy and his droogs, which ends abruptly when the police arrive. Later, after Alex is released from prison, Billyboy (along with Dim) rescue Alex from a mob then subsequently beat him.
- The governor: The man who decides to let Alex "choose" to be the first reformed by the Ludovico Technique.
- Dr. Brodsky: A malevolent scientist and co-founder of the Ludovico Technique. He appears friendly and almost paternal towards Alex at first, before forcing him into the theatre to be psychologically tortured.
- Dr. Branom: Brodsky's colleague and co-founder of the Ludovico Technique. He seems much more passive than Brodsky, and says considerably less.
- F. Alexander: An author who was in the process of typing his magnum opus A Clockwork Orange, when Alex and his droogs broke into his house, beat him and then brutally gang raped his wife, which caused her subsequent death. He is left deeply scarred by these events, and when he encounters Alex two years later he uses him as a guinea pig in a sadistic experiment intended to prove the inefficiency of the Ludovico Technique.
- Otto Skadelig: a fictional Danish composer. The first movement of his third symphony is violent in style. It prompts Alex to attempt suicide. His surname means "harmful" in Danish and Norwegian.
Omission of the final chapter
The book has three parts of seven chapters each. Burgess has stated that the total of 21 chapters was an intentional nod to the age of 21 being recognised as a milestone in human maturation. The 21st chapter was omitted from the editions published in the United States prior to 1986. In the introduction to the updated American text (these newer editions include the missing 21st chapter), Burgess explains that when he'd first brought the book to an American publisher, he'd been told that U.S. audiences would never go for the final chapter, in which Alex sees the error of his ways, decides he has lost all energy for and thrill from violence and resolves to turn his life around (a slow-ripening but classic moment of metanoia—the moment at which one's protagonist realises that everything he thought he knew was wrong).
At the American publisher's insistence, Burgess allowed their editors to cut the redeeming final chapter from the U.S. version, so that the tale would end on a note of bleak despair, with young Alex succumbing to his darker nature—an ending which the publisher insisted would be 'more realistic' and appealing to a U.S. audience. The film adaptation, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is based on this "badly flawed" (Burgess' words, ibid.) American edition of the book. Kubrick claimed that he had not read the original version until he had virtually finished the screenplay, but that he certainly had never given any serious consideration to using it.
Analysis
Title
Burgess wrote that the title was a reference to an old Cockney expression, "as queer as a clockwork orange".¹ Due to his time serving in the British Colonial Office in Malaysia, Burgess thought that the phrase could be used punningly to refer to a mechanically responsive (clockwork) human (orang, Malay for "man").
Burgess wrote in introduction to the 1986 edition, titled A Clockwork Orange Resucked, that a creature who can only perform good or evil is "a clockwork orange — meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice, but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil; or the almighty state".
In his essay "Clockwork Oranges" ², Burgess asserts that "this title would be appropriate for a story about the application of Pavlovian or mechanical laws to an organism which, like a fruit, was capable of colour and sweetness". This title alludes to the protagonist's positively conditioned responses to feelings of evil which prevent the exercise of his free will.
Point of view
A Clockwork Orange is written using the first person perspective of a seemingly biased and unreliable narrator. The protagonist, Alex, never justifies his actions in the narration, giving a sense that he is somewhat sincere; a narrator who, as unlikeable as he may attempt to seem, evokes pity from the reader through the telling of his unending suffering, and later through his realization that the cycle will never end. Alex's perspective is effective in that the way that he describes events is easy to relate to, even if the situations themselves are not.
Use of slang
The book, narrated by Alex, contains many words in a slang argot which Burgess invented for the book, called Nadsat. It is a mix of modified Slavic words, rhyming slang, derived Russian (like "baboochka"), and words invented by Burgess himself. For instance, these terms have the following meanings in Russian - 'droog' means 'friend' ; 'korova' means 'cow'; 'golova' (gulliver) means 'head'; 'malchick' or 'malchickiwick' means 'boy'; 'soomka' means 'sack' or 'bag'; 'Bog' means 'God'; 'khorosho' (horrorshow) means 'good', 'prestoopnick' means 'criminal'; 'rooker' is 'hand', 'cal' is 'crap', 'veck' (chelloveck ) is 'man' or 'guy'; 'litso' is 'face'; and so on. One of Alex's doctors explains the language to a colleague as "Odd bits of old rhyming slang; a bit of gypsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav propaganda. Subliminal penetration." Some words are not derived from anything, but merely easy to guess, e.g. 'in-out, in-out' or 'the old in-out' means sexual intercourse. 'Cutter', however, means money, because 'cutter' rhymes with 'bread-and-butter'; this is rhyming slang, which is intended to be impenetrable to outsiders (especially eavesdropping policemen).
