A Clockwork Orange - *SPOILER*

[Kelly]

First off: There should be a warning attached to this book for sexual abuse victims (like myself). Several times, I felt like throwing this book across the room because it made me relive horrid memories I thought I had forgotten. However, once completed I was proud of myself for facing such atrocities and, like Kristen, I feel like a secret group that understands Nadsat.

I read a version of the book with 21 chapters–seven chapters in each section. The introduction to this edition of the book is quite an interesting perspective on the publishing industry particularly when compared to the publisher’s note at the end. The differing perspectives lead one to ask why the publisher allowed the book to be republished with negative commentary on their practices.

The book is a trip. The whole story is written in Nadsat slang without any direct translations or a translation guide. The book just assumes you already understand the language which makes the first chapter completely impossible to understand though Burgess does give you hints throughout the book so that you wind up understanding Nadsat by the end. Seriously, I found myself randomly telling a friend how horror-show something was during a conversation. My immediate response to my unexpected response: “Oh shit, apparently I speak Nadsat now.”

The story: Our Humble Narrator is a gang leader who delights in theft, violence, and rape. Eventually, he is caught and sentenced to prison time. He dislikes prison enough to comply to a conversion therapy experiment from a horror movie. Spoiler alert: The 21st chapter is perhaps the most important of the book because it changes your perspective of the entire story.

[Elle]

I feel like this will go into the void. But was I the only one who did not understand why do we even bother with the question that was put up in the book. Especially when our central character is a killer and a rapist.

Who even cares about the Big Huge question of "should we force good into people??" when the person in concern is a horrible monster.

I honestly didn't feel like there was any thing thought-provoking coming out of this book. It's just paragraphs upon paragraphs of violence strung together with teen slang.

And as someone very wisely said in this discussion:

"Am I the only one who is noticing how fricking twisted the author's Grand Philosophical arguments are given his murderous sexual predator psychopathic anti-hero?"