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Think I'll get Clockwork Orange now
Statistics: Posted by Halley92 — June 25th, 2008, 3:08 pm
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Also, once the first few comments start popping up, I'll put up another poll so we can vote while discussing. Time-saver
Statistics: Posted by Kikori — June 18th, 2008, 11:53 am
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It's an awesome read, hard to follow, but I've read it a dozen times, so maybe I should participate in whatever you are doing!
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Listening to: Coldplay - Viva la Vida
via FoxyTunes
Statistics: Posted by Sammy — June 17th, 2008, 2:13 pm
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I'll see if they have it at my local library.
OR YOU CAN BUY IT, SO THAT AT A LATER DATE YOU CAN CONTINUE IN THE CONVERSATIONS; YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO BE LEFT OUT OF A QUOTE SPECIFIC DEBATE NOW WOULD YOU?
Statistics: Posted by Kanye West — June 11th, 2008, 12:43 pm
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... Personally, I prefer it to be on THIS topic because one huge topic would have more of a chance to get archived.
Anyone who doesn't know, it's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE that's been voted upon for the first read. Go for it, everyone! (And no, I haven't got the book myself yet.)
Statistics: Posted by Kikori — June 9th, 2008, 1:22 am
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Is it too late to join?
Not at all.
Statistics: Posted by Zilla — June 5th, 2008, 11:28 am
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~Swept
Statistics: Posted by Sweep — June 4th, 2008, 3:03 pm
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A Clockwork Orange
By Anthony Burgess
ISBN: 978-0393312836
Summary:
A Clockwork Orange is written in first person perspective from a seemingly biased and unreliable source. Alex never justifies his actions in the narration, giving a good 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. He uses words that are common in speech, as well as Nadsat, the speech of particular younger generation subcultures.
Review:
Once you get your rookers on this book, you will viddy your glazzies on a real horrorshow tale of ultraviolence and razrezzing and other veshches. Alex, Your Humble Narrator, is a malenky malchick who govoreets in nadsat, a like slang. To get used to the nadsat without going bezoomny, it helps if you can slooshy Malcolm McDowell govoreeting the story in your gulliver. MM played Alex up on the silver screen, if you've ever viddied that.
If the idea of reading an entire novel written like the paragraph above doesn’t seem appealing, then Anthony Burgess’ dystopian masterpiece, A Clockwork Orange, is not the book for you. Re-read George Orwell’s “1984” instead. In Orwell’s book, a form of communication called Newspeak is mentioned, with an appendix included to explain it, but Newspeak doesn’t dominate the narrative. In A Clockwork Orange, nadsat - a mixture of Russian and other slang - is deeply embedded in the story and crucial to the whole experience. Most of the lingo can be figured out in context, and for the rest, there are nadsat translators now available on the web.
The book opens with Alex - a juvenile delinquent to the extreme - lovingly describing his favorite pastimes: reckless driving, breaking and entering, assault and . When an ugly struggle for the position of alpha male leaves his gang of friends bitter, Alex is betrayed and abandoned at the scene of a particularly nasty crime. Two years of imprisonment do little to curb his natural tendencies (he’s observed reading the Bible often, but he secretly gets off on the violence in the Good Book) so he’s enrolled in a new treatment program to “rehabilitate” him. Alex is reconditioned so that he is incapable of violent or lustful thoughts - or, more accurately, unable to act out such impulses: whenever he feels aggression, he’s incapacitated by intense nausea. His rehabilitation deemed a complete success, Alex is released again into society, where he has the misfortune to cross paths with the people he had wronged before his arrest.
Burgess’ novel - the one for which he is best known - is a satirical look at a near future where the ever-increasing violence among young people has reached a fever pitch and the debate over punishment versus treatment of criminals rages on. There’s no doubt that Alex is a menace, and yet Burgess offers no easy answers. Time behind bars does nothing for the young man, but the flaws of his treatment are fully exposed, demonstrating that there’s no magic bullet to cure criminal behavior. He becomes a puppet in a war of politics, and when Alex is released after "rehabilitation" - weak, defenseless - readers will likely view him as a helpless victim rather than a dangerous criminal getting what he deserves.
A Clockwork Orange is an icon in genre fiction, and the source material for Stanley Kubrick’s controversial film. Any speculative fiction fan who hasn’t read the novel (if such a person exists) should do so immediately.
Until told otherwise, I'm assuming we have no limit to how long we're allowed to read this book, but for the sake of not taking two months for this, PLEASE START READING THIS BOOK A.S.A.P. FOR LATER DISCUSSION
Also, for complaints about the book chosen, remember the rule.
Zeta wrote:
If you don't like the book chosen, you don't have to read it with us. Any complainers will recieve forty lashes with a wet noodle and a pacifier in their mouth.
Statistics: Posted by Kikori — June 4th, 2008, 2:24 pm
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Anyways, I voted for The Lies of Locke Lamora, 1984, and Heart of Darkness.
1984 and Heart of Darkness were actually on my personal list to read before this topic was made, so I'll be reading them anyways
Statistics: Posted by Yang — June 2nd, 2008, 1:33 pm
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The Merchant of Venice
I voted for The Loved One because honestly it's the only book (outside of the Harry Potter series) I've ever read that I literally couldn't put down at one point or another.
Also, I've always wanted to read A Clockwork Orange and I really enjoy reading Shakespeare.
Statistics: Posted by Rocky — May 29th, 2008, 8:48 pm
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Jurassic park - I'm a big Crichton fan but I've never gotten around to reading this.
1984 - I first read this when I was 12 and it would be interesting to see if I see it any differently now.
A clockwork orange - I've always wanted to read this since seeing the movie.
Statistics: Posted by Tom — May 28th, 2008, 3:51 pm
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Statistics: Posted by Tanksandguns — May 28th, 2008, 3:14 pm
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Statistics: Posted by Steely Mallon — May 28th, 2008, 2:15 pm
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