A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian satirical black comedy novel by English writer Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called "Nadsat", which takes its name from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to '-teen' in English. According to Burgess, it was a jeu d'esprit written in just three weeks. In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The original manuscript of the book has been kept at McMaster University's William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada since the institution purchased the documents in 1971. It is considered one of the most influential dystopian books.
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29recommend
102mentions
95people
2007–2026years
30% recommend69% neutral1% critical
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What Hacker News says
- >Philosophically I see it as forced don't-murder is no longer true don't-murder.
I would suggest reading "A Clockwork Orange", as it highlights why compulsory ethics is no longer just without free will. Spoiler, even if people lobotomize a murderer to have their behavior meet an arbitrary definition of societal good it is just as unethical.
>It's forced on everyone else after that, but I see no problem with that because remind me again just what exactly is the terrible burden being forced again?
Adding what is effectively an end user copyright DRM submarine under the flag of FOSS is tantamount to sabotage.
I do not see the distinction between copyright and copyleft trolls. They both demand end users give up freedoms to meet a selfish ideal.
If someone wants to control how people use their stuff, than just stop calling it a FOSS work. Some seem very passionate about the subject, but I don't think anyone has ever been murdered over shitty code. =3
- It was deliberate choice in a sub thread that's literally about literary metaphors.
As a native english reader, writer and speaker of some six decades I grasp the tension in the use of ' literally "airquoted" ' and embrace it.
I also enjoy Riddley Walker, the first edition of Clockwork Orange (sans lexicographic annexure), and the outrageously provocative shock value of the opening sentence of Burgess's panoramic saga Earthly Powers.
Your opinion is noted and respected.
- I have a never updated blog, but I'm not an active research scientist. I'm just a plain ordinary over educated guy, whose been writing software using AI, across all the things that have been called "AI" for about 45 years. One could say I'm "over read", at one point I'd read every single Nobel Literature winner, I have finished dozens of authors, and my personal taste is mind fuck philosophy in narrative fiction - think Clockwork Orange, Philip K Dick, and beatnik literature. I post a lot of my opinions at Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Blake-Senftner
- The reality is that people LOVE reading articles like this. They love sharing articles like this. Anthony Burgess wrote a wonderful preface to a clockwork orange which I consider inline with this concept in which he wrote:
"Unfortunately there is so much original sin in us all that we find evil rather attractive. To devastate is easier and more spectacular than to create. We like to have the pants scared off us by visions of cosmic destruction. To sit down in a dull room and compose the Missa Solemis or The Anatomy of the Melancholy does not make headlines or news flashes."
All the anti-capitalist doom lit out there has its place, but all of the adults all agree that its intellectually dishonest. This article is just calling out something with no attempt to improve or offer a way forward (thank you to the parent comment for calling this out). Its even ignoring that there are many people who actually enjoy the state of affairs.
- It's subtle in how it delivers it's brilliance: A Clockwork Orange.
Warning: spoilers follow that do not diminish the knock out punch this work delivers: It's written in it's own language, a mixture of Russian and UK slang, which one cannot read at first. About 3 chapters in, the language clicks and then a good reader starts the book over from the beginning. It is a popular book due to the film, and the ultra violence depicted within, but it is also ground breaking philosophical literature because the main character is a hardened criminal and is the narrator, he spends the entire novel explaining his philosophy of life, which by the end of the novel you realize is the same philosophy of modern politics, and the UK edition of the novel ends with the entire novel being the story of a senior member of parliament's youth origin story.
The fact that the novel is in a fictional language increases the reader's submersion in the story line, creating one of the most impactful novels I know.
Another great read, much shorter, more like getting into a street brawl: Notes From The Underground by Dostoyevsky. Practically the creator of self critical essays, and often the first read for people interested in Existentialism.
Anything from the "Beat Generation" authors, anything from Philip K Dick, anything from Herman Hesse.
- Here's a quote from one of the greats that comes to my mind whenever an author says "I regret creating that" (and that includes you Sir Tim Berners-Lee)
Clockwork Orange (and the lesser Kubrick film) was what it was. It's still powerful and relevant today."You know, Nietzsche didn’t, you know, from his drawing room give birth to a century of cannonade, slaughter, concentration camps, CIA subterfuge, the raping and the murdering of nuns, the bombing of continents, the despoiling of beaches and the ruin of a planet! Four or five pedants do not have that much power, and never have." - R. RoderickIn fact I watched it recently to steal a sample for a track I'm working on... "When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man"
Still potent stuff.
