A Clockwork Orange

While reading A Clockwork Orange, some terms like "ultraviolence" sounded familiar. After reading it, I discovered I had read it a decade ago. I didn't remember many of the plot details from then. And even when reading it now, much of the details escaped me. A quick summary: a teenager and his friends dress fashionably, love music and commit heinous crimes. The government tries to reform him through some treatment. He is repulsed by crime. However, he is still subjected to it. People don't believe he is reformed. He tries to commit suicide. He fails. However, he does significantly injure himself. He is "cured" and now has the ability to commit acts of violence. He tries to go hang out with the old gang. However, he realizes that he just doesn't like it as much anymore. He has "grown up" and longs for a more peaceful life.

In the intro, Burgess complains that he is upset with the novel. It is by far his most famous, yet it was written quickly and does not represent his writing. The final chapter was removed from the US edition, violating the symmetry and changing the outcome. (Without the last chapter, the narrator is just an unchanged criminal.) However, Burgess appeared resigned to this. The audiobook concluded with him reading the first chapters.

Burgess was a linguist and the book shows it. Much of the novel consists of a made-up slang. Many of the words are repeated enough to enable understanding the meaning without a glossary. This helps the depravity seem a little more distant while giving the novel some otherworldliness. The narrator also has a strong attachment to classical music. (Burgess was an accomplished musician.) The classical music is strongly linked to violence in the book. The narrator suffers when he hears music while "controlled". He is relieved afterwards to finally be able to appreciate the classics. It is an interesting combination of art and violence. The result of the mind control remains ambiguous. The narrator really did change on his own afterward. Did he need to have change forced upon him first? Or would he have changed on his own?