A Chilling Futuristic Novel. Review on A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

C l o c k w o r k O r a n g e

Anthony Burgess' book Clockwork Orange is hard to classify. Those who have read Orwell's ''1984'' or Huxley's ''A Brave New World'', would find some similarities here, especially in terms of the concept. But that said, the book deserves a lot of praise for the originality of presentation. Clockwork Orange is set in a not so distant future, where the teen culture (or the lack of it!) is one of violence, rape and mayhem.

The protagonist of the novel, Burgess' anti-hero, Alex, is a particularly nasty specimen of the generation, who with his friends (droogs as he calls them) uses violence as a tool of enjoyment, taking a lot of pleasure in hideous crimes. The first few pages of novel describes this mad cycle of violence, for the sake of violence, and is very hard to read. More so, because Burgess has invented a teen-slang for his futuristic society.

Nadsat, as it is called by the teens, is composed of words, most of which are derived from Russian roots (which I learnt later, from the Net), with some Gypsy words, and some invented wholly for the purpose of rhyming. This really is a fascinating experimentation with language, that gives the novel its edge; although, it takes some time to get used to it. However prohibitive the effort may look at the onset, it's worth it. In fact, after first few pages, you intuitively start picking up the meaning of most of the words, as they appear in more than one contexts. That is the genius of Burgess, the way he has paced the slang, to make it comprehensible to the readers.

The novel takes an unexpected turn, when Alex is finally jailed for his excesses, and is later sent for reformation, using a newly developed, and highly experimental technique. This is the way, the all-powerful state, intends to control the violence in the society, in a neo-Orwellian way. The technique involves creating strong negative chemical reactions in the body of the subject, everytime a violent thought enters his mind, so that the body instinctively learns to avoid all such thoughts. The subject, can thus, be coerced out of violent behavior, and made to confirm to the established patterns of behavior. A powerful tool, indeed, in the hands of the state.

The story moves on, as the reformed Alex is used by the political opposition, for their own gains. Alex becomes just a tool in the hands of different power groups. As if mercifully, the novel ends on a hopeful note, but not before it makes you question a lot about conformism. Because, more than anything else, Clockwork Orange is a social-science-fiction, which explores these issues -- free-will versus conformism/determinism, technology and totalitarian government, etc. It's a very well written novel, and is at times funny, albeit in a dark sense. It was also made into a film, by the same name, by (the great) Stanley Kubrick (which I haven't as yet watched). For all those, who enjoy offbeat books, this is a must read.