Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

#1

Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 12:46pm

Yeah, me neither. But here's an excellent essay comparing the book to the movie from Nerve.com. I always found ORANGE to be a touch overrated and a little too chilly for my taste, so this was interesting to me.

Discuss.
No But I've Read The Movie: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

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"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#2

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 12:51pm

Yes, actually, I have. Loved it. I read it in college, right around the time I started learning Russian, and I was so excited that I understood all the slang! I must admit that I had already seen the film at that point, though.

#3

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 12:52pm

I tried. Couldn't.

The film, however, is one of my favorites: unique, funny, mean-spirited and sexy. There is nothing else like it in film. No, not at all for everyone, but what kind of bland pablum is?

#4

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 1:08pm

No...but I was in it.

I actually never saw the film till after I did the NY Premiere. Intersting film, but bizarrely antiseptic.

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"I'm so looking forward to a time when all the Reagan Democrats are dead."

#5

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 1:27pm

Robbie,

Did you play the eye lash?

I thought you looked familiar!

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#6

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 1:33pm

I finished it a month ago and did not understand anything. Then I read it again and I was able to understand more. It's one of those books that need a second..third..fourth read.

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I mean, Denzel Washington? Gun to my head..of course.

#7

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 2:04pm

Nope...the old woman who got killed with the bust of Beethoven!

Alas, I played...hold onto your socks kids...Dim. Plus several other roles. A very intense, very terrific experience.

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"I'm so looking forward to a time when all the Reagan Democrats are dead."

#8

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 2:28pm

I read it. It's cool.

The book has an extra chapter that Kubrick did not adapt because he wasn't aware of his existence. He had some weird version of the book without the ending.

#9

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 2:48pm

Had to for one of my classes last semester--took a while to get through.

I could never listen to "Singing in the Rain" again after seeing the movie though.

#10

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 8:18pm

I saw the film years ago and was inspired to read it. The movie, with Kubrick's touch, was far more impressive than the novel was to me.

#11

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 10:44pm

Hey droogie, don't crash here.

Yes, I read it back in the '70s, yo.

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#12

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/15/08 at 11:07pm

I love this novel; the movie turns the meanings around, siding with the young antihero and making his victims completely unsympathetic. Kubrick misses Burgess' irony and turns his story into an anti-human monstrosity.

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I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."

#13

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 2:16am

I read the book in HS with a great teacher who discussed each chapter as we read it. Thank God because there was so much I missed reading it on my own. I enjoyed the book, but I LOVED the movie-I watch it everytime it's on cable. Twisted, yes, but very unique!!!

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Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.- Bette Davis

#14

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 8:57am

I think I read it for the first time in 8th or 9th grade, and I've adored it ever since. I do like the movie as well, but I prefer the book.

#15

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 10:19am

i've not yet seen the movie, but i really loved the book... it took me a couple of chapters to get used to the language, but overall i thought it was brilliant...

#16

re: Has anyone read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

Posted: 1/16/08 at 3:47pm

I read it back in high school. I too had an amazing teacher who discussed each chapter with us. The slang isn't too hard to figure out, by the time you're on chapter two you pretty much catch on.

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