I was introduced to this book in college. I read it and wrote a paper on it my course of Western Humanities II. I’ve read this title from cover to cover. I exponentially enjoyed it (saying “greatly” doesn’t quite get it). The author uses some sort of Russian slang in the book, but that was no stumbling block for me. I comprehended adapted to the slang as I read each chapter.
A Clockwork Orange stuck with me because this author had something specific he meant to communicate. He went about conveying this message in an artful manner. I gleaned the most from this book after finishing it. Its title was always baffling to me. But because this book was so good, I went back to read the beginning, Roman numeral pages of the book—its introduction.
In the introduction, he discloses how this American title is not necessarily like the other version overseas. He goes into the exchanges between the American publisher and himself of why the versions are not identical. He reveals that due to a slight discrepancy, the American version is actually short one chapter; that in his eyes, the American version of A Clockwork Orange ends prematurely; that the picture he meant to paint became incompletely rendered, unfortunately.
He explains within the introduction,
Let us have evil prancing on the page and, up to the very last line, sneering in the face of all inherited beliefs, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Holly Roller, about people being able to make themselves better. Such a book would be sensational, and so it is. But I do not think it is a fair picture of human life.
I do not think so because, by definition, a human being is endowed with free will. He can use this to choose between good and evil. If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange—meaning he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State. It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by the grinding opposition of moral entities. This is what the television news is all about. 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 Solemnis or The Anatomy of Melancholy does not make headlines or news flashes. Unfortunately my little squib of a book was found attractive to many because it was as odorous as a crateful of bad eggs with the miasma of original sin.
And the author continues, but this book is tremendous. I enjoyed the book so much that after I wrote, published, and sold my first title, Reruns; I realized that God had me to essentially echo the very same sentiments and knowledge of this book, A Clockwork Orange. To a degree, both titles are tremendously identical. My desire is that people escape the darkness of this world unto coming into God’s marvelous light (I Peter 2:9); that people will come to be what God has in mind for them to be instead of becoming just another rerun.
A Clockwork Orange is great! If one desires either this title or Reruns, follow the following links. Much love. A Clockwork Orange: https://bookshop.org/a/56410/9780393341768
Reruns Ebook: https://www.slingshotmin.com/product-page/elliot-brent
Reruns Print: https://www.slingshotmin.com/product-page/reruns
