Clockwork Musings

Over the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I somehow managed to squeeze in the first part of A Clockwork Orange. I have to admit I was fascinated, both by the author's invented futuristic slang and by the protagonist's (not really sure Alex can properly be called a protagonist, but I will go with it) wanton destructiveness of everything surrounding him. As I pause before delving into the next section, I'm wondering...what is it exactly that qualifies a book to be among the best?

Certainly a writer's style has something to do with it, and I'd say that a good number of books on this literary pilgrimage have been included simply for the fantastic and occasionally mind-bending feats that the authors performed with language. I doubt that is what captivates me about A Clockwork Orange.

I haven't seen the movie, nor have I read the book before, so I don't know how it ends. Perhaps my opinion will change before all is said and done. For now, I'm left wondering - can a book include a character so evil that we are completely fascinated with it? And if that's true, does that elevate it to the Best or Greatest? It seems counterintuitive to offer the lowest example of human nature as the highest example of written art, but perhaps the ability to create such fascination somehow justifies the subject matter. I'm simply not sure. I can say that I want to know what happens to Alex, just as much as I had to know whether Humbert Humbert would succeed in running away with his Lolita.

What do you think? Why do you remember A Clockwork Orange?

The Red Pants Dance

I'm not sure exactly what I expected from a book that couldn't be published in the UK for almost 30 years after it was written. A book that has been banned, placed on trial, and frowned upon for it's mismatched lovers (she's a lady, he's the lowly game keeper), adultery, explicit sex scenes, and use of the words f&*$ and c$%#. I won't even use those words on my blog!

The story I got, well, that left a little to be desired. I would say at least half the time when you try to write a treatise on your life view and then disguise it as actual characters acting out a thinly strung together plot, that just doesn't work out. Take The Jungle - Sad Sack Jurgis has a heck of a time, loses his dad, his wife, his kid, his job, his home, his self respect, and then when he converts to socialism, magically it's all okay. All better again! Well, good ol' game-keeper Mellors has a similar ideological crazytrain going on.

See, that nasty first World War left a lot of people understandably shaken up, questioning themselves, God, society, etc. Add the recent rapid industrialization of society into the mix, and you've got a recipe for all kinds of confusion, introspection, and alcohol infused stories by Ernest Hemingway. In Lady Chatterley's Lover, we see some folks, like Lord Chatterley and his cronies, turning to pure intellectualism and a "life of the mind." Then we have Mellors, Game Keeper and Lover, who espouses the D.H. Lawrence Take on Life - that is that we must appreciate our sensual selves in order to be fully realized human beings. Now...when I say it, it doesn't seem so wacky. But when Mellors tells Lady Chatterley that he would solve society's woes by handing out red pants to every man so they could all feel super studly and attract the personal attention of the ladies, you're left wondering what is so rockin' about Mellors manly bits that she actually wants to listen to this drivel. And really, for a novel with such a raunchy rep...you never get to know! Mellors often busts into unintelligible English dialect to boot, so it goes something like: Na I'd gi' e'ery ma a peer o' red drawers an' then they'd be after the arse.


No. (photo via hometowninvasion)

So, as novels go...I'd have to stay Lady Chatterley didn't quite cut it on the personal best list. Sure, it had all the naughty language I was expecting, but the story lost it's oomph amidst all the philosophical diatribes by the menfolk. I can only presume that since Lady Chatts chose Mellors, she must have agreed with his "Red Pants Will Save Mankind" scheme, but alas, he just didn't do it for me.

What about you? Have red pants changed your life?

Overall Verdict: Naughty, but meh.

Holly Jolly Christmas

Just dropped by the library to pick up A Clockwork Orange for Christmas vacation reading. If I was hoping for something that wouldn't lead relatives to question my sanity and/or taste, well...

Epic fail. Nothing like a screaming face and flames to spread the holiday cheer! And wow, the light at my office is really yellow.

Rules, Regulations, and Other Fine Print Details

In my inaugural post, perhaps it's best to outline the "special exceptions" my friends and I agreed to at the outset of this little project.

1. Books read previously do not need to be re-read.
2. If you read the first 100 pages of a book and find it insufferable, it may be skipped.
3. Bonus points for attempting anything James Joyce.
4. Complete understanding for skipping anything James Joyce (Seriously, the only part of Ulysses that I understood was the protagonist taking a poo).



One crazy dude - check out that eye patch!

As of today, I have just completed Book #48: Lady Chatterley's Lover.  And boy, was it a real doozie and deserves a subsequent post of its own! I hope to finish up #49 A Clockwork Orange by the New Year, which will put me at a fresh start with #51 in January (#50 The Awakening is a skip book read in high school - shout outs to my high school classmates and our terrible radio play adaptation!).

Let the blogging begin!