2019 EDIT: Changing my rating because 'A Clockwork Orange' hasn't stuck with me as much as other novels have over the years. I think that its moral implications that young people are inherently bad and criminal and will eventually grow out of it is horrible and just plain untrue, especially when you look at the so many hardworking, good and decent people of the millennial generation now. And consider how older generations are currently fucking up and fucking over the planet. At best it's misguided.
'A Clockwork Orange' is good, but not likable, or satisfying when read nowadays.
Final Score: 3/5
Original review:
Before I start, I'll say that at the time of writing this review, I have not seen the Stanley Kubrick film. I know I should and I will soon, especially after devouring the equally-controversial source material.
"Oh my brothers", there is so much to think about after reading the novella 'A Clockwork Orange'.
I'll start by writing about the language.
It was near perfect for the postmodern and dystopian effect Anthony Burgess was going for. At first I did get confused over all the "nadsat" speak, but it grew on me and I was sucked into the strange yet addictive prose - spoken by a truly despicable yet seductive narrator. It is glorious writing, and at the same time you feel disturbed for thinking it's glorious because of its content.
Which brings me to the protagonist, Alex, who is the heart of 'A Clockwork Orange'. It's an achievement how Burgess creates his voice, and makes the reader want to know what happens to someone who is essentially a nasty piece of human scum, as people in and out of this story would call him. Alex is a teenager who loves classical music and opera. He also commits crimes because he feels like it, thinking he is smart enough to get away with anything. And he really likes what he does, and loves being in charge of his life. He is narcissistic, an overbearing smart-alec, and a manipulative bully with no empathy for others whatsoever. You follow the story through his eyes and thus you experience what he experiences, and so this book is not for the faint of heart.
Alex is responsible for the deaths of about three people altogether in the book, and he shows no signs of remorse or of changing his ways. Until the very end, when he is given his own choice to change. Because he feels like changing.
During the middle of the book, young criminal Alex goes through something called the Ludovico procedure, which is supposed to make him "changes his ways" via brainwashing. But it does not work. Because, as Alex himself tells us clearly, thoughts and images of violent acts only make him feel sick and like dying. So he has no choice but to be "good" in order to make the pain stop. It's still the same voice of Alex you read, only now he is suffering as much as he has made other, more innocent people suffer.
Once the procedure is deemed a success by government doctors and Alex gets his "freedom", he cannot defend himself, especially when others use him as a means to an end.
In a way he is made less human than he already was in the beginning. In the crapshack world Alex lives in, he can't feel passionate about anything, not even music, or trust anyone, not even his "droogs". And karma for what he did in the past is ripe after his release from prison.
So the story and the lead character are well-structured, complex and make you want to write essays deconstructing them.
Which brings me to the ethical themes brought up in 'A Clockwork Orange':
The executed ideas about free will and combating crime levels are well done, and I am always interested in reading books that explore the core of human nature and what makes us do the things we do. In the end it seems that Burgess suggests that the teenagers in this novella act outside the law and of human decency because they are young. That's all. Alex just loves violence, stealing and rape because why not? Now, there isn't really an idea presented here that suggests teens would commit terrible crimes because they are bored, which I'm quite happy about since that sounds like such an easy answer, with easy solutions. But the nature of youth being the cause? This is demonstrated in the ending, which I won't give away. It is both a positive and negative one which, in context, is perfect for a growing-up Alex and the set-up. But the idea itself just seems too simple. So some young people, at least in this dystopian world, are monsters because of the cycle of life? And they'll eventually grow out of it, even after committing rape and murder? So no one is responsible for their actions or left accounted for what they do in their lives before they turn to adulthood?
I'd argue, and maybe Burgess intended this in a more subtle subtext, about parenting and past generations. After all, throughout the book Alex's parents are written to be rather useless and pathetic, and the government is inept at controlling crime levels, with hypocritical violence and torture as their answer (which was probably their last resort after trying other means).
There is the question of adult criminals to think about as well...
But again this leads to complex and interesting discussions about Burgess' novella - such as it being intentionally satirical. And that goodness does or should come from within...
So, even though I disagree with what it may be concluding in its answers about human depravity, 'A Clockwork Orange' is still rightfully a classic. It flows with sharp language for its main character and setting, and you can read it over and over again to catch various symbols and foreshadowing that are carefully placed by the author. Brutal, mesmerizing, and real "horrorshow".
"What's it going to be then, eh?" As a new generation, we still seem not to know.
Oh and the repeated phrase "and all that cal" got on my nerves after a while.
Final Score: 4/5
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