In the first edition of the book, no key was provided, and the reader was left to interpret the meaning from the context. In his appendix to the restored edition, Burgess explained that the slang would keep the book from seeming dated, and served to muffle "the raw response of pornography" from the acts of violence. Furthermore, in a novel where a form of brainwashing plays a role, the narrative itself brainwashes the reader into understanding Nadsat.
Droogism refers to the commission of a crime for the sole sake of committing a crime, without material gain or benefit; robbery and kidnapping with the intent to demand ransom, for example, do not qualify as droogisms, as they are committed with the intention of some sort of material benefit for the perpetrator.
The term "ultraviolence", referring to excessive and/or unjustified violence, was coined by Burgess in the book, which includes the phrase "do the ultra-violent". The term's association with aesthetic violence has led to its use in the media.
Awards and nominations and rankings
- 1983 - Prometheus Award (Preliminary Nominee)
- 1999 - Prometheus Award (Nomination)
- 2002 - Prometheus Award (Nomination)
- 2003 - Prometheus Award (Nomination)
- 2006 - Prometheus Award (Nomination)
- 2008 - Prometheus Award (Hall of Fame Award)
The novel was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
Adaptations
Cinema
The best known adaptation of the novel to other forms is the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.
A 1965 film by Andy Warhol entitled Vinyl was an adaptation of Burgess' novel.
Television
Excerpts from the first two chapters of the novel were dramatised and broadcast on BBC TV's programme Tonight, 1962 (now lost, believed wiped).
Stage
After Kubrick's film was released, Burgess wrote a Clockwork Orange stage play. In it, Dr. Branom defects from the psychiatric clinic when he grasps that the aversion treatment has destroyed Alex's ability to enjoy music. The play restores the novel's original ending. One of Alex's early victims, a bearded trumpeter who plays "Singin' in the Rain" at the Korova milkbar, is not modelled on Kubrick.
In 1988, a German adaptation of Clockwork Orange at the intimate theatre of Bad Godesberg featured a musical score by the German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen which, combined with orchestral clips of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and "other dirty melodies" (so stated by the subtitle), was released on the album Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau. The track Hier kommt Alex became one of the band's signature songs.
In 2001, UNI Theatre (Mississauga, Ontario) presented the Canadian premiere of the play under the direction of Terry Costa.
In 2002, Godlight Theatre Company presented the New York Premiere adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange' at Manhattan Theatre Source. The production went on to play at the SoHo Playhouse (2002), Ensemble Studio Theatre (2004), 59E59 Theaters (2005) and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2005). While at Edinburgh, the production received rave reviews from the press while playing to sold-out audiences. The production was directed by Godlight's Artistic Director, Joe Tantalo.
In 2003, Los Angeles director Brad Mays and the Ark Theatre Company staged a controversial multi-media adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, which was named "Pick Of The Week" by the LA Weekly and nominated for three of the 2004 LA Weekly Theater Awards: Direction, Revival Production (of a 20th-century work), and Leading Female Performance. This inventive production utilised three separate video streams outputted to seven onstage video monitors - six 19 inch and one 40 inch. In order to preserve the first-person narrative of the book, a pre-recorded video stream of Alex, "your humble narrator", was projected onto the 40 inch monitor, thereby freeing the onstage character during passages which would have been awkward or impossible to sustain in the breaking of the fourth wall. According to the LA Weekly, "Mays' visceral, fast-paced multimedia show brings into stark relief the Freudian struggle between the primal self and the civilised self for domination over the human spirit. The director deftly conveys the horror of violence by subjecting the audience to an onslaught of images of war, torture and hardcore porn projected on seven TV screens."
