Just Read A Clockwork Orange
 

It was okay, and the goverment is out there to reform you. They will get you, no matter how much you refuse.

I really liked it, but it's been a while since I read it.

The movie is one of the best book-to-movie adaptations, if you don't care about the 21st chapter not being there, which I'm fine with because I liked the way the book ended without it.

I actually thought it better without the last chapter. But with it, I clearly see his dark views on politics. In the first part, I don't know if this is true, but I thought he was sort of anti-intellectual.

Anthony Burgess is one of my favorite writers.

One of those books I couldn't put down at night.

I do not like this book. I cannot get past the droog-speak used throughout the damn thing. I do not understand it and I find it boring because of it. I have tried to read it three times, once when I was 15, and i got about 40 pages in and could care less, so i stopped. then, I read it, or tried to, again when I was 19 and i was even more infuriated by how much it sucked. I tried reading it again about age 28 and I managed to get about 80 pages in, until I could no longer force myself to read such inane drivel. I just really really hate it.

The movie I am ambivalent about. I find the second half of the movie veruy interesting and engrossing while the first half bores me to tears. my girlfriend sees it the opposite way. She dislikes the second half and enjoys the first half.

I find it to be, book more so than the movie, severely overrated.

just one man's opinion though.

Yeah, the droog-talk did get on my nerves, but after i got over it, and started to decode each one, it flowed easily.

I think my personal issue with the droog-speak is that english is my second language, spanish being first, and the droog stuff is completely foreign to me, they may as welll be speaking german throughout the book, you know?
I just cannot decipher it I guess.

Yeah, Spanish is my first language, and English being my second, so it is hard to get it. I mean I am always learning new English words, that is why I like literature, because so many words to learn.

the droog-speak has nothing to do with being cmofortable with english. the words are fromt he russian language, so english being your second language isn't an excuse for not being able to understand it.

i will agree though, it's hard to catch on to

okay????????????

you missed the whole fun w/ the russian slang. you just skipped over it, didn't you??

One of my friends lent me her copy of the book. I started reading it, and I thought it was okay. The droog-speak was a bit more annoying and confusing than fun. I ended up getting caught up in other school work so I had to put it down and I gave it back to her when I was only about 20 or 30 pages in.

:eek:

and i thought you were smart.

what they don't have dictionaries in american editions? mine had a glossary at the end. 2 chapters into the book i was quite fluent.

one of the easiest and quickest reads ever.

i liked the movie better. i like how at the end of the movie, you don't know whether alex is REALLY better or not, though it seems pretty obvious he's not... in the book, it's like "Yeah, i got married n shit."

exactly

Once I have time to read it, I'll probably get through it pretty easily. I just had too much shit to do when I tried reading. I was going too fast, I wasn't paying enough attention, and I had to concentrate on drowning out my obnoxious bus mates while trying to read. I also doing some school reading, preparing for a speech tournament, and studying for my AP European History Exam (I got a 4, by the way).

I'll probably borrow the book again this year.

even worse!!!
That is an even BETTER excuse for not understanding it!

BORING BOOK!

may as well go read boring ass catcher in the rye again!

How dare you disrespect Catcher in the Rye!

Anyway, are we all in agreement that the last chapter should have been left out?

gack-- you're gonna get old before your time!

please tell me at least you're having fun this summer??

Who said I wasn't enjoying myself? I liked AP Euro, and Speech tournaments are a lot of fun.

I am having fun this summer though. My parents kept telling me to get a job, but I told them I wanted to enjoy summer, because the next school year is going to be much harder than last year.

Catcher In The Rye is a book that hits home for self-absorbed, self-obsessed pessimist, egotistical, "Bo-hoooo noone understands me and everyone is out to ruin my life and I am the only one whose feelings REALLY matter" teenage boys.

I got into a huge shouting argument with my brother who saw the book as being about a young boy who life has screwed (to put his argument simply) , while I saw it as all resulting from the idiot protagonist's own bullshit (to put my argument simply).

both views are probably correct, but either way I'd punch that fucker in the neck if I ever had to deal with him for more than ten minutes.

you got into a huge shouting match over a book?....

...

at least it wasn't the BIBLE, i guess..

But part of the point of the point of the droog speak was to kind of hide and abstract the violent actions.


That said, I liked the book.

yeah yeah i get the geeky pleasures of knowledge as well, i'm just saying, every once in a while you have to go down to the beach, hang out, do a little body surfing, stop thinking, and make out with some salty-tasting girl/boy and laugh at idiot jokes without thinking about your grades.

man, i had this friend in college, i was a student he was a young professor, the guy had studied all his life & knew little about everything else & was miserable, and had this teenage crush on this woman who wouldn't give him the time of day for several reasons, but the fact was that this guy, fucking brilliant as he was, didn't know how to live. :(

dont let that happen to you-- just sayin'..

Aw, thanks for the advice.

I don't think that'll happen to me. A lot of people think I work really hard, but the truth is (and I don't usually tell people cause it makes them mad) that I hardly put any effort into my school work. Sure I do it, and I do it well but that is about it. For that AP test, I took some review notes, looked them over once or twice a few days before the test, answered review questions that my friends were asking (constantly and annoyingly) and I did real well on the test. I had a friend who asked if he could have my notes, and he studied them during lunch, and then studied other people's notes during lunch. He got a 5 on test. He's a cool guy, but he probably will be the guy you mentioned.

I may not be the most lively guy in the world, but I think I'll be okay. The concern is appreciated though.

I do agree that the last chapter should have been left out.

i haven't read it since high school, which was about five years ago, but i can't really see it holding up that well as i've gotten older.

not being comfortable with english is irrelevant to the droog talk. so it's not a better excuse.

I am a NERD

I confess I have never read the book but I really enjoyed the film, droog speak et al

Probably my favorite book of all time. Droog-speak...

Damn, now I will have to read it

For those who can't get over the droog-talk here is the list of words.

http://soomka.com/nadsat.html

I've read at least 200 better books.
I find it (shall I use that most overused of terms?) overrated.

The ting that disapoints me is how kids talk about how it's an awesome book but when you mention Burgess they're like who the fuck is that? If your a real fan of his work then you can appreciate it more.
Beard's Roman Women was also a good book. Very different from a clockwork though.

Anthony Burgess was an astonishing writer. And INCREDIBLY prolific.

I would heartily recommend Byrne, which was one of his last books, and written entirely in verse (an epic poem if you will). Made me almost piss myself in places, it's so funny.

Incidentally, Burgess wrote the subtitles for the film Cyrano de Bergerac, translating the French verse into English verse. And he did numerous other things which I won't go into now.