Puzzle Description:

A Clockwork Orange (1962) -- Anthony Burgess

#1: Al LaPointe (kancamagus) on Aug 20, 2017

Very nice! I guessed the subject from the title (one of my favorite movies).

R1 C10 being white hurts my OCD!

One of the most terrifying concepts in literature. I read the book several times as a teenager, and later as an adult. The movie, classic Kubrick and definitely a top-100 of all time, is probably not understandable without having read the novel. Having read the book, the movie shows only tiny pieces of the story. The protagonist Alex is a self-described "ultraviolent" 15-year old who commits unspeakable crimes with his "droogs" (buddies) and also happens to worship the music of Beethoven. He is eventually arrested and subjected to an experimental new rehabilitation technique where they subject him to nonstop movies of horrific violence while injecting him with medicine to make him very nauseous. This is supposed to condition him to reject violence so he can return to society without being a threat. (Unfortunately, the lab inexplicably uses Beethoven music as soundtrack to the movies, which makes the entire scenario backfire.) The term "clockwork orange" is a metaphor for something mechanical which appears organic
- think gears and movements inside an orange - which is Alex "reformed"; appearing human on the outside, but nothing but a robot within. The characters also speak a futuristic language, loosely based on Russian, which makes plowing through it the first time quite difficult. I managed to figure out quite a few of the terms just through context; only when I finished did I find the glossary in the back! I immediately read it again, and have re-read it more than several times in my life. It's that powerful. Thank you Corinne for reminding me of this seminal work!

My husband and I once dressed as droogs for a villains-themed party. It was fun making the codpieces :)

One of the few movies that still haunts me to this day. Horrifying and disturbing on so many levels!

Great puzzle.

I had not read the book or seen the movie (yet), so I really appreciate the comments.

Goto next topic

You must register and log in to be able to participate in this discussion.