Release details
- 1962, UK, William Heinemann (ISBN ?), Pub date ? December 1962, Hardcover
- 1962, US, W W Norton & Co Ltd (ISBN ?), Pub date ? ? 1962, Hardcover
- 1963, US, W W Norton & Co Ltd (ISBN 0-345-28411-9), Pub date ? ? 1963, Paperback
- 1965, US, Ballantine Books (ISBN 0-345-01708-0), Pub date ? ? 1965, Paperback
- 1969, US, Ballantine Books (ISBN ?), Pub date ? ? 1969, Paperback
- 1971, US, Ballantine Books (ISBN 0-345-02624-1), Pub date ? ? 1971, Paperback
- 1972, UK, Lorrimer, (ISBN 0-85647-019-8), Pub date 11 September 1972, Hardcover
- 1973, UK, Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-003219-3), Pub date 25 January 1973, Paperback
- 1977, US, Ballantine Books (ISBN 0-345-27321-4), Pub date 12 September 1977, Paperback
- 1979, US, Ballantine Books (ISBN 0-345-31483-2), Pub date ? April 1979, Paperback
- 1983, US, Ballantine Books (ISBN 0-345-31483-2), Pub date 12 July 1983, Unbound
- 1986, US, W. W. Norton & Company (ISBN 0-393-31283-6), Pub date ? November 1986, Paperback (Adds final chapter not previously available in U.S. versions)
- 1987, UK, W W Norton & Co Ltd (ISBN 0-393-02439-3), Pub date ? July 1987, Hardcover
- 1988, US, Ballantine Books (ISBN 0-345-35443-5), Pub date ? March 1988, Paperback
- 1995, UK, W W Norton & Co Ltd (ISBN 0-393-31283-6), Pub date ? June 1995, Paperback
- 1996, UK, Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-018882-7), Pub date 25 April 1996, Paperback
- 1996, UK, HarperAudio (ISBN 0-694-51752-6), Pub date ? September 1996, Audio Cassette
- 1997, UK, Heyne Verlag (ISBN 3-453-13079-0), Pub date 31 January 1997, Paperback
- 1998, UK, Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-027409-X), Pub date 3 September 1998, Paperback
- 1999, UK, Rebound by Sagebrush (ISBN 0-8085-8194-5), Pub date ? October 1999, Library Binding
- 2000, UK, Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-118260-1), Pub date 24 February 2000, Paperback
- 2000, UK, Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-029105-9), Pub date 2 March 2000, Paperback
- 2000, UK, Turtleback Books (ISBN 0-606-19472-X), Pub date ? November 2000, Hardback
- 2001, UK, Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-100855-5), Pub date 27 September 2001, Paperback
- 2002, UK, Thorndike Press (ISBN 0-7862-4644-8), Pub date ? October 2002, Hardback
- 2005, UK, Buccaneer Books (ISBN 1-56849-511-0), Pub date 29 January 2005, Library Binding
See also
References
- A Clockwork Orange: A Play With Music. Century Hutchinson Ltd. (1987). An extract is quoted on several web sites: , .
- Burgess, Anthony (1978). Clockwork Oranges. In 1985. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-136080-3 (extracts quoted here)
- Vidal, Gore. "Why I Am Eight Years Younger Than Anthony Burgess", in At Home: Essays, 1982-1988, p. 411. New York: Random House, 1988. ISBN 0-394-57020-0.
- Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. p. 72. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.
- Hart, Gail Kathleen. Friedrich Schiller: Crime, Aesthetics and the Poetics of Punishment. University of Delaware Press. 2005. Online. Google Books. June 19, 2008.
- Burgess, Anthony (1986) A Clockwork Orange Resucked in A Clockwork Orange, W. W. Norton & Company, New York.
- The Kubrick Site: Kubrick's comments regarding 'A Clockwork Orange'
- AFP (2007-10-29). "Gruesome 'Saw 4' slashes through North American box-office". Retrieved 2008-01-15.
- "Q&A With 'Hostel' Director Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino - New York Magazine". Retrieved 2008-01-15.
- "ADV Announces New Gantz Collection, Final Guyver & More: Nov 6 Releases". Retrieved 2008-01-15.
- CBS News. ""Manhunt 2": Most Violent Game Yet?, Critics Say New Video Game Is Too Realistic; Players Must Torture, Kill - CBS News". Retrieved 2008-01-15.
- Libertarian Futurist Society
- "The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels". TIME Magazine. Retrieved 2007-08-20.
- Mirateca Arts Management
- Brad Mays
- Ark Theatre
- The 25th Annual LA Weekly Theater Award Nominees (page 1)
- Brad Mays (image)
- Brad Mays Gallery: A Clockwork Orange
- Brad Mays Reviews
- Anthony Burgess from A Clockwork Orange: A play with music (Century Hutchinson Ltd, 1987)
- a clockwork testament - anthony burgess on 'a clockwork orange' - page 2
- A Clockwork Orange - From A Clockwork Orange: A Play With Music
External links
- Prometheus Hall Of Fame Nominees
- IMDB's 'A Clockwork Orange' page
- A Clockwork Orange title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- A Prophetic and Violent Masterpiece, a City Journal article.
- Comparison of Book and Film
- A Clockwork Orange at Literapedia
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess by Ted Gioia at Conceptual Fiction