# A Clockwork Orange **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2000, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369 "2000-09-24T16:21:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/21 "2000-09-25T13:23:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chas.E \* > \*\*Many years ago when the book was in its first release, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture on the topic of A Clockwork Orange, presented by Anthony Burgess in person, at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. This question was a central topic, and he answered it directly, and at length. And alas, since it has surely been 20 years since that lecture, I cannot remember a damn thing he said. So the best I can say is, I once knew the definitive answer to your question, but I forgot it. \*\* I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/22 "2000-09-25T19:29:56Z")
I agree that there are many interpretations of a book as complex as _A Clockwork Orange_, but I think the “dangers and hypocrisies of brainwashing” interpretation needs a little elaboration. IMHO, this is one of the central themes of the book but it is more subtle than simply a condemnation of brainwashing. As noted, Alex is brainwashed and is no longer capable of deciding for himself about right and wrong. Alex is, of course, the “clockwork orange” – the thing that seems, externally, to be organic, natural, but when you open it up it turns out to be full of gears and mechanisms. It is morally wrong to turn a human being into a machine. The subtlety enters in when you realize that the society in which Alex grew up exerted a very different but just as pervasive type of brainwashing on him. Raised as he was, he really had no choice but to embark on the life of crime which is so gruesomely illustrated in the first part of the book. So after “recovering” from his brainwashing, everyone is relieved at his return to his “natural” state, but, ironically, he is no less a clockwork orange than he was while under the influence of the more formal brainwashing. It is doubly ironic that forcing him to do good is so roundly condemned while forcing him to do evil is regarded as correct and natural. Finally, I thought that one additional reason for using the peculiar slang was to take off some of the edge of what is, by design, a very violent book. A slang description of a mugging or a violent robbery and rape is less immediately troubling than a straightforward telling. Mr. Burgess was taking the edge off a little bit by making it “other-worldly”, but still including the violence, which, though important, is slightly peripheral to his point. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/23 "2000-09-25T19:43:04Z")
A curious detail I was not aware of until recently – the American edition of “A Clockwork Orange” until recently lacked the last chapter (!) So my copy (from circa 1962 – it has the glossary in the back) is incomplete, and I have never read the whole thing. Apparently the last chapter was first published in this country in The Rolling Stone. Now every edition has the full text. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/24 "2000-09-25T20:02:37Z")
yep, according to what I read the american publishers thought that the US audience wouldn’t like the “soft” ending of the errant 21st chapter. (since Americans are a hard-bitten cynical lot, apparently). For those who haven’t read it, Alex grows tired of the old ultra-violence of his own accord, and backs away from his hooligan friends, and starts thinking about starting a family. Needless to say, the movie is based on the American edition. ---
**Author:** ![HalberMensch242](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecb155/32.png) [@HalberMensch242](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HalberMensch242)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/25 "2000-09-25T20:25:14Z")
He sees his hooligan friends take on a more civil lifestyle, thusly he questions his behavior and goes on to adopt a “normal” life. ---
**Author:** ![Marvel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marvel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvel)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/26 "2000-09-26T00:10:45Z")
“Many years ago when the book was in its first release, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture on the topic of A Clockwork Orange, presented by Anthony Burgess in person, at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. This question was a central topic, and he answered it directly, and at length. And alas, since it has surely been 20 years since that lecture, I cannot remember a damn thing he said. So the best I can say is, I once knew the definitive answer to your question, but I forgot it.” Someone MUST have taken notes and/or taped the lecture! Was this workshop held at a university? Try getting a hold of that site’s address from your local library (the reference librarian should be able to dig up something) and writing to someone about an article or a video tape copy of the event. I’d be shocked if there were no reporters or video recorders there. Patty ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/27 "2000-09-26T00:15:09Z")
The book illustrates the point that freewill can not be forced on people. The last chapter shows that freewill is the natural state of humanity and people will eventually come around if you let them. This is Burgess’s prediction for the outcome of the cold war. Totalitarian communism can be forced on people. Freewill can’t. However, eventually totalitarian communism will burn itself out, leaving freewill and capitalism behind. ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/28 "2000-09-26T00:25:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Needless to say, the movie is based on the American edition. this is one of the reasons that burgess is not a fan of kubrick’s creation. he kinda missed the point. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/29 "2000-09-26T00:49:11Z")
Orange is a play on the Indonesian word _orang_, meaning man (as in _orang hutan_, old man of the forest). Clockwork _Orang_-Clockwork Man. Just another in-joke Burgess played right under our noses. ---
**Author:** ![GKittridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e274bd/32.png) [@GKittridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GKittridge)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/30 "2000-09-26T01:20:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*Orange is a play on the Indonesian word _orang_, meaning man (as in _orang hutan_, old man of the forest). Clockwork _Orang_-Clockwork Man. Just another in-joke Burgess played right under our noses. \*\* I’ve heard the title comes from a Cockney expression, something along the lines of “queer as a clockwork orange.” I’m sure it’s explained in the book. It’s the name of the book the Writer is working on, and I think he explains it when the forcibly-reformed Alex meets up with him. I’d look it up, but I’m not sure where my copy of the book is anymore. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/31 "2000-09-26T03:39:43Z")
My interpretation of the Russian slang: If the Cold War is still raging, the teens are expressing their rebelliousness by embracing the very culture the straights are fighting against. Perhaps this echoes 60’s fears that the youth culture was being subverted by the Soviets. ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2000, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369/32 "2000-09-26T07:40:44Z")
re: the last chapter the book is a tryptich (sp?), divvied up in groups of seven. with the last chapter misssing, the concept of growth in the book was severely shortchanged. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-clockwork-orange/34369.md?page=1)